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“It’s kind of like a cut and paste of the syllabus”: a teacher’s experience of enacting the Queensland Earth and Environmental Science syllabus, and implications for Education for Sustainable Development

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Abstract

Informed by curriculum theory, this in-depth qualitative case study examined the experiences of one senior teacher, Stephen, as he enacted the first unit of Queensland’s new Earth and Environmental Science (EES) syllabus. This study aimed to understand how Stephen navigated the ‘space’ between the intended and enacted curriculum, by focussing on what informed his teaching practice, and how Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was realised (or otherwise). The realisation of ESD was limited to a few instances of teaching students about sustainability content, as Stephen’s attention was turned to issues of time and student assessment, following major curricular reform. The tensions that Stephen recounted appeared to relate to a narrowed space between the intended and enacted curriculum, which manifested in feelings of reduced teacher autonomy. The implications of these findings for realising ESD in the context of curricular reform, and the importance of teacher reflexivity in achieving ESD, are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Students’ results in General subjects can contribute to an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank, for the purposes of tertiary entrance (QCAA, 2020c). EES is a General subject.

  2. Curriculum into the Classroom planning materials, developed by the Queensland Department of Education, support the enactment of the Australian Curriculum in Queensland schools. See: https://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/stages-of-schooling/C2C.

  3. Independent public schools are state schools that have greater autonomy in decision-making through enhanced school-based governance, and increased affordances for working and operating in ways that best respond to the needs and aspirations of the school community (Queensland Government Department of Education 2020).

  4. A ‘data test’ is an assessment instrument that contains two to four datasets, and a range of test items that require students to interpret data, calculate using algorithms, and construct short responses (QCAA, 2017).

  5. Cognitive verbs indicate to students the thinking skills they need to apply, and are used across learning areas in the Australian Curriculum, and in Queensland’s senior syllabuses. See QCAA (n.d.b.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Arts, Society & Education, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

    Louisa Tomas

  2. School of Teacher Education and Leadership, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    Reece Mills & Fiona Gibson

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  1. Louisa Tomas
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  2. Reece Mills
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Correspondence to Louisa Tomas.

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Tomas, L., Mills, R. & Gibson, F. “It’s kind of like a cut and paste of the syllabus”: a teacher’s experience of enacting the Queensland Earth and Environmental Science syllabus, and implications for Education for Sustainable Development. Aust. Educ. Res. 49, 445–461 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-021-00439-7

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