ETD Collection

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  • Item
    The nature of curriculum studies scholarship in South Africa: 2008 - 2010
    (2016-07-25) Moosa, Raazia
    Curriculum studies (CS) provided an important focus for international scholars: Pinar (1978; 2011) in the United States of America; Barriga (2003) in Mexico; Moreira (2003) in Brazil; Green (2003) in Australia; Chambers (2003) in Canada and Smith and Ewing (2002) in Australia. International perspectives to understand CS include the traditionalist, conceptual-empiricism, reconceptualization and the internationalization perspectives (Pinar 1978; 2011). There has been a movement internationally in favour of internationalization as this promised a regional and global understanding of curriculum issues, while maintaining a focus on local curriculum issues. In South Africa, scholars such as Hoadley (2010), Hugo (2010) and Le Grange (2010) also focused on CS. Hoadley (2010) analysed scholarship in the field of CS in South Africa from 2000-2007 through a study that characterised scholarship in the ‘knowledge’, ‘knower’ and the ‘bureaucratic’ modes. The problem this current study addressed is the dearth of knowledge about the nature of CS scholarship in South Africa in the period 2008-2010. A qualitative case study approach informed a review and analysis of three accredited and peer-reviewed South African journals, which drew on theoretical concepts informed by Pinar (1978; 2011) and Hoadley (2010) to provide insights into the dominant theoretical and methodological attributes of CS scholarship in this context. Focusing on issues related to schooling, this study’s findings revealed that the national field of CS scholarship was rich, diverse, multi-faceted and fragmented in its theoretical and methodological attributes. Diverse disciplines, specialisations and theoretical frameworks meant that the field lacked a clearly defined focus. Implications of this study for cumulative work and methodological rigour in the production of knowledge in CS are highlighted. The strength of this study is that it draws on international and national perspectives to characterise the theoretical and methodological attributes of scholarship in the field of CS in South Africa. Based on this study, scholars are able to gain a better understanding of the nature of the field. Consequently, they may advance the field by developing appropriate theories and methodologies to solve curriculum issues and advance scholarly practices based on historical insights gained from existing scholarship. Keywords: Curriculum studies scholarship; theoretical perspectives in curriculum studies; theoretical attributes of curriculum studies scholarship; methodological attributes of curriculum studies scholarship; post-Apartheid curriculum studies scholarship
  • Item
    The applicabilty of skills training for local economic development: a case study of the Thusanang Training Centre
    (2014-06-12) Moosa, Raazia
    The experience drawn from development programmes, has shown that the translation of policy and theory into workable action programmes, is an art form that is little understood and seldom practised successfully, Within the development context, Sbapiero (1984) argues that “no where is the gap between theory and useful action more apparent than in the fielu of economic development” (Shapiero,1984;14). Past top-down exogenous economic development strategies have failed to achieve their objectives, and communities have traditionally lacked the means by which to initiate development. Structural changes in the global arena have also made it difficult for governments to protect their local markets because of competition in the global arena. This means that economic growth in each local area can follow only from the development of a new capacity to respond to global economic changes. Recently, more bottom-up endogenous approaches, to economic development, have been formulated. LED is viewed as a mechanism which could help fill the void which exists, through the effective mobilisation o f community resources. LED could thus enable the poor and structurally unemployed to participate in the economy, by focusing on Human Resource Development, Entrepreneuralism which is geared towards Community Development. New legislation and policy changes have led to more pragmatic and supportive environments which foster LED, LED is in effect a local response which ideally relies on local initiatives, and the communities taking ownership of the development process. This dissertation cannot be comprehensive, Instead it suggests a general framework to problem solving in the field of LED. The Thusanang Training Centre is thus promoted as a synthetic instrument with which to provide a general economic development mechanism at the local level. Training Centres represent areas with interesting and innovative initiatives, that may serve as indicators of ‘good practice* for LED within communities. However when a commitment is made to engage h LED strategies, organisations need to consider the ramifications of their actions on the entire community.