The Curriculum Ideology Recommended by Novice Teachers for Life Sciences in South Africa

Abstract

South African has adopted the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement curriculum, which is aimed at promoting citizenship education. However, the extent to which teachers subscribe to the same ideology has yet to be investigated. The current study explored the curriculum ideology recommended by teachers in Life Sciences, in order to determine the extent to which they support citizenship education. Participants were postgraduate teachers employed in various government schools in Gauteng, South Africa. A semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Results show that teachers recommended multiple ideologies with greater support for the student-centred and service-centred ideologies. The citizenship-centred ideology was least recommended. These findings suggest that citizenship education may not be realized, as teachers do not recommend the relevant ideology.