The African renaissance and the transformation of the higher education curriculum in South Africa

The curriculum is a critical element in the transformation of higher education, and as a result, I argue for the inclusion of what I refer to as an African epistemic in higher education curricula in South Africa. In so doing, attention is directed at the decolonisation of the curriculum in higher education in South Africa, which aims to give indigenous African knowledge systems their rightful place as equally valid ways of knowing among the array of knowledge systems in the world. In developing my argument, I maintain that a critical questioning of the knowledge included in higher education curricula in South Africa should be taken up in what I call transformative education discourses that examine the sources of the knowledge that inform what is imposed on or prescribed for curricula in higher education in South Africa, and how these higher educational curricula are implicated in the universalisation of Western and European experiences.     

南非教师教育政策的变革及其启示

20世纪90年代以来,在南非社会民主化进程中,南非教师教育发生了急剧而复杂的变革,教师教育政策相继出台,但由于政府政策与现实相脱离,很多政策实施效果不佳,给教师造成负担.为协调现有各项政策措施,解决南非教师短缺和教师培训落后等问题,南非政府制定了<南非教师教育和教师发展国家政策框架>.本文分析了南非教师教育政策的变革,其中有很多值得我们借鉴和思考的经验.     

Assessment policy in post-apartheid South Africa: challenges for improving education quality and learning

The South African education system has witnessed significant changes since 1994 when the democratically elected government began the process of dismantling the inherited apartheid order. The primary focus of the transformation process was to address the twin imperative of equity and quality in education, particularly for the historically marginalised black population. A key aspect of this transformation process remains the development of alternative assessment policies. This paper reviews the changes focusing on the stated rationale as well as their underlying assumptions and implications for practice. It argues that the changes have in many respects addressed the most obvious effects of the previous apartheid systems. However, it notes that, notwithstanding the policy intentions, assessment policy since 1994 has favoured a measurement focused-approach in the classroom, which has hindered a shift towards an assessment for learning approach. This, it argues, is partly fuelled by the abiding belief in and commitment to classroom testing and examinations as well as external national assessments as the key criterion for reforming learning and teaching practices in the classroom.     

Overcoming the crisis in curriculum theory: a knowledge-based approach

This paper begins by identifying what it sees as the current crisis in curriculum theory. Following a brief history of the field, it argues that recent developments have led to it losing its object––what is taught and learned in school––and its distinctive role in the educational sciences. Arising from this brief account of the origins and nature of this ‘crisis’, the paper argues that curriculum theory must begin not from the learner but from the learner’s entitlement to knowledge. It then develops a framework for approaching the curriculum based on this assumption which is illustrated by an example of how the Head Teacher of a large secondary school in England used these ideas. Finally, it examines three widely held criticisms of the knowledge-based approach developed here and the issues that they raise.     

南非高中课程改革的目标、内容及特色

南非高中课程改革是南非新政府在教育领域推行的一项重大改革举措。南非新政府以人人都应该接受教育为目标,努力保障高中学生公平接受高等教育的权利,加快高中教育从知识学习向知识应用的转变,大力提高学生终身学习的能力。南非这种突出学习者中心、结果本位的课程改革,为南非的课程理论发展、教育公平、人才培养质量等做出了有益的探索。     

南非职业技术学校国家课程改革评析

南非职业技术学校国家课程改革是在南非"2005年课程改革"基础上的延续和发展,它不仅继承了以结果本位教育为核心的课程改革理念,同时又兼顾了技术学校职业性办学特点的特殊需要.力求使技术学校课程既能顺应新南非宪法规定的民主、团结、公平、正义的价值观念,又能满足社会经济建设对中高级技能型人才的迫切需要.     

How teachers perceive the new curriculum reform: Lessons from a school district in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

The meanings that a teacher attaches to the new curriculum reforms act as his or her map on the curriculum implementation journey, and these usually determine the success of the education reforms. This research article explores the meanings attached to the new Science curriculum reforms by primary school teachers in a school district in South Africa, where the perceived meanings emanated from, as well as the role they played in the implementation of the reforms in the classroom. It is argued that new curriculum reforms have to take place concurrently with other changes in order for them to have a significant and long-lasting effect. Three possible ways will be suggested that will help the teachers to avoid formulating reform meanings that are not aligned with the vision and goals of the new curriculum.     

南非高等教育变革及其主要成效

民主新南非高等教育发展的最显著的特征是广泛而深入的变革.本文依据南非高等教育变革政策的演进逻辑和指向将整个变革历程划分为三个阶段,介绍了各阶段的主要政策活动和变革动议,总结了南非高等教育变革在管理体制、办学体制、结构与规模、教育公平和效率等方面取得的主要成效.     

教育公平视域下南非成人学习政策探究

在学习是每一个人基本权利的理念指导下,南非政府致力于从政策的理念设计、发展规划、实施部门和质量框架等方面入手,构建了较为完善的成人学习政策体系。在相关政策的推动下,南非在成人基础教育与培训、继续教育与培训以及工作场所学习领域得到了一定发展。以教育公平为核心的南非成人学习政策体现了对学习权力的尊重、对部门合作的重视及对多样化学习方式的关注,有效推动了南非学习型社会的建设。     

Contesting discourses in higher education curriculum restructuring in South Africa

This article describes effortsfrom the mid-1990s in South Africa to reshapehigher education curricula, and the responsesof universities to a series of policyinitiatives concerned with higher educationcurriculum reform. Pressures of globalisationand the local challenges of reconstruction anddevelopment formed the context in which highereducation curriculum restructuring occurred.Two discourses, acredit-accumulation-and-transfer discourse anda disciplinary discourse, have shaped educationpolicy making in South Africa since themid-1990s, particularly in higher education.Policy initiatives to re-shape higher educationcurricula are discussed, as well as the ways inwhich science and humanities faculties atuniversities have responded to theseinitiatives. A typology of different curriculumforms is presented which suggests that in spiteof the influence of the credit exchangediscourse in policy documents, undergraduatecurricula continue to be presented on a largelydisciplinary basis.     

Educational paradigms and engineering educators in South Africa

In this response to Waghid (2000) the authorsquestion the validity of conclusions reachedfrom an examination of the proceedings of anengineering education conference in SouthAfrica. The authors argue that these papersdo not represent the views of engineeringeducators in general. Furthermore they querythe way in which Waghid uses reference toteaching methods in these papers to deduce thetheoretical perspective of the presenters. Itis suggested that the views of the educatorsinvolved in this conference and others like itin South Africa, can be characterised asfalling within a broad interpretivist(constructivist) perspective. Finally, theauthors agree that an engagement with acritical perspective would contributesignificantly to the transformation of theculture of engineering education in SouthAfrica.     

Schooling citizens: policy in practice in South Africa

The notion of ‘student citizen’ is implicit in a range of national and provincial policy documents in South Africa, with citizenship promoted as both an expected outcome of schooling and an encouraged practice within schools. This paper provides an account of how policy on student citizenship was translated differently into practice in four secondary schools in Cape Town, each with a different former racial categorisation under apartheid. It argues that student engagement with citizenship varied considerably between the schools and in many cases was significantly different from the policy framework. Influencing factors included staff–student relations, socio‐historical contexts and how diversity was played out in the schools.     

Education and skills for development in South Africa: Reflections on the accelerated and shared growth initiative for South Africa

In July 2005, President Mbeki announced the launch of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), a new development strategy designed to help the South African state meet the ANC's 2004 election pledges, namely:

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halve unemployment;     

Designing an effective sexuality education curriculum for schools: lessons gleaned from the South(ern) African literature

Sexuality education forms part of the national school curricula of most sub-Saharan African countries, yet risk-related sexual behaviour among young people continues to fuel the HIV pandemic in this part of the world. One of the arguments put forward to explain why sexuality education seems to have had little impact on sexual risk-taking is that existing curricula have neglected to take into account the complexity of the social, cultural and gender norms that influence the behaviour of school-going young people in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past few years, the Department of Basic Education in South Africa has recognised the need to provide guidance to teachers on the content, pedagogical processes and messages that are relevant to their specific context. This paper critically reflects on findings from a literature-based study conducted to identify the cognitive and social factors influencing the behaviour of school-going young people in South Africa and the risk and protective factors that might be particular to their circumstances. The findings provide helpful guidelines about the development, content and implementation of sexuality education curricula more likely to be relevant in contexts of serious poverty and disadvantage. Although based on the South African literature, the findings may also offer useful lessons for curriculum designers in other developing countries.     

基督教与新南非的和平与稳定

新南非建立初期，国家面临种族、党派、政治、经济、社会治安等多种矛盾，南非本土基督教组织把非洲本土的政治、化与西方的基督教思想、民主精神相结合，强调民主、平等的同时，提倡爱与社会整体的和谐，在经济上帮助穷人，用宗教唤起人们的良知，让罪犯在上帝面前主动认罪，让黑人重新找田自信，为化解新南非的种种矛盾，为它在和平、稳定中逐步走向繁荣作出独特的贡献。     

‘Kasi curriculum’: what young men learn and teach about sex in a South African township

ABSTRACT

Sex education within the formal bounds of school curricula or clinic consultation is traditionally conceived as age-appropriate and accurate information, delivered by a sanctioned adult such as a nurse or teacher. This article explores another kind of curriculum – taught and learned among young men themselves in the kasi (township) in which they live. Findings are based on primary data gathered during interviews and research workshops with boys and young men (aged 14–22), including focus group discussions and participatory research exercises. In exploring young men’s sexual ideas, practices, hopes and fears, it focuses on three themes: (i) consent and coercion; (ii) pleasure and risk; and (iii) advice and authority. We examine diverse perspectives on these themes, and trace the tensions and ambiguities that surface within young men’s accounts. We focus in particular on contradictions between what is learned about sex through formal curricula, and what is learned through peers and older men, including within ulwaluko (a rite of passage of traditional initiation and circumcision for Xhosa men).     

南非教师教育新政策述评——构建平等与多元的师资培训体系

1994年以来,为应对教师数量的急剧增多,提升师资培训的质量与效益,南非政府颁布了多项教师教育新政策。这些新政策的颁布不仅解决了南非教师教育的多样化需求,同时建立了一个严格的管理和规范教师教育的体系。这是南非教育史上首次形成平等、多元、反种族隔离的师资培训新政策。     

The development and application of progressive education in the Netherlands and some implications for South Africa

Abstract

The charge that schooling is poorly adapted to modern conditions in South Africa and abroad has been debated since the beginning of the twentieth century, with the result that two strands of competing paradigms - traditional and progressive - crystallised from the discussion. This article delineates the salient features of progressive education to prepare the ground for a comparison of outcomes-based education (OBE) in South Africa with education in the Netherlands and thereby determine the influence, if any, of progressive education on OBE and Dutch education respectively. The data gathered to determine the progressive influence on Dutch education showed that some elements of progressive education had been combined with traditional (tried-and-tested) practices to create an effective primary educational system. The implication for South Africa is that teachers should be allowed to adapt their teaching styles and curriculum development to accommodate learners who cannot benefit optimally from progressive teaching, and that progressive principles can be implemented in South Africa, provided it is done as in the Netherlands without trying to force everybody into the same mould (i.e., on the crude principle that ‘one size fits all’),     

南非以结果为本位的教育改革

以结果为本位的教育是20世纪90年代在北美首先发展起来的。以结果为本位的教育有着深刻的理论和实践渊源,并建立在一定的前提假设之上,在具体的实践过程中,还得遵循相应的实施原则。在特定的背景下以结果为本位的教育传入南非后,经历了一系列的发展过程,在实施过程中也出现了一些问题。     

Sexuality education in South Africa: Three essential questions

Sex education is the cornerstone on which most HIV/AIDS prevention programmes rest and since the adoption of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE), has become a compulsory part of the South African school curriculum through the Life Orientation learning area. However, while much focus has been on providing young people with accurate and frank information about safe sex, this paper questions whether school-based programmes sufficiently support the needs of young people. This paper is based on a desk-review of the literature on sex and sexuality education and examines it in relation to the South African educational context and policies. It poses three questions: (a) what do youth need from sexuality education? (b) Is school an appropriate environment for sex education? (c) If so, what can be said about the content of sex education as well as pedagogy surrounding it? Through reviewing the literature this paper critically engages with education on sex and sexuality in South Africa and will argue that in order to effectively meet the needs of youth, the content of sexual health programmes needs to span the whole spectrum of discourses, from disease to desire. Within this spectrum, youth should be constructed as “knowers” as opposed to innocent in relation to sex. How youth are taught as well as how their own knowledge and experience is positioned in the classroom is as important as content in ensuring that youth avoid negative sexual health outcomes.