Testing the relationships between teachers’ curriculum-design orientations and their underlying educational philosophies

Abstract

Teachers’ educational philosophies regulate their curriculum-design orientations, shaping their teaching decisions and practices. However, theoretical assumptions in this relationship were not tested empirically in different contexts. To this end, this cross-sectional survey design study aimed to examine the relationships between teachers’ educational philosophies and their curriculum-design orientations using data from 295 in-service teachers from Turkey. The correlations among the teachers’ educational philosophies and curriculum design orientations were examined with Pearson coefficients. The stepwise multiple regression technique was used to identify the best set of educational philosophies that significantly estimate curriculum design orientations for each design type. The study revealed that the associations between Turkish teachers’ educational philosophies and their curriculum design orientations align with the theoretical literature with some divergence in problem-centered design. The study may contribute to the literature in testing the theoretical assumptions of curriculum design orientations in a non-Western context.