RESIDUOS RADIACTIVOS LÍQUIDOS

The need for change in most top-down innovation is conceived by the government without much consultation with the people who implement the innovation, namely the teachers. What initiators may see as a priority need may not be viewed in the same way by the teachers. This creates a problem when the implementers complain about the lack of consultation. In Malawi, it has been a tradition that policy issues originate from the top and this is the case with PCAR. The consequence of this is that there could be some resistance to change by the implementers. There is of course a problem of how far consultation should go. Ratsatsi (2005, p. 162) has emphasized the importance of consulting the teachers to reduce their resistance to change and make the implementation of a curriculum change a success. He argues that

The effectiveness of an innovation can only be determined when it is negotiated at the classroom level. Ratsatsi continues to argue that the paramount curriculum innovation determiner is the classroom technician who is the teacher. The teacher can either make the curriculum succeed or fail.

Richardson (1994), as quoted by Ratsatsi (2005), argues that teachers will implement only those aspects of the curriculum that fit well with their beliefs. If the activity does not work, it is quickly dropped or radically altered.

The findings of Jansen’s (1998) study concur with Ratsatsi. The findings of the study revealed that teachers understand and implement OBE in very different ways. Jansen found that both the interview and questionnaire data of the teachers amongst whom he carried out his research suggested that most of the teachers were doing what they felt comfortable with and what was familiar to them from years of practical experience. The teachers did not claim to be doing OBE nor did their practices suggest that to be the case. Other teachers claimed that they were doing OBE perfectly and completely within their classrooms, yet the classroom practices of these teachers showed very little evidence that they were practising OBE.

Mahlangu (2001, p. 46) concurs with Ratsatsi and Jansen. He points out that implementation of a new curriculum often requires educators to change attitudes and roles. This requires educators to change their traditional roles and to give up practices in which they feel secure and display high levels of competence. Educators are expected to adopt new practices in which they feel insecure and less competent. Some educators may not tolerate feelings of insecurity and incompetence. Fear of failure may dull the appetite to implement since this requires hard work. Resistance may come from such a situation. Overcoming resistance is a prerequisite for implementation. The innovators need to view resistance positively and offer the necessary support to implementers. Fullan (1991) agrees with Mahlangu. He argues that individual teachers will implement a new program in ways that are consistent with their own beliefs and practices. The curriculum review in Malawi entail a change in content, teaching strategies and the ability to use the new materials. These changes in subject content and teaching strategies may create uncertainty

which will affect teachers’ attitudes and may act as a barrier to successful implementation of the new curriculum. These changes therefore require that teachers get to grips with all the ingredients of the change in order to carry out the implementation process. This has been built into the Malawi curriculum review through orientation training workshops discussed earlier in chapter 2 of this thesis. The availability of resources and the quality of people running the INSET courses however may determine the success of the orientation courses.

b. Clarity

Whether the need is understood or not, teachers and other personnel carrying out the implementation of change may not be clear as to what ought to be done in order to meet the goals of the innovation. Pratt (1980, p.431) contends that the consent of teachers to an innovation does not necessarily indicate that they understand the change. Pratt (1980) further argues that it has been found that teachers who are supposedly implementing a new curriculum sometimes cannot even identify its main features. The greatest difficulty is likely to be encountered when teachers are required to change their educational approaches.

Gross, et al (1971), Fullan (1991) and Jansen (1998) concur with Pratt’s argument. Gross, et al (1971) found that teachers were unable to identify the essential features of the innovation they were using. Problems of clarity according to Fullan (1991) have been found in virtually every study of significant change. The more complex the reform, the greater the problem of clarity because diffused goals and unspecified means of implementation represents a problem at the implementation stage. Jansen (1998) conducted a study in schools in Kwazulu Natal and Mpumalanga provinces of South- Africa to find out how Grade 1 teachers understand and implement Outcomes Based Education in their classrooms. The findings of the study revealed that teachers hold vastly

different understanding of OBE, even within the same school. Jansen argues that the considerable range of meanings attributed to OBE has implications for implementation which could, similarly, be expected to reflect a broad set of teaching and learning practices within Grade 1 classrooms. The range of meanings implies a lack of coherence and focus in the communication policy of OBE. The curriculum review in Malawi has tried to provide both content and methodology and the training workshops and orientation courses were designed to minimise the problem of clarity. How clear the teachers are about the new curriculum in Malawi is one of the issues which this research raises and whether, in fact, teachers teach the content as intended.

c. Extra Workload

Mahlangu (2001, p.43) argues that the extra workload that implementation of a new curriculum brings should not be overlooked. The tasks of planning and implementing a new curriculum increase the workload for educators. Some educators might not be willing to take on additional workload. Closely related to the extra workload is the time factor. Time is needed to plan. The tasks involved in planning are time consuming. Similarly, Huberman and Miles (1984) found that schools attempting to implement innovations that are beyond their ability to carry them out often end up in failure.

The findings of Jansen’s (1998) study agree with Mahlangu and Huberman and Miles. One Grade 1 teacher interviewed in Jansen’s study expressed the concern of the OBE curriculum as giving a lot of work to the teacher. Jansen quoted one of the teachers in his study as saying,

You will find it very noisy, and when you’re trying to teach you’re to do different things with different groups. The noise level…it can be too high. Because then you can’t work with others on a quieter level. So you have to control that some way. I

find that quite difficult. It is a noisy OBE. And it is quite stressful not only for the teacher but also for children (p.203).

Whether the Malawi curriculum review has created extra workload or not for teachers is one of the issues on which this research has set out to collect information.

d. Teacher Development

Robbins, Francis and Elliot (2003) noted that initial education and training courses are important in equipping teachers with the necessary competence and skills for handling a new curriculum at both local and global levels. Yeager and Wilson (1997) shared the same view point that pre-service and in-service programmes help in shaping teachers’ knowledge and classroom practices. Indeed, since the implementation of a new curriculum requires great skills, preparation of teachers in both content and pedagogical knowledge is critical (Thornton, 2005). Fullan (1991) as well shares the same viewpoint about the importance of teacher development in ensuring effective implementation of a new curriculum. Fullan argues that it is obvious to see how teacher development connects innovation and implementation. Fullan points out that if implementation involves new behaviours and beliefs, teacher development in relation to these new learnings is invaluable. This is why in-service and professional development (including orientation to the new curriculum) in support of specific innovations is usually found to be the critical factor for success.

Studies show that poor preparation of teachers and employment of unqualified teachers are some of the problems affecting effective implementation of school curricula (Passe, 2006; Stuart, 2002; Thornton, 2005). In this connection, Passe (2006) remarked that teachers feel uncomfortable in handling content that was inadequately addressed during their preparation. He further noted that under such circumstances, some of the teachers resort to

the use of textbook-based instructions as a cover up to their academic deficiencies (Passe, 2006). Thornton (2005) also observed that many teacher preparation programs have limited transformative effects on beginning teachers. Indeed, most classroom life in teacher preparation classrooms is one-sided, with professors monopolising learning processes (Giroux and McLaren, 1999). As a result, the new graduate teachers practice the same techniques and strategies as their professors the moment they begin their teaching career.

Jansen (1998) concurs with the above authors about the connection between teacher preparation and effective implementation of a curriculum innovation. Jansen’s study revealed that most teachers displayed considerable uncertainty about whether their practices in fact constitute OBE, irrespective of the aggregate levels of institutional resources or years of personal teaching experience. Jansen argues that the uncertainty reflected the teachers’ lack of in-depth training. The teachers interviewed in Jansen’s study regarded the OBE training conducted through cascade model in the five-day block period as inadequate. In addition, even the trainers themselves were uncertain about what OBE entails. There was also the issue of lack of on-site supervision and feedback on current practices in the Grade 1 classrooms.

Mahlangu (2000) concurs with the findings of Jansen. Mahlangu blames the society for the failure to create conducive conditions for success in educator practices, yet it expects them to be excellent. Mahlangu further attributes inadequately equipped educators to policy designers who lack skills to guide educators on how to implement the curriculum. As a result, educators are unsure of changes that are worth implementing.

In Malawi, teacher preparation faces several challenges, which have a bearing on classroom practices which will promote learning and improve quality of education (Hauya, 1993; Kunje, 2002). First, teacher-training programs attract candidates of low

qualifications (Hauya, 1993; Kunje and Chimombo, 1999). While this is a problem worldwide, recruitment of even lowly qualified candidates has its gravity in developing countries like Malawi. For example, evidence from a comparative study in Ghana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi, and Trinidad and Tobago showed that only Malawi recruited candidates with junior secondary certificates (Stuart, 1999; Stuart, 2002; Kunje, 2002). Junior secondary certificate holders are an equivalent of grade ten students. The reason for this recruitment is that the pool of well-qualified teachers in Malawi is small. However, the problem with this recruitment is that most of such candidates fail to grasp the theoretical understandings and application of various teaching methods, including the use of learner-centred or participatory pedagogies (Stuart, 1999). Indeed, some decisions teachers make in classrooms are a reflection of their inability to understand the curriculum. In this regard, Kunje’s (2002) findings on the implementation of the Malawi Integrated In- service Teacher Education Programme (MIITEP) provided insights to my study because three of the twelve participants I used in the study were prepared through this programme. MIITEP was introduced in 1997 because of the acute shortage of teachers following the adoption of free primary education in 1994. To address the shortfall, the government recruited 18,000 untrained teachers (Kunje, 2002). MIITEP was introduced to provide a mixed-mode of preparing teachers with taught -courses at teacher training colleges and school-based activities (Kunje, 2002). The program was for 24 months, with three months in college, 23 months in schools, and one month of residential activities for certifying examinations (Kunje, 2002). As such, the implementation of this program required the services of college tutors, Primary Education Advisors (PEAs), head teachers and cooperating teachers in schools. College-based activities involved college tutors using handbooks in the training of the trainees, whereas school-based activities placed the trainees under the tutelage of head teachers, cooperating teachers and PEAs.

Kunje (2002) noted that the success of MIITEP was in terms of the great output of teachers for the primary school sector, which could not have been possible with the traditional pre-career full time teacher preparation program. However, he found some major flaws with this programme. First, he noted that, although in theory, the programme emphasized learner-centred or participatory classroom pedagogies, what occurred in college classrooms were basically teacher-centred approaches. He attributed the problem to both large class sizes and under-qualified tutors. Secondly, he found that the majority of teachers in the schools where the MIITEP trainees were attached for the school-based activities were not certified. For this reason, school-based activities for the MIITEP programme proved difficult when it came to attaching the trainees to certified teachers in the schools. Lastly, Kunje observed that many of the schools where the MIITEP trainees were allocated were very poor in terms of the availability of teaching resources and classrooms. Therefore, although preparation programmes are thought to be the major sources of teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge, the success in this endeavour is dependent on the organisation of the programme.

The curriculum review in Malawi has tried to provide training workshops to prepare teachers for the implementation of the new curriculum. As indicated in chapter 2, the training workshops were done through the cascade model. Literature reveals that where cascade model of training has been used to orient teachers to new curriculum, such training has not been very effective in empowering teachers to teach a new curriculum effectively. For example, Rembe (2006) in his study of the implementation of a new curriculum innovation in Zimbabwe notes that

The cascade training strategy of teachers is disappointing because few teachers are chosen and receive training and they in turn train others in schools and this leads to

the required information not being transmitted properly and it consequently fails to equip teachers with the requisite skills (p. 243).

The cascade model is thus argued to have a weakness of diluting information in the process of getting disseminated to the teachers as the last recipients in the chain of information dissemination.

So it is perhaps difficult to determine the effectiveness of the training courses conducted in Malawi to prepare the teachers to implement the new curriculum effectively. This study has set out to collect such information. However, Chipungu et al. (2010) speculated that teachers will likely have challenges to implement the Expressive Arts curriculum effectively because of the way they are trained at the Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs). Chipungu notes that teacher educators (lecturers) who are expected to train teachers in the teaching of Expressive Arts at Domasi College of Education, a constituent college of the University of Malawi specialise only in two of the components in Expressive Arts. A prospective teacher educator for Expressive Arts may graduate with either Music as a major or Creative Arts as a minor or with Physical Education as a major and Creative Arts as a minor. Chipungu argues that it is obvious that when sent to TTCs, such teacher educators (lecturers) will not teach Expressive Arts competently. According to Chipungu, this will reflect on the teacher-trainees who will be in direct contact with the primary pupils.

So far, I have discussed what literature reveals about how teachers’ knowledge gained through pre-service and in-service trainings influence their classroom practice. However, although the teacher may have better knowledge from these trainings, availability of resources also contributes to the effective classroom practices to improve teaching and learning, thereby increasing the quality of education.

e. Availability of Teaching and Learning Resources

Instructional materials are the hub to learning. Pratt (1980) argues that almost any curriculum change, even one aimed at greater economy or efficiency, requires additional resources at least during the changeover period. Ratsatsi (2005) agrees with Pratt in terms of the need of instructional materials for a curriculum innovation. Ratsatsi argues that a new curriculum innovation justifies its existence as an independent entity deserving of space in the school timetable by defining its own independent operational parameters, objectives, axioms and canons. To attain these canonical indicators, it defines and adopts its own delivery strategies embodied in new instructional materials. Thus, the old instructional materials become dysfunctional and redundant.

Pratt is supported by McLaughlin and Talbert (1990) on the importance of availability of teaching and learning resources for effective implementation of a curriculum. They observed that material resources are one of the major factors that influence teachers’ effective classroom practices. Indeed, availability of both human and material resources is a big challenge that influences classroom practices especially in developing countries like Malawi. Therefore, the first part of this section is a discussion of the shortage of human resources.

Although Malawi enrols candidates of low qualifications in the teacher preparation programs, the problem itself is compounded with a serious shortage of teachers. There were about 32,876 qualified and 16,252 unqualified teachers in the primary school sector in 1999 (Kunje and Chimombo, 1999). Enrolment in primary school rose from 1.9 million to about 3 million pupils as a result of the introduction of free primary school education in 1994. The government addressed the shortfall of teachers with a recruitment of untrained teachers. However, even with the recruitment of untrained teachers, there is still a shortage of teachers in the primary school sector resulting in large class sizes. For example, the

teacher-student ratio is as high as 1:118 based on the total labour force of qualified teachers (EMAS, 2005; Nsapato, 2005). The ratio drops to 1:60 with the inclusion of unqualified teachers to the total teacher labour force (Nsapato, 2005). Both ratios are far too high to meet the government’s target of 1:35 (Kunje and Chimombo, 1999). How then can Expressive Arts teachers organise classroom practices that aim at improving learning, which would in turn improve the quality of education espoused by the government in the PCAR? This was one of the major areas for this study because there seems to be no research findings in Malawi that link large class sizes with teachers’ choice of pedagogies in the classrooms.

The second and last discussion on the influence of availability of teaching and learning resources on teachers’ effective organisation of classroom practices which in turn lead to effective implementation of a curriculum is on the availability of material resources. In this connection, Adeyinka (2000) agreed that once teachers know their content area to teach, the next stage is the selection of resources for effective organisation of classroom practices. Unfortunately, material resources are not readily available in developing countries (UNESCO, 2000). For example, Luykx (1999) noted that Bolivian schools faced serious shortages of material resources. Similarly, Jansen (1998) noted that there were uneven distribution of resource materials and other OBE-related resource materials in the South African schools and classrooms which he visited during his study period to evaluate the implementation of C2005. Jansen’s study established that the variations in the