3.9 Vocational education and training and the curriculum
3.9.2 Curriculum theory
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In the South African context Kraak (1991) shows that vocational training programmes had an ideological character during the crisis years of Apartheid and even beyond. The transition to a post-Apartheid South Africa meant that more semi-skilled and skilled blacks would be required in the labour market. As a result, vocational training shifted to include more of these semi-skilled and skilled Africans in an attempt to stabilise capitalist social relations (Kraak, 1991). The interest of these programmes was not in making the environment better for black workers but rather to make black workers identify with company interests. The hidden curriculum is greatly influenced by the culture, ideology and attitudes of the funders, owners, managers, teachers and learners in educational institutions (Zvobgo, 2007). In this study on vocational education curriculum responsiveness to the learning needs of A1 farmers, the hidden curriculum is an important element to explore because the training centres under study belong to two historically and ideologically different institutions, the government and a non-governmental organisation.
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is itself intrinsically social; it is something that people do in a particular, socially organised way (Dreher, 2016). What we then consider the curriculum in education is therefore not neutral.
According to Bernstein, curriculum defines what counts as valid knowledge whereas pedagogy defines what counts as valid transmission of knowledge and evaluation defines what counts as valid realisation of the knowledge on the part of the taught (Bernstein, 1975).
3.9.2.1.1 Classification and Framing of Educational Knowledge
Bernstein (1975) introduced the concepts classification and framing to interpret communication between objects in different spaces. According to Hoadley (2006), Bernstein provides a language of description of pedagogic discourse using the concepts classification and framing.
Classification and framing are analytical concepts used in pedagogy. Their relationship is a vertical one whereby classification occurs at a higher level (differentiating between disciplines) and framing occurs within a particular subject. Classification seeks to unpack what goes on in pedagogy. It is used to expose the relations and differentiation between subjects. According to Bernstein, classification can either be strong or weak. On the one hand, a strong classification refers to a body of knowledge or subject which is well insulated from other subjects. In other words, the curriculum in strong classification is closed (Bernstein, 1975). For example,, physics is unique from other subjects and so its teaching and learning follows specific methods that are strictly for this subject. The same goes for most subjects in the natural sciences. On the other hand, a weak classification refers to a subject area that is open to other contents. Examples of subject areas with a weak classification are subjects in the social sciences. Subject areas with weak classification are considered open, meaning they can share with other subject areas (Bernstein, 1975).
3.9.2.1.2 Pedagogic device
In the pedagogical device, Bernstein argues that framing refers to the influence of context on how a subject area is taught. Context may influence the differences in the way teaching is done in a particular context. Framing refers to what happens within a particular subject area, how teaching and learning occurs as well as the power and control relations between teachers and
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students. The concern with knowledge in VET was ignited by the realisation that this aspect had been overlooked and this oversight contributed to poor performance of British industries (Young, 2013). Bernstein (1975) distinguishes between two forms of discourse: horizontal and vertical.
On one hand, horizontal discourse is similar to everyday knowledge which is context specific and dependent on context. On the other hand, vertical discourse takes the form of coherent, explicit and systematically principled structure. The horizontal knowledge structure would include subjects in the humanities which are context specific while the vertical discourse would include the natural sciences. The knowledge structure of a discipline influences the selection and sequencing of learning content to describe the general principles which underlie the transformation of knowledge into pedagogic communication . According to Bertram (2016), for Bernstein, the pedagogic device is made up of three fields of activity which are; a field of production, where knowledge is developed and produced; a field of recontextualisation, where knowledge is selected from the field of production and is pedagogised into curriculum documents and, finally, a field of reproduction where teachers adapt or adopt policy requirements in their teaching in classrooms (Bertram, 2016).
3.9.2.2 Curriculum recontextualisation
For Bernstein, the curriculum is conceptualised and re-conceptualised at three levels. Firstly, at the societal/ideological level; secondly, the curriculum; and finally, the classroom level.
According to the pedagogic device, knowledge is converted into curricula following a set of rules or criteria (recontextualising rules) for them to become educational knowledge or school knowledge (Bertram, 2012). Borrowing from Bernstein, Mukute (2014) notes that recontextualisation refers to how the substance and nature of knowledge produced at one site, for example, national VET policy at central government level in Zimbabwe, is recontextualised at a particular vocational training college and then reproduced within the classroom during teaching and learning. Curriculum recontextualisation has been found to enhance curriculum coherence, educational relevance, effectiveness and quality (Bertram, 2012, 2016). The process of recontextualising is influenced by discipline specific requirements (internal dynamics) as well as external requirements by the country concerned. According to Young (2013), in Bernstein’s terms, recontextualisation refers to the selection, sequencing and pacing of contents that take into
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account both the coherence of the discipline subject and the limits on what can be learnt by students at different stages of their development.