ABSTRACT
One of the key outcomes of the education policy debates in the dying years of the apartheid state as well as the early years of the new democracy was an attempted major overhaul of the skill-formation system, driven by learning outcomes and a qualifications framework. The idea of learning outcomes was widely supported, but dissatisfaction emerged rapidly with the specifics of how it was developed (explained below). Concepts developed by Michael Young and his collaborators have been crucial to my analysis of why an over-reliance on learning outcomes and qualifications in the reform of education is misguided. But the complexity of vocational education in South Africa is such that an emphasis on powerful knowledge may not assist in resolving the problems of the vocational curriculum. Contextual factors – economic and social context, labour market context and educational context – are, I suggest, at least as important as bodies of knowledge when considering vocational curricula. These contextual factors bring to the fore issues about power and knowledge. Gaining further insight into how to improve curricula, in particular in relation to the role of knowledge in the curriculum, requires, I argue, an attempt to address these issues.
