Navigating the power of time in classroom practices: teachers’ and students’ perspectives

The paper examines educational functions related to time within classroom practices and aims to find out how curriculum delivery shapes the time experience, how time impacts curricular activities, how teachers and students negotiate time to achieve the goals of the curriculum, and how teachers and students manage time in the classroom. Using observations and interviews as a data-gathering method in schools with International Baccalareate and Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education curricula in Poland, the following study revealed that despite common opinions about the slow pace of school life, time within classroom practices makes lessons a dynamic process. The study suggests that time (1) imposes a tempo and rhythm (waves), sequences (lesson order), and synchronisation (of teachers’ and students’ activities), (2) guarantees stabilisation within learning, (3) triggers motivation to negotiate time while carrying out tasks, and (4) provides orientation for activities and emotional well-being, where repeated tasks provide a certain level of emotional safety and support. The temporal organisation of school practices determines the educational functions of the curriculum, and their time inflexibility and non-linearity constitute a functional part of a hidden curriculum. The results of this study underscore the importance of investigating flexible time management strategies, student-centered pedagogies, and interdisciplinary approaches that can alleviate the burdens of overcrowded curricula.