CERP DEL SUR- CURRICULUM R-e-DESIGN IMPROVEMENT by Gabriela Gaione CatepnIntroduction

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Many blame the educational system if things go wrong in our society, to what extent can we claim innocence? What do we talk about when we talk about Curriculum? How can we improve It? What is the role of teachers in the process? How is this view different from the traditional one? How come that some countries as diverse as are Sudan, Uganda, Uruguay, Mozambique or Azerbaijan find so many points in common regarding the challenges and solutions? What is the perception of scholars from other countries? The present work will attempt to refer to these issues. It will be based upon the introspective and shared vision of a 5 member group of African, Eurasian and South American scholars who were asked to deal with the subject Curriculum within the framework of a Study of the United States Institute scholarship at University of California in the town of Chico CA- USA. The scholars happen to be teachers working in different locations, both privately and/or publicly, with different subject matters and learner age ranges, but sharing English as either the target language or the language of instruction. The attitude adopted by the group has been one of utter, humble, quest, since the issue that they endeavoured to tackle is more often than not ironically hidden within a multiplicity of tasks and practices. This paper is all about perceptions- Perceptions of teachers and administrators, but also about other stakeholders- students, the community, the job market, and so on. The group started by questioning themselves, discussing similarities and differences regarding some challenges and key factors in Curriculum design and wondered about the possibility of professionally taking active part in a hypothetical redesign with views to improvement. In a second phase, the group decided to build a questionnaire based on their findings and give it to other scholars who would represent the vision of other nations and cultures. Finally the survey became shareable, measurable data to be interpreted in the light of relevant goals. The questionnaire has been reproduced for detailed analysis and so have the quantitative and qualitative outcomes of the field study.

I) to what extent can we claim innocence?

Teacher do generally have enormous power over the mass of students that they are in charge of. They see them systematically, they relate to them in different ways, they learn about them and vice versa. Therefore it is up to teachers to exert some influence over what happens in their academic life, since,whatever happens in ones academic life has an impact over the rest of it- be it positive or negativeII) Attempting to define curriculum with the intention of improving it.

Since the author of the present work is an in-service teacher, everything asserted by her adopts that perspective because some people may object something like What is the role of a teacher in such a huge topic as is Curriculum anyway? But before doing that we need to focus on what we really talk about when we talk about Curriculum. According to Kallick and Colossimo, (2009) the whole curriculum issue boils down to 3 questions; 1-What do we want students to know and be able to do? 2-What evidence do we have that they are learning what we have identified? 3-What do we do with what we learn about their learning to help them grow and improve? The answers to these questions could be considered the skeleton of a given written curriculum- But as enlightening as they seem those questions do not per se constitute a suitable definition- what follows does: Curriculum is a vital moving complex interaction of people and things in a fluid setting. It encompasses questions to be debated, forces to be rationalized goals to be illuminated programs to be activated and outcomes to be evaluated (Firth & Kimpson, 1973 in Kallick and Colosimo , 2009)Maybe because this definition uses words like fluid, encompasses, illuminated, and activated, it opposes to any static image of curriculum that even today some educators, and administrators

picture in their mind when the term is uttered: the so called written curriculum. Being clear and detailed, the above definition somehow contains the seed of change and challenge that the concept of curriculum needs to entail, if we are to redesign it and ultimately, improve it. If curriculum were just the written document that contains the subjects and concepts to be learned, then, to improve it we would just need to replace that piece of paper by another better one. It would be as easy as that. Besides, this particular definition also links curriculum and evaluation, which is at the heart of any attempt of curricular re-design- Basically, we replace something that does not work, and some kind of evaluation provides us with the means to realize what is and what is not working properly. The latter constitutes the why of curriculum redesign since, if we want some sort of change, we need to imagine how is it going to happen, when and by whom.
If we do not change our direction we are likely to end up where we are going Chinese proverb

In the internet, the following remark can be found: When I watch videos like this or read stories about how our school children can't pass the SAT because they can't write their own name without crying, I fear for my future the same way a four-year-old fears for his life on a very scary ride () Danny Gallagher http://blog.trutv.com/dumb_as_a_blog/2012/02/i-believe-that-childrenare-our-future-and-in-this-case-were-totally-ed-.html?link=dumbrss The author of the remark is an ordinary 21st century blogger who knows that something is not going all right with education and that curricular issues are somehow linked to this factFrom more serious and committed viewpoints, Adawya Almardi, Albert Odoi, Fernando Kulipossa, Tunzala Jafarova and me, Gabriela Gaione have documented our own diverse views to be presented at University of California-in Chico, CA- as part of the SUSI program requirements. Our visions regarding the challenges that we recognized in our own realities regarding Curriculum constitute a set of multiple and diverse perceptions: Prof. Adawya Almardi from SUDAN manifested that in her opinion the Sudan Practical Integrated National English textbooks do not meet the students needs and expectations. She also observed that teachers are not policy makers, they are not consulted in curriculum design/improvement and the curriculum is designed by University

Professors who are not involved in secondary education She also referred to some special, hard political facts related to the secession of the Southern part of the country, disturbing the national interest, and to the sad fact that even in such an event education faces accountability factors. According to Prof. Odoi, Implementation of curriculum does not meet the needs of the: students, work market or the community in general he also pointed out that: Students do not find a job after graduation because they are not prepared for the work market. In the end he referred to a certain lack of professional development for teachers In Prof. Kulipossas views () curriculum does not meet the needs of the students, is designed by people that have never taught- or at least been in these classrooms and does not include practical community activities. Prof. Jafarova- believes that the available textbooks do not focus on the curriculum that there is no choice of textbooks She believes that there is a need for trained textbook authors. She recognizes low scoring in traditional evaluation outcomes, little chance for getting a proper job after graduation and the fact that most students look for linguistic coaching and support in the private sector In my view there is not a single textbook that encompasses the topics addressed by the curriculum, which forces teachers to find the issues mentioned in other sources. As a consequence we get dissimilar teaching in the different institutionsIn my view, the very implementation of the curriculum does not generally meet the needs of neither students nor the community or the work market as some documents produced by such dissimilar institutions as the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Unions read. Like Jafarova, I believe that in general, the implementation of the present curriculum yields very low score outcomes- both in formal summative and formative assessment and in informal, ongoing assessment. Finally I had to admit that, in Uruguay the students who can afford to do so, turn to Private Institutions for linguistic coaching and support. Having discussed the challenges, the White Group- that is what we called ourselves, considered that some solutions needed to be put forward. Therefore, the introspective, individual brainstorming process took place again, this time to make a pool of ideas that can be labeled as solutions to face the challenges found.

In that sense Almardi believes in incorporating the private sector as well as National and International publishers to provide a more realistic perspective towards designing and improving curricula and fully engaging teachers in the process of curriculum redesign, to improve it Odoi reckons that in order to bridge the gap for lack of teacher training teachers should ()source for materials- notes form various sources- e.g. internet, discussions with colleagues, etc, to give comprehensive data to students, () hold periodic workshops within their school environment, () expand the subjects taught in schools to make it relevant to the current needs of the community and focus on vocational subjects to produce job makers instead of job seekers Kulipossa suggests revising the curriculum in power (including practical community activities), to make sure that it covers both national and international cultural issues; inviting teachers to take part in the curriculum redesign and make sure that coursebooks authors are people who know the real situation and the needs of the country Jafarova is all for promoting international cooperation among coursebook writers in the production of suitable textbooks, consistent with the National Curriculum, promoting teamwork and cooperation among national authors who should find out about the needs of the students and the curriculum before producing their textbooks; using e-books and finding collective, cooperative ways of funding to buy more modern equipment and technology to furnish schools, and she exemplified, e- books. I have for some time advocated to create a teaching community to exchange problems, solutions and materials. I strongly believe in a smart use of technology to be able to communicate effectively regardless of time differences- through blogging, Skype, Facebook, Blackboard, Chamilo campus, Wiggio, other e-learning platforms and of course e-mails, chatrooms, forums, wiki and the like. I have also advocated for team teaching, team assessment planning, working together addressing areas of difficulty and exchanging everything from achievements to frustrations with the colleagues. To me, it is the teaching community and the authorities working together the ones who are to select the teaching materials- Teaching materials should not be imposed on teachers in the same way that you do not want to impose the ingredients of a recipe on a Cordon Bleu Chef. I also believe that students should have a say about the materials tooEven if our findings were not identical in a primary stage, it is true that not even one of the members of the White Team disagreed with each others findings- We can agree then that our visions are shared to a great extent and our contributions are considered as complementary. Being this the case we decided to ask the other

scholars to see whether or not that feeling was universal. Therefore we embarked ourselves in the task of creating a survey- which in turn, raised some useful criticism which, we did take into account in order to improve the quality of the questionnaire- this of course, delayed the whole data manipulation and in the end not everyone was able to answer the questionnaire- in spite of the fact that all the SUSI participants got their copy on time. The questionnaire -Figure 1- is an attempt to capture those main issues that we found out in our shared introspective observations- and the participants who eventually provided us with data are all SUSI participants see details in Figure 2

NAME __________________COUNTRY____________ JOB________________DATE: 7th july WHITE TEAM SURVEY- SUSI -CHICO CSU- CA 1-Does your curriculum meet the needs of_______? a) Students b) Work market c) Community d) Minorities

2- Are teachers fully involved in curriculum redesign -If not because.

a) b) c) d)

Experts appointed by the authorities do it They do not want to participate They are not capable of developing sustainable curricular practices There's lack of extended professional development enabling them to develop effective curricu

3- Does political turmoil get in the way of effective curriculum practices? If so How? 4-Are there available textbooks that meet the curricular needs? 5-Is there civic engagement as a result of the implementation of the curriculum? 6- Do students get low scores in formal summative or formative tests and low performance standar 7- Does private education take advantages of Public Educations shortcomings to provide tuition, su who can afford it? 8- Are there any national authors capable of writing suitable course-books- developing suitable materials? 9- Is there little or insufficient funding for national coursebook production? 10-Is there enough variety of textbooks suitable for curriculum implementation? 11- Is there enough international cooperation regarding textbook production and publishing? 12-Is there enough cooperation and teamwork among teachers? If not it is because____ 13- Is technology a) Not advanced enough b) Not available c) Underused 14-Are parents and students ever consulted

Figure 1

India (Abraham John)

n n Belarus(Andrei Volkov),

Ivory Coast (Aim Goude)

Belgium (Jeroen Masson)

n Kazachstan Bazarbekova),

(Zhanath

Burma (Htay Htay Lwin )

China(Shi Hai),

Ecuador (Csar Vallejo),

Egypt (Abdullah),

Estonia (Maie Soll),

n Kyrgyzstan Akunova),

(Gulnara

Philippines (Maria Eva Edon),

n n Madeira- Portugal (Romualdo Neves)

Romania (Cristina Lerch),

n Sri Lanka Vithanapathirana), n Malaysia Sivavikaraman), (Sharmini

(Manjula

n Turkmenistan( Mirzoeva) n Pakistan (Amina Amiruddin Chughtai),

Tamara

The results may lead to different interpretations but let us not lose sight of the fact that they are merely based on individual perceptionsMr. Shi Hai, a SUSI 2011 teacher from China consents that the curriculum meets the needs of the students, the job market, the community and the minorities in his country. For instance when asked on the involvement of other people in the redesigning of curriculum, he provided no answers, but most revealing , he said yes to the fact that politics get in the way of curriculum practices even though he proved no explanation or description as to how or why. When asked about the use of technology in the curriculum, he stated that it depended on the different areas taken into account. In some places it is possible to enjoy cutting edge technology while in others it is not. One thing is clear, reading Mr. Shi Hais answers, one can safely conclude that the curriculum redesign in China faces some difficulties which need to be addressed just like in many other countries. For instance the issue of political turmoil getting in the way of effective curriculum implementation or the lack of civic engagement derived from it. Mr. Shi Hai, a SUSI 2011 teacher from China consents that the

curriculum meets the needs of the students, the job market , the community and the minorities in his country. For instance when asked on the involvement of other people in the redesigning of curriculum, he provided no answers, but most revealing , he said yes to the fact that politics get in the way of curriculum practices even though he proved no explanation or description as to how or why. When asked about the use of technology in the curriculum, he stated that it depended on the different areas taken into account. In some places it is possible to enjoy cutting edge technology while in others it is not. One thing is clear, reading Mr. Shi Hais answers, one can safely conclude that the curriculum redesign in China faces some difficulties which need to be addressed just like in many other countries. For instance the issue of political turmoil getting in the way of effective curriculum implementation or the lack of civic engagement derived from it. The respondent from India, Mr. Abraham John gave a similar response to the one given by Mr. Shi Hai, the respondent from China. He painted the same picture of inadequate use of technology in curriculum implementation and or redesign. Even when he acknowledges some participation by stake holders, their participation is eroded by political turmoil. Hence, disempowering the very stake holders mentioned earlier on have indeed played a significant role in curriculum re-design. It is therefore safe to conclude that even India faces challenges when it comes to matters regarding curriculum re-design.

Appendix oneThe participants Prof. Gabriela S. Gaione Catepn- (URUGUAY South America) has been lecturing for 23 years at Secondary School level- She holds a private teaching degree and a Postgraduate degree in TESOL from International House- She is also a State graduate teacher-She currently lectures at CERP DEL SUR in all four levels in Didactics and Practicum Workshop -among other disciplines. She is also a SUSICHICO member having visited the USA for the first time on a State Department Scholarship last year- She became a voluntary correspondent for Sabiasque, a Californian journal. Adawiya Almardi SUDAN- South Africa-

Since graduation, ELT has been her field of work though there are other fields of English language she is interested in. She has also worked as an ESP lecturer at the University of Khartoum for about one academic year; that was before working as a teacher of English in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She has been involved in linguistics as it was the minor degree she took at university. It was also a subject of her study in the MA courses. She has done translation throughout her professional career as a teacher and a lecturer in different areas such as literary, scientific namely medical translation. Tunzala Jafarova AZERBAIJAN- Europe She is an English teacher who works both at university and at a lyceum at Baku the capital of Azerbaijan.She is also an expert at the Educational Ministry of Azerbaijan.

Fernando Kulipossa-MOZAMBIQUE- Africa He holds a BA in TESOL and Licentiate Degree in ELT. Albert Odoi UGANDA-Africa His professional activities mainly include preparation of the teaching syllabus for the history department of which he is the head. He allocates teaching load to teachers and supervises and supports the teaching progress. He is part of the management team for Oxford High School, Mbale.

Appendix 2- The Graphs

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