THE POTENTIAL VALUE CREATED THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN CONSUMER STUDIES

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CHAPTER 3 LITERATURE REVIEW: CURRICULUM AS AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

Introduction

This chapter commences with an exploration of ‘the curriculum’ as an essential component in entrepreneurship education, differentiating between the intended, implemented and attained curriculum. Curriculum emerged as a key component contributing to entrepreneurship education frameworks (see sections 2.4 and 2.5.4), since it details the content that learners are intended to learn. In addition, curricula are often also a source of other information similar to the key components identified in entrepreneurship education frameworks (see section 2.5.4), such as the learning objectives or outcomes, descriptions of the type of learner or teacher, expectations regarding the classroom environment or context, preferred teaching methods or assessment of learning. The wealth of information that could therefore be gained from a curriculum informed the decision to launch this chapter using that particular focus. A funnel approach is adopted thereafter to firstly present a general discussion on entrepreneurship education in the overall South African school curriculum, and then to specifically investigate entrepreneurship education in Consumer Studies, one subject that forms part of the South African secondary school curriculum.

Curriculum

A curriculum does not include learning content only, but all the planned and unplanned learning experiences intended for learners as well as guidance to structure the learning process, such as learning aims, assessment guidance or preferred pedagogical principles (see section 1.1.3). In the broadest sense, a curriculum provides information on the educational opportunities provided to learners as well as the factors that influence how learners utilise such opportunities (Mullis, 2015:4). It offers guidance for the achievement of curriculum outcomes and suggestions for the methods to use in that process (Ebert et al., 2013:1). The view of a curriculum serving as a vehicle for learning, as proposed by Thijs and Van den Akker (2009:9), is therefore quite appropriate. Several definitions for and descriptions of ‘curriculum’ have been included in Chapter 1 (see section 1.1.3). Those definitions and descriptions indicate that ‘curriculum’ is a broad term that encompass various elements in a planned and organised structure, which should support its use and implementation. The definition for curriculum provided by Thijs and Van den Akker (2009:9) ― that it is “a course for learning” ― was utilised in this study (see section 1.1.3), since such a broad definition would enable future elaboration for different types of curricula, their contexts, implementation and development (Thijs & Van den Akker, 2009:9).
The contribution of each of the various curriculum elements and their structuring to support learning, makes curriculum development a complicated process. Curriculum development is informed by asking and answering a number of questions related to the components or elements embedded therein (Thijs & Van den Akker, 2009:12). Core questions informing curriculum include ‘why are they learning?’, ‘what are they learning?’, ‘how are they learning?’, ‘where are they learning?’, and ‘how is their learning assessed?’ (Thijs & Van den Akker, 2009:12) (Table 3.1).
Several parallels exist between these (curriculum development) questions and the questions (and embedded components) identified from literature that structure entrepreneurship education frameworks (see section 2.5) (Table 3.1). These parallels underscore the prominent role that curriculum plays in entrepreneurship education, necessitating a more in-depth exploration of this component.
Further adding to the complexities surrounding curriculum, is the fact that a curriculum is more than just a document, impacting an audience much wider than just the learners for whom it is intended (see section 1.1.3). A curriculum should therefore include a wider approach, considering the intended (planned) learning, but should also indicate where, how and by whom the curriculum will be implemented in practice (including unplanned learning) as well as how the realisation of the intentions of the curriculum for learners will be assessed. Based on these complexities, researchers differentiate between the intended, enacted and attained curriculum (Mullis, 2015:4; Thijs & Van den Akker, 2009:10), and this differentiation was used to organise the literature review for the subsequent sections.
The intended curriculum is mainly influenced by national, social and educational contexts, involving policy-makers and curriculum developers. The implemented curriculum manifests predominantly in the contexts of schools, classrooms and teachers, and the attained curriculum has to do with learner outcomes and characteristics (Mullis, 2015:5; Van den Akker, 2013:56) as explained in the subsequent sections.

The intended curriculum

The intended curriculum is the formal, written or ideal curriculum envisaged and ‘put on paper’ ― in other words, the actual curriculum document. It clarifies the intentions for learning, encompassing the rationale, philosophy or vision for the curriculum (Thijs Van den Akker, 2009:10) as well as the goals, topics, sequence, proposed methods and assessment for learning (Cai & Cirillo, 2014:133). The intended curriculum therefore answers the curriculum questions ‘why are we learning?’, ‘toward which goals are we learning?’ and ‘what to teach?’ (Thijs & Van den Akker, 2009:12) (Table 3.1). The intended curriculum is often vital in predicting how teachers (are supposed to) teach and learners (are supposed to) learn (Cai & Cirillo, 2014:138) as it provides content and structure that guide teaching and learning (Booyse & Du Plessis, 2014:5). The guidance provided in a ‘good curriculum’ does, however, not guarantee improved teaching and learning (Dada et al., 2009:15).
The intended curriculum for schools in South Africa is called the National Curriculum Statement Grades R-12 (NCS). The curriculum is composed of three documents: a Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document for each of the approved subjects in the NCS; the National Policy Pertaining to the Programme and Promotion Requirements of the National Curriculum Statement Grades R-12 (NPPPR); and the National Protocol for Assessment Grades R-12 (NPA) (DBE, 2011e:3).
The CAPS document is viewed as the intended curriculum for particular subjects and is used by teachers to guide and inform their teaching. This is confirmed when Dada et al. (2009:24) report that “The intention of the National Curriculum Statement was to move towards greater emphasis on discipline-based subjects, the logic of which is derived from the subject discipline”. Therefore, a subject-specific, discipline-informed intended curriculum exists for each subject in each school phase in South Africa. Based on the detail provided for inclusions in the intended curriculum by Thijs and Van den Akker (2009:10) and Cai and Cirillo (2014:133), it would be expected that the intended curriculum for each subject would provide guidance regarding that particular subject’s rationale, aims, content topics, sequence, proposed or preferred pedagogical methods and assessment for learning. In practice, this ideal is not always realised. For example, the curriculum for Consumer Studies, which is referred to as a ‘complex subject’ based on its wide topic coverage, various practical production options and dynamic character (Du Toit, 2014:47), was found to lack guidance regarding preferred subject-specific teaching-learning strategies or pedagogy (Du Toit, 2014:55; Du Toit & Booyse, 2015:23; Koekemoer & Booyse, 2013:554; Umalusi, 2014:89). This is especially problematic since “many teachers have little or inadequate training in Consumer Studies” (Umalusi, 2014:89). If no or inadequate guidance is provided, the implementation of the intended curriculum is left to the teacher, which might not result in the learning that was intended in that curriculum.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 
1.1 CONCEPT CLARIFICATION.
1.2 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RATIONALE
1.4 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
1.5 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.7 PARADIGMATIC CHOICES
1.8 EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION
1.9 JUSTIFICATION FOR AND RELEVANCE OF THE RESEARCH
1.10 DIVISION OF CHAPTERS
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW: ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION 
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION TERMINOLOGY AND TYPOLOGY
2.3 THE VALUE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
2.4 COMPONENTS CONTRIBUTING TO EFFECTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
2.5 FRAMEWORKS FOR EFFECTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
2.6 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 3 LITERATURE REVIEW: CURRICULUM AS AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT IN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION 
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 CURRICULUM
3.3 ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM
3.4 ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN THE CONSUMER STUDIES CURRICULUM
3.5 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 4 EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION 
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 PARADIGMATIC CHOICES
4.3 RESEARCH DESIGN
4.4 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
4.5 QUALITY CRITERIA
4.6 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 5 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION: ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE FURTHER
EDUCATION AND TRAINING (FET) CURRICULUM
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION CONTENT IN THE INTENDED CURRICULUM FOR SOUTH AFRICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL LEARNERS
5.3 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 6 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION: ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN THE
CONSUMER STUDIES CURRICULUM
6.1 INTRODUCTION
6.2 THE POTENTIAL VALUE CREATED THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN CONSUMER STUDIES .
6.3 ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION CONTENT IN THE INTENDED CURRICULUM FOR CONSUMER STUDIES
6.4 THE STRUCTURING OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN THE INTENDED CURRICULUM FOR CONSUMER STUDIES
6.5 ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN THE ENACTED CURRICULUM FOR CONSUMER STUDIES
6.6 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 7 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION: BEST PRACTICE FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EDUCATION 
7.1 INTRODUCTION
7.2 BEST PRACTICE FOR THE OVERALL STRUCTURING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN CURRICULA
7.3 COMPONENTS CONTRIBUTING ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
7.4 STRUCTURING THE COMPONENTS IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION FRAMEWORKS
7.5 CHALLENGES TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION .
7.6 THE CURRENT SITUATION FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA, IN CONSUMER STUDIES, AND GLOBALLY: AN OVERVIEW OF THE FINDINGS FROM THE INITIAL THREE RESEARCH PHASES 265
7.7 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 8 A PROPOSED FRAMEWORK FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN
CONSUMER STUDIES
8.1 INTRODUCTION
8.2 PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTING A FRAMEWORK FOR THE STRUCTURING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AS PART OF CONSUMER STUDIES
8.3 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 9 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 
9.1 INTRODUCTION
9.2 CONCLUSIONS
9.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
9.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH
9.5 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
9.6 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE STUDY
LIST OF REFERENCES
GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT
Developing a framework for the effective structuring and implementation of entrepreneurship education in Consumer Studies