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                                experienced a match between the Comprehensive Approach and their own frame of reference (Luttenberg et al., 2013) and they made sense of the Comprehensive Approach as a framework, which provided structure and a heightened sense of awareness. Finally, in a teaching context where the literature component in the EFL curriculum is often regarded as detached from students’ English language development (Kwakernaak, 2016b), the teachers contributed to our insights regarding the Language approach: how they interpreted this approach as well as how they experienced implementing it.
7.3.4 The challenge of enriching existing foreign language literature curricula
In Chapter 6 we reported on the changes that eight teachers realised in their lessons as well as the changes they perceived regarding EFL literature teaching after working with the Comprehensive Approach for one year. We were especially interested in how teachers made sense of the innovation (Coburn, 2001; Weick et al., 2005) and the extent in which they regarded the innovation as relevant and useful. Although enriching existing curricula provided us insight regarding the relevance and usefulness of the Comprehensive Approach, it also instigated several challenges that are important to consider.
In our research we did not present the teachers with ready to teach materials
but we presented the Comprehensive Approach as a framework through which
they could analyse and enrich their existing literature curriculum. This active
involvement in curriculum development required the teachers to first make sense 7 of the framework. As we discussed in section 6.2.2, sensemaking is highly personal
and (Spillane et al., 2002; Weick, 1995) and often results in a different interpretation,
adaptation, or even a transformation of the initial intent of a reform (Coburn,
2001). Because how teachers make sense of the Comprehensive Approach has an
impact on how they implement it, the outcome is bound to be variable. Although
this outcome is very interesting from the perspective of the Theory of Change, it
becomes an issue when the Theory of Instruction is investigated. Although it is
essential in light of sustainability to research an innovation from the perspectives
of both theories (Desimone & Stukey, 2014), researching an innovation through
enrichment instead of replacement requires a careful consideration of the impact
of sensemaking on the changes in student learning (see also section 7.4).
A different challenge concerns curricular heritage, which describes the phenomenon that when a teacher starts working at a new school, he/she inherits the existing school curriculum (Chapter 2). Because most foreign language
Summary, discussion, and conclusion
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