The emotional landscape of curriculum making

Abstract

Abstract Our aim with this study was to gain a better understanding of the emotional landscape of curriculum making by exploring the variety of emotions embedded in shared sense-making about the national curriculum reform implementation at the district level. Focus group interview data were collected from 12 curriculum reform steering groups around Finland, that were responsible for orchestrating curriculum reform work at the district level. The data were qualitatively content analysed. The results showed that the local steering group members experienced a wide range of emotions in shared sense-making. Positive emotions were described slightly more often than negative emotions. The emotional landscape of the sense-making strategies applied in curriculum reform work varied depending on the strategy applied.