120
are consistent with previous research. Literature indicated that when educational leaders involve stakeholders, they proactively build and maintain healthy relationships with parents and the community (Leithwood & Louis, 2012; Myende, 2018). The following theme is the provision of support for schools on curriculum-related issues.
121
coverage by DOs. While most participants shared consistent views regarding this, some participants raised the concern that teachers focus on meeting deadlines as per the district plan while not focusing on the depth of the content. This is how CLI2 expressed this view;
We have noted that each time we have external assessments, the district takes a dive. Our results go down. Meaning, the quality. So, now we are looking at the issue of quality. Quantity-wise, they know now that when we come, we count, we count the activities. For this particular concept, approximately how many activities did you do informally and then how many did you do formally. That we have done, we have achieved as a district. But now we are still struggling with the issue of quality.
Ja, the quality, meaning the depth, going into depth into teaching concepts. That is still what we are working on. What we want to achieve as a district.
This concern was also shared by DCLI1 and CM1, who indicated that content coverage could sometimes be problematic because teachers tended to focus on finishing the content at the expense of ensuring that learners understand the concept. This is how they put it;
Because like I have said, a teacher will introduce maybe, a concept, for example, addition. And then, learners will do just one activity and then move to subtraction.
There is no depth there. There is nothing. So, we worked on ensuring that there are some activities that are done to ensure that the learners understand the concepts in depth. DCLI1
CM1 had a similar point of view and further explained his view;
Running with the syllabus, it does not help if the learners are way backwards; while the learners are there, there is a gap in between. You are running alone; you are finishing the syllabus; you are ninety-nine per cent finished the syllabus, but the learners are at fifty-five per cent. You cannot run alone; you must have the learners comprehending what you are saying to them.
These quotes appear to suggest that while there are systems DOs used to monitor curriculum coverage, paradoxically, DOs also viewed completing syllabus as problematic because some learners would not have understood some of the content. In that way, there could be a compromise in quality teaching and learning. While the issue of quality seems to concern participants, CM2 gave some indication of how DOs attempt to address the issue of quality.
122
She stated that they advise schools to look at the content in-depth in order to understand what real challenges were;
And the other support structure or the intervention that the curriculum unit is doing to ensure that learners do pass is that they work with HoDs to develop their own intervention programs at a school level. They look at the subjects that are more challenging, and then we say to them, whenever you check, check what is the real problem; if maybe learners have failed Maths, what is the real problem in Maths, is it because of the Trigonometry or is it because of the Geometry.
Another participant (CLI1) reported that this has worked because teachers begin to realise that they need to work collectively as teams to understand content gaps and develop integrated support plans. CLI1 gave an account of how collaborative moderation by DOs helped DOs to have a broader view of challenges that resulted in poor performance. She elaborated by giving an example;
And then when I meet the DCES, Subject Advisors, I tell them, to say, out of the 180 schools, from the Primary Schools, these are the schools that have underperformed, these are the schools that have underperformed in FET and so, on. And then, they have underperformed because of these subjects. And then, from these subjects, we have found that there are questions, where you find that teachers, you know, let us say, maybe Question 5, as an example, you find that all learners did not answer it, then you can see that it is a problem with the teacher, it is not a problem of the learner. So, in terms of coming in, we try to capacitate subject advisors; they go out to do content training
This quote suggests that the district leadership role in offering content training to teachers is important to enhance teaching and learning. Also, collaboration among DOs in ascertaining curriculum-related challenges appeared to be vital. DCLI1 exemplify this view;
I and the Senior Phase Coordinator, same level as mine, but she is Senior Phase, we work very close together. As I said, if you go to my office – it is not something that I am just saying - you will see the FET there is there, and Senior Phase is there because we want to see how is it that the learners that lands up in Grade 10 next year, how well did they pass. Also, we want to see that when we say that we have a problem in Grade 10 Accounting, what is it that is causing the problem. Is it
123
because in Grade 9 – remember in Grade 9 you have that EMS [Economics and Management Sciences] and where one part is Accounting, and another part, Business Studies– are the schools focusing more on the Business Studies and neglecting the Accounting part. When the learners come to Grade 10, then they have that gap to catch up with, you see.
From this quote, collaboration among DOs may assist in understanding, in a broad view, challenges that may emanate from curriculum-related challenges, such as transition across phases, which results in the change of content subjects. Turning now to another challenge that participants felt hindered their efforts to enhance teaching and learning. For some participants, Mathematics and Physical Science appeared to be a challenge; hence DOs prioritised these subjects. DD2 shared her views: The subjects that are still giving me problems in my district is Maths, Physical Science and Accounting. So, in our framework, we always prioritise these three subjects. We’ always! DD2. DCLI1 concurred: We have challenges in subjects like Physical Sciences and Maths. Then see how we can start closing the gap in relation to improving the quality of teaching and learning in those specific areas.
Quite telling in these quotes is the DOs’ challenges to support and improve Mathematics, Physical Science, and to some extent, Accounting. This is consistent with the general impression of DOs perceptions about the challenge they experience concerning balancing content coverage with quality teaching and learning. It appears that while this seems a challenge, participants endeavoured to prioritise these three subjects in their quest to improve teaching and learning district-wide. In this theme, DOs shared similar views regarding their role of providing support on curriculum-related matters. Participants believed that their role was to ensure that teachers understood that curriculum coverage was non-negotiable. It emerged that planning and monitoring were done at the beginning of the year. With curriculum coverage, assessment seemed like a way of ensuring that content coverage was adhered to.
Even though there was a general agreement on the importance of ensuring that there was a monitoring of content coverage and assessment activities, DOs acknowledged that there was still a challenge of enhancing quality. Participants believed that teachers would cover the content, while other learners had not grasped the content. However, this did not deter them from ensuring that learners succeeded. What seems to be of interest is their conceptualisation of supporting teaching and learning. The belief that merely focusing on content coverage and the number of assessment tasks appears to be a technical way of supporting teaching and
124
learning while the context of teaching and learning is complex and unpredictable with constant changes (Honig & Rainey, 2015). The following section of this chapter moves presents and discusses the structural and policy-driven challenges DOs face.