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driven and information-based economies, described under the rubric of globalisation”43 The merger outcomes, which in total, reduced 36 institutions to 21 higher education institutions, and established two new institutions, “were the product of a complex interplay between governmental macro-politics and institutional micro-politics, in a context of political transition” (Jansen, 2002).
Thus it was clear that education policy could not be regarded as a phenomenon taking place outside of or distinct from the wider political currents of the moment. The policies that were enacted reflected the tumultuous social re-structuring that was taking place as the surrounding context for educational change. However, in the implementation phase, the translation of those policies into practice was not a simple – nor a rational – linear process.
2.4 From policy to practice: developing curricula that interpret
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The process of interpreting policy in order to create university curricula that reflect the imperatives of that policy has been problematised on several levels in the literature.
Transforming the curriculum…involves more than subtracting some books and adding others…It is a serious business. It attacks received wisdom, wrenches internalised values, and contests assumptions held so deeply that to challenge them feels as if one is fighting nature (Friedman, 1996, p. 2).
The difficulty of developing a curriculum is compounded by the literature which offers so many and varied interpretations of curriculum, such as: “knowledge, content, process, structure, historical text, or official knowledge” (M. W. Apple, 2000). As Weiler observed:
curricula are not value-free or ideologically neutral constructions. They are the most tangible codifications of the objectives a society wants to reach through its education system, and of the skills and values it wishes to instil in future generations (Weiler, quoted in K Luckett, 1998, p. 1).
In constructing curricula, the contents and organisation of what is taught in educational institutions should reflect and shape the changing society (Apple, 1993;(Van der Westhuizen
& Mahlomaholo, 2001). Since curriculum decisions are often shaped by the understandings and the epistemological, ideological and ethical beliefs of academics, there is little or no consistency as to how this process occurs (Van der Westhuizen & Mahlomaholo, 2001). The insights of Klein (1992) and McCutcheon (1982) about the gap, the “Grand Canyon”, between curriculum theory and practice, suggest that it may be addressed by acknowledging the need for curriculum theorists and the practitioners to work together to focus on action.
The function of universities in a changing society where social, political and economic demands are made through policy is a highly contested issue, with some writers claiming democracy-building as a legitimate objective (Cloete, Cross, Muller, & Pillay, 1999). It is notable that Cochran-Smith (2005), writing about American schools, comments that to ensure equality within the education system and to overcome the deep resistance to institutional reforms that impede social change “we need teachers who regard teaching as a political activity and embrace social change as part of the job”. Teachers must not expect to
“carry on business as usual” and should be critical actors in the larger struggle for social
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change. The author proposed a goal of educating teachers and students to contribute knowledgeably and ethically to an increasingly diverse and democratic society.
Linda McNeill (1986), on the other hand, writing about schools, suggests that policy rooted in political ideology fails to take into account the broader educational goals of preparing citizens for democratic life.
Three approaches to curriculum change have been identified in South African education settings: (i) changes that are policy-driven; (ii) changes that are profession-driven: and (iii) changes that reflect the transformative/socially critical route, which is part of a broader societal change process (Van der Westhuizen & Mahlomaholo, 2001). Many of the post- apartheid policy changes could be categorised under the first and third approach but, as Blignaut (2007) cautions, if educators do not identify with policy at a political level, its goals may be undermined by their creating a “façade of reform”, ignoring or resisting change, or playing out the role that has been legislated, without being committed to the policy. He concludes that “continuities in education are more powerful than the complex structural changes ushered in by policy”
An analytic triangle, termed the “network of co-ordination”, based on Burton Clark’s work (Clark, 1983) was developed to understand the complex interactions taking place in a transitional society, and the trajectory
from policy to implementation and realisation in transformative goals focussed on a new complex interaction between state, society and higher education institutions, within a context of globalisation (Cloete et al., 1999, p. 72).
The authors observed the increasing influence of state involvement, which sees higher education mainly as an industry, a part of the national economy, which exposes universities to market forces and requires it to foster economic development (Gumport, 2000). This role is reinforced through funding mechanisms and fiscal stringency that encourages efficiency, effectiveness, and autonomy within universities (Bunting, 2002, p. 133).
However, it has been observed that the “radical reframing” of academic provision that necessitated significant changes in science and humanities faculties did not challenge the
“core business of producing skilled graduates for employment in the workplace”. The 1996 Constitution ("Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act," 1996), itself a legal
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document, created a significant foundational text for curriculum change in legal education (Van der Westhuizen & Mahlomaholo, 2001). The pervasive effect of constitutional change in almost every substantive law course has undoubtedly played a significant role in altering the content of the materials and decided cases included in every module, yet in most cases, the nature of these changes is likely to have been additive, and has not engaged law academics in radically re-structuring “core knowledge”, pedagogical approaches, or the sequencing of subjects.
There has been a notable scarcity of research on the undergraduate curriculum (Barnett &
Coate, 2005). It has been suggested that this may be due to “the fissiparous nature of academic institutions” (Squires, 1987, p. 129). There appear to be few conversations about curriculum across discipline boundaries, even within the same institutions (Van der Westhuizen & Mahlomaholo, 2001). For most academics, disciplinary loyalty prevails over institutional loyalty and is framed through deep underlying epistemological structures of the knowledge fields which shape the values and practices of curricula (Barnett, Parry, & Coate, 2001).
The influence of policy on practice has been regarded as having minimal effect on the lives of students, due to teachers being influenced by their teaching workloads and the need to modify curriculum policies to conditions in the classroom (Lipsky, 1980). However, Wise (1979) contradicts this view by arguing that policy may have a negative and restricting force on teaching practice if it is allowed to have too heavy an influence. The analogy of curriculum policy being similar to laws, and teachers being in the position of judges who are required to interpret them in ways that will “cumulate justly in the interests of their students, the society, and humanity” is an appropriate metaphor for analysing the policy- practice relationship that could be developed with regard to the law curriculum (Shulman, 1983).
These various ways of appreciating how the process of translating policy into curricula may be understood are an attempt to trace the progress of educational policy through to the practice or implementation phase. In Chapter 3, theoretical aspects of the process of translating policy into practice are reviewed. In the following section, the literature on the
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implementation of curriculum change will be surveyed to provide insights from existing scholarship.