Curriculum managers’ perspectives on managing the curriculum in schools at King Cetshwayo district.

Abstract

This case study explored curriculum managers’ perspectives of managing the curriculum at a school in King Cetshwayo district. The study employed the qualitative case-study style grounded within the interpretivist paradigm. Consistent with qualitative studies, purposive with convenience sampling informed the selection of the seven curriculum managers of schools in King Cetshwayo district around Empangeni. Convenience sampling was also employed in selection of data-generation methods such as document analysis, participant observation, one-on-one semi-structured interviews, and focus-group discussions. The guided analysis was utilised as the appropriate strategy for analysing data. From a theoretical perspective, the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) framed the study. The findings of the study indicated that instructional leadership is a good definition of curriculum managers who are driven per disciplinary perspective in managing CAPS curricula in schools. The study findings also indicated that CAPS is a performance curriculum. Therefore, the study suggests that a specific curriculum content should be taught in full scope in an operational content to ensure that the good performance of learners is a measurement for curriculum management. The study recommends that curriculum managers should possess both theoretical or conceptual and operational contents understanding of the curriculum. Such will inform their curriculum-management experiences to achieve maximum performance.