'n Ondersoek na ekonomiese- en bestuurswetenskappe as leerarea in die senior fase van die skoolkurrikulum

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) learning area is part of the current National Curriculum Statement (NCS) and includes learning content from subjects such as Accounting, Business Studies and Economics to prepare learners for the Further Education and Training (FET) phase (Grade 10–12). The learning content is divided into four learning outcomes, namely 'The economic cycle, 'Sustainable growth and development, 'Managerial, consumer and financial knowledge and skills and 'Entrepreneurial knowledge and skills. This study investigates EMS as learning area, and more specifically senior-phase EMS teachers' experience of teaching this learning area.EMS teachers are expected to provide equal teaching of all four learning outcomes of the current NCS, as well as the three topics of the future Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), namely 'The economy, 'Financial literacy and 'Entrepreneurship. Previous studies have shown that EMS teachers face many challenges, including that not all of them have sufficient knowledge and understanding of the content of the learning area. Apart from these challenges, it was also found that teachers do not strictly comply with the policy prescripts in terms of teaching and assessment, as Accounting is given priority in the EMS classroom. Therefore, this study explores the aforementioned challenges in order to ascertain how EMS teachers experience the teaching of the learning area. The establishment of teacher learning communities for novice EMS teachers was also investigated.The research was undertaken within the methodological paradigm as a qualitative investigation. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with mainly Grade 9 EMS teachers. The approach is interpretivist and the research design is phenomenological. Five respondents were purposefully selected based on the value that they were able to add in terms of their unique contexts, their qualifications and teaching experience.An important finding of the study was that the experience of EMS teachers was generally positive, given all the challenges they faced, such as the disparity between policy and practice, as well as often having to rely on insufficient, irrelevant and outdated EMS learning and teaching support material (LTSM).The researcher recommends that EMS teachers teach the learning area in consultation with their counterparts elsewhere in order to improve their teaching experience in respect of this learning area.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University