Unfolding the typology and quality of the learner agency practices in the teachers’ implementation of the 2013  curriculum in Indonesia: the normalisation process theory perspective

• Published in: Asia Pacific education review Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 545 - 561
• Main Authors: Burhanuddin, Arrafii, Mohammad Arsyad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.12.2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V; 교육연구소
• Subjects: Behavioral Objectives; Classroom Observation Techniques; Curricula; Curriculum Development; Curriculum Implementation; Education; Educational Change; Evaluation Criteria; Foreign Countries; Identification; Instructional Innovation; Interviews; National Curriculum; Peer Evaluation; Personal Autonomy; Self Evaluation (Individuals); Semi Structured Interviews; Teaching Methods; Video Technology; 교육학; Indonesia; Normalization process theory; Peer and self-assessment; Learner agency; Learner autonomy; Curriculum reform; The 2013 curriculum
• ISSN: 1598-1037; 1876-407X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12564-022-09806-0

Learner agency, or the ability to take control of one’s own learning and the learning of others, is a substantial goal of the curricular reform across the world. This can be seen in the implementation of the 2013 curriculum (K13) in Indonesia. However, there has been little evidence regarding the ways that Indonesian teachers have engaged with prescribed innovations. This interpretivist study examined the extent to which curricular innovations have been embedded in classrooms and how far they reveal the quality of their enactments, with particular interest in the identification of pedagogic practices that are associated with the promotion of learner agency. Using rich data from 15 individual semi-structured interviews and filmed classroom observations of three teachers, the study observed learner agency practices, including those associated with promoting peer and self-assessment, learning autonomy, and sharing learning objectives and assessment criteria. However, the implementation of these strategies varied in intensity and was rather artificial, without a strong conceptual underpinning. Drawing on normalization process theory (NPT), this paper argues that the observed teachers’ engagement in the promotion of learner agency lacked coherence, cognitive participation, collective action, and evaluation. Reform planners and teachers should understand the nature of successful implementation and consider adopting a framework to analyze and guide their evaluation of how reform should be organized, implemented, and evaluated to ensure effective embedding.