Following independence in 2002, Timor-Leste quickly embarked on a process of
curriculum reform. Reform was predicated on three main goals: (1) improving the
quality and relevance of schooling; (2) assisting the state in achieving long-term
development goals; and (3) acculturating future generations into a new socially cohesive
national identity. Yet, a long line of research indicates the translation from curriculum
intentions to changed practices is ridden with interpretation and contestation. Schoolbased
actors are often the key intermediaries in negotiating the uncertainties, paradoxes
or dilemmas embedded in such reforms, and as such have a large part to play in what
results.
These actors, as the thesis identifies, are influenced by and are influencing a set of
material, cultural and social conditions that are the product of the country’s colonial
past and current status as a conflict-affected and fragile state (CAFS). Following
independence, they (re)entered the workforce complete with antecedent beliefs,
paradigms and discourses on what ‘good teaching’ represents, and on the broader
purpose and role of schooling in society. They were differentially motivated by a variety
of factors—economic, political and professional in nature—to become and remain
teachers. Almost immediately, they were confronted with a rapid succession of new
policy statements on what constituted appropriate knowledge, teaching and pedagogy
in the new Timor-Leste. While such statements were rich in their symbolic promise of a
schooling experience that was distinct and disconnected from the past, a combination of
inconsistent political will, strong external involvement/influence, and insufficient
internal capacity has led to the implementation of reforms that are discursively rich but
subsantitively poor.
Founded on a critical realist ontological and epistemological research approach, and
supported through critical ethnographic research methods, this thesis explores the ways
in which school actors in Timor-Leste position themselves and act on their beliefs,
motivations and tendencies in light of current structural conditions and constraints.
What this thesis finds is that the outcomes and practices produced are neither a
straightforward reproduction of the prior colonial education system, nor the
aspirational goals of current reform agendas. They represent a creative mediation of
personal and political, past and present.