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implementation of curriculum change will be surveyed to provide insights from existing scholarship.
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attained” (Darling-Hammond & Wise, 1981). While Darling-Hammond (Darling-Hammond, 2000) emphasised the need for policy to be communicated effectively if it is to be well understood, she conceded that part of this communication process relates to “meaningful discussion and extensive professional development at all levels of the system.“
“Underinvestment in teacher knowledge” has been identified as a critical factor in the success or failure of achieving educational change (Darling-Hammond, 1990). Many studies at school level confirm that teachers’ decisions and actions are based on their existing knowledge-base and frameworks of reference prior to the introduction of a new curriculum (Spillane, Reiser, & Reimer, 2002). It is these that shape and inform their approach to a new curriculum. Unless changes are made in teachers’ thinking, through a lengthy process of support and teacher education, it is unlikely that well-founded transformations in the lecture hall will occur (Darling-Hammond, 1990).
The necessity for change to have “a good basis in theory”, to avoid the undermining of implementation by teachers exercising their autonomy is another critical feature of successful implementation (McLaughlin, 1976). Teachers have the power to “modify, extend or unintentionally violate the reform’s underlying theoretical basis”. Levin’s observation that change (in schools) occurs because “those who will be affected by it are able to decide for themselves the future that they will work towards” (2005), also hearkens to this theme that policy and changes that are implemented depend for their practical interpretation on the local context, and the local actors responsible for their implementation.
The successful implementation of any given policy requires those responsible for implementation to simultaneously be given support and to be put under pressure (M. G.
Fullan, 2007). It is clear that an appropriate equilibrium must be achieved between these two external drivers. Oakes et al (2005) critique the neutral stance that most change literature adopts to secure “buy-in” from a wider constituency. They note that successful change processes are usually viewed as “pragmatic and politically savvy”
In a Canadian setting, Hargreaves and Fink (1998) identified features such as recognising the complexity of change, developing and strengthening local (institutional) culture in order to re-culture it, and the emotional dimension involved in educational change. Extensive
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research has shown that “change is contingent”, in that local circumstances regarding students, courses, institutional and departmental pressures as well as the specific disciplinary and professional cultures significantly influence how change occurs (Hannan &
Silver, 2000). Policy settles differently in different contexts and often plays out in unexpected ways, according to much of the literature: “Changes get changed as they are adopted and adapted: implementation changes plans” (Paul Trowler, Saunders, & Knight, 2003).
Fullan (2007) postulated the need for capacity building with a focus on results, to ensure that curricular change is successfully implemented. He commented that recent studies have shown “top-down” change to be unsuccessful because it fails to garner ownership, commitment or clarity about the nature of change. Fullan also cites a “bias for action” as an essential component of all successful change processes (2007).
Departments and programme teams have been identified as the critical “organisational units” in effecting change. Although “bottom-up” and top-down approaches are important, resistance to change typically is most prevalent at the discipline and department level (Paul Trowler et al., 2003). The authors recommended that change should be effected from the
“middle-out”, involving and developing all staff members in a collaborative process.
Successful educational change also depends upon developing a shared understanding of the meaning of change on the subjective (individual) level, as well as on the collective (socio- political) level, in different social settings. Not only is it necessary to appreciate the personal and collective meaning, or the “what” aspect of educational change, but it is also important to comprehend the process, the “how” of implementing change. In order for change to take place Fullan (2007) identified the need for innovation to occur in three dimensions: (i) new or revised (curriculum) materials; (ii) new teaching strategies; and (iii) changes in pedagogical assumptions or theories underlying the policy change.
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The South African Ministry of Education in 2001 (2001, p. 8)44 identified an “implementation vacuum” in regard to policy. This was attributed to an earlier lack of capacity to plan, the poor quality of available information at the time, and the need for consultation, which had increased the existing inequality between higher education institutions, stimulated the growth of private higher education institutions, and driven institutions into competition with one another (Jansen, 2001a). This acknowledgement recognised many of the features mentioned in the literature as necessary aspects for successful implementation of curriculum change. Imposed change often triggers off a response of reluctance and resistance which Marris (1975, quoted in M. G. Fullan, 2007) described as the natural and inevitable sense of “loss, anxiety and struggle” that all real change involves. The “tenacity of conservatism and the ambivalence of transitional institutions” can only be acknowledged once the anxiety of loss is understood.
To situate the study within the body of literature on legal education, it will be necessary to review firstly how legal education has been reconceptualised in the international context, taking into account three influential Anglo-American jurisdictions that have a shared common law foundation, and which reflect a similar tradition to South African legal education.
2.6 Reconceptualisation of legal education: Introduction and