CURRICULUM REFORM AND A SCIENCE DEPARTMENT: A BOURDIEUIAN ANALYSIS

This article will describe the dispositions of science teachers in the context of a curriculum reform. Using Bourdieu’s notions of ‘habitus’ and ‘the field,’ the analysis of the data highlights the necessity for curriculum reformers to view the field of the science department as a contested space. From this understanding flow several subsidiary issues: the need to promote disequilibrium and critical conversations around the meanings and practices of science education within the department, and the need to value and capitalise on the symbolic capital of teacher credibility. The article concludes by briefly critiquing recent curriculum reforms in Australia.