Planning curriculum changes

In this category the principal’s role in formulating curriculum objectives for the school and developing and implementing educational plans for all curriculum changes at school level was explored. Ifeoma (2013) states that one of the duties of school principals’ involves coordinating curriculum planning practices that focuses on achieving the curriculum objectives of the school. Scholars, such as Jazzar and Algozzine (2006) further add that principals play a critical role as instructional leaders in curriculum planning. In relation to curriculum planning, HOD 1 of School B shared her belief on curriculum planning:

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Time is a constant barrier for the principal to get involved in enhancing the curriculum, monitoring and evaluating curriculum changes while at the same time managing the day-to-day running of the school. Curriculum planning requires establishing a general direction and then breaking-down the curriculum change into key modules with clear indicators in order to proceed with the curriculum implementation. Once everybody is clear about the direction and has had a chance to familiarise themselves with the intended change, the process of implementation becomes less stressful. This will depend on the principal as instructional leader who is responsible for facilitating the curriculum change process.

In support of the above response from HOD1 of School B, Van Der Westhuizen (2003:92), states that by dividing the structure of the intended change, misunderstandings are eliminated and the staff are given the opportunity to embody the change into manageable sections. HOD 1 from School A expressed his frustration when seeking the principal’s support when it came to curriculum planning:

It is often very difficult to get hold of the principal or deputy principal for that matter. They are often in meetings and when they are available we are teaching. Finding a common time to approach the principal or deputy principal is practically impossible at times. As a result, we eventually do what we think is right without any guidance or support, eventually conflicts are bound to arise. At the end of the day, it is our learners that have to suffer.

The participants in the focus group interviews mostly felt that their principals were not fully involved in curriculum change planning. However, the principals of these schools responded differently with P1 commenting as follows:

As principal of my school I ensure that I establish a sense of trust with my teachers. I allow them to challenge the content and the intention of the prescribed change in the curriculum. I ensure that a plan is in place for the successful implementation of the curriculum change. At the end of the day, my staff have choice, they can choose to be victims of change or they can choose to be initiators of change.

I found this response to be quite alarming; while the principal claims to support the curriculum planning process and her teachers, there was a lack of conviction that she cares about the success of the implementation of the proposed curriculum change.

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P2 stated that she looks at “the basic structure of the proposed change and breaks it up into smaller parts that are easy to understand”.

HOD 1 in School D claimed that the principal should have knowledge of the changes in the curriculum to enable them to support its implementation.

The principal should be knowledgeable about what the proposed change entails and at the same time be able to translate it into a plan of action.

From these responses, it is apparent that there seems to be a contradiction in the responses from the principals and the participants in the focus group interviews regarding curriculum change planning. It became apparent that P3 was the only principal who was frank about his feelings regarding curriculum planning.

As principals, I believe that we are not adequately trained to perform our roles as instructional leaders in curriculum planning and this inadequacy creates many challenges when it comes to managing curriculum changes in our schools. We are also not given the opportunity to be part of the curriculum planning at department level and we feel excluded from key decision-making affecting the curriculum in our schools.

What also came out quite strongly in the interviews was the lack of involvement of teachers and HODs in curriculum change planning. This is what HOD 1 from School A had to say:

When a curriculum change is to be implemented, we are not conveyed the full information. We are not involved in the planning of a change. We just get emails informing us about changes to the curriculum and are basically instructed implement the change.

Lachiver and Tardif (2002:11) advocate that curriculum change is a complex process and care should be taken throughout all stages of the facilitation process to ensure that the difficulties associated with managing change is not underestimated and that strategic curriculum change planning becomes necessary. Taking into account the participants’ responses, the findings show that principals and those involved in the process of curriculum change planning need to take into consideration all stages of the planning process. It is my contention that curriculum changes require school principals to plan and facilitate the intended curriculum to ensure that their learners have access to quality education.

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