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5.2.7. Curricula issues
In relation to how more girls can be enhanced to learn Geography as a component of specialisation, the findings of the study have shown curricula issues as an area of concern that needs to be addressed. It was uncovered that the girls were not encouraged or motivated to do Geography in high school which caused fewer girls to be available in college to choose Geography as their specialisation. Another concern that was raised is that, the curriculum in high schools did not emphasise the importance of Geography but only offered Geography as a supporting subject, in a curriculum where the subjects were not related. These findings show that Geography as a subject was not accorded its due significance in the curriculum.
5.2.8. Marketing and partnership
Co-operation between the high schools and the institutions of higher learning was, according to the findings of the study, what would enhance more girls to learn Geography as their component of specialisation. Moreover, the findings of the study revealed that ignorance of the subject combinations in the colleges was what caused high schools to offer subject combinations that did not exist in the colleges. The participants suggested a liaison between the high school teachers and the college lecturers that would ensure that viable subject combinations were offered in the high schools. This same partnership would also help with the marketing of Geography, especially to the girls, in the high schools. This emphasises that co-operation between the high schools and the college is an absolute necessity.
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in this study a student’s choice of any subject as their component of specialisation is governed by personal concerns, academic considerations, personal relationships and external factors. The study did reveal that a participants’ choice is governed by personal concerns through interest;
when participants revealed that they were learning Geography because they found in it interesting because of it multidisciplinary nature, further revealing that gender bias and stereotyping negatively influenced their choice; when they pointed out that their male teachers did not treat them with respect. Also, the participants revealed that they were also influenced by academic considerations, where they pointed out that some of the pedagogy like fieldwork – which was their favourite, made them like Geography. The Geography curriculum with its varying components also led to their liking Geography. Further, the study revealed that personal relationships, in addition to the other influences, also held an important position in influencing the participants in choosing to learn Geography through the influence of parents, family and peers, and former teachers. Lastly, in compliance to the conceptual framework, the study exposed that the participants were equally influenced to choose Geography as their specialisation component by external factors in the form of the institution’s policy and practices on choice. In keeping with the conceptual framework, all of these factors did not operate in isolation but were intertwined.
In addition to these intertwining influences, the findings of the study further unearthed some other influencing factors that were not within the participants’ control, which are not accounted for in the conceptual framework. The findings revealed that the choice of Geography as a choice component of specialisation component was negatively skewed by that the girls were not encouraged to learn Geography in high school, as it was not accorded its due significance. It was further revealed that at high school level Geography was treated a ‘filler’ in the curriculum.
Geography was not given its rightful place of importance in the curriculum, and was only used to support other subjects when students had already made their choices. Geography would be used to increase the number of subjects that a student was learning, without having any specific significance accorded to it. As a consequence, students are not encouraged to undertake Geography from the early and crucial stages of high school hence are not allowed the opportunity to discover the multi-disciplinary nature of discipline.
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As revealed by the findings of the study; apart from the factors mentioned in the conceptual framework, by Weeden the subject choices made by a student in high school are also key in determining the college subject specialisation choices, as illustrated in the diagram below:
Fig. 5.1 Contributed conceptual framework
The contribution made by this study is that over and above what Weeden (2007) says this study includes subject choices in high school and co-operation between high schools and institutions of higher learning as factors that influencing the choice of a subject as a component of specialisation in colleges which were previously excluded in the conceptual framework (See Figure 2.1). This talks to the fact that there are some contextual factors which were experienced by this particular college’s student which may not be experienced by other students in a different
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context. The contribution made to the existing conceptual framework is additional factors which are linked solely to Swaziland’s curriculum for the school and the experience of Swaziland’s college students. The contribution made here, is the contextual and talks to Swaziland as a country with its unique curriculum and challenges.