A comparative study of factors affecting the planning and dissemination of curriculum innovation in the teachers' centre setting

The study portrays how teachers create and exploit in-service training (INSET) opportunities for planning and disseminating curriculum innovations in the teachers’ centre setting. Centres are viewed as a culture originating in the British national setting during the early 1960s. Through critical reflection and inquiry the study examines the extent to which the concept is transferable to the Australian national setting. The approach is through complementary case studies set in each national context to portray key conceptual and substantive issues identified from the literature. Australian, British and American literature is reviewed under two headings. First are the substantive issues of variety in provision of centres, the professional services offered to clients, how teachers actually use the centres, and how they are organised and managed. Six conceptual issues are then considered to discover which conceptions generally embrace the teachers’ centre phenomenon. These include interpersonal interactions in the teachers’ centre setting, how centre users behave in the centre environment, how teachers learn through voluntary participation in centre-focused INSET programmes, how curriculum innovations diffuse or are disseminated from their points of origin, and how the teachers’ centre institution relates to schools as organisations. Methodological issues of case study, data gathering and instrumentation are addressed in context. The final section of the study summarises trends portrayed by the case studies. Theoretical frame factors are viewed through ideological, epistemological, psychological and sociological perspectives and the findings are related to contemporary issues in each national setting. The text is supported by numbered appendices and an extensive bibliography is provided