South Africa’s education system has changed drastically over the course of two decades, with curriculum seen as the lever to effect change. Major shifts in curriculum have transformed education from an oppressive and unequal system to an integrated, well-documented system that reflects a negotiated, mediated set ofvalues.
Curriculum Studies: Visions and Imaginings describes and evaluates the role players and movements that negotiate curriculum, the different education goals and strategies that mediate curriculum, and the values and beliefs that drive curriculum content. Each chapter represents a unique voice or snapshot on a curriculum perspective relevant to South African scholars and students. The book views curriculum through a visionary and imaginative lens, proposing ways of doing that might enhance curriculum implementation and thus education experiences in South African education institutions. But, is this not yet another curriculum book in a period of prolific educational research? While the introductory chapters draw on the Western heritage of curriculum, this collection of curriculum debates lifts out contrasting and complementary personal and contextual perspectives on curriculum.
Curriculum Studies: Visions and Imaginings is essential reading for researchers and postgraduate students. It is at once a history and a synthesis of current thinking, but it leaves readers with a hopeful vision and a series of uncertainties and unanswered questions that require further research.
“This text is a celebration of the many levels of curriculum reconstruction that need to be addressed concurrently: linking local, global, technological, philosophical, political, ideological and pedagogical matters. Rather than adding to the litany of complaints about the education system and the curriculum, this book offers comprehensive imaginative visioning of education and collaborative action. Rooted in its unique historical South African context, it offers branches of insight for transformative thinking in the broader field of Curriculum Studies.”
Michael Samuel, Professor, School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal
About the contributors
Petro du Preez (North-West University) and Chris Reddy (University of Stellenbosch) have led a team of established and emerging authors from various South African institutions.
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