EMERGENT EFFECT OF CURRICULUM POLICY REFORM
5.4 Unveiling the emergent effects of curriculum policy reform
5.4.2 Espoused policy slippage vis-à-vis enacted policy
The emergent effect of curriculum reform has pointed to the slippage between the espoused policy (Argyris & Schon, 1996), i.e. what was intended (via the gazetted policy) and the enacted policy, i.e. what was actually experienced in practice. This
Level 1 - the divergent ways in which SKAV are valued; and Level 2 - how practice gets performed.
These will be discussed briefly below. I first focus on SKAV valued and then on practice.
The divergent ways in which SKAV are valued allude to the different agendas among the actors in respect of the competencies they consider crucial for their practice and the survival of their practice. Underneath the high level of agreement between the DoE and DoL about the integration of education and training policies, lurks continuous tension about the details of this integration in practice (refer to Part B of Chapter Two, section 2.2.1). Serious weaknesses remain in the capacity of the DoE to implement its policy version.
The gazetted policy has a transformative and reconstructive human resources development agenda attached to it. The SKAV advocated in the policy are construed as being crucial for addressing the backlog in human resources development and overcoming the skills shortage in South Africa (DoE, 2003). When the gazetted policy interacts with actors during mediation and implementation of policy, the focus is on competencies that are testable in the NSC exams. The discussion in Chapter Four sections 4.2.1.4 and 4.2.2.4 pertaining to the DoE and schools nodes illuminates the competencies testable in the NSC exams. The competencies that are testable in the NSC exams get foregrounded while the transformative and reconstructive human resources development agenda is relegated to the background.
This has serious implications for how education can be used as leverage for human resources development and overcoming the skills shortage in South Africa. An arbitrary association between good NSC exam results and the attainment of the transformatory agenda attached to policy is perpetuated during mediation of policy (refer to Chapter Four, section 4.2.1.1 for a discussion on policy as premature and powerful). In reality, the preoccupation with good NSC exam results and competencies testable in the NSC exams refracts the policy’s goal of redress in terms of human resources development, teaching
approach and kind of learner emerging from the FET band. Foregrounding competencies testable in the NSC exams raises the notion of whether mastery of certain exam-related competencies leads to the development of critical thinking and the promotion of high knowledge and skills, as envisaged in the NCS-FET Life Sciences Policy.
Actors at the industry node are demanding SKAV for employability in the NTEW emerging from schools. This is based on an econometric understanding of what constitutes valuable SKAV in an evolving labour market. The workforce of the future will need a whole spectrum of competencies to deal with technology and the globalisation of knowledge (Malcolm, 1999; refer to Part B of Chapter Two, section 2.2.3 for further discussion). Industry itself will also need to be flexible to adjust to continuous change in the competencies needed.
Each actor in the network of SKAV development has its own agenda in terms of the competencies they consider as valuable and beneficial to them, their practice and the survival of their practice. These agendas are contrary to the transformatory and reconstructive agenda of the gazetted policy. The gazetted policy foregrounds the development of high knowledge, high skills and critical thinking in order to address the human resources agenda and overcome the skills shortage. These contrary agendas are sculpted by the heterogeneous elements, their associations, negotiations, acts of persuasion and alliances formed with the conspicuous actor responsible for a particular practice (refer to Chapter Four, sections 4.2.4.1 and 4.2.4.2 for discussion).
It emerges via the actor network that these agendas are not reconcilable. For education to be used as leverage for human resources development, this study is unequivocal in alluding to a relational approach to SKAV development across the nodes of the study. A relational approach allows for education to be used as leverage in human resources development. This premise will only be possible if each actor in the network plays their role towards this common goal.
The implication of a relational approach is that the process of SKAV development aimed at addressing the backlog in human resources development and overcome the skills shortage cannot be confined and relegated to the schools node. The findings of this study lead to the notion of partnership formation at the three nodes of the study - DoE-Schools–
industry - to facilitate the reform being advocated and reconcile the divergent agendas in respect of the development of competencies.
The forging of a partnership between the stakeholders is construed as essential to promote human resource development. Having local industrialists design resource materials for curriculum development is worth exploring in South Africa (see Part B of Chapter Two, sections 2.2.3 and 2.2.4). It could aid in facilitating SKAV development as a collaborative venture. At the other end of the spectrum is the need to develop a system that provides opportunities for life-long learning, to help individuals to adapt to evolving economic and societal change (Baptiste, 2001).
The second level of slippage occurs between the practice espoused in the gazetted policy and the practice enacted. As noted earlier (section 5.2), a network is created between the construction of policy, the optical density of the node, how practice gets performed and SKAV constituted in practice. The gazetted policy espouses that teachers should be developers of curricula material at a local level and not just implementers of policy (refer to Part B of Chapter Two, section 2.2.5). Teachers are expected to embrace innovative constructivist teaching approaches in their classrooms in order to promote the development of critical thinking and problem solving. It is envisaged that such teaching approaches will allow learners emerging from the FET band to have access to good- quality education, demonstrate an ability to think logically, analytically, holistically, and laterally, and be able to transfer skills from familiar to unfamiliar situations (DoE, 2003).
In reality, practice gets performed as negotiable moments at the DoE node, and as a juggling act in a dynamic ecosystem at the schools node. The deviation from the practice espoused in the gazetted policy is inextricably linked to the heterogeneous f(actors) that invades the DoE node during mediation of policy and the schools node during
implementation of policy. The heterogeneous f(actors) and their associations create varying agendas that dominate the mediation and implementation of policy, so that the gazetted policy’s espoused vision for practice is ignored. These differing agendas were discussed in the section on the divergent ways in which SKAV are valued.
Curriculum policy as an emergent effect has shown that curriculum practice and policy reform remains a political, symbolic gesture when the espoused policy (gazetted policy) interfaces with the enacted policy. The espoused policy marks the shift from apartheid to post-apartheid society on paper - but in practice there is a lack of attention to understanding factors that undermine policy change (Jansen, 1999). The superficial, ritualistic adoption of policies since democracy allows DoE officials to project “formal accountability” for policy formulation, without allowing for substantial change in practice. The espoused policy appears to improve “educational conditions” in South Africa, but in reality practice has shown that nothing has changed. Access to sciences remains a problem, and exams continue to be a social control mechanism (refer to Chapter Four, section 4.2.1.1: DoE node policy construction as endangered and a hindrance, and section 4.2.2.1: School nodes policy construction as a hindrance). The emergent effect of policy has shown that practice does not give expression to the gazetted policy.
The actor network established in this study divulges that the gazetted policy becomes obscure and its authority gets weakened during the mediation of policy (refer to Table 2 in Part B of Chapter Two). It becomes apparent how the State and the DoE made use of their legislative power and missed the opportunity of embracing the mediation and implementation of policy into the policy formulation process. What emerges via the actor network is the power of the enrolled actors, such as good NSC exam results, in disregarding or disputing the mandatory gazetted NCS-FET Life Sciences Policy.
Furthermore, it highlights the emergence of contradictory cartographies in the DoE’s vision for policy reform.