Integrating phenomenography with discourse analysis to study Hong Kong prospective teachers’ conceptions of curriculum leadership

ABSTRACT Curriculum leadership is commonly regarded as an essential element in supporting school development and facilitating curriculum change processes. The study identified the qualitative variation in conceptions of curriculum leadership in the development of curriculum leadership, and described these variations in terms of categories of description. Phenomenography, with the integrated use of discourse analysis, is applied to reveal the variations of experience in the participants through describing and comparing the conceptions and understandings of the context-dependent phenomenon – curriculum leadership. Taking purposive sampling, a group of 24 prospective teachers were invited for individual semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study imply that conceptions of curriculum leadership held by prospective teachers should be taken into consideration for the planning and organisation of teacher education programmes concerning curriculum development and implementation.