Discursive practices of local curriculum development discourse: Perspectives of teachers and school principals under the place-based educational reform movement

Abstract

This article aimed to study discursive practices of the discourse on local curriculum development in schools under Chiang Mai Municipality, using Critical Discourse Analysis as theoretical framework by focusing on the textual construal of ideology and the construction of ideology through discursive practices, which involved document analysis, in-depth interviews, and observations from key informants, including teachers and school principals in schools under Chiang Mai Municipality. The concept of agency also was adopted to conceptualize the real phenomenon. The results indicated that the state of local curriculum development in schools were entirely tied up with the extent at which teachers and school principals performed their role as active agency. However, teachers and school principals may not have an in-depth understanding of curriculum theory. Rather, they were active agency, living in the live world where they mediated themselves with discourse on local curriculum development, reproduced through the operations of authoritative governmental powers. Within discourse, these are conditions that influenced teachers and school principals, making them realize that it is important to determine curriculum in alignment with students, based on diverse cultural capitals and socio-cultural, economic and political contexts. This is critical to both students and communities under the place-based educational reform movement.