Teachers' perceptions of innovations in the family management curriculum

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of teachers' perceptions of innovations in a curriculum. The study examined three teachers' perceptions of the integrative approach and ecological perspective in the Family Management curriculum document in British Columbia. Two interviews, sixty to one hundred and twenty minutes in length, were conducted with each teacher. During the interviews, each teacher was asked to submit documents that illustrated the meaning the innovations had for their teaching. Through subsequent transcript and document analysis, descriptions of the teachers' perceptions were developed. For none of the teachers were the innovations immediately meaningful. However, they were able to give meaning to both concepts. Two teachers perceived the integrative approach as relating topics and concepts through discussions and work sheets. The third teacher used assignments that related topics and concepts although she did not perceive this as integrative. Teachers had similar perceptions of the ecological perspective: the interrelationship among the individual and family with the school, peers, and the local community. Teacher perceptions were influenced by multiple factors: lack of need for the innovations, the lack of pedagogical and conceptual clarity in the innovations, complexity of the innovations, time, inservice, peer meetings, teaching experience and students.Education, Faculty ofCurriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department ofGraduat