PiE 2020 Volume 38 Issue 1

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http://hdl.handle.net/11660/11290

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Browsing PiE 2020 Volume 38 Issue 1 by Subject "Curriculum interpretation"

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    Representation of the Zimbabwean 2015-2022 social studies curriculum: teachers' perspectives on challenges and "ubuntulising" curriculum change and implementation
    (University of the Free State, 2020) Chimbunde, P.; Kgari-Masondo, M. C.
    The new 2015–2022 Zimbabwean curriculum in which Social Studies is engrained was driven by the need among others to transform the Zimbabweans’ demeanour and etiquette by employing Ubuntu as its philosophical base. Through the Ubuntu lens, this qualitative case study explores how Ubuntu values could be applied to mollify challenges of curriculum reform and implementation. We purposively sampled 12 teachers who participated in semistructured interviews, observations and a focus group discussion (FGD) to generate data for this study. The findings established that employing the top-down approach in the dissemination of the Zimbabwean curriculum, devoid of the teachers’ consultations and participation, catalyses the manifestation of acerbic and innumerable challenges that included inadequate resources, lack of consultation, lack of training for teachers and poor public relations, which led to poor implementation of the Social Studies curriculum. The study discovered that the basis of Ubuntu, which the Zimbabwean curriculum claims to hinge on, is merely a paper exercise but practically it is not applied. The study recommends the rekindling of the Ubuntu values that capture the traditional African customs, work ethics and beliefs and applies them to curriculum reform and implementation in order to inform educational policy and practice as uncovered from the fieldwork undertaken for this study. This study is a contribution to the current topical issue about decolonisation globally.