Narratives of high school teachers’ identity renewal through teaching a new intercultural curriculum subject

Contrary to popular myth, teachers do not simply deliver a ready-made curriculum. Rather, they interpret and make meaning of the curriculum. The introduction of a capabilities dimension in the formal curriculum in Australia invites a case study of curriculum innovation in action. Drawing on Clandinin and Connelly’s narrative inquiry approach, complemented by Aoki’s concept of curriculum-as-lived, we offer an analysis of the dilemmas three teachers confronted and the pedagogical decisions they made when implementing a new Intercultural Capabilities (IC) curriculum. We argue that one of the effects of negotiating the new curriculum was a destabilising of teachers’ professional identity. Through the process of re-storying classroom events, these early innovators were forced to confront their own cultural identity. Initially an unsettling or unmooring experience, it became a positive encounter. Teachers reported a sense of identity renewal in which they became more reflexive and flexible in their approach to IC pedagogy as a deliberate response to the unpredictable pedagogical challenges that emerged.