Introduction 

Capacity Building for Curriculum Renewal 

Capacity for curriculum development may be defined as the material, human, and intellectual resources available for managing change in school curriculum. An approach that seeks to build or strengthen such capacity is a broader and more comprehensive one than more traditional approaches based on technical support. What makes the term “capacity building” different from more conventional terms such as “professional development”, “training”, “technical assistance”, is the issue of empowerment. Unlike more prescriptive top-down approaches, capacity building seeks to empower partners to use research and to make informed decisions in leading and facilitating curriculum development and renewal through a range of activities related to information exchange, research, and training. Capacity building may be defined as “the process of assisting an individual or group to identify and address issues and to gain the insights, knowledge and experience needed to solve problems and implement change.”  Curriculum developers need to be empowered to access international curriculum development models, to analyze them, and to adapt and contextualize them to respond to their specific local needs. While capacity building activities are intended to empower curriculum experts with decision-making, management, and operational functions, the ultimate beneficiaries of capacity building for curriculum development are learners, their families, their communities, and wider society. 

Ensuring Quality Basic Education for All  

Transformations at the local, national and international/global levels have important implications for the way in which curriculum is conceptualized. Arguably, the most important element of this new conceptualization is a greater emphasis on the quality of learning processes and outcomes of formal education. Indeed, since the World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien in 1990, there has been a growing awareness that the issue of access to basic education must necessarily be associated with a concern for the quality of education. This is clearly reflected in the 2000 Dakar Framework of Action that articulates among its six goals the improvement of all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and life skills. More recently, the 2005 Education For All Monitoring Report recognized that the goal of achieving universal participation in primary education by 2015 declared in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals will be dependant on the quality of education available. 

Curriculum as the Crux of Educational Change 

Highlighting quality in ensuring equitable access to basic education for all translates into a focus within national education systems on the relevance of learning processes to the lives of individuals, their families, and communities. The curriculum process – defined as the organization of sequences of learning experiences in view of achieving desired learning outcomes – is central to any preoccupation with relevance of learning. Curriculum development is a permanent search for qualitative improvement to ensure that the education of children and youth reflects changes in society. Indeed, defining the quality primarily in terms of relevance implies that the management of curricula change must ensure the capacity for continuous responsiveness to changing demands on education. Curriculum change aimed at ensuring the relevance of learning processes and outcomes is thus becoming central to the discussion on the nature and role of knowledge and education in the age of accelerated change, supporting the idea of curriculum as the “hub of educational change”. It is a way of ensuring that the education system becomes a “learning organization” that can deal with the complexity of the change process. 

Changing Curricular Paradigms 

As it becomes increasingly accepted that curriculum change is an on-going process, many countries are currently engaged in processes of curricula change conceived around more flexible curricula frameworks. From rigid plans and syllabi that define learning content and the relative weight of subjects to be taught, the trend has been towards the development of more flexible curriculum frameworks that outline aims, objectives and learning outcomes in broad terms. As a tool to guide the organization of learning processes and experiences in a flexible manner, the renewed conceptualization of curriculum moves away from a focus on teaching to learning; from the transmission and acquisition of information, to a constructivist approach to knowledge and the development of skills and competencies required to learn and continue learning throughout life; from an organization of learning content around categorized subject content to a more interdisciplinary approach around integrated learning areas; from rigid prescribed learning paths to greater options in the determination of learning experiences; from centralized control of the content and orientation of education to shared control with greater participation of a wider range of stakeholders in the process of curriculum development.  

The Challenge of Leading and Facilitating Curriculum Change 

The development and renewal of school curricula are becoming more challenging in today’s rapidly changing world. Effective leadership and facilitation of curriculum change in an increasingly globalized world requires that curriculum policy makers, developers and implementers possess more complex competencies and reference models. Whether because of political and economic transition, migration and resulting socio-demographic changes, the development of science and technology and of ICTs, the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, or the need for social and civic reconstruction in conflict-affected societies, ensuring relevance of school curricula and quality of learning has become a permanent challenge. There is a consequent worldwide demand to strengthen existing national capacities for the development and implementation of increasingly flexible curriculum required for ensuring relevance and quality. 

The task of development and renewal of school curricula is complex and extensive. It requires a thorough understanding of the intricate linkages between education and society; the ways in which educational outcomes are defined and assessed; how people learn, and are hindered from learning; how teaching and learning may be supported and evaluated and how coherence can be developed in diverse education systems. Most planned curriculum renewal processes involve a review of the context, of processes, goals and priorities. Through consultation with stakeholders, policy is formulated on issues ranging from fundamental goals to curriculum flexibility, language and pedagogy. Curriculum frameworks are agreed with stakeholders and development paths, possibly including pilots, are considered and implemented for each learning area and age group. Textbooks or other support materials are developed and disseminated. Coherent operation of the curriculum may be fostered through training of inspectors, principals, teacher trainers and teachers.  Instructional support systems are reviewed as are examination, assessment and reporting arrangements. Curriculum evaluation and focussed educational research develop the capacity for continuous responsiveness to changing demands and circumstances. 

Curriculum renewal processes pose significant challenges and demands fresh approaches at all levels of the education system. Shared understanding and commitment to the goals of the process are fostered by effective communication and responsive leadership. Across, and within organisations, positive professional relationships and effective networks encourage information exchange and collaborative working practices. It is hoped that this pack, when used as a capacity building tool with groups drawn from a variety of levels and organisations, may be a catalyst for the development of cross-cutting conduits for communication and cooperation.