CURRICULUM REFORM AND THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING AGENTS

It is an irony that, as the educational world has come to recognise the value of school or district-based teacher leaders, many teachers have become wary of involvement in activities which take them beyond their own classrooms or schools. The problem becomes particularly apparent in centrally organised curriculum reform efforts that call for a cadre of teachers to be co-opted to act as 'link' or 'lighthouse' teachers. This paper examines these issues in the context of an Australian state-wide physics curriculum project in which a 'pyramid' implementation model required a group of school-based 'link' or 'lighthouse' teachers to work! as change agents in district school clusters. The study focused on the motivations of those teachers who chose, and those who chose not, to become involved. It reports a number of critical distinctions, in both experience and motivation, between these two groups of teachers. These differences are analysed as a set of interlocking themes: personal meaning, professional history, ownership, rewards, professional autonomy and gender.