Teachers’ perceptions of the recent curriculum reforms: a case study on Kazakhstani teachers’ utilization processes for the new course plan for English

Abstract

The ways in which teachers perceive, interpret, and respond to curriculum reforms can make or break any potential for innovation in their curriculum implementation journey. This study explored the perceptions, interpretations, and actions of teachers at Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools with regard to implementing a recently embedded course plan for teaching English as part of curriculum reforms. We conducted interviews with school teachers and found that, while the course plan was innovative, its contents, learning objectives, and materials were too vague, ambiguous, and unfamiliar to the target population. Subsequently, the study results showed that the ambiguity of the contents and objectives and the target population’s unfamiliarity with them led to different perceptions, interpretations, and divergent actions.

Keywords

• Integrated curriculum
• curriculum reform
• course plan for English
• Kazakhstan
• language policy
• Arif H. Kabir, School of Education, Deakin University School of Education, Australia