Abstract
Existing research indicates
that the effective implementation of new curricula depends on
several variables including teachers' agreement with the goals
of a new program, its impact on workload, and opportunities for
professional development. The purpose of this research was to
assess how far 31 grade 8 teachers implemented a new children's
rights curriculum, whether the implementation of the curriculum
changed their and their students' attitudes about children's rights,
and to identify factors that encouraged implementation. Major
findings were as follows: Workload, defined in terms of years
of experience and class size, was predictive of curriculum use.
The more teachers used the curriculum, the higher they rated it
and the more they expressed attitudes supportive of children's
rights. Students' support for the rights of adults, including
ethnocultural minorities and those with disabilities, was positively
related to their teachers' support for children's rights.
Copyright © AJER, the Faculty of Education, and the University
of Alberta, 2003.
Last revised: February 12, 2003.
Designed by G.H. Buck