4.2 Description of findings
4.2.5 Theme 5: The stakeholders’ recommendations
All the participants were unanimous in their belief that community engagement should be seriously and deliberately debated for the good and development of the learner. There seems to be a realisation that the prevailing situation is not serving the interests of anyone. Instead it is to the disadvantage of the learner whom we all purport to be assisting. In short, the situation is short-changing the learner. Below are consolidated lists of the recommendations by the participants (in their respective categories) about what can be done to change the situation for the better.
139 The school heads’ recommendations:
Community participation in curriculum implementation is critical and topical, and as such needs a Deliberate Plan, Programme and Process (DPPP) that gives the community members the mandate of participation, activated by incentives, thus empowering the communities through policies.
Design and fund programmes and workshops by the Ministry for the school heads, teachers and community members on how they can engage each other, and define the roles that the communities can play in curriculum implementation.
Pay allowances for SDC/SDA in line with village funding. Eliminate political and socio-economic constraints. Build child-friendly schools.
The parents and the schools should be allowed to and given the opportunity to take part in designing and developing curriculum packages so that their peculiar needs and interests will be catered for. They should not be overwhelmed by irrelevant policies.
The Ministry should consult the schools and communities during the formulation of policies.
The teachers’ recommendations:
The school heads should encourage the teachers to involve the community members in curriculum implementation.
There is a need for policy clarity and direction. The schools should be allowed to use resource persons from the community. The policies need to clarify how it should be done.
There exists a need for teacher restoration in terms of pride, attitudes, values, etc.
There is no continuity in the policies when the ministers change constantly. Sometimes it is recommended to have the Minister of Education for a longer period for the sake of continuity and consistency.
The need to depoliticise educational issues cannot be over-emphasised. This is in order to give room and freedom to all the community members to participate in curriculum implementation.
140 The community members’ recommendations:
The Ministry of Education should make sure that the results of research studies like this one, are made available to all stakeholders, and should be implemented in order to help the child, the schools and the communities. Such research should not be left on shelves to gather dust.
The schools should educate community members on what they should do to assist the teachers in the classroom, i.e. the schools and the communities should plan and work together for the benefit of the child.
The teachers should desist from looking down upon community members and should also change their negative attitudes if a meaningful partnership is to be formed.
From the findings it appears that the participants (the school heads, the teachers and the community members) know what they want to see happening in the schools. They want a greater say in the activities of their schools and they want to help change the status quo.
4.3 Chapter summary
In the first theme, Understanding the key terms, I found that the stakeholders have a good understanding of the key concepts curriculum implementation and community participation, as well as in identifying the stakeholders in the community who could participate in curriculum implementation. Understanding these concepts, to me, was important to anchor subsequent discussions. It was the identification of the stakeholders in the community which showed a big gap between the teachers and the community members. For the community members it was as if everyone could participate and for teachers, they were selective and restrictive. On the whole, what really impressed me was that they both understood that in the community there are members who can make meaningful contribution to curriculum implementation.
The partnership between the schools and the communities in curriculum implementation constituted theme 2. Discussing this theme with the stakeholders, I found that in theory they valued and identified the benefits that accrue as a result of the said partnership. It was the implementation modalities of the partnership that created problems. Fear existed among the teachers that they had the contractual obligation to oversee the curriculum implementation,
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with the community members coming at their pleasure. To the teachers, it was a sure way of maintaining that relationship.
Theme 3 was concerned with the barriers to community participation in curriculum implementation, and possible solutions. During the gathering of the data, I observed that there were so many militating factors which create a big wall between the schools and the communities, paramount among them being the language of education and the polarised political situation existing in most rural areas. Encouraging though, was the fact that both communities (the schools and outside) thought creating dialogue and levelling the educational and political field were the most sustainable ways of overcoming the barriers.
The absence of policy guidelines was also noted. This was discussed in theme 4. The school heads and the teachers indicated the need to have policies in place which would guide and protect them in any eventuality in this relationship with the communities. Importantly, the school heads and the teachers underlined the need for a shift in policy-formulation. The idea is to embrace the bottom-up horizontal approach to reach out to implementers and other important stakeholders of curriculum implementation.
Finally, theme 5 consisted of the stakeholders’ recommendations to the schools, the Ministry and the government. The stakeholders raised interesting suggestions to change the classrooms. If they came to fruition would do two things, namely change the face of curriculum implementation, and strengthen the relationship between the schools and the communities in Zimbabwe.
In the next chapter I present a summary and discussion of the findings, conclusions, recommendations, and areas that need further research.
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