Curriculum Development: Beyond Knowledge and Competencies

AbstractCurriculum Development: Beyond knowledge and competenciesHigher education as social practice may be considered contested terrain depending on which agencies hold sway over policy, curriculum development and curriculum enactment. Curriculum in higher education relates to what is considered privileged subject content, by whom, for what purposes and where autonomy is positioned. The importance of curriculum as construct, process and practice resides in how it shapes and prepares graduates for their role in their respective professions and society. Given the centrality of curriculum in higher education and the ramifications thereof for graduates, professions and society at large, it could be argued that there is an ethical and moral responsibility to ensure that curriculum provides for the holistic development of graduates. The thesis of this presentation is that curriculum development is more than decision-making about knowledge, skills and implementation, but that it should incorporate ontological perspectives of qualities, dispositions and capabilities for respective professions and the good of society.  Yet the prevailing discourse of curriculum panders primarily to the knowledge economy and competencies that promote performativity of graduates. While these are no doubt important, it may be argued that knowledge and skills alone are not adequate for the holistic development of graduates. To this end, this study draws on curriculum development approaches of knowing, doing and being as well as the capabilities approach for graduate development as a literature framework. This presentation reports on the revision of five diploma programmes at a university of technology as to how academics conceived of curriculum. The extensive submissions for each diploma programme relating to the purpose, rationale, academic (subject) structure, teaching, learning and assessment, amongst others, were analysed by means of content analysis to determine the extent to which ontological perspectives were evident. The findings showed that the prevailing discourse was one of knowledge and skills across the diplomas in question with minimal recourse to developing an ontological stance. Epistemology was dominant in terms of knowing and doing with limited attention afforded to embedding and assessing qualities, dispositions and attributes befitting higher education vocational qualifications. By implication, graduates are meant to develop ontological perspectives by immersion in, acculturation to higher education, or in the workplace. The findings present challenges to curriculum development and curriculum developers to firstly, clarify appropriate qualities, dispositions and attributes for respective programmes of study, and secondly, how best to embed these into pedagogy to align epistemic and ontological values for societal good.Key Words: Curriculum development; higher education; vocational education; capabilities; ontology