Inner-self in the teaching of physical sciences according to the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) in South African schools

ABSTRACT

Teachers of Physical Sciences (PS) according to the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) are blamed for the high failure rate of learners resulting from inadequate subject content and pedagogy. However, little research has been done to look at the inner-self (self-identity) of those who teach. A qualitative interpretive case study was carried out on eight teachers of PS in rural schools in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, to explore teachers’ experiences and bring awareness of role of the inner-self in the teaching of CAPS PS. Reflective activities, document analysis and one-on-one semi-structured interviews were used to generate data, which were thematically analysed and framed by deep curriculum. Teachers focus a great deal on the outer-self (content and pedagogy), while lacking insight into the inner-self, and this leads them to lose self-direction/confidence in the teaching process. Failure to teach from within results in poor performance in a subject. This study recommends the inner-outer-self framework as a useful tool that can assist and bring awareness to PS teachers, to encourage them to teach from the inner-self within to the outer-self, in order to improve their performance, particularly among those teaching PS in rural schools.

KEYWORDS:

• Deep curriculum
• inner-outer self
• Physical Sciences
• CAPS
• teachers
• rural schools

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fulbright Association [1405-0119]; South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement [110850].

Notes on contributors

Cedric Bheki Mpungose

Cedric Bheki Mpungose is a Lecturer: Curriculum Studies/Physical Science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He coordinates different undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and teaches and supervises postgraduate research in Educational technology and Curriculum Studies/Physical Science. He has published in local and international journals. He holds Fulbright African Research Scholar award for nine months from January to September 2020 to conduct a post-doctoral research at University of Denver, Colorado state in USA.