Navigating the Pico site of curriculum making through the Unit of Learning intervention

This study investigates the role of Initial Teacher Education in fostering the ecological agency of pre-service teachers as curriculum makers. While curriculum making is often viewed as a linear administrative task, this study positions it as a complex, “rhizomatic dance” essential to professional teacher identity. Our findings offer critical insights into the ‘becoming’ of pre-service curriculum makers at the newly proposed Pico-site of curriculum making involving pre-service teachers and teacher educators. This paper addresses the question: “How does the Pico Site prepare pre-service teachers’ ecological agencies to become curriculum makers through a ‘Units of Learning’ intervention?” Employing a three-year design-based research methodology across two undergraduate ITE programmes in the Republic of Ireland, the authors detail the procedural and substantive design principles of the Unit of Learning intervention. Findings from Phases 1 and 2 indicate that the Unit of Learning successfully interrupted traditional, teacher-centric planning in what was known as “The Scheme of Work”. Instead, it encouraged pre-service teachers to engage with the deeper purposes of education, and fostered professional curriculum thinking and judgement based on an eco-systemic understanding of Bildung. The study concludes that the Pico site serves as a vital “multiplicity” where ecological agency is established, cultivating of professional judgment and emergent pedagogical encounters.