Instructional guidance for marginalised subjects in Zimbabwe: a case study of the vocational and technical subjects in the Masvingo district

[摘要] English: At a time when many countries are searching for school curricula that adequately prepare learners for the world of work, there is a need to ensure that the implementers at the classroom level (viz. the teachers) are also supported in doing a good job with curriculum and instruction. The aim of this study was to investigate the instructional guidance practices (and policies) that are provided to support the teaching and learning of the vocational and technical subjects in Zimbabwe. Using a qualitative approach and particularly a case study design, the study sought to uncover the primary behaviours and practices of a group of instructional leaders with the aim of understanding the nature of the guidance and support that is provided to teachers of vocational and technical subjects in selected Zimbabwean schools.The thesis consists of five chapters which are structured as follows. Chapter One introduces the reader to the study by articulating its importance. Chapter Two explores a range of literature that placed the study within the existing debates on instructional leadership in general and subject leadership in particular. The literature review also helped to explain the conceptual lenses used in this study, viz. the theory of distributed leadership and that of vocational pedagogy which provided the frameworks through which the investigation was pursued. Chapter Three presented the methodology of the study and the measures taken to ensure validity and reliability. The data collected were presented, analysed and discussed in Chapter Four. Chapter Five summarised the findings, gave the recommendations for policy and practice and also suggested areas for further research.In its major findings, the study established that the vocational and technical education curriculum currently being implemented in Zimbabwe has its roots and genesis in the recommendations of the various commissions that were set up to investigate the relevance of the pre-independence Zimbabwean curricula to the challenges of modern day Zimbabwe. The result is a hybrid curriculum wherein vocational education is optional and is offered in parallel to the academic curriculum. Consequently, the vocational and technical curriculum continues to be marginalised in schools, both in terms of provisioning and implementation.Furthermore, the study established that there is indeed a leadership structure that is designed to provide for the required instructional guidance at every level of the school hierarchy, as provided for in the organisational chart at head office. However, the data suggests that there was discord between structure and function in terms of instructional guidance provided for vocational and technical education. That is, while the instructional leaders had been appointed to populate the leadership structure, only the Education Officers, the District Education Officers and the Heads of Department seemed to have the requisite vocational background and knowledge to lead and provide guidance to the teachers of these subjects, with the rest of the instructional leaders being unable to provide specific leadership in specifically the Vocational and Technical Education (VTE) subjects.The study also identified a variety of useful artefacts that are used by school leaders to provide guidance and support to teachers. Some of the key artefacts of leadership include the programmes of activities, which some heads called the 'diaries of activities', lesson observation sheets and the exercise book inspection guidelines.Interestingly, the data suggest that instructional guidance in the Masvingo district is mainly provided through a series of regularly scheduled practices and a number of predictable behaviours are almost expected from all the instructional leaders within the schools. The practices include the provision of material resources and scheduled supervision of instruction through lesson observations and inspection of students' exercise books, after which feedback is provided as a way of addressing the teachers' shortcomings. The identified shortcomings are then used as the basis of further staff development programmes that are organised by the provincial and/or district offices for groups of teachers. The routinized nature of instructional guidance practices and behaviours create a consistent pattern of instructional guidance across schools (and subjects). The unintended consequence of the routines, however, is that they also seem to hide the inefficiencies and incompetence with respect to subject-based instructional leadership, especially in the specialised vocational and technical subjects. Instructional leaders who do not have the necessary subject competence are still able to go through the routines and complete the required forms, under the pretence of providing instructional guidance, irrespective of the quality and subject specificity. The study thus concludes with a call for a distributed instructional guidance approach to compensate and take advantage of differing skill sets among the instructional leaders who are responsible for the various vocational and technical subjects in the school curriculum. The key argument in the thesis is for a reconceptualised instructional guidance regime and practice that accords the same equitable treatment to all school subjects, academic and/or vocational, and where each technical and vocational subject is treated differently in its own terms with the required subject matter competence and appropriate leadership tools and practices.

[发布机构] University of the Free State