Voices Confined to Classrooms: The Marginalised Status of Teachers in Curriculum Development in Lusaka, Zambia

Abstract

Curriculum development for Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary School levels in Zambia has received much attention since the revision which commenced in 2013 and gradually implemented untill 2017. Despite the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC), which is the main institution placed with the responsibility of curriculum development, claiming that the Zambian school curriculum is developed through a consultative and participatory approach through course and subject panels where teachers and other stakeholders are represented, there has been no empirical evidence to suggest the extent to which teachers, who are the major implementers of the same curricular, have been actively involved in the development process. This study, therefore, sought to establish whether secondary school teachers in Lusaka were adequately and actively involved in the secondary school curriculum development process. The concurrent embedded design of the mixed methods approach was employed with the qualitative approach dominating the study while the quantitative was used to add detail. Data from secondary school teachers was collected using questionnaires and focus group discussions while interview guides were used for Head teachers and curriculum specialists. Data collected from interviews and questionnaires were analyzed using themes and descriptive statistics into significant patterns so as to easily interpret and understand it. The findings of the study clearly suggested that secondary school teachers were dissatisfied with the existing practice of curriculum development which insignificantly involved them.