Experiences of grade 12 educators in teaching auditing aspect of the accounting curriculum in Burlington circuit of Umlazi district.

Abstract

The process of curriculum development within the context of changing curriculum can result to multiple experiences for educators. This is particularly true for educators responsible for implementing the auditing aspect of the curriculum. There is evidence that effects of changing any curriculum play a vital role in the educators’ quality of teaching and consequently their leaners’ performance (Kelly, 2004). Such is the situation of the grade 12 accounting educators at the Burlington circuit of the Umlazi district of KwaZulu-Natal. In spite of the changes of the accounting curriculum, these educators have successfully managed to produce remarkable results at the National Senior Certificate level; depicting their quality in implementation. The aim of the study was thus to understand how these grade 12 accounting educators have experienced the change in the accounting curriculum considering their learner’s consistent and outstanding performance. To realise the aim of the study, the researcher used a qualitative research approach within an interpretivist paradigm. Data was generated through semi-structured interviews from seven educators with a minimum of fifteen years of teaching experience. The logic in sampling was that through the participants’ experiences curriculum implementation would be best understood specifically in a context were learner performance have been continually outstanding. The findings revealed that, these educators have used various methods in adapting to the change in the curriculum of accounting subject. The main reason identified was participants’ resilience in adapting to the poor disseminate strategy. Notable complains being insufficient time and the absence of content knowledge. Among other strategies, self-study was identified as the main adaptation strategy used by the participants to upgrade their content knowledge. Glimpses of dilemma ware also noticed in understanding the intended objectives of the auditing aspect in the curriculum. Institutional support was generally low but for the quintile 5 schools. The researcher recommended that a similar study be carried out using a quantitative approach to accommodate the view of participants outside the Burlington circuit for a more generalizable understanding of the Umlazi district. In addition, the relationship between curriculum dissemination and implementation should be studied to understand their impact on learner performance in the accounting curriculum.