Browsing by Author "Maralack, John Lourens"

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    Contemporary issues in an economics curriculum: interpretive case studies with economics teachers in the Cape Winelands District.
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Maralack, John Lourens; America, C. A.; Reddy, C. P. S.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Curriculum Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The essence of economics, as defined in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), is the understanding of how the unlimited needs and wants of humanity are satisfied within the context of limited resources in a manner that is efficient, equitable and sustainable. How teachers address the predicament of limited resources and unlimited needs and wants is closely tied to their understanding and implementation of the topic of “contemporary economic issues” as included in the Economics CAPS. It is believed that achieving the definitional objectives of the Economics curriculum will capacitate learners to apply these concepts to real-life contexts. The aim of this research was to explore teachers’ conceptual understanding of contemporary economic issues as listed in the CAPS, and to establish how these understandings relate to and translate into their teaching practices. Teachers' understanding and teaching approaches of the topic of contemporary economic issues form the two key themes of this research project. The literature on the challenges that economics teachers face are twofold. Firstly, there is an economics content knowledge gap and secondly, there is the challenge of “how to” implement the “new economics knowledge” as part their teaching practices (pedagogy gap). These sentiments highlight the real deficiencies in teachers’ disciplinary knowledge and teaching ability. Furthermore, literature also critique the dominance of neoclassical economic theory in economics curricula. It suggests the need to contest this dominance, in the quest to open up economics to more heterodox approaches that might better accommodate more relevant contemporary issues in current curricula, as in CAPS in the case of this research. A qualitative research approach was adopted underpinned by a constructivistinterpretivist paradigm. A case study design was selected to enable an in depth investigation of the particular contexts in the study so as to best answer the research question. The data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with selected teachers and analysis of lesson plans developed by these teachers. Data analysis was done by way of systematic categorisation and coding of the data and coupled to an adapted inquiry-based framework. The main finding of the study revealed a common understanding amongst the teachers regarding the significance of present-day socio-political, economic, environmental and digital realities, as it relates to the learners real-life experiences, such as poverty and inequality. These lived experiences prompt teachers to embrace and implement transformation-augmented pedagogical practices to assist learners with a clearer understanding of the new global developments when addressing “contemporary economic issues”. From the responses, teachers experienced teaching challenges related to environmental and digital realities, inadequate infrastructure, limited resources, learner apathy and the lack of continuous professional development. In spite of these challenges, the teachers reflected a high level of resilience, creativity and interactive strategies in the teaching of “contemporary economic issues”. This confirmed the critical role that teachers, as epistemic agents, play to realise the definitional objectives of efficiency, equity and sustainability, as stated in the CAPS economics definition.