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RESISTANCE TO CURRICULUM CHANGE AND IMPLEMENTATION
Kennedy (2005:15) indicates that teachers perceive change differently. This is acted out in different forms such as passively resisting change or aggressively undermining the required change. Curriculum change has to be managed because teachers generally fear and resist change which they perceive as a threat to their self interest. The officials and teachers can resist curriculum change as they may perceive it as a threat. Resistance is a negative reaction that occurs when people feel that their personal freedom is threatened. Kennedy (2005) is of the opinion that if an organisation has a track record of opposing change since they perceive that it might cost them much more than the amount they will gain, more care should be taken to design a gradual, non-threatening participation.
With every change process there is resistance because people are not sure of the level of change in respect to their future and comfort. Teachers also have a fear of the unknown and display an unwillingness to learn new skills. At this stage it is important that the Department of Education is actively attentive to the teachers’ needs and are able to clarify expectations. Curriculum change should be clearly explained in terms of the purpose of the change and the vision to be created or to
be nullified. To boost the morale of the teachers, learning area teachers should be capacitated and empowered by the Department of Education in the content that they have to teach to meet the curriculum demands. The course of action requires developing the competence of teachers, improving low morale, eliminating negative energy and resistance as well as dealing with a lack of commitment and lack of research (Hargreaves, 2003). Hargreaves (2005:11) and McLaughlin (1987:173) state that teachers are often recalcitrant and resistant when they are expected to implement the mandated curriculum change. Self- doubt, fear and loss of motivation trigger many emotional responses that cause resistance. Hargreaves (2005:11) argues that it is not just teachers’ personal task-perception and job motivation that are at stake. It has been found that teachers who resist curriculum change often have insufficient time or energy, or get very little reward or support locally for exercising discretion or for being innovative (Rowan & Miller, 2007:256).
ADAPTING TO CURRICULUM CHANGE
Teachers who have considerable knowledge and skills do not simply adapt or passively answer calls to embrace curriculum change. Policy makers need to recognise that teachers develop, define and reinterpret the curriculum. They are not merely involved in reproducing, interpreting and transforming policy through individual action or agency. Drake and Sherine (2006:182) state that when working with a complex, conceptually-rich curriculum, different teachers make different choices and adaptations. Teachers must balance multiple issues, including their own ideologies and past pedagogical practices, with a host of demands as they attempt to incorporate curriculum change. Top-down curriculum change disregards the power of teachers to mediate the process of change that needs their input.
Curriculum implementation and practice require mutual adaptation and time to grasp (Drake & Sherine, 2006:1830). Policy makers often misinterpret how teachers respond to change, as they often view teachers’ modifications or adaptations of externally-driven change as a corruption of the change effort (Leander & Osborne, 2008:44). Administrators need to be aware that teachers are not just responsive to their learners’ but are also highly responsive to many different audiences in their work. Since teachers work in a complex, conceptual-rich curriculum they make different choices and adaptations depending on their assessments. Transformation with reference to the curriculum should be a two-way issue, the initiative and the context, for enactment must be apparent in every step of the process. Teachers need to adapt and implement the policies accordingly (Datnow & Castellano, 2000:779). Adaptation to the policies pertains to their environment so that they can be innovative and be able to use the teaching strategies that suit their learners. This gives teachers sufficient discretion and autonomy to adapt their practices to their own classroom context (Rowan & Miller, 2007:255). Life Orientation teachers need to understand how the policy should be implemented. They need to be critical, reflexive and flexible to adapt to the changed curriculum in order to align it to their educational context.
CHAPTER 1:
BACKGROUND AND ORIENTATION
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 RATIONALE
1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.4 AIMS OF THIS STUDY
1.5 BACKGROUND
1.6 IMPLEMENTING OF LIFE ORIENTATION IN SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOLS
1.7 COMPLICATIONS AFFECTING THE INTENDED OUTCOMES
1.8 CURRICULUM CHANGE IN SCHOOLS
1.9 META-THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS
1.10 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
1.11 DEFINITION OF CONCEPTS
1.12 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1.13 DATA COLLECTION
1.14 DATA ANALYSIS
1.15 DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH POPULATION AND SAMPLING STRATEGIES
1.16 ETHICAL MEASURES
1.17 THE ORGANISATION OF THE THESIS
1.18 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 2:
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 RATIONALE FOR LIFE ORIENTATION AS A SCHOOL LEARNING AREA
2.3 OUTCOMES-BASED EDUCATION
2.4 SCOPE OF LIFE ORIENTATION
2.5 POLICY AND PRACTICE
2.6 TEACHERS’ REACTION TO CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION
2.7 TEACHERS’ SUPPORT AND CURRICULUM CHANGE IN SCHOOLS
2.8 WORKLOAD OF TEACHERS
2.9 TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REGARDING LIFE ORIENTATION
2.10 SUPPORT NEEDED FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A NEW CURRICULUM
2.11 TEACHERS’UNDERSTANDING, PURPOSE, PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES CONTAINED IN THE LIFE ORIENTATION CURRICULUM
2.12 TEACHERS’ UNDERSTANDING OF LIFE ORIENTATION CURRICULA
2.13 THEORETICAL FARMEWORK
2.14 “FRAMING” AS APPLIED TO THIS RESEARCH
2.15 LEARNING AREA IMPLEMENTATION
2.16 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 3:
RESEARCH DESIGN AND RESEARCH METHOD
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 INTERPRETATIVE NATURE OF THE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN
3.4 DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH POPULATION AND SAMPLING STRATEGIES
3.5 DATA COLLECTION
3.6 DATA ANALYSIS
3.7 LITERATURE CONTROL
3.8 ETHICAL MEASURES
3.9 MY ROLE AS A RESEACHER
3.10 QUALITY ASSURANCE OF THE RESEARCH
3.11 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 4:
RESEARCH DESIGN AND RESEARCH METHOD
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 ANALYSIS OF QUALITATIVE DATA
4.3 THEMATIC DISCUSSION
4.4 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 5:
SYNTHESIS OF THE FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 OVERVIEW
5.3 SYNTHESIS OF THE FINDINGS IN TERMS OF THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS
5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
5.6 LIMITATIONS
5.7 METHODOLOGICAL CRITIQUE
5.8 CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
