Abstract
D.Ed.
South African education policy identities curriculum delivery as the core process in
education and INSET, EMD (Education Management and Development) and enabling
functions as the strategic levers for curriculum delivery (Employment of Educators Act
76 of 1998, PAM Chap A, paragraph 4, 3C-15). With regard to EMD, the strategic lever
which is the focus of this research, the EMD curriculum delivery nexus prompts the need
to examine those curriculum and education management and development theories,
practices,_structures,-policies-and-their-interrelationships-that-will-drivesupport- -and
complement the 'core process' in South African education.
Since 1994 to date, educational transformation broadly and curriculum change and
development, specifically, has been predominantly characterised by education policy
formulation rather than education policy implementation. There is concern that the state of readiness at the site of implementation has not been comprehensively gauged. et al (In Chisholm Karlsson, 2000:2) claims that despite 'the establishment of sound legal and regulatory frameworks to facilitate the process of change, it is at the level of policy implementation - that is, at the school level - that the major crisis points appear to be'. The 2000 Curriculum Review Committee, commissioned by the National Minister, makes similar findings and outlines some of the major challenges in implementing new curriculum policy frameworks. Where supportive legal and regulatory frameworks have not been effectively responsive to the inhibiting factors at the site of implementation - school level - this could have been avoided had the implementation landscape informed the facilitating frameworks at the outset.
A key objective of the research was to elicit the perceptions, by means of a questionnaire,
that school education managers (Principals and SMTs) and school educators (non-SMT
members) have of the school's internal organisational and management arrangements
and particularly the EMD role that the SMT plays to support curriculum change,
development and delivery, and the nature, quality and impact of the support that
district officials contribute to the school's curriculum change development and delivery
processes. Broad foci of this investigation included consultative strategic policy planning,
implementation and support approaches at the district-school interface, specifically,
consultative curriculum and organisational change management and support strategies
and key partnering, incentive and feedback strategies both within and between the two
levels of curriculum delivery. Aspects that impact on effective policy implementation and
curriculum delivery, such as performance monitoring, capacity building, quality support
and district-school organisational alignment at the interface, are also considered.
Generally low factor mean scores - illustrating readings at the neither disagree nor agree
i.e. 3 on the Likert scale - were acquired with regard to district-school alignment of action
plans and district support. This indicates that the strategic levers/ processes, namely
education management and development and INSET, has not been adequately developed
to facilitate effective curriculum change, development and delivery. Thus the research
problem as identified in paragraph three.
Findings from focus group interviews, conducted with district officials and triangulated
with the questionnaire and literature survey findings, related largely to the internal district
dynamics and processes and the quality of district support at the district-school interface.
The ultimate aim of the research was concerned with informing an EMD theoretical
orientation and practical framework that support reflexive curriculum change,
development and delivery. The research draws attention to perspectives, emanating from
both the literature survey and the research findings of the kinds of interactive curricular
and organisational practices that could support effective curriculum delivery at the
district-school interface. Practices that emphasise district-school performance alignment,
whole school development, and structures and processes that provide opportunities for
dialogue, mentoring, coaching and support in managing the curriculum were all
recommended for bridging the theory-policy-practice divide.