ANALYSING POLICY DEVELOPMENT IN CURRICULUM INNOVATION: A SUGGESTED APPROACH

Abstract

In this article, an analytical framework that can be used by educational administrators to evaluate and modify policy development in curriculum innovation is presented. The framework is applicable to curriculum innovation of varying types and magnitudes, being relevant both to small‐scale innovation at individual schools and tertiary institutions as well as to large‐scale innovation emanating from centralised educational bureaucracies. Three criteria guided the generation of the analytical framework. Firstly, the framework must be sufficiently comprehensive to permit analysis of all the major components in policy development. Secondly, it should be systematic and enable orderly examination of issues and behaviour. Thirdly, it should facilitate objectivity in analysis. In producing the framework, a considerable volume of literature in areas such as administration, politics, decision‐making and policy‐making, educational planning and educational change was scrutinised. On the basis of this literature review, broad and generalised questions were generated so that diverse manifestations of policy development in curriculum innovation can be analysed. The framework derived relates to the four major interacting variables found to be operative in policy development in curriculum innovation, namely, the participants, the decision‐making and policy‐making processes, the innovation and the environment. It is also designed to allow examination of the interaction of the variables.

Citation

CREIGHTON, H. (1983), "ANALYSING POLICY DEVELOPMENT IN CURRICULUM INNOVATION: A SUGGESTED APPROACH", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 121-136. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009873