Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities of Inclusive Curriculum Implementation during COVID-19: The Case of One Teacher Education University in South Africa

Abstract

By mid-March 2020, major business and education institutions had been closed down. Emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL) became the modus operandi, a solution that affected the most socially disadvantaged students in order to reduce the loss of learning time. This study explored teacher educators' practices, challenges, and opportunities of inclusive curriculum implementation in an ERTL programme during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a qualitative case study approach, data were obtained using semi-structured interviews via WhatsApp and focus group interviews through Microsoft Teams. Three female teacher educators who teach at the undergraduate level in The School of Education at one higher education institution in Gauteng, South Africa have been purposively chosen. The findings suggest that careful selection and sequencing of curriculum content and consideration of spatiality and assessment practices can offer possibility and hope for a blended approach to teaching and learning beyond 2020. However, in charting a way forward, curriculum implementers need to consider the needs of learners and commit to principles of inclusion, social redress and justice within the higher education context. Curriculum implementers need to be much more deliberate and add a sense of urgency to meet the diverse needs of students in a responsive way. Nevertheless, even these challenges offer opportunities to rethink curriculum innovation and routines, and to reimagine and recreate human institutions. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of these findings for curriculum implementation at higher education institutions. The findings also have the potential to ignite debate as it relates to re-imagining the purpose of curriculum and education.