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The mistakes of the past can be overcome according to Malaguzzi. The cases of
the four teachers described in the previous chapter illustrate attempts to discover new
paths of practice forged by abandoning the status quo. When new information on
emergent curriculum conflicted with their perceptions of practice each was faced with
cognitive dissonance. As early childhood educators, they had adapted a curriculum
consistent with what Wien (1995) describes as routine and tightly scripted. This
traditional curriculum is not open to change, discovery, and direction. How has the
abandonment of the routine in favour of the uncharted territory of an emergent
curriculum impacted the practice of these teachers and their self image?
In the following pages of this chapter, the phenomenon of emergent curriculum as
it was experienced by the participants will be presented. The findings from the research
were distilled into four categories of themes:
1. Impact of Context,
2. Teacher as Collaborator,
3. Teacher as Curriculum Planner,
4. Teacher as Theory Builder,
In this chapter there is an attempt to “build a general explanation that fits each of the
individual cases” (Yin, 1994, p. 112). Searching for the variables that transcended each
particular case, I conceptualized themes emerging from the case studies within a fourtheme
framework to illustrate the experience of emergent curriculum. During the data
analysis stage, the participants’ statements and stories were interpreted as either
consistent or inconsistent with the four emerging themes.