The Transformative Dimensions of Professional Curriculum Quality Enhancement

Abstract

This concluding chapter critically examines the phenomenon of professional curriculum quality enhancement in higher education through the lens of curriculum renewal as transformation. Its central argument is that the highly complex, transformational nature of curriculum design and development creates particular challenges and tensions for professional degrees. These challenges stem from the role played by academic teacher conception and beliefs in curriculum transformation, as well as their response to calls for significant changes in thinking and practice arising from this transformation. It argues that universities can be sites of resistance to external calls for change by stakeholders, such as government and professional organisations. Yet it acknowledges that the reverse can also be true, with university profession-based disciplines themselves instigating change in response to wider socio-political demands, including future industry needs. This chapter looks back over the international case studies presented by authors in this volume and examines each through the lens of curriculum renewal as transformation. The chapter uses this framework to counter typical curriculum quality narratives, which are often relatively straightforward, incomplete, procedural accounts of positive change. The lens of curriculum as transformation is used as a way of properly acknowledging the context of the case illustrations of quality practices explored in this second volume. This chapter concludes that given the inherent challenges of delivering professional degrees the efforts and achievements of teachers and curriculum teams examined by chapter authors within this book are all the more remarkable.