Teachers’ Views of Curriculum Policy: The Case of Estonia

Abstract

AbstractUnlike in England, since the late 1980s the rhetoric of curriculum reforms has been overwhelmingly decentralist in many countries. However, decentralisation has often involved the delegation of centrally appointed tasks, rather than a real shift in power. The Estonian case demonstrates how a decentralised curriculum policy with centralised control can have the same de-professionalising effect on teachers' perceived professional autonomy as does a system where both input and output are centrally controlled.Keywords: curriculum policyEstoniadecentralisationteacher autonomy 8. AcknowledgementThis research was funded by the Archimedes Foundation EDUKO programme, under Grant TA7610.Notes1 The letter and number combinations following each participant refer to their subject and years of teaching experience (E, Estonian language and literature; EL, elementary education; F, French; G, German; H, history; HC, handicrafts; M, mathematics; S, science).