Changes of school curriculum in South Africa: What is the role of the (English) language teacher?

Abstract

With the demise of apartheid and the ushering in of a new political dispensation, many changes have taken place in South Africa. The field of education, which was one of the most volatile areas of concern for the apartheid regime and has been described by some academics at the University of Natal as being a miasmic morass marked by systemic crisis, has been quick to purge itself of some of its apartheid legacies (see Barasa & Mattson, 1998). For instance, to offset the harmful effects of the ‘Bantu Education Act’, a new school curriculum – Curriculum 2005 – was introduced. It was hoped by the education authorities that Curriculum 2005, which has its roots in Outcomes-based Education (OBE) and an accompanying pedagogy based on a constructivist methodology, will help considerably in preparing students adequately for the challenges of adulthood. Sadly, this has not been the case, hence the numerous curricula changes still taking place. This paper looks at the plight of the (English) language teacher and proposes a possible way out of the miasmic morass South African education has been plunged into.