The Role of Teachers as Agent of Curriculum Changes

Malaysian education system was built in other to uphold the education aspirations

where the main aim is to empower the nation’s citizens to compete in today’s era

globalisation. According to Dr. Nayef R.F. Al-Rodhan (2006), globalization involves

economic integration; the transfer of policies across borders; the transmission of knowledge;

cultural stability; the reproduction, relations, and discourses of power; it is a global process,

a concept, a revolution, and an establishment of the global market free from socio-political

control. A research by S. Chinnammai (2005) also supported that the effects of globalisation

on education bring rapid developments in technology and communications are foreseeing

changes within learning systems across the world as ideas, values and knowledge, changing

the roles of students and teachers, and producing a shift in society from industrialisation

towards an information-based society. So, Malaysian curricularist has reform the Malaysian

curriculum that meets the globalisation needs where Malaysian Education Blueprint (2013)

agreed that high aspirations is significant in order to properly address the needs of all

Malaysians, and to prepare the nation to perform at an international level, it is important to

first envision what a highly-successful education system must accomplish, particularly in the

Malaysian context. As suggested by Paweł Strawiński (2011) the educational aspirations

and expectations are closely linked to respondents’ level of education. In relation to

Malaysian education curriculum reforms, an educational aspiration is the hope and ambition

of Malaysian in achieving a higher level of education and thus preparing the future for a

better workforce. Therefore, the advent of globalisation democratises the transformation of

Malaysian education through the educational aspirations reforms. Thus, in order to develop

a successful transformation of the Malaysian curriculum, teacher plays an important role as

agents of change.

There are four types of change that can be done by teacher namely shift towards

increase, changes in the organization’s strategic , proactive changes and lastly changes

resulting from outreach. As agents of change, teacher should improve their skills by changes

in the performance of duties. In relation to the Eleven Shifts of Malaysian Education

Blueprint (2013), the curriculum develops aims to focus teachers on their core function of

teaching from 2013 by reducing administration burdens. Based on the fourth shift, teachers

have the opportunity to improve their skills because the workload of administrating will be

lessened. Furthermore, the teacher can focus more on their core business which is teaching

and thus they can perform well in their duties. This s supported by Weingarten (2012) where

if educational reform is to work, teachers should believe that the proposed changes in

education will actually help them be successful with students. The above statement indicates

that teacher as agents of change should agree with the shifts proposed by the Malaysian

Educational Blueprint to ensure the system aspirations for Malaysian Education can be

achieved. One of the five systems aspirations related to the shift of performance duties by

the teacher is closely related to the aspirations of equity in which Malaysian education aims

for top-performing school systems that deliver the best education for every child, and

teachers are responsible in improving their performance in duties to uphold this aspiration.

Teacher as agents of change should have changes in the organizations strategic

which means a strategic plan should be developed to meet the goals of the curriculum

reforms by taking into considerations many factors related to the teacher’s role in school.

First and foremost, teachers should think of possible strategies to empower the national

aspirations of the school curriculum. For instance, teacher should change their teaching

methods from teacher-centred to students-centred. This change is important in order to

mould the nation citizens into creative and innovative citizens that well-equipped with ability

to acquiring knowledge as well as developed the citizens that can apply knowledge learned

critically and innovatively. This is also reinforced by Malaysian Education Blueprint (2013) in

the second aspirations of students which is aspirations of thinking skills stated that every

child will learn how to continue acquiring knowledge throughout their lives (instilling a love for

inquiry and lifelong learning), to be able to connect different pieces of knowledge, and, most

importantly in a knowledge-based economy, to create new knowledge. So, by changing the

teaching method, teachers should ensure that the teaching materials should mirror the

globalisation of the world where the use of ICT should be emphasizing more during school

hours. Apart from that, teacher as agents of change should well equipped with the ICT skills

where teaching and learning activities could be maximising beyond the Malaysia context. For

example, the activity such as video conferencing can take place between the primary school

Malaysian students with the New Zealand students. Such activity will eventually help our

students to practice their knowledge skills in ICT as well as gain confidence in speaking

skills.

Teacher involvement leads to a curricular transformation where teacher as agent of

changes should be proactive in their work. In order to meet the aspiration of quality, teacher

should be able to be proactive, which means, teacher should be able to create and control a

situation in classroom and school rather than responding to the situation after it has

happened. Henly, M. (2009) agreed with this statement where proactive teachers do not

avoid problems in learning or problems with behaviour. However, these teachers accept

responsibility for their students’ successes and their students’ failures. A proactive teacher

should be able to create a proactive classroom through the positive learning environment.

Therefore, other than emphasizing on the academic, some changes should be made within

the teacher and the classroom such as inculcating the social skills in daily lessons and

routines. By inducing social skills in the lesson, students will be interested in the lesson in

classroom. This is supported by the Malaysian Education Blueprint (2013) whereby teacher

as agent changes should ensure that the students aspirations in ethics and spirituality is

being highlighted in which the education system will inculcate strong ethics and spirituality in

every child to prepare them to rise to the challenges they will inevitably face in adult life, to

resolve conflicts peacefully, to employ sound judgement and principles during critical

moments, and to have the courage to do what is right. Thus, the above statement has

specified that to empower the citizens with good ethics and spirituality, it falls back on the

teacher’s role as agents of change in implementing the curriculum transformation in school.

The Malaysian Education Blueprint acts as the outreach of the teacher as agent of

changes because mainly this blueprint emphasizes on the significant roles of teachers and

administrators at school. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (2013) stated that the blueprint is indeed

so committed to preparing our children with skills in six student characters, and it would be

better if it is to be well-received with immense feelings of responsibility so that the

programmes could be fully implemented to achieve the desired results. From the above

statements, we could say that the goals of the blueprint is included in helping students to

become productive members of the workforce, knowledgeable consumers, savers and

investors, and participants in the global economy. The role of teacher is vital where teacher

as the implementer is the person that is responsible to mould our citizens by understanding

the current challenges globally. Teacher should focus on improving the education lesson into

a classroom where students would be able to think critically creatively by preparing a lesson

with hands on learning, collaborative learning as well as encouraging students to be more

confidence in giving out their ideas and thoughts. Therefore, the role of teacher here will be

able to meet the objectives of Malaysian Education Blueprint (2013) which allow the

education to meet new demands and rising expectations, and to ignite and support overall

civil service transformations.

The development and reformation of educational curriculum in Malaysia requires

teachers to contribute as the architects of change, not just its implementers (Weingarten,

2012). Hence, teacher should change their leadership from autocratic style into a democratic

style. As leaders, there were several ways that teachers can do as agents of change. First,

teacher should acquire openness whereby they should be ready to accept any changes

especially in education transformation. As agents of change, teacher as key players of

curriculum should accept the education reforming and then teachers should be creative to

modify and fine-tune the design work of the Malaysian Education Blueprint into a meaningful

learning lesson. Ornstein and Hunkins (2014) agreed to this statement that curriculum

expectations emerge from teacher’s capacities to enact curricular and pedagogic actions

with discretions, judgements, and proficiency. So, teacher should acts as the active

participants in the curriculum transformations rather than being passive recipients of the

curriculum reformation. This is because, the teacher’s perspectives as important as others

stakeholders in reforming the curriculum in Malaysia where teacher is the one that

undergoing the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum implemented. Thus, they know

better about the implementation of the curriculum compare to other stakeholders. With

regards to above statements, Handler, (2010) also claimed that the longevity of the

academic discourse on meaningful and sustained teacher involvement in school-based

decision-making suggests an underlying theoretical assumption that such organizational

structures would ultimately result in improved student outcomes. Therefore, we could see

that many researchers agreed that teacher should be an active implementer and

stakeholders in order to improve students’ knowledge and skills and thus preparing them for

skilful workers.

Malaysian Education Blueprint states in detail the five system aspirations and six

student characters to be achieved in the next 13 years. It focuses on student outcomes

encompassing all levels of schooling, that is, from pre-school to post-secondary level where

the main stress turns on the teacher roles as agent of changes. From the above supports,

teacher is seen as the important key players in ensuring that the curriculum transformation is

being implemented well in the school. Thus, teachers should take the responsibilities to

implement the curriculum of the Malaysian Education for the better future that will be facing

more challenging globalisation.