An exploration of how curriculum changes affect the emotions of life sciences teachers.
Loading...
Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Teachers in Post-apartheid South Africa have had to deal with the restructuring of the school
curriculum on several occasions. Each time changes are made; teachers have shouldered the
high expectations of various stakeholders, including curriculum developers, to implement these
improvements effectively. However, these improvements are complex and challenging and an
important ingredient for teachers to successfully embrace these; is their emotional orientation
towards such changes. Unfortunately in South Africa, there is a dearth of how teacher emotions
are affected by ongoing curriculum changes. This can be addressed by exploring the emotions
that teachers feel as they implement changes to the curriculum. Against the backdrop of the
several rapid changes to the school curriculum and the scarcity of studies on teacher emotions
in South Africa, I became interested in exploring how curriculum changes affect teacher
emotions. The school curriculum consists of a large number of different subjects but this study
has centred on Life Sciences. As a consequence, the aim of my study was to explore how
ongoing curriculum changes affect the emotions of Life Sciences teachers. This study adopted a qualitative approach and was located within the interpretivist paradigm.
The research methodology followed was narrative inquiry and data was collected by employing
the qualitative method of semi structured interviews. The research sample comprised eight
Life Sciences teachers who had been in the profession since 1994 and who are currently
teaching Life Sciences to Grades 10, 11 and 12. The sample was drawn from four secondary
schools located in an urban area in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal.
The process of analysing qualitative data was an intricate one. Data was analysed using
thematic content analysis. There was also close collaboration with participants to ensure that
what was told was written. Analysis also involved relating back to research question to see the
relationship that emerged. The results of this study revealed that teacher emotions are
embedded in the process of curriculum change with emotional responses ranging from positive
to negative but negative responses being more evident in many instances. Also, with the
implementation process, emotional understanding and emotional labour are inevitable and
important. This qualitative study is offered as an example of how teachers’ emotions are affected in the
process of curriculum change. These findings could possibly be of value to curriculum
developers in the Department of Education. This could possibly inform decisions and provide
guidance on future curriculum changes. It is recommended that for future changes, curriculum
developers’ work in close collaboration with teachers to gain insight of how changes in the
curriculum affect them emotionally and thus be able to provide teachers with the emotional
support that they require in order to implement changes in their classrooms.
Description
Master of Education in Education Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2016.
Keywords
Curriculum change--South Africa., Teacher participation in curriculum planning--South Africa., Life sciences--Curricula--South Africa., Life sciences--Study and teaching--South Africa., Theses--Education.