The Impact of Educational Change Processes in Brunei Preschools: An Interpretive Study

The overall aim of this research is to understand the change processes in teaching and learning that are going on in the Brunei government’s preschools. The study also aims to find out the Bruneian preschool teachers’ and children’s teaching and learning experiences in the preschool classes at this exciting and challenging time of curriculum reform. The study also observed how teachers are developing their lessons and implementing reform processes informed by the expected pedagogical practice, and how children are learning in class, taking into account their experiences. A further aim of this study is to find out, at the ministerial level (the Early Childhood Care and Education Unit and the Curriculum Department Unit), the expectations in terms of the change processes as these occur, and how the preschool teachers are supported. To achieve the aims, 123 teachers completed the questionnaire, four teachers and eight children were involved in observations and interviews, and two senior education officers were interviewed. The Brunei education policy has good intentions of trying to bring in different ideas but the journey from policy to practice is not a linear process. This study showed there are dislocations between how policy is conceptualised and how policy is enacted in ECCE settings; in particular there are specific actions that need to happen at the macro, meso and micro levels. There are certain change processes that need to happen for the policy-practice interface to be more coherent. This study aims to understand the layers of complexity involved in the change processes prescribed for the Brunei preschool education system. No curriculum reform can succeed without teachers’ input and their active constructive participation. The issue is not simply about changing the curriculum or transforming the education landscape at preschools in Brunei; it also involves teachers’ modes of thinking, their communicative approaches and their professional identities.