| Abstract [eng] |
This master’s thesis analyses the provision on elective curriculum content (hereinafter referred to as “elective CC”), which was introduced in the general education curricula updated in 2022, and its practical implementation at the lower secondary education level. The provision on elective curriculum content is being introduced into Lithuanian regulatory documents for the first time, making this thesis one of the first attempts to systematically examine it. In the theoretical part of the study, based on narrow and broad concepts of educational content, the development of educational content at the school level, and the concept of personalized education, it is demonstrated that the provision for elective CC is created at the intersection of sociocultural and neoliberal models of education. The study analyses education policy documents from 2003–2018, the 2022 updated general curricula, recommendations for their implementation, and public discourse on the topic of elective content from 2021–2024. In the empirical section, semi-structured qualitative interviews were analysed using a reflective thematic analysis methodology. The interviews were conducted with three experts who participated in the development of the "Guidelines for the Renewal of General Curricula" (2019), and seven teachers of different subjects in grades 5–8. Experts associate the provision for elective content with the liberalization of educational content, decentralization, and the strengthening of teachers’ agency; however, in practice, the time allocated for implementing elective content is often combined with mandatory content and used for repetition, in-depth study, and “filling in gaps.” On the other hand, the study also revealed successful practices: where there is a strong culture of school collaboration and leadership, and teachers identify more strongly with the role of educator, elective content becomes a space for student voices, local context and project-based and experiential learning. The identified practices show that, by consistently combining the strengthening of school leadership, teachers’ professional skills, and other factors, the provision of elective content can become a real tool for implementing a broad concept of educational content. |
