Record Detail

With the ever-pressing twenty-first century
demands, such as the need for new knowledge generation
and application, schools today are aware of the necessity to
change their structures, processes and practices to be relevant.
In Singapore’s centralized education system, the
Ministry has introduced several decentralization initiatives
in the hope of promoting flexibility and innovation within
schools. One such initiative is the Integrated Programme
(IP). IP schools are expected to redefine existing educational
structures, redesign teaching and learning processes
and reshape classroom practices to generate diverse
learning experiences. This paper describes the case of one
school that has embarked on the IP to shed light on the
processes involved in curriculum innovation. Our findings
reveal three significant processes: negotiating the programme
with the school’s vision, finding common ground
for buy-in and investing in preparation time. These are
instrumental in the development and enactment of IP by
teachers and school leaders. These findings and their
implications are deliberated on, providing ways that
schools can shape and sustain curricular innovations.