Preservice teachers as curriculum deliverers or curriculum-makers? Exploring curriculum-making conceptions and opportunities in professional experiences

Abstract This paper explores the impact of ongoing performativity and accountability agendas in education which frame curriculum merely as a product for delivery and teachers more as ‘technicians’ rather than curriculum-makers. While research has explored the impact of such agendas on the realities of teachers’ curriculum experiences within schools, further insight is needed on the implications for initial teacher education and preservice teachers’ developing curriculum identities. Focusing initially on a collective group of Australian preservice teachers, this study explores their conceptualisations of and aspirations for curriculum-making as part of their future classroom practice. By drawing on two in-depth cases from this collective, this study highlights the constrained nature of curriculum-making experiences during professional experience placements, and the implications this has for their capability development as aspirational curriculum-makers. The findings underscore the need for professional experience placement opportunities that foster preservice teachers’ development as active and critical curriculum-makers, rather than passive deliverers. Supporting these opportunities is paramount, especially in an educational landscape which seeks to de-professionalise the teaching profession further through the outsourcing of teachers’ curriculum thinking and expertise.