This presentation highlights my approach to critiquing curriculum documentation, as part of a re-curriculation, or curriculum development process.

1. Critiquing curriculum documentation:
My approach

2. My experience of curriculum before the PG
Dip HE

3. My experience of curriculum after the
PG Dip HE

4. Defining curriculum development
O’Neill (2009), Barnett (2009) and Luckett (2010)

5. A personal definition or lens
O’Neill maintains that curriculum means different things
to various role players, these include, the structure and
content of a module, the structure and content of a
programme, the students’ experience of learning and a
dynamic and interactive process of teaching and learning
(O'Neill 2010, 62).
All of them?

6. A personal definition or lens
Barnett states that curriculum is more than content,
rather it is an educational vehicle “for effecting
changes in human beings through particular kinds of
encounter with knowledge” (Barnett 2009, 429).

7. A personal definition or lens
Luckett asserts, curriculum is understood as a social,
epistemic and ontological practice, with knowledge
being the key to curriculum theory. (Luckett 2010, 7,
8).

8. My approach to critiquing curriculum
documentation
Explain Reflect
Theoretical
underpinning
Critique

9. My approach to critiquing curriculum
documentation
Curriculum
development
institutional
context
institutional
curriculum
development
practices
relationship
between
knowledge and
disciplinary /
field structures institutional QA
principles and
processes
role as an
academic
developer

10. Institutional context
• Luckett’s curriculum paradigms (1995)
–Traditional paradigm
• Curriculum as product
–Hermeneutic paradigm
• Curriculum as process
–Critical paradigm
• Curriculum as praxis
• Where does my institution fit and why?

11. Institutional practice
National
policies &
structures
White paper
1997
Merger
SAQA, NQF,
HEQSF, CHE,
HEQC
Institutional
structures
and processes
Comprehensive
Polices
Departments
Roles
Culture
Vision & Mission
• Curriculum
Differentiation
(Shey)
• Curriculum
Responsiveness
(Moll)

12. Critiquing curricula
• Is the curriculum responding to the
national transformation agenda?
• Relate to the institutional context
–Is the curriculum responsive?
–What are the dominant beliefs / views
regarding knowledge
–Are these espoused beliefs / views
reflected in the curricula

13. Critiquing curricula
• Pick a model
–Luckett’s proposal for an epistemically
diverse curriculum
• Bernstein’s pedagogical device
• Maton’s knowledge / knower
structures
• Disciplinary / field structures

14. Institutional QA practices
• How is the quality of the curriculum
assured?
–Theoretical underpinnings vs technical
• Any reason why?
–Is there sufficient capacity?
–How does the process relate to the
espoused culture of the university

15. My role as an academic developer
• Theoretical underpinning of my approach
– O’Neill (2010)
– McKenna (2011)
• My role w.r.t. curriculum development
• Gaps I have identified
• Using my agency to strategically address
these gaps

16. Application to my context
Unpacking the qualification
from programme level to
the individual outcomes on
a specific module

17. Unpacking the qualification
Exit level
outcomes
Module
outcomes
Purpose
of the
module
Outcomes
T&L
Methods
Assessment
methods &
tasks
Criteria
Marking Feedback
Rationale Purpose
What support is in
place to enable
student success?

18. Application to my context
Rationale of the programme
The rationale of the PGCHET stipulates that
facilitating the training and development of HET
practitioners respond to the need for greater
international recognition and professionalism,
improving the quality of teaching, learning and
assessment, in order to develop knowledge in the
field and to enhance accountability in the field of
HET.

19. Application to my context
Focusing on a module
• Bernstein’s pedagogic device
– How knowledge is converted into classroom talk,
curricula and online communication (Singh 2002)
– 3 fields
• The field of production
• The field of recontextualisation
• The field of reproduction
• Luckett’s proposal for an epistemically diverse
curriculum

20. Application to my context
Why Luckett?
Luckett’s proposal for an epistemically diverse
curriculum aims to be responsive to
international trends and to the South African
context regarding curriculum challenges and
curriculum reform, which relates directly to the
rationale of the PGCHET.
• Does the programme achieve its purpose?

21. Application to my context
The purpose of the Programme and Module Design
in HET module is to “guide the candidates in
mastering programme and module planning and
design skills to enhance their students’ learning …
the module will also promote a reflective teaching
and learning practice” (my emphasis) (Gerber 2010,
3)
Mastery of skills = foundational competency (Q1)
Reflexive practice = reflexive competency (Q4)

22. Application to my context
• In which quadrants are the outcomes positioned?
• What is required of the students to meet these
outcomes?
• Does the module content provide the theoretical
underpinnings to achieve the outcomes?
• Does the module teaching (field of reproduction)
provide the students with the required knowledge?
• How are the outcomes assessed to develop the
required knowledge?
• Constructive alignment (Biggs)

23. Application to my context
Bernstein’s selection, and sequencing and pacing
• Selection
– What knowledge is selected (content)?
– How does it related to the purposes?
– How responsive is the knowledge?
• Sequencing
– The “flow”, alignment, scaffolding and coherence
• Pacing
– Notional hours
– Contact time vs. self study

24. Application to my context
Knowledge structures and disciplines
• Bernstein’s knowledge structures
– Horizontal
– Vertical
• Maton’s Specialisation codes of legitimation
– Epistemic relations (ER) – knowledge structure
– Social relations (SR) – knower structure
• Disciplinary / field structures (Biglan)
– Hard and soft disciplines
– Pure and applied disciplines

25. Application to my context
How do these apply to the curriculum?
E.g. Education
• Soft:Applied discipline
• Horizontal knowledge structure
• Knower code (ER-SR+)
Does the knowledge selected in the curriculum
develop the students as knowers?
– If so how?
– If not why not?

26. Curriculum development is central to the
academic project
Questions?

27. - Barnett, Ronald. “Knowing and becoming in the higher education
curriculum.” Studies in Higher Education Vol.34, no. No.4 (June 2009):
429-440.
- Bernstein, Basil. “Vertical And Horizontal Discourse: An Essay.” In
Pedagogy, Symbolic, Control and Identity, by Basil Bernstein, 155-174.
Lanham, Boulder, New York, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
Inc., 2000.
- Biglan, Anthony. “The characteristics of subject matter in different
academic areas.” Journal of Applied Psychology Vol. 57, no. No.3 (1973):
195-203.
- Luckett, Kathy. “A proposal for an epistemically diverse curriculum for
South African higher education in the 21st Century.” South African
Journal of Higher Education Vol.15, no. No. 2 (2001): 49-61.
- Luckett, Kathy. “Knowledge claims and codes of legitimation:
Implications for curriculum recontextualisation in South African higher
education.” (Unisa Press) Vol.40, no. No.1 (2010): 6-20.
References

28. - Luckett, Kathy. “Towards a Model of Curriculum Development for the University of
Natal's Curriculum Reform Programme.” academic development Vol.1, no. No.2
(1995): 125-139
- Maton, K. “Knowledge and Knower Structures: What's at stake in the two cultures
debate why school music is unpopular and what unites such diverse issues.” In
Knowledge & Knowers: Towards a Realist Sociology of Education, by Karl Maton, 65-85.
Routledge, 2013.
- McKenna, Sioux. “Paradigms of curriculum design : implications for South African
educators.” Journal for Language Teaching = Tydskrif vir Taalonderrig Vol. 37, no. No. 2
(2011): 215-223.
- Moll, Ian. “Curriculum Responsiveness The Anatomy of a Concept.” In Curriculum
Responsiveness: Case Studies in Higher Education, by Hanlie Griesel, Patrick Fish and
Ian Moll, 1-19. Pretoria: SAUVC, 2004.
- O'Neill, Geraldine. “Initiating curriculum revision: exploring the practices of
educational developers.” International Journal for Academic Development Vol.15, no.
No.1 (2010): 61-71.
- Shay, Suellen. “Conceptualsing curriculum differentiation in higher education: a
sociology of knowledge point of view.” British Journal of Sociology of Education, 2012:
1-20.
- Singh, Parlo. “Pedagogising Knowledge: Bernstein's theory of the pedagogic device.”
British Journal of Sociology of Education Vol.23, No.4 (2002).