Exploring the understanding, experiences and practices of lectures in leading and teaching the NCV level 2 curriculum at a technical and vocational education and training college in KwaZulu-Natal.
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Date
2016
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Abstract
One of the core goals of Technical and Vocational Education and Training Colleges in South Africa is to increase the number of young people and adults accessing education and training in a manner that supports skills development as well as the goal of lifelong learning and development for all. However, available research on TVET colleges tends to focus on issues like transformation, qualifications and programmes; learner performance, and the ability of TVET Colleges to meet labour market needs, as a result, very little is known about the challenges that lecturers face in dealing with the new curriculum. There is a dearth of current data on college lecturers’ ability to cope with the demands of delivering the curriculum.
Having said the above, the purpose of this research was to explore the understandings, experiences and practices of lecturers in teaching the curriculum at NCV Level 2 in a TVET College in KwaZulu Natal. A qualitative approach along with case study design, purposive sampling and in-depth interviews was employed to obtain data from managers and lecturers. Overall, the findings of the study revealed that lecturers had both positive and negative experiences in teaching the NCV Curriculum. On the positive side, the findings showed that in exercising their leadership and management roles in the curriculum, many lecturers applied the leadership principles suggested by Weber (1987), i.e. leading by example, involving staff in goal setting, and developing and motivating junior staff through appraisal, coaching and mentoring on the job. On the negative side, the findings showed that lecturers still faced severe challenges, including a mismatch between skills and jobs, insufficient funding for students, poor student attendance, resistance to change by lecturers; using outdated textbooks and a lack of facilities for practical work. In the light of these findings, it was concluded that an integrated approach was required to help improve teaching and learning processes and working conditions for lecturers in the chosen TVET College in KwaZulu-Natal.
Description
Master of Education in Education, Development, Leadership and Management. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2016.
Keywords
Vocational Education., Competency - Based education., Educational Evaluation., Technical Education., Theses - Education.