THE ROLE OF STUDENTS

IN CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

by

AL CERT NTSHENGEDZEN11 MATODZI

A mini-dissertation

submitted as partiall fuliffiment of the requirements for

the degree

MAGISTER EDUCATIRDNIS

in

CURRICULUM STUDIES

in the

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND NURSING

at the

RAND AFRIKAANS UNIVERSITY

SUPERVISOR: PROIF. H. Co GEYSER

OCTO ER 11998

OPSOMMING

Die doel met hierdie navorsing is om studente se sieningswyses oor hul rolle in

kurrikulumontwikkeling te bepaal. Die kontemporere uitdaging in terme van

kurrikulumontwikkeling, is die versoening van die Onderwysdepartment op alle vlakke,

onderwyskollegebestuur, dosente, asook ander opvoedkundige instansies aan die een kant, en

die tans gewilde mening dat studente aktiewe deelnemers in kurrikulumontwikkeling is .

Daar is behoefte aan 'n versoening van die oortuiging dat kurrikulumontwikkeling beperk word

tot kundiges en professionele persone aan die een kant en die tans gewilde mening dat studente

aktiewe deelnemers in kurrikulumontwikkeling is.

Sedertdien blyk kurrikulumontwikkeling n verskynsel te wees gedoen vir studente in plaas van

saam met hulle gedoen te wees. Dit lei tot die gevolgtrekking dat studente die nodige

vaardighede en kennis moet openbaar om sodoende n effektiewe en betekenisvolle bydrae te

lewer tot kurrikulumontwikkeling.

Tydens n ondersoek na die rol van studente tydens kurrikulumontwikkeling, blyk demokrasie

tydens die onderrig- en leerproses in die klaskamer 'n kritiese vraag te wees. Ten einde die

onderrigleersituasie te maksimaliseer moet studente, en ander deelnemers ingelig te word ten

opsigte van kurrikulumontwikkeling by onderwyskolleges.

Studente behoort nie slegs toeskouers te wees met betrekking tot kurrikulumontwikkeling nie,

maar moet aktiewe deelnemers wees in die ontwikkelingsproses van ' n relevante kurrikulum.

Effektiewe kurrikulumontwikkeling is afhanldik van die betrokkenheid van studente eerder as om

dit te beperk tot kurrikulumkundiges, lektore en spesialiste.

Literatuuranalise is gedoen ten einde uit te vind wat die ideale posisie is betreffende deelname van

studente in die Noordelike Provinsie. Die gegewens vir die studie is versamel via fokus groep

onderhoude met studente. Die inligting word geanaliseer binne die raamwerk van die kwalitatiewe

navorsing, want die fokus van hierdie studie is op woorde, idees of menings soos voortgebring

deur studente respondente dan op numeriese waarde van sulke idees. Die raamwerk vir studente

deelname trapsgewys versyn wyse die formasie van kurrikulumkomittees, werkswinkels,

konferensies, studente rade by nasionale, provinsiale en op kollege vlakke.

Hierdie navorsing bring die volgende aan die lig: dat studente betrokke wil wees in kurrikulum

ontwikkeling en dat demokratiese kommunikasiestyle soos besprekings, seminare, konferensies,

vennootskappe, komittees en onderhoude, behoort ondersoek en gebruik to word vir die

ontwikkelling van ' n relevante en sosiaal bruikbare kurrikulum vir onderwyskolleges.

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1: GENERAL ORIENTATION, STATEMENT OF THE PRO

RESEARCH MET1H1ODOLOGY.

IL LEM AND

1.1 General orientation 2

1.2 Statements of the problem 3

1.3 Aims of the research 4

1.4 Research methodology 4

1.5 Clarification of terms 5

1.6 Summary 7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.

2.1 Aim of the chapter 8

2.2.1 Curriculum 8

2.2.2 Curriculum development 10

2.3 Levels of curriculum development 13

2.4 Phases in curriculum development 16

2.4.1 Curriculum design 16

2.4.2 Curriculum dissemination 21

2.4.3 Curriculum implementation 24

2.4.4 Curriculum evaluation 27

2.5 Reasons for student involvement 30

2.6 Student participation at micro-level 33

2.7 Student participation at meso-level 34

2.8 Summary 37

CHAPTER Z: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DATA ANALYSIS

3.1 Aim of this chapter 38

3.2 Research paradigms 38

3.3 Reliability and validity of the study 40

3.4 Research methods 42

3.4.1 The population of the study 42

3.4.2 Focus group interviews 43

3.4.3 Sampling 46

3.4.4 Data collection 47

3.4.5 Protocol for data analysis 48

3.4.6 Pilot interviews report 49

3.5 Data analysis 51

3.5.1 Report on the research process 51

3.5.2 Description of categories 52

3.6. Summary 75

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH OVERVIEW FINDINGS, CONCLIUSIONS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 Aim of the chapter 76

4.2 Research overview 76

4.2 Findings 89

4.3 Recommendations 92

4.4 Limitations of the study 94

4.5 Strength of the study 95

4.6 Recommendations for further study 96

4.7 Conclusion 96

BIBLIOGRAPHY 98

ADDENDUM A: List of responses 108

ADDENDUM B: Categories and sub-categories developed by an external

decoder 108

ADDENDUM C: Categories and sub-categories for the stud 109

LIST OF FIGURES:

Figure 2.1 : Phases of curriculum development 12

Figure 2.3.1 : Principles of design: A cyclical model 19

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express sincere gratitude to:

Almighty God, for his love and strength to complete this study.

My supervisor, Professor H.C. Geyser, for her positive attitude, purposeful guidance, insightful discussions, patience and encouragement.

Dr Annete Lotter, for the valuable work and guidance that she offered as an external decoder.

My parents and family for their words of encouragement and tolerance.

Mrs Ramatshimbila Takie for typing the dissertation.

All college students who participated in the interviews and friends who shared their time with me.

1

CHAPTER ONE

1 GENERAL ORIENTATION, STATEMENT OF THE PRO

LEM AND RESEARCH IC,

METHODOLOGY

1.1 GENERAL ORIENTATION

The Ministry of Education has already committed itself in creating conducive conditions for

democratic governance and instutitionl-based decision-making process in South African

educational institutions (Department of Education, 1996: 9). However, most stakeholders,

especially student-teachers are unaware and uncertain about what such changes will mean for

their institutions and themselves. This may be so in curriculum development at colleges of

education in South Africa, especially in the Northern Province.

Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 287) sums up the complexity of the situation during curriculum

development as follows: " Sometimes the designers work in harmony, and sometimes they are at

odds with each other. In fact there is competition for authority and control and for the primacy

of certain values."

It is in view of this contentious situation that the topic on student participation at colleges of

education has been chosen so that all stakeholders in teacher education can know and appreciate

the nature and extent of students' involvement in curriculum development.

The latest document on norms and standards for teacher education released by the Committee on

Teacher Education Policy (COTEP) (1998:115-119) has identified various guiding principles

that can be used to ensure that education is relevant to the modern democratic society. The

Committee also outlined a schedule of activities that they pursued in setting the norms and

standard for education and training. However, in both cases, no reference is made of the level and

extent of students' participation in curriculum development.

In its findings, the National Education Policy Investigation, to be called the NEPI throughout this

2

text, has revealed that college curriculum especially in the former homelands and independent

states offers little room -for students to manoeuvre. Students have much more in common with

high school students, than with fellow tertiary counterparts. For example, college students wear

some kind of uniform, timetables are highly compartmentalised and follow rules that restrict their

freedom of movement (KEPI, 1993: 13).

Furthermore, Jeff, Rice, Hofmeyer and Hall (19961: 4) identified students as one of the key role-

players and argue emphatically that: " ... the teacher education curricula should involve students-

teachers in shared discussion and analysis to increase their capacity for intellectual analysis and

reflection".

It is in this context that the topic on student-teachers' participation in curriculum development

in the Northern Province is undertaken. This is done so that the nature and extent of students'

involvement can be investigated.

The Northern Province comprises the former Venda independent state and two homelands

(Lebowa and Gazankulu). Of the twenty-two colleges found in this area, seven colleges of

education remain training teachers (Nieuwenhuis & Mamabolo, 1995: 6). The sample of this

study will focus in these colleges in that they are found in the various regions that constitute the

Northern Province. They are therefore more representative of colleges within the province, and

South Africa as a whole.

1.2 STATEMENTS OF THE PRO LEM

This research is an attempt to investigate how student-teachers at colleges of education perceive

their roles in curriculum development. Two main problems related to this topic are:

1.2.1 To what extent do student-teachers at colleges of education want to be involved in

curriculum development?

1.2.2 What are the possible guidelines for student-teachers' involvement in curriculum

development?

3

1.3 AIMS OF THE RESEARCH

The aims of this study are twofold and are related to the problems identified above:

1.3.1 The first aim of this study is to find out to what extent do student-teachers at colleges

of education want to be involved in curriculum development.

1.3.2 The second aim is to identify and write recommendations on how students can be involved

during curriculum development at colleges of education.

1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The problems for this study are centred on student involvement in curriculum development at

colleges of education in the Northern Province. The study is qualitative research in that the

researcher will use group interviews. The researcher will analyse responses from students and

group them into categories and sub-categories. The quality of the relationship between the

categories will be established and theory about student involvement will gradually emerge.

The research programme for the study will unfold in consecutive steps as outlined below:

STEP 1: This step entails the identification of the problem, setting aims and describing the

research methodology. This will be reported in chapter one of this dissertation.

STEP 2: A literature study will be conducted on relevant and recent literature on the role of

student-teachers in curriculum development in order to establish a theoretical framework for

students' participation in curriculum development at colleges of education. This will be reported

in chapter two of this research.

STEP 3: A literature review is done on relevant research methods in order to select an

appropriate paradigm and a suitable method for data collection will be chosen. A protocol for data

analysis will also be included in chapter three.

4

STEP 4: This step entails the collection and analysis of data. This will be reported in chapter

three.

STEP 5: Conclusions and recommendations based on the theoretical framework and the

empirical data on students' participation at colleges of education is generated. This will be

reported in chapter four.

II. 5 CLARIFICATION OF TERMS

Different scholars in curriculum studies often use similar terms to mean different things. The

following terms and concepts are therefore explained as utilised in the study. This will be done

to avoid or lessen any possibility of ambiguity that may arise.

1.5.1 CurricuRum

Kelly (1977: 78) in Carl (1995:31) defines a curriculum as a plan of action that includes

strategies for achieving desired goals or ends. In this view, a curriculum is conceived as specific

and prescriptive. It includes strategies and goals to be achieved. A curriculum is therefore a plan

which has a beginning and an end and includes means to achieve the desirable end. A curriculum

can be defined in a broader sense as "...experiences of the learner..." (Doll, 1996: 15). This view

considers even those activities outside the school if they are planned.

Duminy, et al. (1992: 26) perceive a curriculum as the curriculum-in-use, the resources, text,

people making decisions and reasons for such decisions. In this report, a curriculum is considered

as the contextual process in which policies and activities are developed and planned through

negotiations by all stakeholders. This is a preliminary definition to be discussed in depth in chapter

two of this dissertation.

5

1.5.2 Stakeholders

A stakeholder refers to a person or a group of people or any interested party or parties in a

particular issue or process (Morris, 1996: 15). In this work, this term will be used to mean all

people or bodies especially parents or community members, lecturers, rectors, the student-

teachers and the student representative councils who are partaking in curriculum development.

This term has also been used interchangeably with the term participants and role-players

referring to the same people or bodies identified above.

1.5.3 Curriculum development

Novak (1994: 234) and Print (1993: 24) define curriculum development as a way of planning

curricula to increase student learning. It is a blue print or a plan for structuring the learning

situation and coordinating the personnel, materials and equipments. However this definition

appears to be too narrow and limited to curriculum design which is just one of the phases of

curriculum development. The definition is therefore inapplicable to the present study.

Other definitions like that of Glatthorn (Orstein & Hunkins, 1993: 275) emphasize that curriculum

development focuses on the individual's self-perception and priorities as the base for curriculum

decisions. Thus, emphasis is on those persons, especially students whom the curriculum affects

which is the point of departure of this work.

However Carl (1995: 47) perceives curriculum development as an umbrella concept and an

ongoing process in which logical planning in the central point from design to evaluation. He

continued to point out that this process is characterised by several phases that are design,

dissemination, implementation and evaluation.

It is in these definitions that curriculum development will be taken to mean how the curriculum

is planned, disseminated, implemented on and evaluated as well as what student-teachers,

community members, lecturers and rectors will be doing at colleges of education. However, this

is a preliminary definition that will be discussed in detail in chapter two.

6

1.5.4 College of education

The Oxford Dictionary (1991: 510) defines the college of education as an institution for higher

education or professional training. In this research, colleges of education will refer to institutions

where teachers are being trained for a three-year diploma to teach either at primary or at

secondary schools.

However, Leurs (1991: 29) indicates that in the Republic of South Africa, colleges of education

are sometimes loosely called teacher training colleges. Teacher colleges offer a three-year diploma

comprising the study of one or more academic disciplines and professional subjects as well as

supervised teaching experience. Thus, colleges of education are not simply concerned with

teachers' vocational training, but also a post-secondary education that will contribute to their

future professional growth as in curriculum development, for example.

1.6 SUMMARY

In chapter one, a general orientation about the involvement of student-teachers is given. The

statement of the problem, aim of the study and methodology of the study were also highlighted.

In the next chapter, a review of selected relevant literature on student-teacher participation in

curriculum development is given.

7

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 AIM OF THE CHAPTER

The aim of this chapter is to undertake a literature review of recent publications on curriculum

development to identify a theoretical framework for student involvement in curriculum

development. Thus, the literature study is conducted to establish how the ideal position about

student participation must be at colleges of education.

2.2 DEFINING KEY CONCEPTS

2.2.1 Curricu ➢ om

As yet, a consensus has not been reached on the meaning of the concept curriculum. The reason

for this is that it is a very comprehensive concept and many different interpretations, meanings and

emphases have been assigned to it. The Latin origins of the word curriculum lie in the word

currere, which means 'to run'. Thus, implies a relatively fixed track or racecourse (learning

content) which must be covered (mastered) by the participants (learner) to reach the winning-post

(the learning result) (Fraser, Loubser & Van Rooy 1993: 92). Attempts to define and describe this

track has led to diverse definitions of the concept curriculum.

The word curriculum that originally referred to athletic events came to mean a course of study

or course content or subjects studied in schools, colleges and universities (Carl, 1995: 32). This

definition seems to show that a curriculum is perceived to be rigid and authoritative to give

ample room for interaction among stakeholders.

A curriculum can also be defined in more broader terms as planned learning experience of the

learner offered by the school (Carl, 1995: 31). This view suggests that the curriculum be the

whole range of compulsory and optional activities that are formally planned for students whether

8

they occur inside or outside the institution. Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 9) stated that curriculum

is " all the experiences that individuals have in a program of education which is planned in terms

of theory and research or past and present professional practice."

The view that the curriculum is always planned does not enjoy an overall support as unpredictable

learning outcomes can be achieved unintentionally or cannot be built into original planning. The

definition is significant for this research in that it has great concern for those planned curricular

activities in which student-teachers are more likely to participate. This work considers only the

planned and more formal experiences as offered by the college as the curriculum.

The unplanned and unwanted experience and outcomes are conceived in this work as non-integral

to the college curricula. The view of planned experiences as conceived in this work does not

consider the concept of a hidden curriculum. The college curriculum as understood in this work,

excludes the unintended, unknown or unpublicised results in the didactic situation.

Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 9) define curriculum as a system for dealing with people, processes

and procedures for implementing that system. This conception of the curriculum as people-,

process-and procedure-driven appears to be emphasising the role of all stakeholders in curriculum

development. Issues like: do students want to be involved in curriculum development or why do

college administrators assume greater roles in curriculum matters ; are considered as part of the

curriculum.

The curriculum is in this sense an interactive system in which all stakeholders are involved to

achieve the negotiated, accepted educational goal and objectives. This research is also focussed

on the processes and procedures for student involvement during curriculum development as

discussed in chapter three. The present work upholds similar view expressed here.

Some experts also view curriculums as a field of study. This field of study comprises its own

foundations, knowledge, its own research theory and principles as well as specialists to interpret

this knowledge. Although students are not considered as experts in curriculum studies, students

will have their main concerns regarding the relevance of the content and the appropriateness of

9

the form of college curricula. Action research opens the space for students to voice their interests,

to analyse and comment critically about their classroom experience.

The idea of the curriculum as a field of study becomes an important component of the way

curriculum is perceived in this work. Unterhalter (1991: 163) has similar view and argues that:

"...pupils should also be important partners in the research process as they work with their

teachers to co-investigate classroom reality, creating appropriate and relevant pedagogical

knowledge in the process".

From the above exposition of some definitions of the concept curriculum, a curriculum means

the planned educational experience and social interaction under the auspices of the college to

achieve the negotiated learning objectives. This definition emphasises the following issues, among

others, as the major components of the college curricula:

that the curriculum is a systematic plan

that the curriculum consists of a learning experience

that the curriculum is characterised by active and formal learner/student participation or shared

decision-making

that the curriculum consists of intended learning results.

It needs to be shown that the diverse interpretations and definitions of the curriculum given above

are the result of efforts to understand and explain the innermost nature and essential components

of curriculum development.This will be discussed below.

2.2.2 Currnicullum development

The concept curriculum development also lends itself to various interpretations. Some definitions

will be discussed in search of an applicable view or definition to this study.

Fraser, Loubser and Van Rooy (1993: 102) view curriculum development as all the processes

necessary to plan, design, implement, and evaluate a functional curriculum. Thus curriculum

development is at issue when the effectiveness of an existing curriculum is evaluated and, as a

10

result, it is revised and amended. Curriculum development is also relevant when a new curriculum

designed for new or existing circumstances, is implemented on trial basis and is evaluated and

modified before being implemented in its final form. However, this definition seems to have a low

regard for the dissemination of the curricula. Therefore, the definition cannot be utilised in this

study as it stands.

However Carl (1992: 47) is of the same view and defines a curriculum as an umbrella and ongoing

process in which orderliness and systematic planning figure strongly from design to evaluation.

He also identified various phases but has initiation as the first phase instead of planning as

identified in the above definition. Some experts say planning instead of design. He identified the

following phases: curriculum design, curriculum dissemination, curriculum implementation and

curriculum evaluation as the distinctive phases of curriculum development.

Ornstein and Hunkins (1992: 16) have similar perspectives about curriculum development, but

added a new dimension to the view that it includes various phases. They argued that the

curriculum reveals "... how the curriculum evolves or is planned... as well as what the various

people, processes and procedures are involved in constructing the curriculum". The various

phases are for the purposes for this study reduced into four; which are: curriculum design,

curriculum dissemination, curriculum implementation and curriculum evaluation (Fraser, Loubser

& Van Rooy, 1993: 102; Carl, 1995: 47). This study therefore is destined to find out whether

students want to be involved during these various phases of curriculum development.

For this study curriculum development is regarded as the whole process and procedures through

which the curriculum is designed, disseminated (distributed), implementated (started) and

evaluated with active involvement of the students.

The dynamic nature of the curriculum and the interrelation between the various phases, renders

curriculum development to be an open-ended process. Curriculum development is depicted in

curriculum studies as a linear process or a cyclical process or as more complicated models like

11

DESIGN DISSEMINATION

EVALUATION IMPLEMENTATION

Saylor's four step planning model or Francis Hunkin's model (Ornstein & Hunkins 1992: 16) or

Carl's model (Carl, 1995: 48). Such models are valuable in that they attempt to show the

relationship of a curriculum to various decisions, activities and processes and phases that are

generic to this research. The various phases of curriculum development can be shown as folows:

Fig. 2.1. Phases of curriculum development ( adapted from Carl, 1995: 48)

The above diagram is valuable for this study in that curriculum development is viewed as a whole

process starting from design to evaluation than as comprised of separate units. It is also quite

clear that curriculum development is a cyclical process dominated by the interrelationship

between the components of the curriculum. The phases of curriculum development are a unit and

activities that might commence during each phase can continue during the other phase. College

students, like all other stakeholders have to participate in all these phases of curriculum

development as they are professionals in the making. Therefore it remains to be seen as to whether

students are ready to accept this challenge or not.

12

2.3 LEVELS OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

For Print (1993: 24) and Chitty (1993: 8), curriculum development is basically infusing theory and

practice. Curriculum development is a dynamic process with no beginning and no end. The reason

being that people working with the curriculum are faced with a living and changing educational

environment. The curriculum should therefore not remain the same but continuously be

reappraised by all stakeholders, including student-teachers (Walker & Soltis, 1995: 54; Boomer,

Lester, Onore & Cook, 1992: 5 ).

What then are the various levels of curriculum development? Firstly, curriculum development

occurs at the macro-level or national level where a national educational framework or standard

is set by politicians and professionals (McNeil, 1996: 112-113). Secondly, curriculum

development occurs at the meso-level where curriculum activities are undertaken by external

examiners, senior administrators, textbook publishers or professional organisations. Thirdly,

curriculum development occurs at micro-level which occurs at institutional level and includes

classroom activities (Carl, 1995: 82; Hammersky & Hargreaves, 1993; Spackman,1991: 73). The

various levels are briefly discussed in the following paragraphs.

A consideration of these levels of curriculum development is vital for this research in that it sheds

light on the nature and extent of student involvement in curriculum development at colleges of

education. Thus, the issue of concern is in which level of curriculum development would students

want to be involved?

Recent studies on curriculum development like that ofApple (1990: 148-149); Sowell (1996: 6)

and Chitty (1993: 95-97) have noted that curriculum decisions made at head offices (macro-level)

have been predominantly theoretical and speculative. Much deliberations appeared to be about

exploring connections between ideology and curriculum practice.

There is no attention given to students' classroom talk and their writing. Even where discussions

about student performance or activities are made at macro-level, such analysis has been far from

being vigorous as Hammersky and Hargreaves (1993: 7) claim. Marsh (1990: 126) in his studies

13

of large-scale curriculum projects developed centrally in countries such as United States of

America, the United Kingdom and Australia observed that a scant attention is also given to the

implementation of those programmes at the institutional level.

The main implication of this top-down curriculum development is that students have no role to

play during curriculum development at macro-level. Therefore this research attempts to discover

whether student-teachers at colleges of education want to be part of the stakeholders in

curriculum development for colleges of education in South Africa.

Curriculum development at the meso-level as done by the different subject committees and

examination boards is unsatisfactory. Hammerskey and Hargreaves (1993: 6) and Galton (1993:

85-86) observed that learners' understanding of activities and effects of examination bodies on

the school curriculum are very limited. Much work still needs to be done to expose the subject

committees' activities and the examination process that take place at the meso-level as they

impact on the classroom activities.

Curriculum development at the meso-level is therefore limited to the regional or district

educational authorities and experts. Students at colleges of education do not participate, especially

as college curricula appear to be within the competency of the national ministry of education.

Much is therefore left in the hands of the regional and district officials to determine the needs and

aspirations of the students and the society.

Curriculum development at micro-level occurs at the institutional and the classroom contexts.

Recent studies on curriculum development like that of Salmon and Woods (1991: 112) have

discovered that much is known about classroom relations in general, but very little is known

about the varying nature of curriculum practice at the micro-level or in the classroom in particular.

However most scholars seem to agree on that students involvement is likely to be greater and

intense at this level of curriculum development (Bacon,1995: 27).

It is in this context that the topic on student participation at colleges is undertaken to try to find

out the curriculum activities in which students are interested to partake at classroom level as well

14

as in institutional societal levels.

In the same line of thinking, Sowell (1992: 31) and Eggleston (1992: 81) feel that curriculum

development is more appropriate in a small scale, school-based context. Marsh (1992: 128-129)

defines school-based curriculum development as "the planning, design, implementation and

evaluation of a programme of students' learning by the education institution of which those

students are members" (Marsh, 1992: 128). Blake, et al.(1995: 120) perceive school-based

curriculum development as referring to all curriculum decisions made at educational institutions.

Thus, school-based curriculum development (SBCD) denotes all decisions taken by all

stakeholders, including students, within an individual school or by a group of schools within a

given area or context, the Northern Province, for example. The term school-based curriculum

development appears to limit curriculum development to school contexts. Therefore the term or

phrase institution-based curriculum development has been used instead to refer to all curriculum

activities that are locally developed be it in the school, college or any other educational institution

where the curriculum is developed with active participation by the learners or students. This point

of view excludes all other curriculum activities at whatever level they occur and by whosoever,

which are taken in the interest of a college or group of colleges of education.

The conception of institution-based curriculum development is significant to this research in that,

amongst other considerations, first, it emphasizes shared decision-making, planning, designing and

implementation of the curriculum between students and teachers. To realise this, this research

purports to discover whether student-teachers want to be involved in those curriculum activities.

Secondly, institution-based curriculum development implies some considerations of what actually

happens to the persons involved, like attitudinal changes. It would also imply that student

participation decreases as one moves from the micro-level moving up the macro-level. This

research is likely to discover a definite pattern of values, norms, procedures and roles of the

student-teachers during curriculum development at their respective colleges of education.

From the above exposition of the concept of curriculum development, it has become quite

observable that student participation is more likely to take place at the grassroots level where the

15

curriculum is consumed by the relevant stakeholders. However, the nature and extent of their

involvement depend on the various phases of development which are briefly discussed below.

2.4 PHASES 11 CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

As already mentioned in paragraph 2.2.2 above, curriculum development is understood in this

study as an umbrella and continuing process in which structure and systematic planning pervade

imminently from design to evaluation. Curriculum development comprises four phases, namely:

those of curriculum design, curriculum dissemination, curriculum implementation and curriculum

evaluation. These phases are significant for this research in that it purports to investigate about

whether students want to be involved in these various phases of curriculum development.

2.4.1 Curriculum design

Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 23) define curriculum design as the arrangement of the elements of

a curriculum into a substantiated entity. Thus, it involves the actual arrangement of the parts of

the curriculum plan. McNeil (1995: 183) used the term organisation for 'design' and describes

it as " the sequencing, ordering and integrating of learning opportunities so that learning outcomes

are achieved". The parts sometimes called components or elements or principles are usually

inclusive of (a) aims, goals and objectives, (b) subject matter (c) learning experiences and (d)

evaluation (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993: 232; Carl, 1995: 97).

In this dissertation, the researcher conceives of curriculum design as deliberating on the

components in the curriculum that are to receive particular attention. Thus, the whole process

whereby these components are being constructed is called curriculum design. In this study the

researcher will concentrate on the principles which are common in most models proposed for

curriculum development (Carl, 1995: 97; Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993: 233; Marsh,1992: 79). Such

components of curriculum design are:

16

Situation analysis

Setting aims and objectives

Selection of content

Selection and organisation of learning experiences and methods and

Evaluation (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993: 233; Marsh, 1992: 79).

The significance of these principles of curriculum design lies in that they constitute an attempt

to establish a logical process for building a curriculum. These principles of design also suggest

factors that will influence the curriculum and need to be taken into account. The principles also

show that curriculum development should be planned and introduced on rational and valid basis

according to a logical process (Leurs, 1991: 218).

The curriculum process commences with the diagnosis of problems. An analysis of all the factors

within a situation needs to be done. This viewpoint regard situational analysis as a major stage

during curriculum development (Tanner & Tanner, 1995: 592; Kruger & Miller, 1988: 30). The

insights and knowledge gained through this analysis are used to formulate a wide range of

objectives that should be clear and precise. The question during this step is: what do I want to

achieve? (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993: 33). This implies that the environment must be surveyed

in respect of the needs of learners and those of the community. The data gathered should then

serve as the base for identifying the aims, goals and objectives suitable for the interests of the

students and the whole community as such.

The next step comprises the content and its organisation, which embraces knowledge, skills,

attitude and values to be learnt. Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 233) feel that the determination of

content is followed by deciding instructional strategies, resources and activities.

The next step which follows, is learning experience, in which teachers appropriate the learning

content in terms of teaching methods and learning activities (Sekeleko,1997: 59). Emphasis is

laid on meaningful learning experiences/ activities through which the content can be presented.

It is in this context that Marsh (1992: 36) maintains that the students have the right to be provided

with an educational environment that is comfortable and conducive for learning. The students and

17

teachers have to collaborate to the effect of negotiating on the content.

The other step is evaluation which refers to the process of determining the extent to which the

aims and assumptions of the curriculum have actually been achieved. In particular, evaluation

reflects upon and provides value judgement concerning the quality and the effectiveness of the

didactic activities or a lesson/lecture (Vermeulen,1997: 17).

There are various forms of evaluation. Formative evaluation determines the effectiveness of the

didactic activity or lecture as they are developing it (formative evaluation or process evaluation).

The main aim is to diagnose shortcomings in the actualisation of the didactic activities with a

view of remediation, adjustment and improvement. Summative evaluation, or product evaluation

takes place at the end of the lecture or process of teaching and learning to detect whether the

desirable outcomes have been achieved ( Kruger & Muller, 1988: 144; Jackson, 1992: 110; Pratt,

1994: 108).

Vermeulen (1997: 17-18) indicates that as a component of curriculum design, evaluation

performs various functions. It supplies feedback on individual learner's learning and learning

gains. It diagnoses the nature and extent of possible teaching and learning problems. It also

indicates weaknesses and strengths in the didactic abilities of both learner and teacher.

These functions are vital for this study in that they show that evaluation can also be performed

by students and lecturers together. Students are to participate actively during the evaluation

process. The principles of design described above are perceived in various ways. The different

principles of design are sometimes viewed as a linear process (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993: 267-

268 cited Tyler's model and Taba's model as well as Saylor and Alexander Model: Planning

Process).

The linear model of curriculum design is inapplicable for the study in that it shows the curriculum

design process as linear with a definite starting point and a definite end point. The implication of

this view is that curriculum design has to follow a specific pathway from making decisions on the

objectives, to be followed by decisions on content, experiences and evaluation in that particular

18

SELECTION OF METHOD

LECTION OF LEARNING OPPORTUNITY

order. Hence there is no relationship amongst the various principles except that one is the pre-

conditions for the other. At times they depict the principles of curriculum design as cyclical

(Marsh, 1992: 108; Carl, 1992: 48) as depicted in the following diagram:

' Fig. 2.3.1. Principles of Curriculum design ( adapted from Carl, 1995: 85-127)

19

For this work, the cyclical model is chosen as it depicts the interactive dimension and progression

of the various phases of curriculum development. This suggests that students participation during

curriculum design cannot be reduced to a particular principle but is holistic in nature. Hence

curriculum development is depicted as a continuos process starting from situational analysis to

evaluation.

However, these principles of the curriculum design appear to be an over-implication of the

process as one cannot strictly move from one step to another as suggested by Wheeler (1983:

31). These principles are rather independent but interrelated and interactive. Each principle is a

logical development from a preceding one and each principle eventually affect the other one.

Curriculum design is therefore a dynamic process and the principles need to be changed, redefined

or altered as the new situation arises (Print, 1993: 94-95) and in terms of student needs and

aspirations as rational consumers of the curriculum (Reid, 1992: 107).

Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 233) argue that not all curriculum designs need to encompass all

the principles ( Kruger and Muller, 1988: 27, McNeil, 1995: 183). They continued to argue that

curriculum design has to provide a consistent framework of values and priorities for dealing with

operational decisions necessary for delivering the curriculum.

From the above discussion five principles are common in most curriculum design models and are

used to develop a framework for student involvement during curriculum development at colleges

of education in the northen Province. The principles of design are valuable for this research in

that:

1. During situational analysis, the designer has to establish the needs of the students. It appears

from the discussion above that students are not active participants. Students' needs are identified

through observation by the educators both inside or outside the learning environment. Students

are therefore passive determinants of their needs and interest during curriculum design. It is in this

context that Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 269) argue that students need to take inputs into the

curriculum as for their demographic, cultural, psychological or developmental needs.

20

The formulation of aims and objectives is taken in terms of the students' needs identified to

ensure that what they require is met. As in the case with needs analysis, students inputs during the

formulation of aims and objectives appears to be absent. Lecturers design their lectures in terms

of the demands of the department or the college syllabi. Thus, despite the need for students to

participate directly during decision-making about aims and objectives (Leurs, 1997: 220), students

are not involved during curriculum design.

The selection and organisation of the content are influenced by the maturity of the learners,

their academic achievements and their interests. Similarly student are not involved in deciding

about the content. This challenges the students at colleges to partake in decision-making

processes through what Haselgrove (1994: 36) calls ' curriculum negotiation'.

In organising learning experiences or choosing the methods, the particular interests of the

students need to be considered (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993: 269). The question arises about how

does the curriculum caters for such needs without the students voices being heard or without the

students influencing decisions on the choice of teaching or learning strategies ? It has also

become observable that students are not involved and even not consulted when deciding about

this principle of design. It became necessary for the present researcher to try to find out whether

students want to be involved.

Lastly evaluation procedures need to be decided by the students and teachers. However this

seems not to be the case in South African colleges of education. Evaluation is still examination

focussed and emphasis is on rote learning than on the learners themselves. There is a need for

students to participate in decision-making about the evaluation process. This brings us to a

discussion about the second phase of curriculum development, which is curriculum dissemination.

2A.2 Curricullum dissemination

Marsh (1992: 180) define dissemination as a process through which curriculum programmes,

ideas and practices are transmitted from where they have been generated to places where they are

to be used. Such a process is planned as contrasted with diffusion which is the unplanned

21

transmission of curriculum programmes from the centre of production to the

places of implementation.

Carl (1995: 49) conceives curriculum dissemination as that phase in curriculum development

during which the curriculum consumers are prepared for the intended implementation and

information is disseminated. This is done through the distribution or publication of information,

ideas and actions, in-service training, seminars, and many other ways to prepare all those involved

and to inform them of the proposed curriculum.

In this research, dissemination will mean communicating and transmitting curriculum packages

and practices from the national and provincial level or from educational authorities to the college

or from the college to the classroom.

According to the Human Science Research Council Report of the Working Committee for

Curriculum Development (1981: 112), it seems as if curriculum dissemination is a key activity

during curriculum development. As a key activity it is a vital strategy for implementation renewal.

Effective dissemination is vital for effective implementation of a curriculum and the

institutionalisation of it into the curriculum practice.

Carl (1995: 146-147) indicates that curriculum dissemination may take various forms like power

strategy and /or influencing strategy. A power strategy often comes from the macro-level. Schools

and teachers have little or no control over decision-making process. As a result of his/her

involvement, the teacher may be characterised by passivity. The researcher disregard this strategy

in this study because the curriculum is disseminated from the national education office to the

college as a finished product. Undoubtedly students are not assuming any role during the

distribution of curriculum package and materials from the centre to the point where they are

consumed or received by the consumers.

An influencing strategy seeks to make the curriculum more acceptable to all those involved, on

one hand with the help of subtle persuasion, on the other by manipulation. Involvement in this

context often comprises leadership, decision-making and active participation in the process. An

22

influencing strategy of curriculum dissemination befits the present study in that it allows for active

participants by all stakeholders , including students. Hence it suitable for operationalisation at the

micro-level or within the college or classroom contexts. The dissemination of materials, ideas and

information must make informed decision-making in educational institutions possible (Carl, 1995:

146).

Bayona (1995: 60-61) maintains that the procedures for dissemination are also vital for later

successful implementation. He went further to categorise dissemination procedures into traditional

and modern procedures. Traditional dissemination procedures comprise: the distribution of syllabi,

drawing up and publishing manuals, holding courses, producing, textbooks, presenting papers

and inspection. These procedures usually take place at the macro-level and are not relevant for

this study as students cannot be involved during these procedure.

A more modem procedure for dissemination is found in the role which teachers play in

dissemination as active participants through discussions, joint participation in projects, dealing

with media and working groups. This procedure is suitable for this study in that it emphasises

active participation by the relevant stakeholders and it occurs at the micro-level where students

are likely to be accommodated during curriculum development.

A critical factor in successful curriculum development and change is the level of preparedness for

such a change by those involved. The disseminated information may be received in various

divergent manners and the designers should consider this in planning their dissemination

strategies. There are various causes and factors that often lead to resistance to curriculum

implementation that needs to be taken into account during the dissemination phase. The following

are few of them, namely, is fear of unknown and new, lack of knowledge, insufficient support by

education leaders, indistinct and faulty dissemination and ambiguity (Bird, 1996: 57).

Thus, curriculum dissemination has to ensure that the needs of stakeholders, student-teachers

included, are articulated and they should be opportunities for participation by interested parties

that may lead to a positive acceptance and support for the envisaged curriculum.

23

Thus student-teachers at colleges of education can provide information on individual and group

basis even through informal conversations and the use of surveys (Marsh, 1992: 52; Carl, 1995:

140). It is in this context that Bayona (1995: 61) concluded that effective dissemination cannot

be a one-way system where the outside authorities prescribe and impose a complete curriculum.

It must be an interactive process in which outside organisations, outside persons as well as the

eventual consumers are involved and work together as a team.

Carl (1995:158) believes changes in the curriculum in South African education institutions occur

without effective dissemination to schools and to all interested parties. He continued to argue that

all stakeholders must be involved and efficiently prepared. Thus, student-teachers like others

stakeholders must be involved in curriculum dissemination through active participation in

discussions, joint participation projects, and active working groups, for instance (Bird, 1996:58,

1995:7; Carl, 1995: 149).

Once, the curriculum has been designed and disseminated, it becomes a reality when teachers

implement it with real students in the real classroom environment.

2.4.3 Curriculum implementation

The term implementation refers to the actual use of a curriculum, that is what it consists of in real

practice (Marsh, 1992: 180). Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 297) are of the same idea, and defines

it as the logical step that attempts to change individuals' knowledge, actions and attitude once the

program has been developed and piloted.

In this dissertation, curriculum implementation refers to a dynamic process of putting plans into

practice with the involvement of all stakeholders concerned and whether they are also prepared

to associate themselves with it, which is the focus of this study. The researcher has focussed this

study on how the curriculum is enacted and experienced by students rather than on how a

curriculum is merely implemented.

Carl (1995:169) argue that there are different levels at which curriculum implementation occurs:

24

the macro-implementation level and the micro-implementation level. Macro-implementation is the

application of policy and curriculum initiatives at national level by curriculum authorities. It

therefore comprises a broad curriculum designed at national level and distributed and applied all

over the country. Students are therefore not playing any role at this level of curriculum

implementation. It needs to be seen whether students are conscious of their role at this level of

implementation.

This level of curriculum implementation cannot be discussed any further as it appears to be

authoritative, prescriptive and is limited to curriculum experts and the national ministry of

education.

Carl (1995: 169) cited Jordaan (1989: 393) defines micro-implementation as the process during

which local decisions are taken. He continued to show that it leads to application in practice and

the eventual institutionalization of it. Teacher participation and initiative are high at this level. The

micro-level is therefore that level at which the so-called curriculum consumer applies the

curriculum. Micro-implementation gives educators opportunities for exercising their creative flair

and implement individual versions of a curriculum, what Marsh (1992: 181) refers to as adaptation

or process orientation.

In terms of student involvement, the role of students is virtually absent as the implementation of

the college curriculum is based on the demands of the syllabi (Mukhavhuli, 1989: 129). Therefore

students cannot interpret and utilise the college curricula to suite their own needs and aspirations.

The implication for micro-implementation is that the college curricula are just for adoption.

Adoption of a curriculum refers to someone's intention to use the curriculum whether the

curriculum has been implemented or not (Marsh, 1992: 181). The college curriculum is just

accepted by both the lecturers and students in the manner and prescribed form of the national

ministry of education. Thus, the role of students during curriculum implementation at colleges

is limited to that of adoption; which is characterised by passivity and irrelevancy.

The significance of the micro-level for this research is that it represents an area where the

25

curriculum is implemented, namely, the classroom, where students like teachers are the main

urgent of curriculum implementation. It is in view of this state of affair that the research is done

to find out whether students want to be participants during curriculum implementation at colleges

of education in the Northern Province.

Troyna (1993: 1991) argues that people are afraid of change. Curriculum implementation can be

limited by the daily routine problems on the teacher. Some teachers feel that they are

professionally on their own and therefore cannot interact with other stakeholders. To address

such problems, curriculum implementation has to be incremental and in small gradual steps

(Ornstein & Hunkins,1993: 1993). Curriculums implemented in gradual steps are likely to

accommodate students' involvement. Both students and teachers will learn to work together

experientially. This will encourage openness, trust and give feedback so that participants realise

that their contributions are appreciated and their talents are considered worthwhile (Beane, 1990:

17; Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993: 300).

Marsh (1992: 183) emphasises the need for time to experiment and for attitude to change. Thus,

during the initial stages of involving students in curriculum implementation, students should be

offered enough time, especially for pilot-testing and contacts (Walker & Soltis, 1992: 72 ). Carl

(1995: 170) refers to the initial stage as phase one of the implementation strategy which include

the creation of a satisfactorily orientating environment (introduction of change and preparation

of consumers), and is actually a part of dissemination, but will be continued on an ongoing basis

during implementation.

Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 300-301) argue that communication among all stakeholders is a key

factor to successful curriculum implementation. They define communication as the transmission

of facts, ideas, values, feelings and attitudes from one individual or group to another.

Communication is therefore a two-way process. Its significance lies in that it ensures that the

message sent is accurate or of high quality. To ensure that communication system is

comprehensive and avenues are in place, curriculum developers should understand both informal

and formal channels. Thus, the involvement or contributions of students during curriculum

implementation can be both formal and informal. Doll (1992: 269) maintains communication can

26

either be vertical as from the teacher to the students or lateral as well as amongst students

themselves. Communication can take various forms like memos, articles, books, bulletins,

speeches and research reports as well as face to face contacts (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993: 300-

302).

Another factor which determines effective curriculum implementation is that of a support system.

A good support system is likely to ensure effective and successful implementation. All

stakeholders must have open discussions amongst themselves. Financial support, sound human

relations, recognising the role of individuals, incentives and rewards, leadership, a collaboration

framework and sharing the burden are some support services that can facilitate the gradual

involvement of both students and teachers in implementing the curriculum (Marsh, 1992: 83).

The need for a support system to facilitates student participation during curriculum development

is therefore urgent and crucial for successful implementation.

These factors discussed in the last two paragraphs constitute what Carl (1995: 170) calls phase

two of the implementation strategy. This phase includes sufficient support networks (instruction,

communication, contact oppoturnities, ongoing discussion, meeting) and also contains elements

which should actually have taken place during dissemination.

2.4.4 Curriculum evaluation

Curriculum evaluation can be defined as a cluster of processes that people do to gather data that

will enable them to decide whether to accept, change or eliminate a curriculum or some aspect

of it (Ornstein & Hunkins,1993: 32). Similarly, Marsh (1992: 186) defines it as 'a process of

ensuring maximum congruency between the written, taught and the tested curricula'

Duminy, et al. (1992: 4) and Costa and Liebmann (1997: 46) define evaluation as the analysis

and interpretation of information to find out whether the objectives have been met. However this

conception of the evaluation is too narrow for this work because it focuses on the critical

assessment of the components of the curriculum as they relate to students.

27

To clarify the use of this term in this work, evaluation is used in this research to mean qualitative

judgement about the curriculum to determine its effectiveness and success. Curriculum evaluation

therefore embraces investigations into and decisions regarding the efficient functioning of all the

components of the curriculum individually, as well as the combined impact of all the components

on the didactic activities. Thus an empirical basis for decisions regarding changing, adjustment or

replacing the curriculum is established. Because this type of evaluation is carried out on a

continuous basis, we speak of process evaluation.

Although this study does not over emphasise the importance of evaluation, there is a demand that

the results of curriculum activities be identified and made public to all stakeholders. Students as

consumers of the curriculum want evidence as to the effectiveness of the programs. Moreover,

the demand for knowing what is happening at every level of the education system: classroom

level, institutional level and other educational level are very high. In addition there is also a need

for comparison with other schools or regions.

In these demands for making colleges accountable, a great need exists for students to be involved

in the evaluation process. Students have to negotiate with the lecturers about the types of

assessment that might be used, like, self-assessment procedures (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1993: 324;

Marsh,1992: 34) which lay emphasis on individual performance or the quality of the programme

(Eisner, 1994: 202).

Curriculum evaluation can take various forms. It can take place when curriculum development

is in progress to improve or modify before full implementation. They call this approach formative

evaluation (Pratt, 1993: 108; O'Hear & White, 1993: 53). It can also occur after the curriculum

has been implemented at the educational institution to find out how well it has worked. This form

of evaluation is called summative evaluation. Formative evaluation on the other hand usually rely

on informal methods and focuses on processes. Summative evaluation, on the other hand, is the

process by which we gather information through formal means like tests for students and surveys

(Henderson & Hawthorne,1995: 72-73).

However Pratt (1993: 109) argues that evaluation decisions relate to the entire curriculum and

28

all the people responsible for it, including the students have to be involved in assessing the

curriculum. They continued to argue that students can work with teachers in classrooms and in

curriculum committees to decide the worth and effectiveness of the curriculum components.

However Carl (1995: 49) argues that curriculum evaluation also points out to the effects that the

curriculum has on the learners. Thus, students should also play increasing roles in determining

what procedures of evaluation will be applied to judge their learning.

Kimbell (1994: 65-83) pointed out that evaluation should be holistic and that progression in

learning should be ensured. Students should also be given opportunities for commenting on how

well they liked and how much they learned from particular curriculum units. Students should also

participate in evaluating their peers' learning and teachers. These evaluations are sometimes

considered for merit and tenure.

Although scholars in curriculum studies make a distinction between summative and formative

evaluation, the essence of the matter is that all possible persons, including students are to be

involved. It may however be stated that curriculum developers must have knowledge of and be

competent in the various methods of evaluation and forms of evaluation as then can they make

a meaningful contribution to an accountable practice.

It is in view of such a perspective that Carl (1995: 210) argues that South Africa is faced with

great educational challenges that it is more necessary to establish a supple, accountable, workable

and feasible practice of evaluation. He continues to argue that if the evaluation processes are rigid

and defective curriculum evaluation and curriculum development will be unsatisfactory. It then

becomes questionable whether students have the necessary skills and knowledge to partake in

curriculum evaluation? Or put differently, how can we ensure that students participate

meaningfully during curriculum evaluation?

It is evident from the preceding paragraphs that curriculum development is dynamic and complex

process that will require active participation of students to ensure that their needs and interests

are met. It also needs to be indicated that like the principles of design, the various phases of

curriculum development are interrelated and each phase logically develops from the preceeding

29

one and also affect the other one. Curriculum development must include all phases. This premise

is used in this study as the starting point for studying student involvement in all phases of

curriculum development at colleges of education in the Northern Province.

2.5 REASONS FOR STUDENT INVOLVEMENT

Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 287), Doll (1992: 389), Davidoff (1993: 63) and Connelly and

Clandinin (1998: 124) think that a curriculum involves most people, both school-based and

community-based. They continued to list categories of stakeholders both within and outside the

school.

Participants within the school include teachers, principals, and students, among others (Ornstein

& Hunkins,1993: 287-289; Do11,1992: 388; Connelly & Clandinin, 1988: 125-132). Participants

outside the school range from curriculum specialists, lay citizens, boards of education, state

agencies to other groups like universities.

However, the present researcher has focussed on the role of student in developing the curriculum

at colleges of education. Doll (1992: 395) believes that the actual involvement of students in

curriculum development is minimal. Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 289) and Connelly and

Clandinin (1988: 126) are emphatic on that the students have a major stake in curriculum

development.

It is in view of the above that the present research is undertaken to investigate whether students-

teachers at colleges of education want to be involved in curriculum development. The key issues

concerning the role of the students include the following. What responsibilities should they take

during curriculum development? What special backgrounds, skills and abilities do they need?

How may the talents of the students be used in coordinated ways? However, Bridges and Kerry

(1993: 6) warn that in thinking about such issues related to the student participation, their age

should also be considered. What then are some possible reasons for student participation during

curriculum improvement. In this work the rationale for student participation are discussed in the

following paragraphs in relation to the phases of curriculum development.

30

Marsh ( 1992: 32), Connelly and Clandinin (1988: 126) and Doll (1992: 391) are of the opinion

that given opportunity for involvement, students can be active initiators and reactors than passive

recipients. In this context students can assume the role of being curriculum designers. Like all

other stakeholders students can take part in decision-making about the various principles of design

from situational analysis to evaluation.

In addition, they perceive students as clients in the educational situation. Such an assertion is

normally accepted by many without even asking the qualifications of students to be involved in

curriculum decision-making process (Hawthorne, 1992: 118-119). Their thinking, feelings and

expectations cannot be ignored in any curriculum activities. Students as part of the client system

take role of being curriculum consumers. Their role as consumers of the curriculum implies that

they can determine their needs and interests as it is being designed. Students as consumers

determine the quality of curriculum design.

Recent researches, like that of Salmon (1991: 73) indicate that student-teachers are involved with

day-to-day activities like sports, leisure groups, religious activities and have developed leadership

and communication skills. This illustrates that students have the capacity and the potential that

we can explore during curriculum development, especially during the implementation phase.

Moreover, as for constitutional provisions, the students have legal rights that cover some aspects

of schooling, curriculum activities are no exception. The constitution of the Republic of South

Africa guarantees human and other democratic rights which allow students to partake in college

activities when decisions are taken.

Other studies in curriculum issues, like Beane (1990: 167) and Spackman (1991: 55) show that

student participation in curriculum issues is likely to ensure sound relationships between teachers

and students, students and administrators and other stakeholders in the institution. The existence

of and the promotion of co-operation amongst students and lecturers as well as with other

stakeholders is a prerequisite for effective curriculum implementation both at the meso-level and

micro-level or classroom.

31

Despite these reasons for student participation, some reservations against such participation exist.

Experts in curriculum studies like Ornstein and Hunkins (1992: 317) and Marsh (1992: 32) are

of the conviction that curriculum decisions should be the responsibility of professionals like

teachers. Thus students are perceived as having no theoretical knowledge, skills and experience

necessary for a curriculum decision-making process. Others feel that public examinations may

be a limiting factor. In these contexts, students cannot take part during the various phases of

curriculum development as they are not yet professionals. Ingram and Worral (1993: 56-57) have

a contrary perception on student involvement and comment that `...once the child has displayed

an initial sign of interests in an activity, then give the child or the group room to develop the idea,

the activity often becomes more than was expected' .

To the present researcher, the varying views for and against student participation do not negate

the importance of such participation. Rather, such divergent views beg one crucial question with

regard to the various levels of curriculum development: Whether it has to be centralised with the

curriculum to be disseminated as a finished product or whether it has been decentralised (locally

developed) with active participation by all. Recent research work and recommendations

expounded in the reports of the Department of Education (1995: 91), the COTEP Document

(1997: 4) as well as the provincial Gazettes, Northern Province (199: 15-16) do not reflect

workable guidelines for student participation in a coordinated effort to curriculate purposefully

at colleges of education.

Marsh (1992: 34-25) and Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 288-289) have paid a very scant attention

to the role of students at both the classroom level and the whole school level. It is therefore the

intention of the present researcher to try to investigate the nature and extent of student

involvement in curriculum development at colleges of education in the Northern Province. Such

an investigation would assist in the formulation of some possible guidelines for such a

participation at the classroom and at institutional level as discussed in the following headings.

32

2.6 STUDENTS PARTICIPATION AT MICRO-LEVEL

Once curriculum decisions are made during the design phase and distributed during the

dissemination phase to colleges, the curriculum is ready for implementation at the classroom level.

Studies on student participation, like Doll (1992: 396) and Marsh (1992: 35) conclude that

student participation is minimal. Student participation is usually in the form of consultation, either

formally or informally. In this form of participation, students do not participate actively as

teachers employ various ways to identify needs and interests of their students.

Consultation can assume various forms; including oral questioning, filling in questionnaires,

group discussions, curriculum plans or interviews (Altrichter, Posch & Sommekh,1993: 101;

Eggleston, 1992: 84-87). Doll (1992: 396) shows that through observation of students' individual

behaviour outside the classroom and elsewhere, valuable data can be gathered for curriculum

development. The significance of such findings lies in that students tend to speak less in the

classrooms and elsewhere in the school premises. Teachers, on the other hand tend to speak

almost incessantly in the classroom.

However, consultation has its own problems. Students can become mere receivers or respondents

to questions posed by the teacher. This makes students to be passive participants. In addition, the

teacher's judgement can be based on the group of students in a different learning environment

(Glatthorn, 1994: 82). Therefore observation as a strategy for involvement is not valuable for this

in that students are passive rather than being active participants during the curriculum design

phase.

Other indications are that students can take active roles in curriculum implementation or in

certain activities of curriculum implementation. They can afford students active participation in

selected activities within their interests, experience and knowledge as well as within their ability.

The more developed or matured, the more they are likely to participate in sophisticated

curriculum activities.

33

It is for this consideration that this research focuses on the participation of student-teachers at

colleges of education. Their maturity stage and level of education are likely to ensure valuable and

efficient contributions to curriculum development (Beane,1990: 163; Wittrock,1990: 5; Ornstein

& Hunkins,1993: 16).

Observations from curriculum studies like Ingram and Worral (1993: 44) and Beane ( 1990: 148)

show that students can participate at classroom level by sharing during curriculum decision-

making. A process sometimes referred to as "negotiating", which implies that teachers and

students decide together or in partnerships to develop a learning contract which is mutually

agreeable (Collins, 199.1: 8).

Marsh (1992: 35) cited Griffis (1996) and Henderson and Hawthorne (1995: 118) discussed

several ideas on how students might become active participants in classroom decision-making and

curriculum implementation. Such suggestions are inclusive of negotiation between teachers and

students on the methods of teaching, organisational procedures, division of work and the type of

assessment activities for example. Such ideas are likely to serve as the guidelines for student

participation which is the focus of this research study.

It becomes more apparent from several publications on students' participation, Ingram and

Worrall (1993: 64) that they give scant attention to the role that students can play in the

formulation of learning objectives. Much emphasis is put on the role of students in selecting

methods and procedures as well as activities (Ornstein & Hunkins,1993: 317; Beane, 1990: 149).

Thus it can be deduced from this discussion that student participate during the curriculum design

phase seems to be absent. This leads us to next level of curriculum development which is the

meso-level.

2.7 STUDENT PARTICIPATION AT IVIESO-LEVEL

Most recent researcher studies like Marsh (1992:35) cited Marsh and Overall (1989), Novak

(1994: 243-245) indicate that the participation of students at institutional level is valuable in that

students can make consistent judgement. Students can also make reliable descriptions of

34

classroom deliberations. In addition, students can judge teachers accurately and objectively.

Student participation can occur during curriculum evaluation phase. Students must evaluate the

whole college curriculum with other stakeholders so that effectiveness of the curriculum can be

determined in terms of their needs and interests.

The Committee of Colleges of Education Rectors of South Africa, Northern Province (hereafter

referred to as (CCERSA) (1994: 1-2) in its proposal to the Minister of Education in the Northern

Transvaal Province, envisaged the establishment of college councils, in which students would be

represented by two members and the college senate, also two members. The role of these two

structures is advisory and therefore the students who are members are not involved in the day-to-

day activities of the college. It therefore becomes necessary for this research to establish the

nature and extent of the student-teachers at a college level.

Despite several committees that are prevalent in many colleges of education, all student activities

operate under the student representative council (SRC) in which all students in a particular

college campus are alleged to be presented.

In South Africa, student representative councils were established in many colleges after the 1976

student uprising. As early as 1989, the contentious nature of student representation becomes

apparent. There is a chasm between the often-voiced demands for democratically elected SRC's

and a deeper understanding of the reality of what such SRC's should be, particularly in the

context of a college (Salmon, 1991: 72). This research is therefore interested in finding out

whether the students want to be involved through SRC's in curriculum development as most of

them appear to be interested in sporting, cultural and religious activities, for example.

Studies on student participation like Hawthorne (1992: 51) and Van Zyl (1991: 113) indicate that

college curriculum offers little room to manoeuvre, especially by the students themselves. In

many ways, the ethos of a college often ensure that students have much more in common with

high school students than with fellow tertiary students. For instance, they still follow some very

highly compartmentalised timetables, they wear some kind of uniform and are expected to adhere

to rules and regulations which limits their movements beyond the college ground (Cullingford;

35

1990: 159).

Cronin (1994: 15) for instance, has observed that the student representative council (SRC) in

South African colleges of education are concerned with minor peripheral and social issues. There

is no evidence of formal student involvement in curriculum dissemination at the college level.

However, Marsh (1992: 35) noted that the SRC's at colleges have taken part in student

newspapers, lunchtime meetings and weekend meetings, but students' access to confidential

documents of the college, discipline involving teachers and other sensitive matters like curriculum

development remain contestable and need to be resolved.

As for the research problems, the literature review is valuable in that:

* it has shown that there is a need for student involvement. Thus the literature review indicates

that there is a general consensus among experts and scholars that students must be involved due

to a number of considerations as discussed in paragraph 2.4 above. Despite that, there is very little

written about student participation during curriculum development, students in South African

colleges of education are not involved in curriculum development. Students are usually involved

in social, cultural and political activities. Therefore there is an urgent need to investigate whether

they want to be involved in curriculum development and why as it will be discussed in the

following chapter.

* it has revealed that the nature and extent of students' involvement depends on the level on

which a particular element of curriculum is being dealt with. Literature review shows that student

involvement is more likely to be intense at the institutional and classroom levels than at the

macro-level and the meso-level. This can be in the form of committees, SRC, negotiations and

discussions. However, in South Africa it seems that there are no procedures and opportunities that

are carefully developed to involve students in curriculum development. So, there is also a lack

of a deliberateness of efforts to involve students in curriculum development at colleges of

education in the Northern Province.

36

2.8 SUMMARY

The literature review is valuable for this study in that it has indicated that there is a consensus that

students like all other role-players in curriculum development need to be involved. However the

nature, level and extent of that involvement resides in the level of development of the students,

whether students are in the first, second or third-year of teacher training. What is more important

is that student involvement is also dependent on the skills and knowledge that they possess.

In order to investigate how the student-teachers perceive their roles in curriculum development,

a suitable instrument for this research will be chosen and discussed in the next chapter. Data will

also be analysed in the next chapter.

37

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH MEIHODOLOGY AND DATA ANALYSIS

3.11 AIM OF THIS CHAPTER

The aim of this chapter is to undertake a review of relevant literature on research in order to

select a suitable research paradigm, research method and a protocol for data analysis. Then the

researcher will analyse the data to find out how students perceive their roles in curriculum

development at colleges of education.

3.2 RESEARCH PARADIGMS

Tesch (1990: 55) and Keeves (1988: 18) indicate that we can classify research strategies into two

main categories. Mouton and Marais (1990: 19) called these categories research paradigms

meaning the way shifts in basic scientific thinking occurs in research methodology. The two

research paradigms identifiable in social sciences are a qualitative research paradigm and

quantitative research paradigm. A qualitative research paradigm includes those research strategies

that do not base any information on numbers.

Qualitative research on the other hand relies on numbers as the basic source of its data. Through

qualitative research, findings for this study will not be analysed on the bases of statistical

computation but will be a qualitative one. Thus, the quantitative research relies on statistical

results represented with numbers while qualitative research method relies heavily on narrative

descriptions as it is utilised in this research for understanding the social phenomena, namely, the

involvement of students in curriculum development (Strauss & Corbin, 1996: 17-18 ).

38

Qualitative research methods will affords the present researcher with opportunities for being

flexible and more spontaneous in exploring how student-teachers perceive their roles in

curriculum development. Such data is socially significant and therefore is more qualitative in

nature than the statistically significant findings more peculiar to quantitative research paradigms

(Rudestam & Newton,1995: 31).

Strauss and Corbin (1996: 180 argue that "...qualitative research is based on the notion of

context sensitivity..." which for this research are the colleges of education characterised by the

physical and social environment that has a bearing on whether students want to be involved in

curriculum development or not. Qualitative researchers emphasise a holistic interpretation

whereby facts and values are perceived to be inextricably mixed. The research is a qualitative in

that it will consider what the students perceive to be their role during curriculum development.

The research focuses on what is socially significant than the numerical value of responses. In this

work, facts will be generalised or interpreted holistically than as separate variables or entities.

In addition, the study is qualitative in that responses will be reduced into categories. The principle

here is to present an accurate description of what has been said. This does not necessarily mean

that all data that have been given during interviews will be reported.

The study is also of qualitative paradigm in that the researcher will also intersperse his

interpretative comments in and around the descriptive passages or quotations from interview

responses. The researcher will weave the descriptions about curriculum development as described

in chapter two with student responses into a description about student involvement in curriculum

development at colleges of education in the Northern Province.

Lastly, this study is qualitative research because it attempts to uncover the nature of students'

experience with curriculum development at colleges of which very little is yet known. As Gerber,

Williams and Billmann (1995: 283) noted "... qualitative method uncovers intricate details about

a phenomenon to be studied ..."

In view of the above considerations, this research relies much on qualitative research

39

methodologies than quantitative ones which leads us to look at how the problems of reliability

and validity will be addressed in this study.

3.3 MELIA ,ITY AND VALIDITY OF THE STUDY

The issues of reliability and validity are inherent methodological problems in qualitative research

for as Rudestam and Newton (1992) put it, " one cannot separate the investigator from the object

of inquiry " (1992: 31). Therefore this study does not lean on the notion of objectivity in studying

a human phenomenon as often happens in experimental and quasi-experimental studies of

quantitative design (Kicheloe, 1991: 142).

Reliability refers to the repetition of same study under similar situations so that they can reach

similar conclusions (Rudestam & Newton, 1992: 38). In this research, the problem of reliability,

is likely to be addressed by taking the transcription from the tape to the members of the group of

students interviewed. The researcher will request members of the group interviewed to read the

transcripts carefully and to sign it if it is correct. The researcher will request the interviewees to

correct the script or edit as needed.

In addition, the researcher will also give the transcripts and the protocol to the external decoder

whose observations and/or categorisation of the data will be collaborated with those of the

researcher. This is likely to increases the reliability of the observations from the interviews

consulted. Reliability therefore, means consistency of the observations (Stanfeld, 1993: 71 ;

Kicheloe, 1991: 127).

The issue of validity as defined by Stanfeld (1993:69) "...addresses itself to the truth of an

assertion that they make about something in the empirical world"(Stanfeld 1993: 69). It was felt

that to obtain a degree of greater truthfulness, the respondents remain anonymous. Mouton and

Marais (1991: 86-88) argued that in other instances validity demands knowing how the

respondents interpret questions. In this research, pilot interviews will be conducted, with the

resultant reformulation of an interview schedule as discussed paragraph 3.3.3 below.

40

The reformulation of the interview questions increased the validity of the group interviews as the

instrument for data collection. Terms and concepts like "development" which was beyond the

comprehension of the students were replaced. In its place, the researcher utilised the term

`improvement'. The simplification of the terminology which they conceive as difficult for students

increased the validity of the group interviews as the research tool.

Gay (1992: 155-160) and also Marshall and Rossman (1994: 144) feel we can divide validity into

two types: external validity and internal validity. External validity relates to the extent of the

applicability of research findings to other contexts. That is, to what extent do students' perception

in the four colleges of education reflect the'perception of other students in the Northern Province

in particular and in South Africa in general? This problem is likely to be addressed in this study

by verifying the research through recent research findings.

All the participants are in their final year doing either Primary Teachers Diploma or Secondary

Diploma at colleges of education. This will give room for the generalisation of the research data

to other colleges especially in the broad area of divergent group interests found in the Northern

Province and South Africa as a whole.

The other problem is that of internal validity which refers to the consistency of the effect of the

interview questions. This means that the interview questions must be able to measure what they

are intended to measure. Interview questions must be able to achieve the purposes they are meant

for. The issue of internal validity is vital for this research because without it, generalisation to the

entire student population at colleges would be impossible. To ensure internal validity, the

researcher asked similar questions during the various interviews. Where the situation demanded,

the researcher repeated the research questions in similar format, and made follow-ups on certain

ideas to ensure content validation (Marshall & Rossman,1994: 145).

In addition, internal validity is also ensured by narrowing down the problem for this study into

a workable size as it is impossible to cover all aspects of a problem under scrutiny. In this work,

the problem has been reduced into two research sub-problems as discussed paragraph 1.2.

41

The present researcher has also used a methodological criterion for data interpretation commonly

referred to as empirical validity (Mouton & Marais 1991:115) by which the researcher reaches

conclusions logically based on collected data and literature check as reported in chapter four of

this research. Conclusions and findings will be reached through inference and deductive methods.

3.4 RESEARCH METHODS

Strauss and Corbin (1996: 18) maintain that qualitative research demands certain requisite skills

which are " to step back and critically analyse situations, to recognise and avoid bias, to obtain

valid and reliable data, and think abstractly...".

The choice on qualitative research for this study was due to a reflection on the nature of the

problem, which is the role of student-teachers in curriculum development. This research attempts

to uncover the nature of students' experience with the curriculum, of which little is yet known

as revealed in literature review in chapter two. Qualitative methods were therefore a better choice

than quantitative methods as they can give intricate details of the phenomenon under study as

already discussed in paragraph 3.2 above.

However Burgess (1993: 77-78) shows that various researchers use various research strategies

of qualitative methods for data gathering and analysis. In trying to overcome problems associated

with quantitative research, the researcher reflected on focus group interviews among others, as

qualitative research strategies for this research.

3.4.1 Population of the study

Brause and Mayher (1991: 97) states that the population for a study refers to all existing members

of a stated class. The target group or the population is all teacher-trainees in all colleges of

education in the Northern Province. The population comprises students who are doing a three-

year teaching diploma. Such students might have chosen to teach either at primary schools or at

secondary schools.

42

The population is consisted of all students who are found in the twenty-two colleges of education

in the Northern Province, including students in rationalised colleges. The population excludes

those teacher-trainees at universities and those in private teacher training institutions and through

distance education.

Although a need exists for research to be conducted in all South Africa's provinces, time and

financial constraints limited this study to the Northern Province. Hence the use of group

interviews as the research instruments for the study.

3.4.2 Focus group interviews

Scholars in research studies describe an interview as the face to face conversation of an

investigator with the subject (Marshall & Rossmann,1994: 80). Brause and Mayher (1991: 89)

also regard an interview as an encounter between two persons started by the interviewer for

obtaining research-relevant data. In this dissertation, the researcher takes an interview as a

research technique carried out with a definite purpose of gathering data by means of a spoken

word using a planned series of questions.

Gall, Borg and Gall (1996: 305-306) and Burgess (1993: 6) identified several types of interviews.

First, the structured interview in which the researcher poses a set of questions and record

responses on a standardised schedule. This research will not be based on a structured interview

since the respondents are expected to reveal their frame of reference and to give reasons. Hence

the study will not rely on the value of numbers in analysing data.

Second, the unstructured interview in which the researcher is free to modify sequence of

questions or wording of questions is chosen. During the unstructured interviews, free responses

are given in one's words, and the researcher exerts little control over his subjects. The present

researcher will allow respondents to offer responses in a flexible manner but will still leads the

respondents through follow-ups to their responses.

43

Third, there are individual interviews which are conducted in a private setting with one person at

a time. Individuals feels free and express themselves trustfully (Gall, Borg & Ga11,1996: 300). The

present researcher will not utilise individual interviews study in that they are not economically

viable in terms of resources and time.

Fourth, there is the focus group interviewing which is a technique in which groups are generally

composed of seven to ten people. However the range can vary from four to twelve members.

The participants are unfamiliar to one another and have been selected because they share certain

characteristics which are relevant to the study as would be shown in paragraphs that will follow.

In focus group interviews, the interviewer creates a permissive atmosphere by asking questions

eliciting discussions and expression of differing opinions and views. Group interviews are

conducted several times for the researcher to identify trends in the perceptions and opinions

expressed. This method assumes that an individual's attitudes and beliefs are borne out of the

society. People need to listen to other' opinions and understandings in order to form own.

Individual interviews are not chosen for this study in that if the participant had not reflected on

the topic and feels unprepared to respond, the whole interview can be impoverished.

Group interviews are chosen as the research instrument for this research in that the student-

teachers at colleges of education came from divergent geographical, demographical and cultural

background. Group interviews are socially orientated. It was felt that this will offer a good

opportunity for divergent views from heterogeneous sample population of this study. At the same

time, the target is also homogeneous as it is comprised of students doing final year at teacher-

training colleges of education. This leads to the fact that group interviews as they will be

conducted at the colleges, will study participants in a natural and real-life environment. The

respondents will not be subjected to the experimental nor the strain and artificiality of a one-on-

one interview.

In addition, students can also help one another to recall, verify or rectify items of information

(Marshall and Rossman, 1995: 81). The benefits of group interviews lie in that group interviews

have the potential for discussions to develop between the group members and the value of that

44

as a research resource. The format of the group interviews allows the interviewer the flexibility

to explore unanticipated issues as they raise in the discussion. Group interviews afforded the

present researcher to encourage students into thinking about their roles in curriculum

development.

The present researcher wants to investigate precisely the group or the subculture in colleges of

education with specific reference to curriculum development. Group interviews therefore have

some practical and organisational benefits as well. The present researcher is likely to find it easier

to gain access to the group than by contacting the individual members.

The researcher is aware of the fact that some colleges of education were under review in terms

of rationalisation; and was therefore conscious not to allow specific matters to emerge and was

therefore aware of the group dimensions in the administration of the interview schedule (Marshall

& Rossman, 1995: 80-81).

Moreover, group interviews affords the researcher with the opportunity to observe the nonverbal

behaviour which is useful for the collaboration of facts. The research topic for this study seems

sensitive for there is an apparent fierce competition among the stakeholders in curriculum

development as Ornstein and Hunkins (1993: 243) noted. Therefore behaviour is vital for the

present researcher has to distinguish between the relevant and the irrelevant ideas as reported in

paragraph 3.3.7 below.

Finally, the researcher has preferred group interviewing technique in that the results have high face

validity because the method for data collection and data analysis can be easily understood as are

given in a protocol form. In addition, the findings emanating from group interviews appear

believable and results are rapidly available. The sample size of qualitative studies is increased by

interviewing more people at once than in individual interviews.

There are certain disadvantages to this method as well, like that the irrelevant issues can be raised

and that the data can be difficult to analyse. The problem of irrelevance is addressed in this study

by follow-up questions and by adherence to the research questions; with some level of flexibility

45

allowed. The problem of data analysis is likely to be addressed in this work by following the

protocol for data analysis as discussed in paragraph 3.4.5. below. A sample of the study is

discussed.

3.4.3 Sampling

A sample was drawn by using a modified form of the table of random method (Mackenzie, Powell

& Usher,1997: 108) in order to permit blind chance to decide the outcomes of the selection

process. The researcher arranged the individual students in each of the participating colleges in

a systematic order. A class list was used for this purpose.

Four groups of students in four colleges of education were eventually constituted using the very

same selection method. Each group consisted of seven to eight members, who have enrolled for

a three-year teaching diploma either for primary or secondary level. All the participants are in their

third-year of teacher training and are therefore on the verge of being professionals.

With the sample population limited to four focus group interviews, follow-up on the correctness

of viewpoints expressed was easily done. The interviewees could confirm the interview

transcripts. This increased the likelihood of high validity and reliability values of the study

(Mackenzie, Powell & Usher,1997: 106).

Although the sample consisted of a mixed gender composition, more males than females

participated in the research study. This weakness did not affect the reliability of the research

findings as all the participants have a common teacher training experience over a training-span of

three-years. Therefore, the population characteristic is generally homogeneous. The appropriate

sampling technique utilised is random sampling as already discussed above (Mackenzie, Powell

& Usher,1997: 108).

The researcher conducted four interviews. The researcher ended the interview process when the

participants start to repeat themselves, what Strauss and Corbin (1996: 178) refers to as

`saturation'.

46

3.4.4 Data collection

In collecting data for this research, the researcher followed five consecutive steps. This is done

to ensure the success of the focus group interviews as a technique for collecting empirical

qualitative data as suggested by Gall, Borg, and Gall (1996: 306).

Step one: The researcher obtained a permission to conduct interviews from the Department of

Education, Arts, Culture and Sports and from the respective colleges of education in the Northern

Province.

Step two: The interview schedule is set up well in advance. The researcher sends the interview

schedule to the interviewees two weeks in advance so that they can reflect and familiarise

themselves with the interview schedule. Hence this step will ensure that respondents are prepared

for the process. This will not affect the reliability and the validity of the study in that the study

is a qualitative research and searches for definite patterns and values of a social phenomenon that

cannot rely on the number of times a particular correct response was given. Hence follow-up

questions will be made so as to limit any possible effect on the reliability of the research

instruments due to the pre-view of the interview schedule. Instead this is also likely increased the

validity of the interview schedule as the research instrument for this study.

Step three: Dates for interviews will be confirmed and the researcher will send reminders ten

days before the actual days for interviews.

Step four: The researcher will be prompt and follow the agenda. At the beginning of each

interview the participants introduced themselves. The researcher will explain the purpose of the

interview and that the use of the tape-record as a way of ensuring that everything that will be said

is well captured. The researcher will guarantee confidentiality to all participants.

Step five: The researcher conducts the interviews until the respondents start to repeat similar

views and issues.

47

Step six: The researcher will translate each interview into a written, typed script and distribute

them to the respondents. The researcher obtained an acknowledgement of their accuracy and

permission to use the data for this study. This constitutes the reliability check for this study.

All theses steps will be followed to ensure that there would be no discrepancies between the

respondents contribution and the data collected by the researcher for this study. The focus group

data will be then be analysed and interpreted according to the protocol for data analysis

as will be discussed in sub-heading 3.4.5 below.

3.4.5 Protocol Tor data analysis

After the collection of the data, a protocol drawn based on the guidelines proposed by Strauss

and Corbin (1996: 62-69) and Weitzman and Milestone (1995: 333) is followed step-by-step to

analyse data as follows hereunder.

Step one: The researcher reads the transcripts for a holistic view. The researcher puts all the

preconceived ideas aside.

Step two: The researcher reads the transcripts for the second time. The researcher also

underlines relevant answers. This step involves a line-by-line analysis with the relevant and

irrelevant phrases or words or terms distinguished. The researcher lists relevant responses in the

language of respondents (" in vivo codes") (See Appendix A).

Step three: Labelling the phenomenon: This step entails the conceptualisation of data which

entails the researcher giving each discrete incident, ideas or event a name.

Step four: Identification of categories: This refers to grouping ideas or labels that appear to

belong together to the same phenomenon. The pattern or codes or themes developed have a

theoretical power, that is, a theory of the study gradually emerges. In this study the categories

discovered relate to the relevant responses to the interview questions as depicted in Appendix

B.

48

Step five: Description of categories

In this step, the essence is on giving a 'thick description' of each category as identified in step four

(above), and involves only 'what you see' (Strauss & Corbin, 1996: 75) than being influenced by

assumptions and experience. The density and saturation of categories directed the description of

the student responses as related to the interview questions. The theoretical analysis of each

category will be subjected to literature check-up simultaneously.

The group interviews as describe in paragraph 3.4.2 and the protocol for the study as described

in paragraph 3.4.4 above were effected during pilot study as reported in the following sub-

heading.

3.4.6 ?allot interviews report

In this study the researcher conducted two pilot studies on student-teachers at two different

colleges of education, one offering a primary teacher's diploma and another offering a secondary

teacher's diploma. Such interviews were conducted at the SRC offices in the colleges. This was

to ensure a non-threatening setting as well as a relaxed atmosphere. The pilot interviews were

very valuable to the present researcher in that they provided opportunities for some form of

orientation in interviewing techniques and skills for conducting group interviews like hearing

biases, facts supporting other interpretation, and other forms of distortions (Hopkins & Antes,

1990: 260).

The pilot interviews also afforded the researcher with opportunities for reviewing research

questions. Most of the students seemed to have a difficulty in understanding the term curriculum

development. The phrase college courses and the concept curriculum improvement will then be

used during interviews to mean curricula and curriculum development respectively.

The researcher reformulated questions and related them to the subproblems as stated in chapter

one. It was also felt that question one has to be included in the interview schedule since, it will

49

afford a chance to get to know the respondents' problems. It was also hoped that such a question

is likely to create an opportunity for easy chat and relieve the expectancy of going to be

interrogated-what is commonly referred to as an 'icebreaker' (Hopkins & Antes,1990: 263).

Eventually an interview schedule included the following three questions:

The first question: What are some problems that you experience in your colleges courses?

Despite being an ice-beaker, the researcher intended this question to establish the needs and

interest as well as the expectations of the students about the college curricula. Response to this

question will provide the areas where students feel they can participate during curriculum

development. Such data is valuable in the formulation of guidelines for student involvement during

curriculum design, curriculum dissemination, curriculum implementation and curriculum

evaluation as discussed in chapter two paragraph 2.5.

The second question is: Would you like to be involved in curriculum improvement and why?

This question has been meant to establish how students themselves give meaning to their

participation in curriculum development. To put it more clearly, the question is intended to find

out whether students want to be involved in curriculum development. As already stated in chapter

two, little has been written about student participation in curriculum affairs at colleges of

education, especially from students' perspective.

Moreover, there are sometimes conflict and fierce competition among the different stakeholders.

Some educationists like teachers, government authorities and many other stakeholders feel that

curriculum development is a professional matter while some feel that the learner is also a

legitimate and useful role-player in curriculum development (Blom,1990: 42-44; Ornstein &

Hunkins, 1993: 243; Connely & Clandinin,1988: 124).

The third question is: How would you like to be involved in improving college courses? This

question has been included in the interview schedule in order to elicit responses on how the

50

students perceive the nature and extent of their involvement in curriculum development. Students

are expected to reflect on the ways and manner of participating during curriculum development,

which leads to data analysis.

3.5 DATA ANALYSES

3.5.1 Report on the research process

The researcher followed the protocol for data collection as described in paragraph 3.4.4 above.

The researcher was prompt and followed the agenda as confirmed by the participants. The

researcher possessed extra copies of interview schedules in case a participant has lost his or hers.

The researcher was disturbed and frustrated when governmental officials were using the allotted

venue in one of the colleges for audit purposes. The process of finding and organising an

alternative venue delayed the interviews for at least five minutes. Such a delay did not affect the

reliability and validity of the study as it was of short duration.

At the beginning of each group interview the participants introduced themselves. The researcher

explained the purpose of the interview and that the respondents will remain anonymous. The

researcher recorded the interview responses as the interview progressed. The researcher utilised

a high quality tape recorder during the interviews to capture the conversation between the

researcher and the participants. The use of the tape recorder was well explained to show that

their contributions were regarded as of great value. The researcher explained that the tape

recorder is being used to avoid forgetting what was discussed.

Eventually four groups of students were interviewed. The size of the group allowed everyone to

participate while still eliciting a wide variety of responses. Participation was free and democratic

throughout the interview sessions. The duration of focus group interviews varied between half

an hour to one hour. None of the group interviews lasted for more two hours.

The interviewer also scribed some vital views as they raised them. The researcher controlled and

facilitated the interviews by encouraging the students to interface freely. The researcher used the

51

probe technique to obtain additional information from students. As already indicated in paragraph

3.4.3 above, the researcher recorded the group interviews and discussions on the tape. The

researcher conducted the interviews until students, starts to repeat themselves, what (Strauss &

Corbin, 1996: 178) calls 'saturation'. The researcher translated the interviews into a written and

typed form.

The transcripts of the interviews were made and sent to the participants. Although the researcher

could not find all the participants, the available ones were met and they confirmed the transcripts

as a true reflection of their responses. The researcher thanked them for their cooperation. This

step ensured the first reliability check on the responses for this study.

The researcher sent transcripts of the interview to the external decoder who drew own lists of

categories. The lists of the decoder and that of the researcher was compared. Most of the

categories as listed in step four (above) appeared on both lists (Refer to Appendix C). The major

differences lie on the names or labels to designate the major ideas and issues raised during the

interviews. A consensus was however reached that the researcher uses the labels more suitable

or more related to the subproblem of this research, since they cover the main issues embraced in

the two lists. This constituted the validity check for the study. The researcher settled for the

following categories (See Addendum C).

3.5.2 Description of categories

Data for the study are of two kinds: primary data and secondary data. The primary data for the

research is made of responses from group interviews as conducted 3.3.5 above. The secondary

data comprises recent published studies, texts unpublished dissertations and these dealing with

student participation in curriculum developments.

The following three identified categories, namely problems at colleges, reasons for participation

and ways for involvement in curriculum development. A few quotations from the focus group

interviews will be provided and a literature check will be done in each category to ensure

reliability and validity of the data.

52

3.5.2.1 Problems experienced by student-teachers

Question one: What are the problems that you are experiencing in your college ?

This category is developed from the question: What are the problems that you are experiencing

at your college ? The question has been included in this research as an 'ice - breaker' as already

reported in chapter three. Therefore, only relevant responses to the question will be discussed in

relation to the research questions: why and how the students want to be involved in curriculum

development at colleges of education?

All of the respondents feel that they want to be involved in order to ensure that the college

curricula is relevant. This needs a thorough situational analysis of the needs and interests of the

learners and the community as a whole. Therefore the respondents feel that certain academic

subjects are no longer relevant and useful to the new educational dispensation. Students feel that

certain subjects or courses need to be removed like Biblical Studies, Afrikaans or Special

Afrikaans and new ones introduced especially technical and other skill-based subjects or courses.

All students are of the view that the college curricula are no longer useful to students and the

entire community. Some of the students responded:

"The problem we experience at the college is that we are doing subjects which are not relevant

to those which we find at the secondary school"

"... how can one justify the fact that a certain student-teacher who is measuring in Mathematics

and Science orientated subject to be forced to do a subject like special Afrikaans which is not a

medium of instruction in most secondary schools"

A study of the college curricula for both Senior Teachers Diploma and Primary Teachers Diploma

has revealed the same observation, that the college curricula are heavily-loaded with subjects

which are highly compartmentalised. Repetition is also apparent in most courses.

53

It is in this context that Lalendle (1996) argued that although the college curriculum is

differentiated and kept college graduates at career paths, "...certain curriculum combinations are

used to foster ethnicity and inculcate the values of the National Christian Education" (Lalendle,

1996:15) than real-life skills and economic demands of our country (Monobe,1997: 60-61, Malan

1997: 10).

Similar observations were made by Jaff, Rice, Hofmeyer and Hall (1996: 59) and Salmon and

Woods (19990: 55) during their studies on teacher education, and state that the curriculum at

colleges of education mirrors the interest, values and aspirations of those in power - what is

commonly referred to as a hidden curriculum which implies the transmission of unstated messages

to learners.

Malan (1997:11) in her argument for outcome-based education shows that curriculum developers

have traditionally accepted as a premise that subjects were inherently valuable and were

automatically included in any curriculum. The relevance of such courses to modern and future was

seldom questioned. The content is always fixed even before the aims or goals are identified.

Curriculum development was therefore not based on thorough situational analysis. He continues

to argue that even when new subjects are added to make it more relevant, the old subjects

remain.

The significance of this category lies in that students show that they want to be involved to ensure

that the college curricula are relevant. They are the consumers of the curricula. Responses indicate

that student want to participate during curriculum development to ascertain that the curricula

meet their needs and those of the community. This then constitutes the major reason why students

want to be involved in curriculum development at colleges of education in the Northern province

and the whole of Southern Africa.

Students also made numerous references to subjects and content which are irrelevant and even

suggested new subjects and new content area that can be introduced in the college curricula. Such

references demonstrate quite clearly that students have the capacity and ability to make reliable

judgement, which becomes a possible reason why students want to be involved in curriculum

54

development as already alluded to in chapter two, paragraph 2.3.

Responses to this category do not address directly the question of how students want to be

involved. Instead, responses refer to the various principles of curriculum design. Almost all

students feel that they want to participate during curriculum design, especially during situational

analysis. Students feel that their mode of involvement will be in form of an analysis of their

interests and needs as well as those of the community. Although the principle of situational

analysis was not mentioned by name, it was deduced from the respondents' reference to that the

environment, the needs of the individual student, the needs of the society, commerce and industry

must be surveyed.

The same findings were made in similar researches in teacher education in South Africa like

(Mathe,1991: 93) and Koller (1993: 17) who suggested that curriculum development should

commence with situational analysis. They continued to indicate that situational analysis entails,

inter alia, finding out about the needs, interests, beliefs and future inspirations of the learners and

the group for which the curriculum is planned.

From the description of the first category for this study it is clear that the major problem of the

college curricula centres around the irrelevancy in terms of students'needs and interests, non-

transferability of knowledge and skills. The various concerns raised serves as the base for student

involvement. In other words, the problems that are found in colleges of education are in

themselves highlighting the circumstances, reasons and factors surrounding students involvement.

Thus, the category on problems experienced at colleges serves as a background surrounding

student involvement which is related to the second category of the study, which is, reasons for

student involvement.

3.5.2.2 Reasons for student involvement

Question two: Do you want to be involved in improving your college courses, and why ?

With regard to the sub-problem whether students want to be involved, all of them have indicated

55

that they want to be involved. Most students perceive themselves as important stakeholders in

curriculum development. The same view has been expressed in various curriculum debates where

students are considered alongside other stakeholders like parents, teachers and inspectors as

discussed in paragraph 2.6.

Although studies of pupils involvement indicate that students consider themselves as capable of

contributing during curriculum development, actual involvement is minimal as already discussed

in chapter two of this study. The subcategories discovered in the study are described as follows:

* brelevant college courses

Responses in this category have references to the irrelevancy of the needs of students and the

whole community. Students feel that they have to participate so that their needs, interest and

aspirations will be considered during curriculum development. Students expressed a concern that

the college curriculum must prepare graduates for the vast range of South African schools. This

is particularly the case with regard to exposure to other cultures, languages and teaching

strategies. Students mentioned the need for the curriculum to be appropriate to the needs of the

students and the entire community. The curriculum does little to promote an awareness of

important socio-economic issues like social needs or problems, employment and other current and

future demands.

The following responses are a reflection: "... as students-teachers we are taught work which is not

relevant to our coming work, with subjects which are not suitable for ourselves and our people

to come "

It becomes apparent that there is a feeling amongst students that colleges should offer courses

that would provide students with wider options once they left colleges. In other words colleges

should be like a community college which in the South African context can be defined as a public,

comprehensive institution offering programme beyond compulsory schooling which include

academic transfer, compensatory and remedial programmes responsive to student and community

needs.

56

The irrelevancy of college courses is shown by student's remarks such as: "In some of the subjects

we are taught things which are no longer existing. We are now in a democratic country so that

we must be taught things which are now existing".

Student responses relate the problem of irrelevancy from a variety of perspectives. Such

perspectives ranges from compartmentalisation of content, receiving training in areas not found

in schools, lack of vertical mobility through affiliation and accreditation with universities and / or

technikons, as a means of social control by the ruling power, to irrelevancy to the needs of the

learners and the entire community or country.

The same observations were made by various committees in their studies on teacher education,

in South Africa. The KEPI document, ANC Draft policy document, the White Paper (1995),

the RDP document (1994) proposed progressive policies and integrative approaches to education

which addresses the learner's needs and nation's needs.

Blom (1992: 32) seems to support this view and noted that curriculum development, especially

the development of learning programmes and materials, should put learners first, recognising and

building on their knowledge and experience and responding to their needs. This type of curriculum

design is usually called the "needs and interest design"

Some students noted that the issue of irrelevancy can be related to the notion of culture, that is,

the curricula at colleges of education should reflect the culture and language of the community.

Students revealed that there is often a mismatch between what the college offers and stands for

and the community values. This mismatch between the curriculum and cultural values is

particularly apparent in content of courses and languages, with Religious Education and Afrikaans

frequently repeated in most interviews. Consequently, there is a real need to integrate the college

into the community. This then becomes the rationale for student participation in curriculum

development at colleges of education as one of the students responded:

"The present curriculum is a white men's let me say an Afrikaans. He drew up this curriculum in

order to improve his culture"

57

The importance of culture in curriculum development has been widely debated in recent

curriculum research studies such as Noel (1993: 14). There is a general consensus amongst such

studies that the society and culture can inhibit or accelerate the process of curriculum

development, and therefore the curriculum must match the cultural dimensions of the society.

Labuschagne (1996: 10) argues that students should be sensitized to what he calls: cultural

democracy, where cultural diversity is recognised.

The question of language and culture in education has been addressed in the South African

constitution ( section 31) which provides for the rights to use the language and participate in the

cultural life of one's choice and sections 3 (b) and (c) which respectively provides for the right

of language choice in educational institutions. It is in view of such constitutional provisions that

the need for student participation in curriculum development is justifiable and conceivable.

The issue of the relevancy of the college curriculum in terms of the needs of the learners,

economic needs of the community as well as cultural considerations show that students are aware

of their role during curriculum design.

* Incllusive decision-making

Underneath some students' need for involvement in college curricular issues, there seems to be

a strong feeling of the curriculum being imposed from the top level of the educational hierarchy

to the colleges.

The following response shows this line of thinking: "Those that are in high ranks in education,

when they plan their curriculum they must involve us the students".

The issue of inclusivity in curriculum development runs throughout the categories and the sub-

categories of the research data as related to the three questions as discussed in 3.3.2 above. Most

of the respondents feel that students need to be involved like all other stakeholders so that their

needs can be considered. Hence as consumers of the curriculum students feel that they have a

58

stake in curriculum issues. They must be included in curriculum development. The following

response represent this type of thinking: " ...we are now in a democratic country, so that we must

be taught things which are now existing...":

Curriculum development therefore involves inclusive decision-making process and active

participation by all role-players so that their needs can be met. The demand for democratic

participation then becomes a possible reason for students to ensure that their aspirations and needs

are taken into consideration during curriculum development. This is more likely to occur during

the curriculum design phase.

Students also seem to reflect a desire for a locally developed curriculum in which students will

participate. There seems to be a reflection that the current college curriculum has been developed

to suit the objectives of the ruling power to achieve its goals as one of the respondents shows:

" I think that subjects that are now done, they were drawn by others, someone who want to

achieve their goals..."

Mukhavhuli in his study on teacher training in the Northern Province, is of the same opinion and

maintains: `... the person in power dictates what must be taught and what must not be taught'

(1989: 182). Thus, the curriculum at colleges of education is prescriptive, authoritative and

inflexible. The debate on the centralisation of the administration and control of education

provisions is a currently a matter of great concern. It is contended in recent research studies that

curriculum development should be developed at the colleges so that both lecturers and students

can be 'empowered' as discussed in paragraph 2.5 and provided with an open-ended democratic

avenues and processes that are more likely to promote student involvement in matters affecting

their everyday life.

Thus the respondents appear to be interested in an institution-based curriculum approach in

which more opportunities for their involvement can be opened. It is in this context that Carl

(1995: 3) in his studies on teacher empowerment though curriculum development noted that

South Africa is currently faced with the challenges from the national to the classroom levels in the

sense that every stakeholder, students included should be involved in negotiating about what to

59

learn, how to learn it and how to assess how well it has been learnt. The Committee for Higher

Education (CHED) (101: 2) shares the same sentiment and feel that the South African educational

institutions require freedoms, opportunity, responsibility and resources to determine and direct

their curricular affairs.

As already raised in paragraph 2.3 student involvement in curriculum development must consider

the developmental level of the students. This issue which was not raised by the respondents which

might indicate their uncritical perception and acceptance of being role-players in curriculum

development at colleges of,education. This also indicates that students appears to be interested

in participation out of democratic and psychological need to be recognised and accepted as part

of the stakeholders It also needs to be noted that involving students do not mean abdicating the

entire curriculum while for it to be effective and strong, students need to be involved.

In addition, recent studies in South African colleges of education like that of Van Rensburg

(1997: 14) indicate that student involvement in curricular issues is likely to ensure sound relations

between students and lecturers, what Scoutt (1996: 93) refers to as in Zulu as `Ilbuntu'- a more

inclusive form of humanism. This observation which is also apparent in the responses as one of

the students remarked "... such involvement will make students and lecturers to cooperate"

It can be inferred from the preceding discussion on inclusivity in curriculum development that

students want to be involved during curriculum design phase. Students appeared to be aware of

their roles during decision-making on the principles of design from need analysis to evaluation,

especially at the micro-level as discussed in paragraph 2.6.

* Legitimacy and ownership

Students' responses also highlight some concerns about the legitimacy and ownership of the

curriculum. Students appear to be rejecting the current curriculum for it has been imposed by

educational authorities to meet their objectives as the following comments are a reflection:

" As stakeholders with our participation we can then say that the curriculum is ours and be willing

60

to follow and implement it "

" I think that with our participation we can say that the curriculum is ours"

The involvement of all interest groups from within and outside college affairs is a basic underlying

principle in the development of college curricula. The development of the generally applicable

facets of the curriculum must be a joint venture by all interested groups. Students need to be

involved so that they be involved in their learning and to get them to accept a degree of

responsibility for it and therefore, "it is ours" as one-student puts it.

It is also evident that student teachers at colleges do not see the relevancy and value of college

courses in their current state of affairs due to lack of insufficient consultation. In this democratic

dispensation, consultation in matters surrounding the curriculum at colleges of education must be

done to ensure legitimacy and ownership thereof

There is some reference from student response to the constitutional and human rights which

constitute the framework for student participation and legitimacy thereof. The constitution of

South Africa guarantees equal access to basic education for all. The satisfaction of this guarantee

provides an increasing range of learning possibilities offering learners greater flexibility in

choosing what, when, how and at what pace they learn (Department of Education and Training

1995: 21). It is apparent from recent studies that the right of students to participate with adults

in curricular issues needs to be acknowledged. Democratic participation by students is valuable

for this research in that it is likely to make the college curricula legitimate and more acceptable

to students.

The following responses are a reflection:

" We are now in democratic country so that we must be taught things which are existing now

rather than past things"

"As we are living in a democratic situation, like when the constitution was drawn, the community

became involved"

61

Fern (1985: 83) have similar views and argue that South Africa has become one of the few

countries such as Denmark where student participation is enshrined in the legislation of the

country. The legal framework became a rationale for student participation in curriculum

development at colleges of education.

From the discussion above, it can be deduced that students are aware of their roles during the

curriculum implementation phase. It emerged form the above discussion that effective curriculum

depends on whether the curriculum is perceived to be legitimate and owned by all stakeholders,

especially student-teachers in this context.

* Professional considerations

The responses of the students also highlight that their concern for participation arises from some

professional considerations. In response to question one, students have raised a number of areas

at colleges which appear to be problematic. Students concerns cover a lot of professional issues

like irrelevancy of courses to social and economic demands of our modern society, time

mismanagement, inadequacy of teaching strategies taught at colleges and others as discussed in

paragraph 3.5.2.1. The following responses show such views:

"... because we are the ones teaching those programmes. Why should someone who is not

teaching these programmes should be the one who has to improve for us. We are the one who

knows all big difficulties..."

"We are the ones who are going to teaching pupils, if we had wrong information we are also

going to give a wrong, information to the younger ones"

The research study is focussed on students who are in the third-year of teacher training at colleges

of education. They are therefore on the verge of being practising teachers. The students seem to

consider themselves as having a certain level of professional maturity that can serve as a base for

participating in curriculum development and so their responses were considered in this light. This

should not be misconstrued to mean that student-teachers are already professionals because a

62

qualified teacher is the one who is in a possession of an approved teaching qualification which is

at least evaluated as M+ or Category C (COTEP, 1996: 3).

Contrary to this view, Koller (1993: 33) states that decision-making should be left in the hands

of teachers or professionals who have been given intensive training in such areas like child

development, learning styles, educational measurement and subject didactics.

Salmon (1991: 73-74) in his studies on the role of students in colleges of education in Kwazulu,

discovered that there is very little evidence of formal students involvement in curriculum issues

and that students seem to have no clarity on their roles and expectations in high level decision-

making. However most students show that they have professional interests in curriculum designs.

This then becomes a rationale for student involvement in the development of the curriculum at

colleges of education in the Northern Province.

Labuschagne (1996: 10) is also of the same opinion and argues that students can make judgement

and reliable descriptions of classroom activities. Students feel that their involvement in curriculum

development emanates from the fact that they are going to be part of the teaching 'corps' or

professional 'corps'. It is out of students' professional concerns that they consider themselves

as major role-players during the curriculum design phase at colleges of education in the Northern

Province.

* Partnership

Students feel that there is no horizontal and vertical articulation in the curriculum offered at

colleges of education. The following response is an observation:

"...To make our college more we are supposed to affiliate to a certain institution like technikons

or universities"

The same need was echoed:

63

"... If you complete this diploma, then it is not easy to go and get a degree, maybe you have to

start from scratch as the last speaker has already mentioned "

These responses relate to the issue of affiliation which implies close cooperation in matters

affecting teacher education programme, and accreditation which entails that successful learners

are given credits for the courses that they have passed in the college, and thereby ensuring

horizontal and vertical articulation or movements as envisaged by the 'outcome-based approach'

espoused in the National Qualification Framework (1996).

Van der Vyver argues that: "Our contention is thus that, whether an institution driven approaches

or programme driven approach are adopted, issues of cooperative inter-institutional governance

should be given careful attention because of their impact on decision-making and consequently

quality (Vyver,1996: 13). Similarly as one of the respondents puts it: "I think that would make

our college visible and again will make students aware of learning"

The National Commission for Higher Education (1996: 6) shows that such linkages and

partnerships are not a new phenomenon in South African teacher education. Many collaborative

links have been developed between some colleges, universities and technikons. However,

emphasis seems to have been placed more on vertical collaborative arrangements than on

horizontal linkages such as colleges and colleges.

Contrary to what the majority of the interviewees expect, collaboration arrangements with

colleges and technikons are always biased in favour of universities. College and technikons are

reduced to junior partners. Usually, as is the case with University of Witwatersrand and its

affiliated colleges collaboration is inclusive of overseeing the academic affairs particularly the

curriculum, staffing, accreditation and franchising of some of the courses.

However, in line with students' views, Gozo noted "... that the current approach to accreditation

which sees procedures of teacher preparation as ends in themselves must be abandoned. He shows

that all provincial departments of education have instructed colleges of education to be affiliates

to universities so that some form of quality assurance, control, professionalism and academic

64

standards of colleges can be raised " (Gozo,1996: 6).

Similarly the Department of Education (1998: 73) emphasises that the aim of establishing

institutional partnership is to promote flexibility and responsiveness necessary for change in

college education.

It can be deduced from the preceding paragraphs that students want to be involved during the

curriculum evaluation phase like through accreditation of the course passed in their institutions

by other institutions

It has emerged from the above description of the category that there is an apparent general

consensus on the reasons for student participation. Student responses on this category appear to

corroborate with the literature check on that student must be involved in curriculum

development at colleges of education. The data on the extent and nature of student involvement

is analysed in the next category.

3.5.2.3 Ways for student involvement in improving the curriculum at colleges of

education

Question three: How do you want to be involved in improving your college courses ?

Student's response to this question on participation can be conceptualised at various levels: at

a national, provincial, individual classroom and the total college context as discusses in paragraph

2.3. Responses to the question, how would you like to be involved in improving college courses

elicited a number of responses which indicate the concern that students are not provided with

opportunities and support for their involvement at various levels of curriculum development.

65

* Formation off curriculum committees

The respondents are of the opinion that curriculum committees should be created in various

colleges of education. Students should participate by sending delegations to present their views

and aspirations in curriculum innovations. The following response is a reflection on the formation

of curriculum committees through which students are likely to participate:

"I believe in most of the colleges, have the curriculum committee, we as the students need also

to be represented in that curriculum committee"

However, the role of curriculum development committees appears to be limited to the national

and provincial education departments. The role of curriculum committee is perceived as largely

focussed on the development of curriculum frameworks, learning programmes and materials. The

activities of the curriculum committees appears to be limited to the national and provincial levels

where the role of students seems to be very minimal.

Similarly Labuschagne (1996: 13) noted that students can participate by serving on curriculum

committees when selected agenda items are discussed or when it is considered that students could

become highly self-motivated and innovative on them. Madigoe (1992: 35) argues that this

position involves more elaborates efforts to have students participate than merely being consulted

in matters like school reviews, sports and other peripheral as well as some social aspects of the

college.

Reference has also been made to the formation of subject committee in which students would

participate. Such committees are to serve as a link between the students and the education

department as one of the respondents observed: "In each subject we as the students must conduct

a subject committee from the students whom those people from the department of education,

when they decide about college subjects, they must firstly contact these committees members from

the students"

This view is contrary to subject committees existing in the current South African Education

66

system. A subject committee is usually taken to be a committee comprised of practising teachers

in a specific learning area or subject. Thus ruling out the possibility of such a channel of

communication as a way of involving students in curriculum development at colleges of education

in the Northern Province.

However, students seem to be confusing subject committee with curriculum committees which

can serve as link between students and colleges of education. As such the interpretation of

students' response in this category was taken to mean curriculum committees otherwise some

responses would seems to limit the members of that committee to student-teachers only. This

correlates with responses given under consultation as already discussed in paragraph 6.2.3

above.

Nevertheless, students highlight the need for channels of communication to be established within

colleges of education to ensure student participation in college affairs. Curriculum committees can

serve as a link between colleges of education and the provincial government. The emphasis on the

communication between students and educational authorities show that students are willing to

participate during curriculum implementation. Communication is one of the most important

ingredients for effective curriculum implementation as discussed in paragraph 2.4.3.

* Conducting workshops and seminars

The respondents also expressed their strong desire for a college environment where discussions

amongst all stakeholders direct curriculum development. Koller (1993: 15) contends that

discussion is a crucial process in higher education colleges exist so that students, including

academics can talk together. He continued to argue that discussion provides the interaction of

minds and the testing of ideas as well problem-solving.

For such discussions to occur at colleges of education, the respondents suggested that

workshops, seminars and conferences be held at colleges. Students can participate through

conferences and workshops to ensure that the college curricula are exposed. The following are

some of the suggestions:

67

" The manager should conduct conferences, seminars and workshops for curriculum and other

teaching materials in the organisation of content or courses"

" We are the Northern Province citizens, when they come and do their seminars we are going to

say something which is relevant to our life and which is going to be relevant to our peoples. They

must do the seminars"

It is quite evident from these responses that there is a great need for students and teachers to

interact formally cooperate and exchange views on classroom activities what is commonly

referred to as 'negotiating' classroom activities - a process in which the participants reach some

kind of agreement as to what to learn, how to learn (methods) and how to assess how well it has

been learnt.

Students and teachers co-investigate the classroom reality, creating appropriate and relevant

pedagogical knowledge through action research. Through such reflective participation students

are more likely to take responsibility for their own learning and to participate in shared-decision-

making. Therefore seminars, conferences and workshops are some of the possible ways for

student involvement in curriculum development, especially during the dissemination phase.

In this context, a curriculum is viewed as a social construction of knowledge about the

classroom, which emphasizes student negotiating meaning and placing authority on evidence and

logic than text and teacher, thereby enhancing student power through seminars and conferences

on curriculum development (Scoutt, 1996: 100)

Contrary to this, recent research reports on teacher education in South Africa have uncovered that

student participation in seminars and conferences on curriculum development is absent. Seminars

and conferences on curriculum development appears to be limited to curriculum specialists,

officials of the department and professionals.

The significance of this category lies in that students want to be involved in curriculum

development through seminars and conferences. Various publications offer suggestions on how

68

students can be active participants in decision-making process about classroom activities. In this

way students can make vital contributions for the real didactical situation at colleges of education.

* Consultation

Responses in this category highlight the need for consultation during curriculum development.

The respondents reflected on discussions and meetings of all stakeholders when views and other

curricular issues are deliberated. The following are some of the responses which indicate the

concern over consultation:

" I think that it will be good for us to have a body where parents and students and lecturers will

be involved and will sometimes have meeting with MEC's of a certain province. There we sit

down again and discuss our problems together "

"I think that the government is responsible for views from structures like political organisations,

churches and other organisation like parent-teachers-student organisation"

Students are a reliable source of information in that they do not typically provide distorted

judgement and are candid in their comments. He continued to indicate that consultation can also

take the form of observation of individual student behaviour in classroom, corridors, lunchrooms

and elsewhere within the school, what Doll (1992: 396 ) refers to as 'shadowing'. Findings of

this nature can be helpful in starting the curriculum improvement that is of real practical use to

the students.

Observation as a form of student involvement is never evident in the responses of students to this

section. Observation is commonly regarded as a way by which students not given opportunities

to participate directly in planning the curriculum, but are passive as the teacher seeks out student

needs and interests. The teacher is the one who is active and decisions of the class of the students

observed. Thus, schooling that ignores what learners think and feel that is possible when the

teacher knows the thoughts and values of the learners.

69

Students feel that the department of education should consult with the students. However (Heyns,

Mokwena & Ncholo (1993: 7) warn that in many ways consultation should be "most inclusive,

non-partisan and cost effective" to ensure legitimacy to all sections of the community and nation-

building.

Apart from observation, consultation may take other forms. Student responses highlight that

consultation with students can be in the form of questionnaires and interview to establish the

needs and interests of the students during the design phase. The students commented:

"My viewpoint is that by using something like questionnaire, students can say ideas which are

different"

Curriculum studies on the participants during curriculum development appear to confirm these

perceptions that questionnaires and interviews are appropriate for older learners, like student-

teachers at colleges of education. The older the learner the more sophisticated his or her

participation may become (Blom, 1990: 32).

* Institutional visits

Students expressed their concern that they need to visit institutions of higher education to learn

and exchange views about curriculum development. There seems to be a perception that though

generally regarded as tertiary educational institutions, the difference between a college and a high

school is not always apparent. Responses show that both students and lecturers have to visit other

institutions of higher learning like technicons and universities. The following responses reflect

such perspectives.

" I think what we can do at colleges of education is to make a visit to a certain institution, lets,

say a technikon or university that offers related subjects that we have in our case"

"We need to visit institutions of higher learning like technicons, where we can see what they are

doing and bring it back to our college"

70

In this sense all students are researchers and should seek the truth about the curriculum as they

see it. He continued to argue that seeking the truth is a process of solving problems, which in this

context, will be focussed on curriculum development. The need for seeking the truth about the

curriculum relates to action research alluded to in the preceding paragraphs and will not be

repeated here.

This observation is supported by research reports like Blom (1990: 21) which observed a need

for students to share ideas amongst themselves. He continued to emphasise the value of social

interaction amongst students in various institutions as a way of enriching students with curriculum

knowledge and understanding .

In its submission to the National Committee on Further Education, the National Institute for

Community Education ( NICE) also noted the significance of the interaction of institutions and

set one of the goals from colleges as "... to encourage extensive and intensive interaction amongst

institutions ..." (NICE, 1997: 17 ). Such an interaction between institutions is likely to ensure

vertical articulation between institutions and training programmes. Thus, institutional visits is

perceived as one of available ways to ensure student participation in curriculum development at

colleges of education in South Africa .

* Apprenticeship

The respondents also felt that students who enrolled for more practical courses like Engineering

or Agriculture, have to undertake apprenticeship which is more likely to provide excellent

opportunity for hands on experience at the site of work. Students feel that such an experience is

likely to be vital for later discussions and inputs in curricular issues. This need for practical

experience indicates that students want to be involved during curriculum implementation as

discussed in chapter two. One of the students responded:

"We can liaise with Eskom, maybe other industries so that during school vacation our students

would go there and be employed part-time, working there and by that they will be gaining a lot

of experience"

71

The same view has been highlighted in responses to question one of this study. Responses to this

question emphasized the need for a college curriculum which will facilitate the transferability of

the learnt material to the real situation as responses to question one highlight:

"I believe students before they come to school are children at home and use the knowledge that

they get from the college to help the community at home. That we call the student brigade"

Students are therefore of the opinion that they have to partake in practical activities like

community projects and community outreach programmes related to their area of study. In this

way, students will be able to acquire practical skills and knowledge that they can utilise during

curriculum development or debates on curricular issues.

Students also view internship in economical terms. Responses indicate that they will be

contributing to the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) as one of the students

remarked: " We need to be productive a bit and improve our community as it will be our

contribution to the RDP, and I think we need to be involved there and avoid theories and do

probably practicals "

Similar view have been expressed in some research reports on student volunteer organisations like

Heyns, Mokwena and Ncholo who observed that: "The above (internship) should in the long run

have an influence on the approach of our tertiary institutions and their curricula. When students

return from the field, they will start asking questions about the relevance of the courses they are

doing for the problems they have encountered. The first obligations should be to address the

problems of the society" (Heyns, Mokwena & Ncholo, 1993: 6).

It is widely believed that internship affords many students who want to render real service to their

society some way form of repayment for education received, and offer participants chance for

experience vital for later job hunting.

It can be deduced from this discussion that students can participate during curriculum

implementation through internship. Internship affords students with opportunities to implement

the curricula in the real world of work while they are still being trained. This would include

72

implementation through teaching practice (Mukhavhuli, 1989: 156).

* The Student Representative Council

From the students' responses it is clear that there is an urgent need for a constructive input into

college affairs by the Students Representative Council (SRC), as the following response indicates:

... we as students have to inform the SRC so that the SRC of ours has to inform us the students

and the SRC will take those views and submit them to the desk which is forming or drawing that

curriculum with the SRC "

College students appear to be concerned with channels to facilitate communication and making

inputs into college curriculum affairs. Thus, there is consistently a sharper focus by students on

communication, which the current college set-up does not seem to provide.

The same observation was made by Salmon (1991: 74) in her recent research into teacher

education at seven Kwazulu College of Education. She found that there is little in the formal

curriculum which is designed to nurture student initiative and leadership. This gap could

potentially be alleviated by the encouragement of and support to democratically elected SRC's

within colleges. She continued to argue that if a student teacher is given no opportunity to play

a leadership role in a relatively safe micro room of the college of education, the student will be

less inclined to take bigger risk on exposure to the entire social community in the world of work.

In South Africa, until now the role of the SRC's in curriculum development is lesser than their

role in the broader political sense. To a large extent, SRC's seem to be concerned with minor

peripheral issues than formal student involvement in major issues like curriculum. The paramount

emphasis on nationwide political mobilisation has overshadowed the potential of smaller focussed

initiatives on matters like curriculum development to harness the human resources at our tertiary

institutions (Van Vuuren, 1996: 12-13).

From the students' responses, it is clear that the urgent need now is for all the stakeholders,

73

especially both students and those in authority to shed the rhetoric and develop a new era for

SRC's, one which meets the actual needs of students in colleges, and which is firmly aligned to

its own context (Salmon, 1991: 74).

The same sentiment was expressed by most of the respondents. One of them noted: "As we are

the ones who sees problems and we can communicate with our SRC, and they can join the

lecturers and go to the department and solve the problem".

It is notable from expression such as the above that students also appear to be more concerned

with grievance articulation. The SRC's at colleges of education are not involved in curriculum

development.

Van Vuuren (1996: 14) also made similar observations in his studies on curriculum development

in South Africa and noted that student participation in curriculum affairs is mostly derivative

rather than absolute, a privilege granted by higher powers and subject to revocation by them.

Often student government is administrators' or teachers' means of securing student cooperation

at the whole college context.

As already mentioned paragraph 2.5, the nature of student involvement is dependent on the

maturity and age levels of the learners. The higher the level of skills of the students involved, the

more specialised their contribution could be. It might be due to the manifestation of this factor

in this research that the sample group of this study tended to be engaged in real curriculum

development at colleges of education as they are about to be professional teachers or are in a

third-year level of professional development.

On other hand, it is has also been discovered that student involvement is also determined by the

nature of that particular community. South Africa is a multinational society, comprised of

students from all racial, ethnic and cultural background. For the college curriculum to reflect this

multicultural component, it becomes logical that such an element should be considered in the

formation of channels of communication within the college to increase intercultural competence

(Heyns, Mokwena & Ncholo, 1993: 6). The SRC is therefore viewed as a mouthpiece for all

74

divergent groups within a college and the interests of all the cultural groups should be embraced

during curriculum development .

3.5 Summary

In this chapter the qualitative research method was selected and group interviews were used as

the research instrument for this study. A particular protocol was utilised to analyse the collected

data. The findings, conclusions and recommendations for this study will be made in the following

chapter .

75

CHAPTER FOUR

RESEARCH OVERVIIEW9 CONCLUSliONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 AIM OF T1111 CHAPTER

The aim of this chapter is to report on the findings by comparing student's response in chapter

three with theoretical framework discussed in chapter two. Recommendations will then be made

and areas of further research studies suggested.

4.2 RESEARCH OVERVIEW

As stated in paragraph 2.2 curriculum development is, for the purpose of this study regarded as

an umbrella and an ongoing process in which planning figures strongly starting from design to

evaluation. This process is characterised by various possible phases from design, dissemination,

implementation and evaluation as discussed in paragraph 2.2.2. An integration of students'

relevant responses show how students perceive their roles during curriculum development.

As already discussed in paragraph 3.4 all respondents want to be involved in curriculum

development. But they did not make any explicit reference to the various phases of curriculum

development which are curriculum design, curriculum dissemination, curriculum implementation

and curriculum evaluation. References to these phases by the researcher has been based on the

inference from what the respondence has said and the exposition on curriculum development by

experts as discussed in chapter two of this study.

4.2.1 Curriculum design

Curriculum design is perceived as a phase in which a new curriculum is planned and reviewed. It

is characterised by several components which include situational analysis, contents, methods,

learning experience and evaluation. Students response show that they want to be involved during

decision-making with regard to the principles of curriculum designed as briefly reported here.

76

4.2.1.1 Situational analysis

Students feel that situational analysis is necessary in curriculum development. Such an analysis

includes the review of the relevancy of subjects, the needs of learners and the community like

economic demands as well as cultural factors. Students need to participate so that their needs and

those of the community are met. Various strategies for conducting needs analysis are suggested.

These ways are only mentioned here without further discussion as they are discussed as part of

responses to question three, paragraph 6.3. These methods include questionnaires, interviews

seminars, observations and projects or research studies in communities .

4.2.1.2 Aims

All education should be goal emulating. Curriculum designers must have a clear understanding

of educational and teaching goals as well as the objectives of the curricula or subject. Students

viewed the aims and objectives of the current college curriculum from different perspectives.

Firstly, the aims and objectives must suite the needs and the aspirations of the learners and the

community. Secondly, they must also suite the culture of the society. Thus students have singled

out culture as one of the most important source for the formulation of aims and objectives.

Therefore students felt a need to be involved so that they can voice their needs and interests in

the development of a new curricula. Hence the present goals and objectives of the existing

curriculum is felt to be based on foreign culture alien to the majority of the people of this country

as paragraph 6.2.1.1 shows. This view indicates that students want to be involved during the

determination of aims and objectives at all levels of curriculum development: the national,

provincial, institutional and classroom levels.

4.2.1.3 Teaching strategies

Most students highlighted teaching activities that can make the curriculum more relevant to the

needs of the students and the entire community. Students mentioned methods that include

problem-solving techniques like project methods and technology-based approaches.

77

Students interviewed also identified a number of learning experiences and opportunities more

suitable to colleges of education. Visits to industries, internship and visit to other institutions of

higher learning; for example can create a learning opportunity which can ensure meaningful and

practical experience to students as discussed in paragraph 6.2.5.

The type of teaching and learning strategies advocated by learners seem to be experience-based

and self-activity orientated as opposed to lecture methods characterised by time mismanagement

and rote learning as mentioned in paragraphs 6.1.3 and 6.1.4 respectively. It is notable that

student's role during the determination of teaching and learning strategies seems to be more

appropriate at classroom level as discussed in paragraph 2.7 above.

4.2.1.4 Evaluation

The literature studies have shown the need for students to participate during evaluation of the

didactic activities as discussed in chapter two. The literature analysis has shown that students can

negotiate with their educators about how classroom activities will be monitored and evaluated.

From the students' responses it became clear that they are unaware of the role that they can play

during evaluation in the classroom context or that they are not interested in participating during

the various phases of curriculum development.

Lecturers are therefore challenged to create opportunities for students to be involved during

formative evaluation like peer-group assessment, project assessment and self-assessment

procedures. Specific instruments such as oral/written questioning, observation and interviews can

also be utilised.

In concluding this sub-section it needs to be indicated that students should accept the challenge

and be active participants during curriculum design. The quality of curriculum development will

depend on the quality of the design. In order to establish a dynamic design whether at national

level where a broad curriculum and /or core syllabi are designed, or at micro-level where the

lecturer design a lecture, it requires that students like other stakeholders possess thorough

curriculum theory, knowledge and skills.

78

4.2.2 Curriculum dissemination

Effective curriculum development implies change and renewal based on decisions taken due to

the available information. Curriculum dissemination implies the preparation of curriculum utilizers

through the distribution of information, thoughts and concepts as already highlighted in paragraph

2.2.2.2.

Curriculum dissemination for colleges of education is initiated at macro-level. The curriculum is

drawn at head office with schools or colleges as passive recipient. Students and teachers have no

control over this process as curriculum packages are distributed from national ministry of

education to the colleges .

It should also be noted that students do not play any role in the dissemination of curriculum even

at college level because the college curriculum comes from head office as discussed in paragraph

2.4 above. Students have no role in this process of distributing the curriculum. However lecturers

assist in the dissemination through the interpretation of textbooks and syllabi within the

framework of the national norms and standards.

Although students did not specify dissemination by name, it has been inferred that they want to

participate in curriculum dissemination. Students indicated that more opportunities for

participatory decision-making should be provided in the form of discussions, participation in

community projects, media, workshops as well as partnership with other institutions like

universities.

4.2.3 Curriculum implementation

In paragraph 2.2.1 it has been stated that the college curricula emanate from the macro-level or

the head office. Curriculum implementation for colleges is also determined by curriculum

authorities, distributed and applied country-wide in all colleges of education. For example,

reference was made to the number of subject, grouping of subjects and language policy which

are solely determined by the national ministry of education as the national norm and standard for

79

teacher training in South Africa. College students are therefore not involved at this level of

curriculum implementation.

Students are of the opinion that there should be consultation and discussions between colleges

and the department of education. The provincial ministry has to interact with the students. Such

interaction will then be at the meso-level. At this level students will participate through the SRC

and the academic desk which have to facilitate implementation. Curriculum committees and

subject committees in which students and lecturers can be involved mus be formed so that

curriculum decisions can be well implemented as discussed in paragraph 3.7.1 and 3.7.4

respectively. The need for such involvement is not only to make the curriculum relevant but to

make it legitimate (ownership) and so that they can be willing to implement it as discussed in

paragraph 6.2.1.3.

Curriculum implementation also occurs within the classroom or micro-level. Decisions about

aims , subject matter or content, methods and evaluation can be negotiated with students. A need

for co-operation between students and teachers at the classroom level is necessary for effective

implementation.

It also emerged from the study that effective implementation can be accelerated through provision

of support service like contact opportunities with lecturers, ongoing discussions about lessons

and feedback. Other supporting factors which are not available at colleges are lack of materials

and equipments as well as lack of time and qualified lecturers as responses to question one reveal.

There are therefore elements which are initiated during curriculum dissemination which continue

to play a role during implementation phase.

4.2.4 Curriculum evalluation

Curriculum evaluation is that process during which value judgement of the standard and the

outcome of the relevant curriculum is made as already mentioned in paragraph 2.2.2.4. In this

study the following objects for evaluation were mentioned by students interviewed: aims and

objectives of the curriculum, subjects or content, methods and the utility or relevance of the

80

curriculum to individual student and the community as a whole. These then can become the major

components of a curriculum that might be evaluated.

Curriculum evaluation as conducted in colleges of education occurs in the form of data gathered

from tests or examination. Curriculum evaluation can also happen during curriculum development

using interviews, questionnaires and involvement in community projects as discussed in paragraph

2.5.4. Student references to the irrelevancy of the curricula and other problems identified in

paragraph 3.5.2.1 indicate that students want the whole college curricula to be evaluated in terms

of student's needs and those of the community. Methods for evaluating the curricula were also

suggested. Amongst others interviews, meetings, visits to other institutions and internship were

identified as discussed in chapter three.

It should be noted that the phases indicated above are not separate phases as there is a

continuation of and interaction amongst the various phases. Some factors like support provisions

which can be initiated during dissemination but continue to play a role during the implementation

phase. The most important implication of the interrelationship between the components of the

curriculum is that curriculum development cannot be directed at a single component of the

curriculum. All components of the curriculum must be considered. This premise is used in the next

few paragraphs for a discussion on the findings of the research.

4.3 AN INTEGRATION OF THE EMPIRICAL DATA AND THE THEORIE1 ECAL

FRAMEWORK

In order to arrive at the findings of the study, the researcher compared the empirical data and the

conceptual framework. The researcher employed a comparative table so that similarities and

differences can be made. Conclusions which will serve as the guidelines for student involvement

will then be made as done in the following paragraphs. This is necessarily so because without a

clear image as to what principles/guidelines are valid as point of departure, curriculum

development may not be accountable to the stakeholders in general and students in particular. The

table is as follows:

81

CV 00

Cn 00

a) 0

a)

cn

0

a)

(4-4 7ci C.) a) L. 0 a)

a)

7IS

cd cd cd

71'

a a) E E a) 1::). a) 0

"-15, (3) C•11 O "0

O • +.4 •-• ■

Q t.0 • a) 1—

5

Ti a)

bA 4.4

Ti• 00

From the above table in which the empirical data and the theoretical framework are given, the

researcher arrived at several conclusions. Although the empirical data and the experts appear to

be in agreement the nature and extent of student involvement in curriculum development, in some

cases divergent cases views exist. This will be discussed in terms of the various phases of

curriculum development, namely, curriculum design, curriculum dissemination, curriculum

implementation and curriculum evaluation.

4.3.1 Curriculum design

The empirical data show that students must be involved to ensure that the curriculum is relevant

to the needs and aspirations of the students. Quite similarly, the theoretical framework as availed

by experts show that students must be involved as they are part and parcel of the client system.

Students as consumers of the curriculum must be involved. On this basis, it can be concluded that

students must be involved to ensure that the curriculum is relevant to their needs as they are the

people who have to utilise the curriculum.

The importance of students's needs and interests implies that students must participate during

decision-making on the principles of curriculum design from situational/need analysis up to

evaluation of the didactic activities. The significance of the issue of relevancy lies in that it shows

that curriculum development must have a clear and communicable purpose which is relevant to

the students. Relevance therefore becomes one of the vital guideline in curriculum development.

An interesting observation from the empirical data is that students view themselves as

professionals and included professional consideration as one of the reasons for involvement as

already discussed in paragraph 3.4.2. However this issue is not corroborated in the column where

the conceptual framework is summarised. Students are rather perceived as potential initiators and

reactors to curriculum than as professionals. Professionalism is confined to teachers and experts

who have received thorough training and have experience in curriculum theory and practice

already discussed 3.4 above. It can be concluded that the basic demand for curriculum

development at colleges of education is that a particular level of curriculum theory, ability and

knowledge is necessary for all participants, students in particular. The research is based on initial

85

teacher training which can hardly be expected to develop the mastery of specialised theoretical

and practical knowledge fundamental to rational curriculum development. This requires a specific

level of empowerment in terms of curriculum theory and practice for successful implementation

at both the college and classroom levels. Thus, the other guiding principle derivable from the

comparative table above is that the level of development and maturity of students must be taken

into cognisance during their involvement in curriculum development

Both the empirical data and the theoretical framework appear to be in agreement about the

importance of consultation during curriculum development. However the empirical data and the

theoretical framework mention interviews and questionnaires as the effective means of consulting

students about curriculum affairs indicates. The experts, as depicted in the framework identify

observation of student behaviour as a form of determining student's needs and aspirations.

Consultation through mere observation is more unlikely to render students to be passive

participants. It can be concluded that curriculum development demands consultation in which

students will be active role-players than passive sources of information.

4.3.2 Curriculum dissemination

There is an apparent agreement between the empirical data and what the experts say in that in

both cases curriculum committees are taken as one of the viable way for involvement in

curriculum development. The difference lies in that the empirical data stresses student involvement

through curriculum committees. The experts in curriculum studies on the other hand confine the

role of curriculum committees to skilled persons in representative committees. Students are still

trainees who lack the necessary experience and knowledge for curriculum development. It can be

concluded that students can make meaningful contributions during curriculum dissemination

through committees provided that they are empowered with theory and practice about curriculum

issues. Such knowledge about the curriculum theory and practice is fundamental for effective

curriculum dissemination like in the preceding phase of curriculum development.

86

The empirical data shows that curriculum development must occur through subject committees.

The experts on the other hand emphasise the importance of general group involvement

comprising lecturers, educational authorities, students and parents as well as other members of

the community. Thus, subject committees are limited to knowledgable and skilled people, of

which students are not. It is therefore deduced that curriculum development cannot be confined

to professional people only. Curriculum development is a group activity comprised of both the

experts and the ordinary non-professional people. Such group activity is more likely to occur at

the meso-level.

The empirical data also indicates the importance of workshops, seminars and conferences as a

way of student involvement, especially during curriculum dissemination. The theoretical frame-

work also considers seminars, workshops and conferences as a means of involving participants

in curriculum development but such participation is limited to teachers and experts. Therefore

workshops, seminars and conferences can be taken as some of the possible ways through which

student involvement can be accelerated, especially as a way of disseminating information about

the envisaged curriculum.

In addition, both the empirical data and the theoretical framework allude to the fact that students

must participate through the student representative councils. The student representative councils

must make contributions on behalf of the students. This is more likely to takes place at the meso-

level.

4.3.3 Curriculum implementation

The empirical data refers to inclusive decision-making as one of the driving force behind student

involvement. The theoretical framework on the other hand articulates the development of sound

relationships between students and lecturers as a rationale for student participation in curriculum

development at colleges of education. The quality of co-operation during decision-making on the

objectives, content, methods or evaluation will necessarily influence the quality of curriculum

development. Curriculum development is therefore an inclusive process which promotes sound

relationships amongst the participants during the implementation phase. This then become another

87

critical guideline for effective and efficient curriculum implementation for colleges of education.

The issue of inclusivity and co-operation amongst participants is therefore an important factor

for successful curriculum implementation at colleges of education.

The empirical data raises the question of legitimacy and ownership in curriculum development.

The theoretical framework has constitutional obligations as some of the critical issues in

curriculum development. On the basis of this comparison it can be concluded that curriculum

development must be characterised by active and democratic involvement by all stakeholders,

especially students. This is necessarily so, so that students can accept the curriculum as theirs.

Hence students have constitutional obligations to participate so that they can conceive of the

curriculum as their product that they have to support and defend at all costs. Students will be

bound to accept the curriculum as legitimate and theirs. It therefore flows from the table that

curriculum development must meet the criterion of legitimacy and ownership for a successful

implementation phase. Column C bears testimony to this commonality between the research data

and the theoretical framework.

Student involvement in the form of apprenticeship is reflected in both the column for the empirical

data and the column the theoretical framework. It can be inferred from both the empirical data and

the theoretical framework that curriculum development includes both the theory and practice.

Thus, the hands-on experience acquired during apprenticeship and internship is likely to enhance

the theory and vice-versa. In short curriculum development encompasses both theory and practice

which can be integrated during the implementation phase.

4.3.4 Curriculum evaluation

The empirical data emphasises the formation of partnership with other institutions of higher

learning. The reasons for partnership is to ensure that there is vertical and horizontal articulation

among institutions. The theoretical framework on similar note, shows that curriculum develop-

ment must ensure flexibility and responsiveness to societal needs. It can therefore be concluded

that curriculum evaluation is a never-ending and a comprehensive process that demands constant

assessment of college curriculums in terms of what other institutions are doing.

88

Curriculum evaluation never stops and ongoing evaluation is imperative as it leads to adaptations

and improvements to suite the rising needs among institutions themselves. The need for

partnership is directly related to curriculum evaluation as it will promote acceptance,

accreditation and recognition of courses undertaken in a particular institution by the other.

Curriculum evaluation begins with a critical look of the existing curricula and reorganisation

follows when new partnership is formed.

The theoretical framework shows that curriculum developers are mainly researchers. Students

are viewed as researchers who are busy identifying strong and weak points which serve as a base

for feedback (evaluation phase) or adaptation and improvement, especially during the

implementation phase. Students are therefore engaged in problem-solving as they are involved in

curriculum debates. This observation is never raised in the empirical data in column A; which

shows that they are unaware of their role as researchers in curriculum. It is therefore becomes

acceptable in this study that students have to assume the role of being researchers during the

evaluation phase.

From the integration of the empirical data and the theoretical framework above, it emerged that

curriculum development is an ongoing and dynamic process within which there are a variety of

role-players. Those having an interest in the curriculum have consciously or unconsciously

followed a particular framework in regard to curriculum development which may also determine

the nature of their involvement.

4,4 FINDINGS

The findings of the study are solely based on questions two and three as stated in chapter one

and are as follows:

Question two: Would you like to be involved in improving college curricula and why ?

Question three: How would you like to be involved in improving college courses?

In comparing the student responses and literature review the researcher arrived at the following

89

conclusions based on these questions.

4.4.11 Reasons for student involvement in canrricuflum development

All students show that they want to be involved in curriculum development and several reasons

were forwarded which are:

ensuring relevancy in terms of student and community needs.

ensuring ownership and legitimacy of the college curricula.

forging cooperation and negotiation between students and lecturers.

for inclusivity as part of the client system.

professional considerations.

These categories have been discussed in detail in 3.5.2.2 above and will not be repeated here.

Despite some arguments against student participation, it has become acceptable in many circles

that like all other stakeholders, students have to be involved as consumers; as people who can

make valuable judgement and as part of their constitutional rights as guaranteed in the new

constitution of the Republic of South Africa as already discussed in chapter two, paragraph 2.3

of this study.

An interesting finding in this study is that students also view themselves as professionals and

included professional considerations as another reason for their involvement. It has been

discovered that students perceive themselves as having some professional obligations that

necessitate their participation in curriculum matters as already discussed in paragraph 3.4.2.2.

Although this issue is not corroborated by other literature studies on participants in curriculum

development, it nevertheless reflect how contestable, competitive and emotional are the various

stakeholders with regard to the roles of one another. Thus, it has been discovered in this study

that students can also make contributions like all other people as long as their level of

development and maturity are taken into cognisance.

4.4.2 Guidelines for student involvement during curriculum development

90

With regard to the question " how " students want to be involved during curriculum development,

various guidelines are suggested.

(I) It has emerged from this study that students are not of part curriculum committees at colleges

of education and therefore they do not participate in curriculum development and where they do

they are merely consulted especially in peripheral and social issues as discussed in paragraph

3.4.2.3. It is in this context that students want to be represented in curriculum committees which

can serve as a way of their involvement during curriculum development, especially during the

curriculum dissemination phase as discussed in paragraph 4.3.2 above.

The study also show that students do not take part in seminars, conferences and workshops

about curriculum issues. In South Africa, at least up to now, seminars, conferences and

workshops are conducted for departmental officers, specialists and other professionals with the

total exclusion of college students. On the contrary, students are of the opinion that they need to

attend workshops, conferences and seminars on curriculum development at colleges of education

as alluded to in paragraph 3.4.2.3. This will afford them with avenues to take part during the

dissemination phase.

It is also revealed in this study that the system of apprenticeship has not yet been established

in colleges of education in the Northern Province. Students feel that they can be involved through

apprenticeship or internship so that they can have experience of the real work environment. The

practical experience that is likely to be gained will be utilised as reservoir for debates and inputs

in the later curriculum evaluation process at colleges of education in the Northern Province. In

this way students became involved during the implementation phase.

Another observation of the study is that student participation can be initiated and accelerated

through consultation amongst all stakeholders including students themselves. It also emerged from

this study that there is no formal consultation of students when curriculum is developed. The

study reveals that effective consultation should be in the form of questionnaires or interviews

than mere passive observation of individual students. Students are willing to participate actively

during the design phase as discussed in paragraph 4.3.1 above.

91

The study also indicates that curriculum development can be enhanced through institutional

visits whereby students will acquire new and divergent experiences in curricular issues as

discussed in the preceding paragraphs. As of now, visits to other institutions of higher learning

is largely limited to social and political activities, with no attention to curriculum issues. Students

need to visit other institutions so that they be able to compare and contrast the curriculums of at

colleges education and other institutions of higher learning.

It is also shown in this study that the students view the student representative council (SRC)

as a vehicle for disseminating information.

On the bases of these findings and observations from the study, recommendations are made on

student involvement during curriculum development at colleges of education in the Northern

Province.

4.5 RECOMMENDATIONS

The recommendations for this study are based on the sub-problems as stated in chapter one,

which are:

(I) Would you like to be involved in improving college courses and why?

(ii) How would you like to be involved in improving college courses?

The first finding of the study is that students want to be involved in curriculum development at

colleges of education and various reasons were advanced as discussed in paragraphs 3.4.2.1 and

3.4.2.2 respectively. This implies that students are ready to accept the challenge of participating

during curriculum development. It is therefore recommended that students must be involved in

all phases of curriculum development which are curriculum design, curriculum dissemination,

curriculum implementation and curriculum evaluation. Scoutt states that " There should be some

measure of agreement with students about what to learn, how to learn it, how to assess and how

well it has been learnt " (Scoutt;1995: 100).

Such involvement should occur at national level , provincial level, regional level, institutional

92

level (college) and the classroom levels.

The second recommendation is that students must receive training on curriculum development as

part of their pre-service or initial training. Teacher training programmes must include curriculum

development as one of its integral component. Students must be trained in the theory and practice

of curriculum development as part of their professional development. Initial teacher training must

also be seen as part of continued teacher education and training. There must be a link between

pre-service teacher-training and in-service training. The Preset and the Inset must be linked in a

continuum of professional development. Curriculum development must be viewed as part of the

professional induction of students. Teacher training must be linked with the actual teaching

practice at various schools or world of work.

The third recommendation is that students should be provided with opportunities and channels

for active participation in a more formal and planned ways at all levels of curriculum development.

The ministry of education and other educational authorities both within colleges and outside

colleges. The ministry of education and educational authorities at colleges must be ready to afford

students with avenues for active participatory decision-making through the formation of

curriculum committees, seminars, meetings, conference, internship, partnership with other

institutions and media communication.

Thus, efforts should be made to ensure that students participate at all levels of curriculum

development which are the macro-level, the macro-level and the micro-level. However as

discussed in paragraph 2.7, student participation should be at the level of development of the

student. It is therefore becomes advisable for colleges that student participation be initiated and

intensified at classroom and college contexts so that the same can be done gradually to culminate

into participation at provincial and national levels.

The fourth recommendation is that student should be provided with a good support system like

clear communication, finance, infrastructure and materials for real student involvement. A support

system must also include continuous mutual contacts with the consumers to receive help, advice

and new ideas. This will help to create a climate within which security and trust figure strongly.

93

The provision of support service is therefore a pre-condition for effective student involvement

during curriculum implementation at colleges of education

The fifth recommendation is that students must be motivated to participate in research on

curriculum development with specific focus on the various phases like curriculum design,

curriculum dissemination, curriculum implementation and curriculum evaluation. In this way

students will be able to acquire skills, knowledge and experience in curriculum development.

Students like lecturers should be accorded the right to analyse and comment critically on their

classroom experience in a process of shared inquiry. Students will have their own concerns

regarding the relevance of the content and the appropriateness of the form of their education.

Action research opens up the space for them to voice these interests and for lecturers to develop

the means to give them pedagogical expression. Building trust and partnership in classrooms may

well impact positively on wider curriculum development at the macro-level and the micro-level,

making possible collaborative partnership in schools and the wider community. Nor should we

forget that students have their own entrenched understandings concerning the nature of college

and classroom work which may well undermine lecturers attempts to develop new curriculum

forms unless students are partners in the process of change.

Finally, it is also recommended that students must participate through the SRC at the whole

college when the entire college curriculum is developed. This will allow college curriculum

developers to discuss and negotiate on curriculum development. This means that curriculum

must be decentralised to allow for students to participate at both the meso-level and the micro-

level, especially during the dissemination phase as discussed in paragraph 43.2.

4.6 LIMRTATIONS OF T II! E STUDY

This research studies like all other researches also suffer from certain limitations derived from the

nature and scope of the work at hand.

The study is limited to the Northern Province and four group interviews were conducted within

94

this area. This is also due to economic consideration and limited time as this is a mini-dissertation

This led to limited time for capturing data and analysing data as well as writing the final report.

The study has some weaknesses in that it is confined to Blacks. The reason being that there is no

this area. This is also due to economic consideration and limited time as this is a mini-dissertation

This led to limited time for capturing data and analysing data as well as writing the final report.

The study has some weaknesses in that it is confined to Blacks. The reason being that there is no

teacher training college for mixed racial groups in the Northern Province.

The study is also limited by the fact that the research literature on student participation in

curriculum development is rather scarce and such work that has been published is concerned

primarily with student participation in social, cultural and political issues. Student participation

in curriculum development at colleges of education has on the whole received little attention

from academic researchers. The study relied much on international literature as the major source

of information on student participation.

4.7 STRENGTHS OF THE STUDY

The significance of this study lies in that it is the first type of research on student participation in

curriculum development at colleges of education in the Northern Province .

The strength of the study also lies in that it is qualitative research which rely on respondents' own

words and focuses on meaning than mere numbers of frequency distribution of answers to

research questions.

Another positive contribution of this study to research studies on participants in curriculum

development is that it challenges educational authorities at national, provincial and college levels

to provide opportunities for students to participate in curriculum development so as to empower

them for professional and social development as well as economic advancement of their own

country.

The study is also valuable in that it is also applicable to all students in South African colleges of

education and indeed to other parts of the world rather than the Northern Province only.

95

The research is also a contribution to research methodology as discussed in chapter two and

shows the interrelationship between theory and practice in curriculum development. The research

also demonstrates how to infuse theory into practice through curriculum development.

The research is also valuable in that it cuts along ethnic divides as colleges appeared to be ethnic

sensitive and distributed on ethnic-geographical patterns of the former homelands and self-

governing territories in the Northern Province.

More importantly, the research can also serve as a source for curriculum development. The

student may be involved in classroom curriculum development as well as being an intelligent

consumer of the curriculum. It therefore behoves the college students to recognise this and

connect their curriculum knowledge to their daily classroom activities.

4.8 RECOMMENDATIONS (FOR FURTHER STILJN]ES

Three recommendations are provided for further studies .

It is recommended that further studies on student participation at colleges of education in

curriculum development be conducted in and across all provinces in South Africa.

In addition, further study has to be made on student involvement in curriculum development in

higher institutions like universities and technicons.

One of the additional questions that urgently needs to be researched is the one matching the

conceptual demands of the curriculum to the conceptual development of college students. The

reservation informing this perception lies in the concern that the nature and extent of student

participation lies in the level of the development and maturity of the students.

4.9 CONCLUSION

It has emerged from this study that students want to be involved in curriculum development.

96

Students who want to improve the college curriculum will find a range of approved practices in

the educational literature. There is a number of practices on which recognised authorities agree.

Providing learners with opportunities for applying skills in a variety of meaningful situations is one

of approved practice. Another acceptable practice will be to involve learners in curriculum

design, dissemination, implementation and curriculum evaluation as long as that participation is

in accordance with the level of development and capacity of the students.

Educational authorities are therefore challenged to open up channels of student involvement

whereas students are also challenged to participate in order to develop college curricula relevant

to their needs and those of the new democratic society. Otherwise this clarion call will just remain

a rhetoric amongst all role players in curriculum development.

97

LIOGRAPIEW

ABRAMSON, M; BIRD, J. & STENNET, T. eds. 1996: Further and Higher Education

Partnerships: The future of collaboration. Hong Kong: The Society for Research into

Higher Education.

ALTRICHTER, H; POSCH, P. & SOMMEKH, B. 1993: Teachers investigate their work: An

introduction to the methods of action research. London : Routledge.

APPLE, M. W. 1990: Ideology and curriculum. New York: Routledge.

ANON. 1994: Curriculum development. The New Teacher 2 (1), p. 6- 7.

ASPIN, D; N; CHAPMAN, J. D. & WILKINSON,V. R.1994: Quality schooling: A pragmatic

approach to some current problems, topics and issues. London: Cassell.

BAYONA, E. L. M. 1995: Curriculum design and development. The role of teachers. Gaborone:

Lentswe la Lesedi.

BARNES, D. 1985: Practical curriculum study. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

BEANE, J. A. 1990: Affect in the curriculum: Towards democracy, dignity and diversity. New

York: Teacher College Press.

BEHR, A. L. 1993: Empirical research methods for human sciences: An introduction text for

students of education, psychology and the social sciences. Durban: Butterworths.

BESTER, S. & OLIVER, A.1992: Psychology of education research methodology.

BIRD, J. 1996: Black students and higher education: Rhetorics and realities. Buckingham: The

Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.

BOYER, L. E. 1996: Priorities for quality school. The Education Journal : Outstanding articles

condensed for quick review, 2(1), p. 4 - 15.

BLAKE, D; HANLE Y; V. JENNINGS, S. & LLYOD, M. eds, 1995: Researching school-

based teacher education. London: Anthenaneum Press.

BLIGHT, D. 1990: Higher education. Guilford: Cassell.

BLOM, M. A. 1990: Die probleme van onderwysers in die implementering van vakkurrikulums.

Johannesburg: Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit (M.ED. dissertation).

BOOMER, G ; LESTER, N; ONORE, C. & COOK, J. eds. 1992: Negotiating the curriculum.

Educating for the twenty-first century. London: The Falmer Press.

BRAUSE, R. & MAYHER, J. eds. 1991: Search and re-search: What the inquiring teacher needs

98

to know. Bristol: The Falmer Press.

BRIDGES, D; & KERRY, T. eds. 1993: Developing teachers professionally. London:

Routledge.

BURDEN, A.1996: Foundational perspective for a new teacher education dispensation.

Johannesburg: Juta & Company Publishers.

BURGESS, R. S. ed. 1993: Research methods: Issues in sociology. Hong Kong: Thomas

Welson.

CALABRESE, R. L. 1996: Teaching to be part of a democratic society. The Educational

Digest, 59(1), p. 57-160.

CARL, A. E. 1995: Teacher empowerment through curriculum development: Theory into

practice. Kenwyn: Creda Press.

CARL, A. E. 1986: Onderwysbetrokkenheid by kurrikulumontwikkeling in die Republiek van

Suid-Afrika. Stellenbosch: Universiteit van Stellenbosch (D. ED-proefskrif).

CARSPECKEN, P. F. 1996: Critical ethnography in educational research: A theoretical and

practical guide. New York: Routledge.

CHITTY, C. ed. 1993: The national curriculum: Is it working? Essex: Longman.

CHRISTIE, P. 1985: The right to learn: The struggle for education in South Africa. Goodwood:

Raman Press.

CLOETE, N. 1994: Reconstructing higher education in South Africa: Selected papers.

Johannesburg: United Democratic Union of South Africa Policy Forum.

COMMITTEE OF HEADS OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS (CHED) 1991: Discussion

document: Curriculum model for teacher education. Pretoria: Committee of Heads of

Education Department

COMMITTEE ON TEACHER EDUCATION POLICY (COTEP) February 1996: Norms and

standards for teacher education. Pretoria: Department of Education.

CONNELY, F. M.& CLANDININ, D. J. 1988: Teachers as curriculum planners: Narratives

of experience. New York: Teachers College Press.

COSSIER, E. ed. 1991: Education for life: The challenge of schooling for all. Johannesburg:

Creid Press.

COSTA, A. L. & LIEBMANN, R. M. eds. 1997: Envisioning process as content: Towards a

Renaissance curriculum. Thousand Oaks: Orwin Press.

99

COUNTS, A. 1996: Empower the teacher. First edition. Johannesburg: International Thomas

Publishing.

CRESSWELL, J. W. 1994: Research design: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. California:

Sage Publishers.

CRONIN, J. 1994: Tertiary education in crisis. The student: Journal of the South African

Students Congress April 1994, p. 13-14.

CROSS, M. & SCHOOLS, T. 1996: Rethinking the future of teacher education in South

Africa: The role of partnership. Johannesburg: Frontline Graphics & Printing.

COTTON, J. 1995: The theory of assessment. London: Kogan College.

DAHLIN, P. 1991: School development: How schools improve. New York: Castile.

DAVIDOFF, S. ed 1993: Emancipatory education and action research. Pretoria: Human Science

Research Council.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION & TRAINING, 1995: Education and training in a

democratic South Africa: First steps to develop a new system. Pretoria: Department of

Education.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, 1995: White paper on Education and training, Notice No.

19 of 1995, Government Gazette No. 16312 of 1995. Cape Town: Parliament of the

Republic of South Africa.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, 1996: The organisation, governance and funding of schools.

Pretoria: Department of Education.

DOLL, R. 1992: Curriculum development: Decision- making and process. Sixth edition. New

York: Allyn & Bacon.

DOLL, R. 1996: Curriculum development: Decision making and process. Eighth edition. Boston:

Allyn & Bacon.

DUBE, E.V. 1989: Black youth in Daveyton. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University (M.Ed.

dissertation).

DUMINY, P.A; STEYN, P. D. G ; DREYER, H. J. ; VOS, A. J. & PETERS V.M.1992:

Education for student teachers 3. Cape Town: Maskew Miller.

EISNER, W. E. 1994: The educational imagination on the design of evaluation of school

programs. Third edition. New York: MacMillan.

EATON, J. S. 1991: Encouraging transfer: Its impact on community colleges. The education:

100

American 2000 in the schools, metaphors for education. September 1991, p. 62-78.

EGGLESTON, J. 1992: Introduction to education: The challenge for teachers. London: Biddies.

FRASER, W. J. , LOUBSER, C. P. & Van Rooy, M. P. 1993: Didactics: For the undergraduate

student. Second edition. Durban: Butterworths.

FERN, L. 1995: Curriculum as a component of a teacher training programme. Johannesburg:

Rand Afrikaans University (M.ED. dsisertation).

FREEMAN, D. ed. 1993: New ways in teacher education. Illnois: TELSOL.

GALL, D. M; BORG, W. R. & GALL, J. P. 1996: Educational Research: An introduction

Sixth edition. New York: Longman Publishers.

GARNER, W. E. 1995: Developing a quality teaching force for the United Arab Emirates:

Mission improbable. Journal of Education for Teaching, (21)3, p.289-301.

GERBER, R; WILLIAMS, M. & BILLMAN, 0. 1995 : Curriculum studies: A Journal of

Educational Discussion and Debate (1), p. 283-292.

GLATTHORN, A. 1994: Developing a quality curriculum. Alexandria: Association for

Supervision and Curriculum Development.

GAY, L. R. 1992: Educational research: Social sciences, humanities and educational sciences.

Fourth edition. New York: Maxwell-Macmillian International.

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE 1995: Republic of South Africa: White Paper on Education and

Training. Cape town: Department of Education.

GOZO, B. E. 1996: Impediments to the study of teacher effectiveness with specific reference to

South Africa. Thohoyandou: South African Society for Education.

HAIVIMERSKY, M. & HARGREAVES, 1993: Curriculum practice: Some ideological case

studies. New York: The Falmer Press.

HAWRTHONE, K. 1992: Crisis and challenges: Black education 1910-1990. Cape Town:

Oxford University Press.

HENDERSON, J. G. & HAWTHORNE, R. D. 1995: Transformative curriculum leadership.

Third edition. Englewood: Prentice-Hall.

HEYNS, C.; MOKWENA, L. & NCHOLO, P. eds. 1993: Towards a South African student

volunteers organisation. Pretoria: Centre for Human Rights.

HOPKINS, D & ANTES 1990: Educational research: A structure for enquiry. Third edition.

New York: F. E. Peacock Publishers.

101

HUMAN SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL (HRSC)1981: Commission of investigation into

provision of education in the RSA: Reports of the work committee of educational

management. Pretoria: Human Science Research Council.

INGLES, F. 1995: Cultural studies and the education of the citizens. Curriculum studies: A

Journal of Educational Discussion and Debate, 3(1), p. 5-7.

INGRAM, J. & WORRAL, N.1993: Teacher-child partnership: The negotiating classroom.

London: David Fulton Publishers.

JACOBSZ, J. M. 1995: Geriegtigheid en regverdigheid as demokratiese beginsel: Implikasies

vir die onderwyser. Johannesburg: Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit.

JACKSON, P. W. ed. 1992: A handbook of research curriculum: A project of the American

Education Research Association. New York: Macmillian Company.

JAFF, R; RICE, M; HOFMEYER, J. & HALL, G. 1996: The national teachers audit: The

colleges of education, Report for the Department of Education. Auckland Park: National

Business Initiative.

JANSEN, J. 1990: Curriculum in a Post-Apartheid Dispensation: Pedagogy of domination:

New Jersey: Africa World Press.

JEBOAH, S. K. 1996: Teacher education: Reconstructing the curricular of teacher colleges in

South Africa in the year 2000 and beyond. South African Society for Education, Royal Swazi

Education Conference, 30 August - 01 September 1996. Johannesburg: Frontline Graphics

& Printing.

JONES, K. 1996: Across the great divide: Economic life and the rethinking of education policy.

Curriculum studies: A Journal of Educational Discussion and Debate 3(3), p. 227-250.

KEMBER, D.& KELLY, M. 1993: Improving teaching through action research: Herdsa Green

Guides no.14. Australia: Higher Education Research & Development Society of Australia.

KIMBELL, R. 1994: Progression in learning attainments in technology: International Journal

of Technology and Design., 4(1), p. 65-84.

KICHELOE, J. L. 991: Teachers as researchers: Qualitative inquiry as a path to empowerment.

London: The Falmer Press.

KOLLER, J. F. 1993: Professionele versus hierargiese gesag op mikrovlak in die onderwysers.

Johannesburg: Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit (M.ED-proefskrif).

102

KOUCKY, J. 1996: Educational reforms in changing societies: Central Europe in the period of

transition. Educational reforms in Central and Eastern Europe: European Journal of

Education, Research, Development and Policies 31(1) p.46-57.

KOUTSELINL M. 1997: Contemporary trends and perspectives of the curriculum: Towards a

meta-modern paradigm for curriculum. Curriculum studies: A Journal of Educational

Discussion and Debate 5(1), p. 93-94.

KRUGER, R. A. & MULLER, E.C.C. 1987: Lesstruktuur en onderwyssukses. Johannesburg:

Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit.

LABUSCHAGNE, A. J. J. 1996: Vryheid, verdraagsaamheid en die regte van minderhede in 'n

demokrasie: Implikasie vir die onderwyser. Johannesburg: Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit

(M. ED-proefskrif).

LAWTON, D. & GORDON, P. 1993: Dictionary of education. Tottenham: Hodder Stoughton.

LALENDLE, L. L.1995: Transformation of tertiary institutions in a post Apartheid South

Africa. Windhoek: Southern African Society for Education.

LEURS, G. 1991: The responsibilities of colleges of education to students and school with

regard to the role of school management. Johannesburg: Rand Afriaans University (M. ED.

dissertation).

LONGSTREET, W. S. & SHANE, H. G. 1993: Curriculum for a new millennium. Boston:

Allyn & Bacon.

MADIGOE,M. A. 1993: Development through SRC's in Black Schools. Johannesburg: Rand

Afrikaans University (M.ED. dissertation).

McCULLOCH, M. & FIDDLER, B. eds.1994: Improving initial teacher training? New roles

for teachers, schools and higher education. Trowbridge: Longman.

MACKENZIE, G.; POWELL, J. & USHER, R. eds. 1997: Understanding social research:

Perspectives on methodology. London: The Falmer Press.

McNEIL, J. 1995: Curriculum: The teachers initiative. Englewood-Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

McNEIL, J. 1996: Curriculum: A comprehensive introduction. Los Angels: Harper-Collins

College Publishers.

MALAN, B. 1997: Excellence through outcomes. First edition. Pretoria: Kagiso Publishers.

MARSH, C. J. 1992: Key concepts for understanding curriculum. London: The Falmer Press.

103

MARSHALL, C.& ROSSMAN, G.B.1995: Designing qualitative research. Second edition.

Carlifonia: Sage Publication.

MASHELE, A.E.1995: The training of Black technical teachers at colleges of education: A

management perspective. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University (M.ED. Dissertation).

MASITSA, G.1993: Principals as leaders: An American perspective. Educamus 39(2)12.

Pretoria: Department of Education and Training.

MATHE, M. M. 1991: Problems encountered by Black pupils in Mathematics. Johannesburg

Rand Afrikaans Unversity (M.ED. dissertation).

MOUTON, J. & MARAIS, H. C. 1990: Basic concepts in the methodology of the social

sciences. Pretoria: Human Science Research Council.

MONOBE, R. J. 1997: Transformation in teacher training: The challenges of institutions in

producing teachers in " scarce subject ". Thohoyandou: University of Venda.

MORRIS, G. 5.1996: Contemporary curriculum K-8. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

MOTSOALEDI, P. A. 1996: The penetration of new technologies into developing countries:

Cultural hegemony or mutual exchange. Pietersburg: Department of Education (Northern

Province).

MUKHAVHULI, S.W. 1989: A case study of the classroom experience of the First Year

Teacher in Senior Primary School. Thohoyandou: University of Venda (M.ED dissertation).

NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY INVESTIGATION (NEPI)1992: Curriculum: Reports

of the NEPI Curriculum Research Group. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE (NICE)1997: Submission to the

National Commission on further education. Pretoria: National Institute for education in

association with the National Coordinating Committee (NCC).

NIEBUR, G.A. 1996: The National Qualification Framework (NQF) discussion document: A

framework for transformation. Pretoria: Department of Education.

NOEL, H.C. 1994: The curriculum of Model C Schools: An evaluation by parents and Black

pupils. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University (M.ED. dissertation).

NOVAK, J. M. ed. 1994: Democratic teacher education programs, process, problem and

prospects. New York: State University of New York Press.

NEUWMAN, S. , HAGEDORN, T. ,CELANO, D. & DALY, P. 1995: Towards a collaborative

approach to parent involvement in early education: A study of teenage mothers in an

104

African-American community. American Educational Research Journal 32(4), p. 80-827.

NIEUWENHUIS, F.J. & MAMABOLO, M. Z. 1995: The rationalisation of teacher training in

the Northern Province. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council.

O'HEAR, P. & WHITE, J. 1993: Assessing the national curriculum. Newcastle: Anthenaeum

Press.

ORNSTEIN, P & HUNKINS, F. 1993: Curriculum foundations, principles and theory. Second

edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

PRATT, M. 1993: Curriculum planning: A handbook for professionals. Fortworth: Harcourt-

Brace Publishers College.

PROVINCIAL GAZZETTE DECEMBER 1995: Northern Province 2(123) 15 December 1995,

p.15-16. Pietersburg: Government Printer.

PRINT, M. 1993: Curriculum development and design. Second edition. Sydney: Unwin.

RAUTENBACH, W. 1992: The crucial role of technical and vocational education in the

restructuring of education in South Africa: educational alternatives. Kenwyn: Juta &

Company.

RHODES, B. G. 1985: Discovery learning in the training of teachers: A situational analysis.

Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University (M.ED. dissertation).

REID, W. A. 1992: The pursuit of the curriculum: schooling and public interests. New Jersey:

Ablex Publishing Company.

RICHARD, V. S. 1996: Evaluation responsibilities of teachers. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans

: University (M.ED. dissertation).

ROBIN & McGREGOR, A. eds. 1992: McGregor's education alternatives: The Rastica.

RUDESTAM, K. E. & NEWTON, R. R. 1995: Surviving your dissertation: a comprehensive

guide to content and process. London: Sage Publications.

SALMON, C. & WOODS, C. A. 1991: Colleges of education, challenging the cliche'. Durban:

Education Research Unit.

SALMON, C. 1991: Democratising teacher colleges in Kwazulu. Intoducing new Mathlasedi

10(1) December 1991 p. 71-73.

SAYLOR, J. G. & ALEXANDER, W. M. 1994: Planning curriculum for schools. New York:

Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

105

SCOUTT, D 1995: An overview series: Northern Province. Johannesburg: The Educational

Foundation.

SEKELEKO, J.B. 1997: Curriculum and society: An employer's perspective. Johannesburg:

Afrikaans University ( M.ED. dissertation).

SPACKMAN, F. 1991: Teachers professional responsibilities. London: David Fulton Publishers.

SOWELL, E. J. 1996: Curriculum: An integrative introduction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

STANFELD, R.M.W. 1993: Race and ethnicity in research methods. Carlifornia: Sage

Publications.

STRAUSS, A & CORBIN, J. 1996: Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory, procedures

and techniques. London: Sage Publications.

TANNER, D. & TANNER, L. 1995: Curriculum development: Theory into practice. Third

edition. Egglewood: Prentice-Hall.

TESCH, R. 1990: Qualitative research: Analysis types and software tools. New York: The

Falmer Press.

THE OXFORD DICTIONARY 1991: Third edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

THE NATIONAL TEACHERS AUDIT, 1995: The National Teacher Education Report.

University Sector.

THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION (NCHE) April 1996:

Discussion document: Framework for transformation. Pretoria: Department of Education.

TROYNA, B. 1993: Racism and education. Buckingham: Open University Press.

UNTERHALTER: 1991: Apartheid education and popular struggles. Johannesburg: Raman

Press.

VAN DER VYVER, J. ed. 1996: South African Society for Education(SASE): A second

selection of paper from annual conference. Johannesburg: South African Society for

Education

VAN DALEN, D. B. & MEYER, W. J. 1996: Understanding educational research: An

introduction. Enlarged revised edition. New York: Mcgraw-Hill.

VAN RENSBURG, S. J. 1997: Gender issues in curriculum development for technology

education in South Africa. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University (M. ED. dissertation).

VERMEULEN, L. M. 1997: Curriculum 2005: Outcome-based education and the curriculum:

106

A duide for teachers, students and parents. Vanderbijlpark: Potcherfstroom University for

Christian Education.

WALKER, W. & SOLTIS, J. F. 1995: Thinking about education. London: Teachers College

Press.

WEITZMAN, E. A. & MILES, M. B. 1995: A software source book: Computer programmes

for qualitative data analysis. London: Sage Publications.

WITROCK, M. C. 1990: Research in teaching and learning: Student's thought processes, 3(2),

p. 4-42.

107

.2 0 (4.4

4) tn 4' 4.))

cd ,A

z 0

0 0 4... 7-1.) 0 ow

.— -0 0

0

[=4 (g)

cd a) En a) 1)

a) 1:4

ri)

v

0

0

4)

(.1)

5 a -0 0

00 cd

0 5

N C/1

4-6

.9 6

4=‘) 0 O 5 4'

t".4) 8 0 4)

C..) I OD

g=i

r.4

z

I

o 0

cd

(1) 4.4 -0

ts$ 1„)

cd 5 5 0

a DA 0 r. I

Stud

ents

to p

artic

ipat

e - S

ubje

ct c

omm

ittee

s St

uden

ts c

an p

artic

ipat

e

thro

ugh:

- M

eeti

ng b

etw

een t

hrou

gh:

prac

tica

ls s

tude

nts,

lec

ture

rs a

nd - W

ritte

n su

bmis

sion

s

- Vis

iting

indu

stri

es p

aren

ts - S

RC

- Wor

ksho

ps - M

eeti

ng w

ith M

EC

- I

nter

view

s

- SR

C - D

iscu

ssio

n pr

oble

m- - C

onfe

renc

es

- Que

stio

nnai

res so

lvin

g - S

emin

ars

Part

-tim

e jo

bs - S

emin

ars p

artic

ipat

ion - S

ubje

ct c

om

mitt

ees

- Int

ervi

ews

by a

ll st

akeh

olde

rs - C

o-op

erat

ion

betw

een

Sem

inar

s - S

RC

stud

ents

and

lect

urer

s

- C

o-op

erat

ion - Q

uest

ionn

aire

- C

onta

ct w

ith th

e - R

adio

de

part

men

t of e

duca

tion

- Com

paris

on - Q

uest

ionn

aire

s - I

nter

view

s

Que

stio

n 3

Stud

ents

can

par

ticip

ate

thro

ugh

the

follo

win

g w

ays:

- Cur

ricu

lum

com

mitt

ees

- Que

stio

nnai

res

- Su

bjec

t com

mitt

ees

- Mee

ting

with

lect

urer

s - M

eetin

g w

ith M

EC

- W

orks

hops

-

Sem

inar

s

AD

DE

ND

UM

►.

,.., s-., .-

g E = 4- o 0 ,,, x a? 0 4-,

a) c) a) ct)

0 to •,0 t+-■ a? rn C4-4 4.4 to tO > 0 0 0 0 03 cr3 = = 0 -5

. 4-. -I-,

5 a- 42. .g ..Ep`u .1 • - :E F., 0 OA cl) -66 .,- -9 0 cd cel cn

.-1- 0 3:1. • s_. " 0 a) a) -) a) En E--1 •tt 0 -< 0 = H = En Z

.----, a) 14 --, w) .

C.) -4- . &)

45 0 = a.) a) .... a) .0

E w z 45 > 0 0 g cn .- ,; -a- .0 4 >-, ' c78 0 = a) E o ri) ›-, cd .— >. •o o c,'„,, 0 0 ..o I. = ‘-' 0 — In. ...E. 0 a) c,..) o .4=, Tzi -0 0 0. IS _ ›-• >-■ 0 tDA •-e, X cn E i rn g ala.) ..=.8

..,..,. . Q., = to 0 cl.) = cn E = 7.4 - = ou -ti — 0 o r.,,, rn =

t ) 0 .4., 4.-. • ..., -4-' cu -4-t 4- z O z — ct -5.,,-4zzcd cts6 0 *-"-° -50

E g -) • : -- 0 •._, • cd •._ E c.) 0L)0-4,=, •E 0 = 4.1 0') 5 -9-t -15 0 -1 -. a) • - 0 0 0u+ 0 C. -1= ei) -. .4 (f) 9 R•ral PS C.2 P4 > c..) A (.7 CY v) v)

tO 0 -c-)1 -0

00..)

cc3 8 a) 0

PR

OB

LE

MS

Tec

hnic

al s

ubje

cts

e•-■ v? 0

lar 0

a 0 En

›, 0 c4.

c.) 0 0

a)

un V. En' a)

0 -.... 42 E 0 •- •-•

0 z — czt 0 .., ,,1 5 4- 0 (,)

,.s-, ....., .....„ r.„ = ` U)

6.i cd -5 7's ,—... 0 c+.5

cs ,.w ,..) 0 0. , -0 0 -7.: ---.. 0 ' 5 a)

Z , , , •

pa ..) 735 cn i

,_, i

o

cn u. '5 +6 3. 40') 0 o E ›,

0 0 0 •■••A 0

cn 7,5., 7,54 OD - cy: •,15 3- • - cn

c+4 .9 ch 0 -5 g czt 0 0 .1=1 174 .2 = u., c..) = a) +4

0 -0 0 +4 .....4) 4C) ..... Cl. Ci.) ....■ C.) I..4 0 E ' `` )4 E 0 t.'') 0. ••/-5 0_ = 0 p cd rn Clt cl 0 Sa. • -, X 0 0 ..= u. 0 0

't = V4 (..) H H H g r34

.§

4E4a)

i.5

E.5 a,

0 CCS « C...) CU

a.) cn a) a) c . —

-45.. 4- a.) • •t

-' >

c+E't as ..c •

•;-. E Cl) a)

72 . 0.. cu u, 3 ›, 0 cd

Gn a. ,.a* 1.4

0 c3 cu cn 0 '. 0 cu = P. -4.-2, = o r:4 cn 0 CC$ 0 --*

k' 6:1) = ... 4' a. a .-- c/9 a 2 0

.--. ,..., , ..... -4., C:1* "C) ..0 0 P 0 0 CA Cl. . 4.

= th 1■,4

= (+A .., :2 r ,..0 1 L.)

ca)

0

t... 0... c

et

a) tu - p 17

a) :743 a.) 1...

c.)

v) 0 a) rA 3 cu a) 1- ...4

C ct 0 c+Ei c14 op ..,.. ,... . — Q 4- = v... 0 ,.

a.) • — = - cn Vs ,....., ,...4C4 ed . ,,,,— 421.4 ..m.

> C4-4 c.) g 4.) a) cvs Q ct

,44

0 .. 0 . a 4

ta

a

r a 0 u .s c .....

t) 0 rp, 0 Cl) a.) 1,-. cn a) 1-_, eg 1-_t 8 , ..J > .... 0 _„--. ._

Z - .. CA 1_, ," A->

E-

ci), = sa. , — 0 w — .-te, Ch 0 0 = o 0

w 0

4 H H

z (I) c/D 1:4

AD

DE

ND

UM

C