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Changing Curriculum: studies on outcomes-based education in South Africa (My New World) PDF

299 Pages·1999·17.27 MB·English
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Changing Curriculum Studies on Outcomes-based Education in South Africa EDITORS JONATHAN JANSEN PAM CHRISTIE Juta & Co Ltd First Published 1999 O Juta & Co, Ltd 1999 P 0 Box 14373, Kenwyn 7790 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. In terms of the Copyright Act 98 of 1978, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval sys- tem, without permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN 0 7021 5063 0 Typesetting by THED ESI(:NH OUSE Cover design by Warren Nelson Editing by Carol Balchin Printed and bound in South Africa by Creda Communications, Cape Town Preface The myth persists that scholarly work is a hermit-like activity in which bespectacled individuals lock themselves away in dimly lit rooms to emerge after long periods of time with the finished work. I doubt that this was ever true in the history of academic writing and it certainly does not reflect the origins and production of Changing Curriculum: Stdes on Outcomes-based Education in South Africa. It is for this reason that I acknowledge with gratitude the enormous contributions of the many different people who have made this work possible. I begin where most prefaces end. My sincere thanks to Shakila Thakurpersad, Programme Administrator in the Centre for Education Research, Evaluation and Policy (CEREP), where the original ideas for critical engagement with outcomes-based education was first hatched. Shakila is one of the most patient and critical readers of texts in production and played a very important role in editing chapters from different computer disks, communicating editorial decisions with authors, harassing authors to send the next version of their chapters, and keeping the project on course. Thank you, Shakila Within the Faculty of Education at the University of Durban-Westville (UDW), I have been privilegecl to work with several colleagues who are developing into world-class scholars. Their critical instincts, analytical strengths and social commitment lie behind the emergence of this writing project. It was here that the idea first surfaced to convene a. national conference on outconles-based education at ULW shortly after the state announced the :Jvent of this new curriculum to be introduced into all schools in January 1998. In retrospect, that conference launched some of the most sophisticated analyses and in-depth criticism of ORE by teachers, policy ;tnalysts, researchers, education offi- cials and our senior students. And the ideas and inventions from that conference inspired this book, Changing Cumiculum. 1 would therefore like to thank Enver Motala and Renuka Vithal for bringing the idea of such a conference to the attention of colleagues. And I thank Michael Sarnuel, Betty Govinden, Sbu Rayene, Rubby Dhunpath, Mafika Cele, Bususuwe (Peggy) Msimango, Naclira Manickchund, Reshma Sookraj for the critical engagement which inspired Inany of our writings on ORE and to plan for this book. I should also thank Garry Rosenberg, editor and publisher at Juta's, for his insightful and challenging contributions to the ideas in the early version of the manuscript and his craftful shaping of the final version of the book. It is rare in the publishing world to find a person who is not only an outstanding tnanager, hut also a very competent intellectual who ably engages authors and editors within their own fields of inquiry. I will remain gratefill to his influence well beyond the confines of the monograph. 1 thank my co-editor, Professor Patn Christie, with whom I share Inany curriculum battles from our joint chairpersonship of the NEPI (National Education Policy Investigation) Curriculum Committee, searching for curriculum policy specifications for the democratic movement in the early 1990s. I am delighted that we could con- tinue the partnership through this writing project. Pam's meticulous editing of the draft manuscripts and her engagement with the developing ideas behind Changing Cumiculum significantly enhanced the focus and quality of the final product. And I thank the contributing authors. Changing Cumiculum has been very fortunate to draw on some of South Africa's most distinguished education scholars. Drawn from different university campuses, non-governmental organisations, government departments, schools and research centres, each one of these contributors has been thorough and inventive in the ways in which they have prepared their individual contributions; and they have allowed a critical engagement with their developing ideas in ways that enriched the entire project - authors and friends, the same people. Finally, I would like to thank my family, my wife Grace and children Mikhail and Sara- Jane, for allowing me so much time in the late evening and early morning to enable this book to be completed. For my part, I dedicate this book to my beautiful and talented daughter, Sara-Jane, who entered Grade I in the year of OBE implementation. For her sake, and for the sake of all South Africa's children, I hope that OBE succeeds. Jonathan D Jansen University of Durban-Westville Changing Curriculum: Studies on Outcomes-based Education in South Africa SECTION A Chapter 1: Setting the Scene: Historiographies of Curriculum Policy in South Africa Jonathan D Jansen 3 SECTION B Chapter 2: Competing Education & Training Policy Discourses: A 'Systemic' versus 'Unit Standards' Framework Andre Kraak 2 1 Chapter 3: Positively Mystical: An Interpretation of South Africa's Outcomes-based National Qualifications Framework Roger Deacon & Ben Parker Chapter 4: Outcomes-based Education Has Different Forms Cliff Malcolm SECTION C Chapter 5: Critical Outcomes: Political Paradoxes Jane Skinner Chapter 6: Outcomes-based Education: Teacher Identity and the Politics of Participation Jean Baxen & Crain Soudien 131 Chapter 7: Why Outcomes-based Education Will Fail: An Elaboration Jonathan D Jansen 145 Chapter 8: The Implementation of OBET in South Africa: Pathway to Success or Recipe for Failure? Haroon Mahomed 157 Chapter 9: Critical Responses to 'Why OBE Will Fail' Mahomed Rasool 171 Chapter 10: Integrating Differences: Implications of an Outcomes+ based National Qualifications Framework for the Roles and Competencies of Teachers Ken Harley & Ben Parker 181 SECTION D INSIDEC LASSROOMS Chapter 11: 'A Very Noisy OBE': The Implementation of OBE in Grade 1 Classrooms Jonathan D Jansen 203 Chapter 12 : Outcomes-based Education: Issues of Competence and Equity in Curriculum and Assessment Ian Bellis 219 Chapter 13: A Destination Without a Map: Premature Implementation of Curriculum 2005? Emilia Potenza & Mareka Monyokolo Chapter 14: Outcomes-based Assessment: The Need for a Common Vision of What Counts and How to Count It Meg Pahad 247 SECTION E INSIGHTSIM, PLICATIONS Chapter 15: OBE and Unfolding Policy Trajectories: Lessons to be Learned Pam Christie SECTION A Introduction, Overview Thisp age intentionally left blank CHAPTER 1 Setting the Scene: Historiographies of Curriculum Policy in South Africa JONATHAN D JANSEN UNIVERSITY OF DURBAN-WESTVILLE The precise date and sequence of events leading to the introduction of outcomes- based education (OBE) into South Africa's education and training system are not clear; what is clear, however, is that since the mid-1990s OBE has triggered the single most important curriculum controversy in the history of South African edu- cation. Not since the De Lange Commission Report of the 1980s (Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) 1981),h as such a fierce and public debate ensued - not only on the modalities of change implied by OBE, but on the very philosophical vision and political claims upon which this model of education is based. It is timely, therefore, to introduce a text on outcomes-based education which takes a step back from the immediate debates and controversies about implementation, and steps outside of the mechanical and uncritical 'how to' monographs emerging from some distance education institutions. By contrast, this book is an attempt to sketch the broader context for outcomes-based education by presenting competing perspectives on OBE; evaluating the different policy claims and assumptions and silences governing OBE; tracing the consequences of OBE for teaching and learning in different educational contexts; and examining the possibilities of OBE for contributing to educational transformation after apartheid. The historiography of OBE in South Africa is itself a matter of controversy. I wish to present one view, based not only on personal involvement in the process of exploring what was then called curriculum 'policy options' for the extra- parliamentary democratic movement, but also on a critical reading of some recent attempts to sketch the trajectory of curriculum policy in South Africa since 1990 (Christie, 1997; Kraak, 1998).

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The introduction of Outcomes-based Education (OBE) is the most controversial reform in the history of South African education. It goes right to the heart of the ongoing process of transforming this country into a democracy and shedding the legacy of apartheid. Changing Curriculum is a critical analy
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