Tracing the Policy Mediation Process in the Implementation of a Change in the Life Sciences Curriculum

Abstract

This paper accounts for the enacted realities of curriculum reform in South Africa, in particular the mediation of curriculum change. Curriculum implementation is viewed as a complex networked process of transforming or mediating policy into classroom practice. The fact that curriculum implementation is seen as problematic requires attention for curriculum mediation. The view that curriculum reform is a linear process, occurs in isolation and is entirely controlled by human agency is questioned. We argue that this view misjudges the complexity and grittiness of the process and ignores the multitude of actors involved who are networked during curriculum mediation and, in turn, eventually sculpt curriculum implementation. The two research questions addressed are: how is policy presented during mediation; and how does the practice of mediation get performed? Actor-network theory (ANT) is employed to model the tensions that exist in the terrains of curriculum policy reform with respect to the National Curriculum Statement–Further Education and Training Life Sciences policy. ANT is used at theoretical and methodological levels to trace the mediation of the policy workshops for Life Sciences teachers. The workshops were video-recoded, and analysed qualitatively using NVIVO to generate tag clouds to identify the drivers of the mediation process. The situated realities of policy mediation borne out by two scenarios created by change and National Senior Certificate examination results are discussed in the paper. At issue is the idea of how socio-material elements shape the mediation process when policy is presented as an invader and a hindrance while the practice of mediation is performed as moments of negotiations.