CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION, LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER
5.1 FINDINGS
5.1.1 Technology and the School Curriculum
Technology which is a newly introduced subject in the South African education curriculum is mentioned by Rasinen (2003) in Chapter 1 as being part of the curriculum in many countries globally. The shared rationale which is common between countries is the need to prepare students to live in a rapidly changing technological world. Technology as a subject is called by different names in different countries and although it has a contextualised approach specific to each individual country its “universal goal is to help students to become technologically literate”
(Rasinen, 2003:31).
In South Africa, the newly elected government of the new democracy in an attempt to redress the wrongs of the past reviewed both the country’s education system and its curriculum. The compulsory education sector up to Grade 9 (GET) was firstly reviewed and restructured. Then Higher Education was rationalised and lastly, the further education sector (FET) from Grades 10 to 12 was reorganised.
The inception of the new FET curriculum structure saw the introduction of a much condensed curricula offering twenty nine academic and technological subjects.
Today’s world is constantly undergoing diverse technological changes, as a
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phenomena which permeates all aspects of our daily lives, researchers such as Seiter (2009), Rasinen (2003), Sjoberg (2003) and Bybee (2000) maintain that a school curriculum should include Technology as a subject. On the pretext that man becomes an informed user of technology and understands technology in its various guises, three specialist Technology subjects are now included into the FET curriculum.
The data revealed that generic Technology is a compulsory school subject for all learners in the GET band, whereas, Technology in the FET band, which originated from the previous technical subjects, was diversified into three individual specialist technological subjects which learners could elect towards acquiring their NSC (matric certificate). Technology terminates at the end of formal schooling in Grade 12 and is not structured as an access route onto higher education (South Africa, 2005d: 23), unlike the Scottish curriculum for example, where Technology (referred to a Higher Technological Studies) emerges as a credible entrance qualification to higher engineering courses (Carnavan & Doughty, n.d.).
The respondents disclosed through the data, that although Technology is included in the intended national curriculum, its adoption and inclusion as part of the curriculum in the already established academic schools did not happen. After the inception of the new FET curriculum secondary schools continued with albeit modified versions of the existing subject structures that they had previously had in place. To minimise school, class and learner disruptions the schools closely correlated their existing individual subjects with the new NCS documents including instituting any new subject name changes. In most instances the schools haven’t used this opportunity for change nor have they utilised their parental body when considering the
introduction of new and ‘foreign’ subjects. The parental body had little or no input into changing the school curricula as most schools took it upon themselves to initiate the introduction of the new curriculum without parental input. The school’s ethos which focuses on where it is academically taking the learners, presents specific
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main stream academic subjects that can provide learners access to university.
Technological subjects had been excluded from their previous curricula and consequently Technology was not considered as an additional elective subject.
Technology, which is perceived to be a non academic subject, would have been asynchronous to the academic nature of the school had it been adopted which would have resulted in altering the schools’ academic status quo. One of the participating schools had indicated that at the inception of the new FET curriculum it had attempted to include Technology in its curriculum, as it felt this subject could be beneficial to their learner body. However, they realised at an early stage, that they were not in a position to manage the far reaching implications of sustaining such a subject and subsequently disbanded their attempt. Consequently, they continued with their prior existing curriculum, offering those subjects which they could manage within their own limitations. Schools are thus finding themselves continuing with an easier comfortable route in continuing the main stream academic subjects, as structures are in place and resources and teachers for these subjects are more readily available, whereas acquiring technological resources and finding suitably qualified Technology teachers is becoming increasingly difficult. Those few schools that were offering technological subjects in their curriculum prior to the inception of the new curriculum in 2006 are finding it increasingly difficult to sustain Technology in their programmes. Dike (2009) revealed in his study that many of the technical and vocational schools are shifting their emphasis to training in computers and information technology.
As revealed above, the inclusion of Technology as a new FET subject during the execution of the intended curriculum in the academic schools did not happen at ground level in the real authentic school / learning environment. Schools have essentially continued with their academic curricula in much the same manner as they had been doing prior to 2006. This confirms that the wide gap in the curriculum (Drake, 2006; Rogan, 2004; Sethole, 2004; Jansen, 2001; Stenhouse, 1975) between introducing the goals of the planned curriculum in comparison with what
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does in fact actually happen in the schools with the enacted curriculum as suggested by the literature and data is plausible.