Open and Hidden Voices of Teachers: Lived Experiences of Making Updates to Preschool Curriculum Provoked by the National Guidelines

This study analyses how early childhood teachers experience their local curricula-updating process provoked by the national policy changes. This is a relevant problem related to teachers’ agency, which is critical in supporting and developing curriculum policies or opposing them. The hermeneutic phenomenological approach (van Manen) was used to uncover the pre-reflective lived experiences of teachers through phenomenological interviews with 16 teachers. The lived experiences of local curriculum updates triggered by the national preschool curriculum guideline were a dualistic phenomenon manifesting as open and hidden voices of teachers. The open voices metaphor revealed the pre-reflective experiences increasing the openness of teachers to changes, while the hidden voices represented a pre-reflective experience of threat to established concepts and practices resulting in defensive reactions. These dualistic experiences appeared in five emergent categories: resonating body: vitality vs. freezing (Corporeality); teamwork during a critical moment: safe sustainability vs. uncertainty (Relationality); competing spatial perspectives: new possibilities vs. conflicting visions (Spatiality); altered perception of time: third wave vs. lost time (Temporality); and awakened existential questions: intentional self-reflection vs. conflict of roles (Existentiality). This paper highlights tensions between the national policies and the professional authenticity of teachers and the importance of teachers’ agency in the change context.