Co-Designing an Adaptable Curriculum with Teachers: Affordances and Tensions in Flexible Partnership and Collaboration

Together with a team of middle school teachers, we have been co-designing flexible, interdisciplinary curriculum focused on the interwoven concepts of personal, community, and ecological resilience. In this paper, we look at teachers' perspectives on their experiences participating in a series of professional learning workshops and implementing co-designed curriculum in their classrooms. We focus empirical analysis on identifying affordances of this projects' approach to co-design. We look at the role that flexibility in the co-design process and curricular enactment played in shaping these affordances. We also discuss the emergent tensions tied to this adaptable approach in regard to research and designing high quality curriculum.

Duke Scholars

Author Elizabeth DeMattia