Curriculum enhancement of teachers’ professionalism towards 21st century development in South Africa

This paper is responding to the repercussions of the continuous curriculum revisions that took place in South Africa since 1994. Ever since Outcomes Based Education (OBE) was introduced in place of traditional content based method, professional teachers lost confidence in their classroom practice. They felt demotivated, deterred, and not productive. Therefore, this paper investigated the enhancement of teachers’ professionalism towards 21st century basic education development. Case study research design was adopted with the use of interviews as research instrument. Two schools were purposively selected in Eastern Cape Province and twelve participants were also purposively selected. Results revealed that South Africa is still facing a problem in producing more learners who are competent with outside world. Also, the continuous change in curriculum was said to be demoralising teachers instead of empowering them with current innovations. Moreover, teachers claimed that the facilitators were less experienced in facilitation and lack the full knowledge about the curriculum being introduced. This paper therefore, suggested that, the review of the curriculum should gear towards professionalism of teaching. Also, the Department of Basic Education should involve the teachers on the development and review of existing curriculum.