An examination of the English curriculum in Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges

Abstract

This article is premised on the notion that the perceived lack of quality of curriculum delivery in the vocational education sector is probably due in part to a lack of understanding of the nature of knowledge in vocational education. The article outlines the nature of knowledge specified in the subject English offered in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges. The study followed the English curriculum message as it starts from the production field, where new ideas are created and modified to the recontextualisation field, where curriculum designers produce written curriculum documents. The findings indicate that the designers of the National Certificate (Vocational) English curriculum followed an outcomes-based approach in its design but that the content knowledge indicated is vague and unspecified. The curriculum cannot provide a basis against which content knowledge can be selected, as it does not give prominence to grounded content knowledge of the subject. Instead, it is more concerned with the competencies of the students. An analysis of this curriculum identifies its strengths and weaknesses and helps to identify gaps in the curriculum design in at least one curriculum in the TVET sector.