Special thanks to my children (Mandisa, Nosisa, Siyabonga, Snethemba, Nosipho, Phumelele, Minenhle, Eyami and Avela) for their support and understanding during the course of my studies. This is especially true for teachers who are responsible for implementing the revision aspect of the curriculum.
Introduction
2 As this is the opening chapter of the study entitled Grade 12 teachers' experiences of teaching the audit aspect of the accounting curriculum in Burlington County, Umlazi District, the study will place these teachers' experiences in the context of the curriculum change and how they experienced the changes in their teaching. Due to the comprehensive orientation of the study, the chapter is henceforth presented in the following subheadings; the background of the study followed by the purpose and focus of the study.
Background of the study
Changes in the articulation of the accounting curriculum between different levels of learning [secondary schools and universities] have contributed positively to improving the quality of accounting services provided in South Africa (DoE, 2006). This also indicates an improvement in the quality of teaching in the subject of accounting in South Africa.
Purpose and focus of the study
The details focused on the teachers' experiences and not on their students or on the schools from which these teachers have been selected to participate in the study. Only 12th grade teachers were part of the study, and their experiences were therefore solely of interest to the research.
Rationale of the study
Problem of the study
Therefore, there is a need to conduct a study on how 12th grade educators experience the teaching of Auditing aspect of the Accounting curriculum. The aggrieved statistics of the NSC result in the last five years have proven that these teachers in the district are competent in teaching accounting and unfortunately there are few studies to understand how these teachers actually try to do better at some of these challenges To adapt. .
Objectives of the study
10 controls, assessment process and code of ethics have not been implemented in Umlazi district as a whole and in particular regarding the experience of the 12th grade teachers. To compound the problem, the schools in Burlington County are within a black district that was previously disadvantaged, as some schools were not as well equipped as those in the affluent part of the same Umlazi District in the province.
Research questions and sub questions
However, there are some districts that also have very poorly resourced schools in the province, but Umlazi district was again the best in terms of teaching accounting. How did the experiences of the grade 12 educators influence the implementation of the Audit aspect of accounting curriculum in Burlington Circle of Umlazi District.
Overview of research design and methodology
Limitations of the study
Chapter outline of the study
This chapter presents an analysis of the data obtained through a semi-structured interview. In addition, the chapter concluded by proposing some recommendations for further studies based on the findings of the study.
Conclusion
Introduction
Definition of terms
These subjects are supposed to be more useful for students to have the quality life envisioned by the designer in contemporary South African society (Marsh, 2009). The target curriculum is simply a policy document that is defined as a guideline or syllabus prepared by the relevant educational authorities or the government for use in schools (Öztürk, 2003).
Curriculum 2005 and the ignorance of implementation
The clarity of focus on outcomes and significance
The teacher shares all the intentions of the lesson with all students so that they know what they need to achieve. Students should be given more than one opportunity to learn and demonstrate their learning within and outside the classroom environment (Mohamed, 2001).
Curriculum implementation plans and the likely benefits
Fleisch (2002) is of the opinion that suitable curriculum implementation plans specify duties and responsibilities of the various role players involved in the implementation process. Glatthorn, Boschee and Whitehead (2006) emphasized that crucial aspect of implementation plans should not only specify the process of curriculum implementation, but should also refer to the management of the process.
The exactness of the challenges emanating from the top of the authority
Who had a similar political past to South Africa and were subsequently boycotted by that of the formal regime. So there would be a change in the talk of equality of all schools, while the reality is a differentiated implementation of the schools based on the categorization.
Curriculum implementation at schools
This is sometimes the problem with curriculum changes in South Africa, where the necessary logistics are not always in place to support the curriculum change or they are usually inadequate in relation to the changes required. The shortage of supply is not limited to the resources themselves, but to the substantive knowledge of the curriculum implementer.
Curriculum Implementation and Change
The requirements of curriculum change and implementation
This will be of particular importance to teachers who are at the end of the curriculum. Shepard (2001) believes that transformation in assessment practices can impact an entire curriculum and according to Shepard (2001) this is an indication of the power and influence that assessment has on the implementation process.
Educators’ challenges encountered in curriculum change and the implementation
32 Furthermore, Hoadley and Jansen (2002) emphasize that the policy makers' expectations through their inspection is that teachers must follow the prescribed curriculum as set out in the policy documents. In addition, content knowledge and planning of teaching is in some cases different, this is evident in the times that are used for subject distribution, periods that are taught during the school day and the size of the classroom.
Exploring teachers' perceptions, voice on implementation
In fact, it was recently noted that the effectiveness of curriculum implementation could be reduced or eroded by geographically remote educational environments, where community ethos and culture could dominate policy prescriptions for school-based implementations (Van Deventer, 2009). Continuing educational practice is an integral part of curriculum development at school level.
Possible instructional approaches for accounting and auditing aspects
From the above discussion, it is imperative that experiences of teachers are conducted to examine the context as aforementioned realities. For example, questions, group discussions, field studies are possible techniques that can be used by teachers.
Implementing Curriculum Change: exploring themes from the Teachers’ Perspective
- Teacher commitment in implanting curriculum change
- The teachers’ workload in adjusting to curriculum change
- Teachers’ capacity to implement curriculum changes
- Collaboration among teachers in implementing curriculum change
- The Perception and experiences of the Teaching Profession
Current literature includes five areas of consideration for implementing curriculum change from the teachers' perspective. The development of a teacher's capacity takes place continuously in the form of teacher preparation at the teaching college and university level.
The spider web model as a guide to curriculum implementation
The ten components of the spider web model explain in detail the micro level of curriculum products, for example the planning of instructional materials by teachers at the classroom level and how this affects or relates to student learning. Therefore, curriculum implementation is the crucial link between the intended curriculum and student learning at the meso level of the curriculum product and/or process.
Conclusion
For this reason, this chapter focuses on the research design and methodology that the researcher used to achieve the objective of the study mentioned in the first chapter. It will also touch upon the location of the study by describing the Umlazi district with particular attention paid to Burlington County.
Research design
The chapter consists of the following subheadings: the interpretive paradigm, qualitative research, case study, and an explanation of interviews as a data collection tool. The chapter ends with an explanation of the reliability of the study, but just before the conclusion of the chapter, the ethical considerations were presented.
Research Paradigm
The broader features of the interpretive paradigm are directly related to the focus of the study. Because of this broad purpose of the study, it is appropriate to frame the study within the interpretive paradigm.
The Qualitative Approach
For this reason, the researcher decided to visit each participant's school while they were teaching; one of the advantages of this was that it would give the participants a fresh memory of their experiences in teaching the auditing aspects of the accounting curriculum. Since the researcher aims to explore how the participants have managed to adapt to the changes in the accounting curriculum when audit aspects have been added, making the study qualitative.
Case study as the research methodology
Denzin and Lincoln (2000) state that the advantage of the case study is that it presents a situation in real life and provides a holistic account of the realities of the participants and an insight that would enable the reader to visualize the experiences of the people in the phenomenon. In addition to such limitations, the researcher was focused on the participants' experiences of teaching the audit aspects of the accounting curriculum, and information-related school experiences were only considered through their impact on experiences during the curriculum implementation of accounting.
A descriptive presentation of the case of the study
The remaining 3 schools in Burlington County can be considered purely African schools. From a school categorization perspective, 12 of the 13 schools in Burlington County are between quintiles 4 and 5 with only one school located in Wilberdacht being categorized as a quintile 3 school.
Data generation
Interviews as an instrument used for the study
With the understanding that the study is qualitative, the researcher used interviews as a research tool to gather data. Given that aspects of teachers' experiences are not easily understood from other forms of data generation, the use of interviews as a data generation instrument was appropriate given the nature of the study.
Advantages and disadvantages of using interviews as an instrument for data generation 60
These were mainly some of the advantages that the researcher took advantage of during the interview process with the participants. There were two distinct disadvantages to using interviews as an instrument for collecting data experienced by the researcher during the time of the study.
Data analysis and interpretation
The data generated from the participants was analyzed in relation to the research questions and literature was used to support the findings. Lichtman, (2006) concludes that it is the role of the researcher to bring understanding, interpretation and meaning to the data; therefore, the data were analyzed in an explicit and exploratory manner.
Limitations of the study
Given that most of the selected participants had a minimum of fifteen years of education, while the auditing aspect of accounting was only introduced in the NCS in 2006. Therefore, generalization of the findings would not be appropriate, even if it could be applied in the same context as that, the study is carried out.
Trustworthiness of the study
This implies that their experience in teaching the audit aspects of accounting was only eight years while their professional experience was more than double the number of years for the least experienced participant selected. For this reason, the experiences recorded in the study are limited to this number of years of teaching and mainly on the auditing aspect of accounting.
Ethical considerations
The questions were set taking into account the research objectives set at the beginning of this chapter and in the introductory chapter.
Introduction
The themes focus on how the participants had to make personal efforts to adapt to the curriculum changes that were being introduced. The final topic was school and departmental support for these introduced aspects of the accounting curriculum.
Describing the participants
Because the Burlington circuit is largely composed of blacks and Indians, the composition of the participants also reflected these demographics. The descriptive analysis of the participants therefore provided insight into how these participants would or perhaps had experienced the changes in the curriculum over the course of their education.
Experiencing the Curriculum change during its initiation
Also, no self-study materials were provided to the teachers regarding the auditing aspect of the accounting curriculum. The main concern of these participants here appears to have been about their planning for the audit aspects of the accounting curriculum.
Adaptation to curriculum change
Thus, some participants explained how long it took them to adjust to the auditing aspect of the accounting curriculum. Learner responsibilities have also changed due to the addition of an auditing aspect to the accounting curriculum.
School and department’s support to curriculum change
To help students understand the above expectations of the NCS, the participant (Ayanda) reported that. The rest of the participants reported that there was no follow-up from either the department or the union.
Conclusion
Thus, some of the challenges expressed by participants during changes to the accounting curriculum would be adequately addressed if the school were to connect with some regressive persons outside the context of the school, as suggested by the participants. In an attempt to understand if there was any follow-up by the department, a participant from a quintile 2 school said yes, accompanied by both the DoBE and the union (SADTU).
Introduction
Summary of the findings
An understanding of the grade 12 educators’ experiences in teaching the Auditing aspect
92 teaching and their experiences with the curriculum change of the audit aspect of the accounting curriculum. Such concerns, according to the participant, greatly fueled their experiences in teaching the audit aspect of the accounting curriculum.
Relating how the grade 12 educators’ experiences have affected their implementation of
Some of the participants received no support from the department, their school or the union. All of these resource materials contributed enormously to the learners' understanding of the auditing aspect of the accounting curriculum.
Recommendations for further study
This was only possible as a result of the participants' extensive teaching experience, which was shared with the researcher. For these reasons, the study will inform curriculum planners and designers to best understand the students' perspective on the newly added aspect of the accounting curriculum and thereby improve student academic achievement.
Conclusion of the study
Explore teachers' understanding of formative assessment since the implementation of the new Accounting curriculum at the FET stage in 2006. How useful were the curriculum change workshops in teaching the audit aspect of accounting?
