Curriculum

The work of Basil Bernstein arguably tells us more about curriculum than any other writer. He provides a well-developed set of concepts and criteria for understanding curriculum (and for doing research), and his work has been particularly influential in developing countries.  Professor Ken Harley prepared this outline to support teacher educators to build a module on Curriculum from Open Educational Resources.

This umthamo connects with and expands upon the imithamo on Curriculum and also on many other imithamo in other strands of the course. However, the authors believe that curriculum is the actual day-to-day activities of l earners and teachers constructing knowledge together. This takes place within their specific context, based on certain values, beliefs and principles. It may be guided by certain 'Curriculum documents,' but these only have life and bear fruit in the context of the classroom.

There are a number of ways of looking at curriculum and the issues central to thinking about curriculum and what and how learners should learn. In lo mthamo, we will ask you to look at curriculum by examining what you do in your classroom. You will also look at curriculum by reading about syllabi, and by analysing part of a textbook. You will have an opportunity to think about the kinds of learning areas, or fields, that you think should be included in an ideal curriculum.

The current umthamo focuses on curriculum change in South Africa. The main aim here is provide educators with an opportunity to look critically at the curriculum change process in South Africa.

Wayne Hugo, author of  Cracking the Code to Educational Analysis (Pearson Education South Africa, 2013) has produced a video series that introduces the essentials of his book and provides practical examples. 

In his own words: "The idea behind the book and this series of videos is to enable anyone to learn the basics of educational analysis by asking 10 questions that get to the heart of how education works. The ten questions cover curriculum, pedagogy, levels of the education system, and stages of an education system. Some have called the book and video series ‘Basil Bernstein for Beginners’, and I suppose, on one level, I am complimented by the imputation that what I have done enables an understanding of the complex work of Bernstein. It is intended to do more than this however – the book and videos develop an active thinking process that improves the ability to analyze education processes. Check the videos out for yourself, they are all on YouTube. Start off with cracking the code to educational analysis – introduction "

If you found the introductory video useful and interesting, you might like to follow the links others in the series.

The A to V video set on Cracking the code to educational analysis

A:  introduction

B: Question 1 – everyday/specialised

C: Question 1: Examples

D: Question 2: Relationship between specialisations

E: Question 2 – Examples

F: Question 3 – relationships inside a specialisation

G: Question 3 – examples

H: eight curriculum possibility spaces – summary of questions 1, 2, and 3

I: Question 4 – selection of knowledge

J: Question 4 – Examples

K: Question 5 – Sequencing of knowledge

L: Question 5 – Examples

M: Question 6- Pacing of knowledge

N: Question 6 – Examples

O: Pedagogic possibility spaces – combination of questions 4, 5, and 6

P: Question 7 – Assessment and feedback

Q: Question 7 – Examples

R: Question 8 – relationships between teacher and students

S: Question 8 – Examples

T: Question 9 – Levels of education

U: Question 10 – Stages of education

V: Concluding example using all 10 questions: Educational analysis of South African education

Jika iMfundo - a NECT funded pilot to improve education outcomes in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa studied how classrooms, schools and districts have changed; what has been learned from previous initiatives; and needs to be done to improve interventions in the future.

This brief paper is about three kinds of knowledge that are important in TVET:

• H ‘Knowing-how’, or procedural knowledge.
• I ‘Knowing-it’, or recognition (also called knowledge by acquaintance).
• T ‘Knowing-that’, or propositional knowledge (also called declarative knowledge).

The purpose of this module is to develop effective curriculum leaders and managers who will enhance the quality of teaching and learning through application of the theories, concepts and issues handled in this module. It is hoped that in examining these issues school principals and SMT members will be more conscious of their role of leading and facilitating transformation in schools through effective leadership of the curriculum and of teaching and learning

The purpose of this module is to develop effective curriculum leaders and managers who will enhance the quality of teaching and learning through application of the theories, concepts and issues handled in this module. It is hoped that in examining these issues school principals and SMT members will be more conscious of their role of leading and facilitating transformation in schools through effective leadership of the curriculum and of teaching and learning

This accredited journal publishes contributions from any field of education. While the emphasis is on empirical research, theoretical or methodological papers, review articles, short communications, book reviews and letters containing fair commentary on previously published articles will also be considered. Priority is given to articles that are relevant to Africa or that address cross-cultural topics, and to contributions addressing educational issues of social change and development.

The Journal of Education is an interdisciplinary publication of original research and writing on education. The journal aims to provide a forum for scholarly understanding of the field of education. A general focus of the journal is on curriculum. Curriculum is understood in a wide and interdisciplinary sense, encompassing curriculum theory, history, policy and development at all levels of the education system (e.g. schooling, adult education and training, higher education). Contributions that span the divide between theory and practice are particularly welcome. Although principally concerned with the social sciences, the journal encourages contributions from a wider field.

The sociologist Basil Bernstein presents a delicate and rigorous conceptual frame for researching pedagogy, which enables an analysis of transmission and acquisition in relation to social class. Bernstein?s theoretical project demonstrates how class relations generate and distribute different forms of communication and ways of making meaning which differentially position subjects with respect to schooling and its requirements. The purpose of this article is to interrogate the use of Bernstein?s theory in analysing pedagogy, in particular in relation to the two key concepts of classification and framing which underpin his theory. The article considers the application of the theory in the South African context,and the emergence of empirical texts that ?fall out? of the theoretical frame. The development of the theory in relation to these texts is consequently explored.

The article is located within a broader study addressing the reproduction of social class differences through pedagogy (Hoadley, 2005). The research was conducted in South African primary schools in 2004. Drawing on a range of data, including classroom observation, interview and student task data, the study sought to develop a framework for the analysis of pedagogic variation across social class school settings, and to show how inequalities are potentially amplified through the pedagogic practices found in classrooms.

Section 6 is a particularly useful springboard for constructing a module on curriculum because:

• Knowledge, when all is said and done, is the central issue in curriculum. Teachers have to be able to organize knowledge.

• Section 6 introduces theoretical tools for understanding curriculum concepts. These concepts are invaluable tools for practitioners’ use in understanding the formal curriculum, organizing their own learning programmes, and then analyzing their own practice. (Concepts covered include: competence curricula / performance curricula; subject (or disciplinary) curricula / integrated curricula; everyday knowledge / school knowledge.)