Abstract:

School-based curriculum development (SBCD), part of the New Curriculum reform, initiated by the Chinese central government at the turn of the century, has been put into school implementation all around China through top-down educational authorities and curriculum reformists’ theoretical persuasion as well. By reviewing the 20 years of school implementation, the present study presents a “Mosaic” life history picture of 41 teachers’life story about their SBCD practice, illustrating how teachers have had been involved in SBCD and the whole wave of curriculum reform at the very beginning, how they conceptualized and experienced their “Doing”of SBCD, and how/whether or not, they have realized a role change from a traditional passive curriculum implementer to an active curriculum developer. The field-based semi-structured in-depth interview was employed and the ground-theory coding techniques were used for life story collecting and life history analysis. Different from the mainstream documentary macro-historical study, life history research presents a micro-to-meso landscape of lived experience embedded in a historical and social context. It is a narrative truth, although it may not necessarily a historical truth.

Key words: school-based curriculum development, teacher, extr-curriculum activities, life history research, curriculum history