Curriculum Mapping as a Boundary Encounter: Meeting the Demands of Multiple Agendas

This paper illustrates the use of curriculum mapping as a process that can support productive boundary encounters between lecturers in an initial teacher education (ITE) programme as part of curriculum review. Using mathematics as the context, lecturers in a 1-year primary graduate ITE programme developed a curriculum map to identify the mathematical thinking opportunities available to their pre-service teachers in their courses and across the programme. The coordinated approach to curriculum analysis/mapping expanded lecturers' definition of mathematical skills and reasoning and their awareness of opportunities their students had to engage with mathematical ideas. The mapping process included collaborative discussions, document analysis and iterative development of a curriculum map. In an overcrowded curriculum, which responds to government policies and university initiatives such as embedding critical literacy, mathematical foundations and cross-disciplinary study, the mapping process has potential to meet multiple demands and agendas. In our study, the mapping process and the map offered purposeful and productive grounds for learning and development. They were central to facilitating dialogic boundary encounters between programme lecturers resulting in the re-conceptualisation of course and programme curriculum boundaries. We expect study findings will be of interest to programme leaders, lecturers and researchers facing the challenge of identifying and supporting the development of competencies and multi-literacies that span courses and programmes.