IntroductionSchool-based curriculum development (SBCD) can be seen as an endeavour aimed at diminishing dependency on central or national curricula and increasing the school's autonomy. SBCD also portrays the school's 'adaptability' (Schmuck, 1971) or its capacity to adapt to its pupil population in that it reflects receptiveness and responsiveness to their particular needs. A third aspect of SBCD relates to teachers' professional development and entails the transfer of responsibility or ownership to the teacher. This change of role is the focus of the present study.Our basic assumption is that SBCD and teachers' professional development are two coupled processes. In other words, we hypothesise that teachers who indulge in group activity with the aim of improving their practice or revising their curriculum, undergo a process of professional growth. Three case studies are presented to illustrate variations of SBCD. Each case study is analysed ethnographically, and the implications of the findings are discussed.The paper consists of the following parts: Firstly, a brief outline of the historical background of SBCD and its conceptual development in the research literature. Secondly, a description of our methodological framework of collaboration (with the schools) and research. Thirdly, three case studies are presented. Finally, the implications of the curriculum development process, as reflected in our methodological framework, are discussed with special reference to teachers' professional development.
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The paper describes a collaborative reflective inquiry of teachers and researchers that was aimed at bridging the gap between the school-internal and school external cultures. It suggests that the inquiry into current social problems has the potential to bridge between the social-political zeitgeist and the schools, through the exposure of possible different conceptions of knowledge and different approaches to the nature of learning. The paper addresses some milestones along this process that led to the development of a formal model of contextual pedagogy. This pedagogy claims that content, didactics and world views, are all molded into the learning situation and concurrently emerge from it. The unique nature of this pedagogy is described by the different understanding of concepts that are associated with the process of learning and knowledge construction such as: initiation (locus of control), orientation of the process, sources of legitimate knowledge, scope and boundaries of the inquiry issues, responsibility as well as ambiguity and uncertainty, as intrinsic to the process and the nature of the emerging knowledge.
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