The Oxford Consortium for Educational Achievement as cited by West-Burnham and O’Sullivan (1998:121-122), indicates that monitoring is the collection of information in a variety of ways in order to answer the question of good implementation. Evaluation on the other hand, refers to the process by means of which judgements are reached about the outcomes of planned action, how valuable an activity is in relation to the standard of education provided for the learners. Fundamentally speaking, the monitoring of curriculum change in schools involves the regular analysis of data to assist in pro-active decision making, accountability and evaluation of teaching and learning (Ministry of Education 2010:8).
Monitoring and evaluation in managing and controlling curriculum change in a school setting are important aspects of providing information on how the set institutional goals or planned actions are achieved. The processes of assessing or evaluating and conducting a contextual
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examination of the planned curriculum change and change processes are important in management. The effective management of curriculum change demands that monitoring and evaluation are strengthened in order to make a critical assessment of the set goals for achieving the education plans (Ministry of Education 2013:60).
For managing curriculum change in the basic schools in Mongu Township, evaluation will serve as an activity designed to provide crucial information on what, how and why a programme, project or an activity is, or is not working well and how to improve it. For the Ministry of Education (2010:9), evaluation in the management of curriculum change involves, essentially, a real-time and systematic objective examination of the planned school or institutional management schedules. Monitoring and evaluation are meant to ascertain the extent to which the effective implementation of the designed education system is accomplished. School performance requires constant monitoring and evaluation to achieve greater heights in curriculum change (see discussion in paragraph 5.3.2.5 in Chapter five and Appendix 1).
2.6 OTHER RELEVANT ISSUES IN MANAGING CURRICULUM CHANGE AT THE SCHOOL LEVEL
The management functions have so far been discussed and some ideas were provided on how they help school managers in transforming a school management system and how implementing curriculum change requires these management functions. It is important to look at the other relevant issues in managing curriculum change at the school level. According to Gregorio (2006:26), the “multiple dimensions” of social change and the “changing vision” of society, including an institution of learning, may result in facilitating considerable change in the way curriculum change is managed by school managers.
Due to international demands of quality delivery of education and bearing in mind the needs of people and the educational priorities, the Zambian society adopted a curriculum change that responded to the needs of the nation. For this reason a long-term 2030 educational vision has been put in place from which the direction of education and curriculum management in Zambia is taken and driven. There is a need for change because most institutional leadership lack the zeal and enthusiasm to function effectively (Peters 2008:21). McKee, Boyatzis and Johnston (2008:3) challenge managers of schools to become active participants in learning rather than
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passive readers of the text in managing planned curriculum change. Change initiatives without such individuals and collective assessment are doomed (Reeves 2009:7).
Managing planned change requires a deeper understanding of organisational culture of the school. Bowring-Carr and West-Burnham (1997:87) remark that the many processes that involve personal change will require the outcome of learning to be determined largely by the way in which the change variables, some personal intrinsic, some social and some extrinsic values are managed. For Bowring-Carr and West-Burnham (1997:152-153), to transform schools in managing curriculum change is to transform school cultures. People change the meaning that they give to themselves and to the institution at which they work, thus to transform the school does not mean only changing structures. Culture, in this connection, refers to the product of the shared values (Murphy 2007: 74), beliefs, priorities, expectations and norms that serve to inform the way in which a school as an organisation of teaching and learning manifests and exposes itself to the world (West-Burnham 1997:95).
Once the need for change has been recognised, the culture of the school has to be investigated and not the structure that might be put in place. Transforming the school in managing curriculum change is about changing the school culture completely making it a place where each one learns how to learn and being assisted to initiate own learning (Bowring-Carr & West- Burnham 1997:152-153). For the basic school managers in Mongu Township, both managers and teachers are change agents who should have a clear understanding of the organisational culture in which complex organisational problems exist that they need to manage effectively.
Zhou (2006:57) suggests that managing curriculum change lies at the heart of educational processes that aim to achieve educational objectives. A well-managed relevant curriculum change co-determines the educational quality of teaching and learning in schools. Therefore, the educational processes aimed at achieving educational aims must be of great concern to the basic school managers and teachers in Mongu Township. By changing the nature of a curriculum, it is evident that an ongoing process of change will be attained that aims at organising better learning opportunities focused on actual interactions between the teacher and the learner (Van Deventer & Kruger 2003: 7). In fact, the designed curriculum change and change processes for learning sequences and experiences with the view to producing desired learning outcomes plays a major role in facilitating the acquisition of management skills for
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school managers, teaching techniques for class teachers and learning achievements for the school going children (Leithwood & Beatty 2008: 24; Joubert & Bray 2007: vii).
The acquisition of management skills assists in defining teachers’ tasks with regard to curriculum management and their attitudes towards the teaching processes in the school as a community (Van der Merwe, Prinsloo & Steinmann 2009: 5; Van Deventer & Kruger 2003: 7; Leithwood & Beatty 2008: 24; Joubert & Bray 2007: vii). Other examples of managing curriculum change may be related to changing structures, organising principles and content, reaffirming the rationales behind the changes and the implications for facilitating and leading the change (Gregorio 2006:29).
Changing structures in managing curriculum change entails that the school management will need to define and redefine teachers’ roles, tasks and responsibilities and organise the curriculum content into practical teaching and learning for children. The review process of managing curriculum change relates to changing structures, organising principles, content and reaffirming the rationales for change. What is important for this study in view of managing curriculum change is the fact that it remains the task of the basic school managers in Mongu Township to implement these changing school structures and apply effectively the organisational principles.
The management of curriculum change at the school level is also concerned with tackling issues of access, availability, quality and coverage of service provision, such as making available teaching and learning materials designed for the schools (Ministry of Education 2010:9). Nyambe (2012a:3), a Senior Principal Education Standards Officer at the Ministry of Education Headquarters, profoundly articulates that the management of curriculum change in the Zambian schools should include:
...efficient and effective teaching and learning, provision and delivery of appropriate curriculum activities, improvement of skills in different aspects of the curriculum (systematic deployment of teachers, class allocations, and allocation of materials), provision of textbooks and media resources, availability of library facilities.
Education change depends on what teachers do and think. Furnmann (2009: 635) agrees with Razik and Swanson (2010:364) who attest that it is relevant that change agents must be able to
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identify and analyse complex organisational problems. Also that change agents must have a sound insight into the effect of organisational culture and climate on employees and must conceptualise and implement a broad plan for managing change. Furthermore, they need to share power, roles, and develop consensus for collaborative decision-making, maintain the operations of their education system and monitor inputs and outputs of change. Change agents are also expected to maintain positive aspects of the school system and work towards the improvements in the planned work schedules.
Reeves (2009:46) proffers that “change is a loss and managers who believe in the myth of the popularity of change had better start searching for the change fairy." Therefore, change managers should reaffirm the values of respect and fairness, and alter the often prevailing image of change as an overwhelming and pervasive threat. They are expected to draw closer to the perception that it is the modification of practice within the broader picture of affirming change. They should also believe that these issues are not merely a semantic game, but are in essence a part of sound management (Reeves 2009:8). According to Goens (2005:39), supported by Reeves (2009:8), change managers in the school should display kindness, caring and compassion for change agents that must be acknowledged and preserved.
Curriculum change in institutions of teaching and learning is necessary for opening up opportunities to acquire or practise new management skills, increase job satisfaction and improve working practice. Therefore, the school management should provide the opportunity to work with new people. They also have to provide for better use of time and skills, increase responsibility and rewards and increase efficiency (Razik & Swanson 2010:348). In this regard, there is a need to change and manage policies, innovations, attitudes, knowledge, materials, techniques, skills and behaviour to meet the required changes in education. It is for this reason that Razik and Swanson (2010:347) conclude that the implementation of a systematic change looks at altering the behaviours, structures, procedures, purpose or outputs of some units within an organisation. The implementation of a systematic and planned change in the basic schools in Mongu Township will require what Haydon (2007:9) and Fullan (2007:44) suggest, namely that managing systematic and planned curriculum change is managing behavioural and emotional change, beliefs, values, shared vision or ownership. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the managers in Mongu Township basic schools to ensure that the management skills for managing curriculum change and change processes in their institutions of learning should be effectively provided and improved.
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Razik and Swanson (2010:348) conceptualise three types of perspectives in managing curriculum change: ‘enforced’, ‘expedient,’ and ‘essential.’ Enforced change entails the needs for change in a school which are identified from external forces. Expedient change looks at meeting immediate concerns of an institution in managing the change processes. Essential change demands implementation of the needs identified from the internal forces rather than external sources. For Gregorio (2006:27), curriculum managers should construct an effective process of providing a curriculum applicable to local conditions, and increasing the chances of producing quality syllabuses and learning outcomes. Lessons can be learnt by school managers in Mongu Township on how best they can adapt Razik and Swanson’s (2010:348) types of change and change processes and Gregorio’s (2006: 27) assertions about curriculum change. However, one should keep in mind that the school managers in the basic schools in Mongu Township in Zambia are not, at this stage, mandated to change the content of the curriculum because that job has already been attended to by the authorised curriculum specialists, planners, designers and implementers in Lusaka at the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC).
According to Tomlinson, Brimijoin and Narvaez (2008:108), “if the prospect of a major change initiative is unsettling to change agents, it is no less so for the school manager who risks tension and accepts the stress and uncertainty of managing change.” Managers who are willing catalysts for change towards more academically responsive classrooms feel a sense of responsibility for the learners in their schools and for the change agents they ask to risk change (Tomlinson, Brimijoin & Narvaez 2008:108). In managing change initiatives, school managers need to respond to the important and imperative curriculum issues to create an academically responsive classroom environment. It is a necessity and requirement for change.
The gap that exists between the vision and the education process necessitates that education managers manage curriculum change effectively and respond effectively to the dictates and principles of education management. This may imply that the school managers in the studied basic schools in Mongu Township in Zambia need to bridge the gap between the national vision of education and the ongoing educational processes in the schools. The desire to increase the emphasis on quality delivery of education, access to schooling, quality assurance, and the focus on the relevance of the curriculum offered may, essentially, result in taking steps and planning strategies to manage curriculum change in a relevant way. The point which is driven home here is simply to take the needs and priorities of change processes into consideration when managing curriculum change.
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Paragraph 2.7 extensively explores the many identifiable factors why most schools fail to change and how managing curriculum change has not been successfully accomplished.
2.7 NEGATIVE FACTORS AFFECTING THE MANAGEMENT OF