
Progressed Learners’ Participation in Developing Curriculum Support Programmes: A Critical Pedagogy Approach
Issue: Vol.3 No.10 October 2022 Article 5 pp.475-487
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20223105 | Published online 17th October 2022.
© 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This empirical paper provides a critical analysis of progressed learners’ participation in the development of curriculum support programmes through Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy. Progression policy was promulgated in the Further Education and Training Phase to ensure uniformity and consistency in the implementation of National Policy Pertaining to the Programme and Promotion Requirements (N4PR) to prohibit learners from spending more than four years in a phase. The policy stresses the development of intervention programmes for identified learners to bridge the content gap. However, literature based on progression policy focus on programmes that teachers develop and implement. The focus of this paper is on progressed learners’ contribution to curriculum support. Through Freire’s critical pedagogy, it critiques traditional teaching methods where the teacher is the knower who deposits knowledge to novice “progressed” learners. In an argument for a problem posing education, the study employs a qualitative research approach. Data was collected through document analysis and interviews with six teachers. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed a lack of evidence of progressed learner participation in the development of curriculum support programmes. In addition, progressed learners feature when they have to respond to developed programmes. This study concludes that teachers are fixated on traditional learning models. Based on the findings, the study recommends the need to shift to a “dialogue approach” where both the teacher and progressed learners design intervention strategies that communicate directly to the specific needs of such learners.
Keywords: Curriculum support, progressed learners, critical pedagogy
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Dr Makobo Lydia Mogale is a lecturer and emerging researcher in the discipline of Curriculum Studies. Her research interests include education policy and practice, particularly progression policy implementation; teacher professional development; curriculum development and Instructional practices. She published articles on progression policy in local and internationally accredited journals.
Dr Khashane Stephen Malatji is a senior lecturer and acting director in the School of Education at Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. His research interests cover teaching and learning; evaluation of teaching; curriculum development; assessment; quality assurance ad teacher development in higher education. He published extensively in accredited local and international journals.
Mogale, M.L.& Malatji K.S. “Progressed Learners’ Participation in Developing Curriculum Support Programmes: A Critical Pedagogy Approach,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 3, no.10 (2022):475-487. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20223105
© 2022 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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