Invertergating Issues in Curriculum Essay Example

align="justify">Methodology: To find out if my enquire question has any foundation I planned use a content analysis form of investigation to gather data that would support or disprove my question. Content analysis has been called "the scientific study of messages" and is a quantitative method of gathering data. The "classic" definition, "content analysis is a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the anifest content of communication" (Berelson 1952: pg14 -15). Through this method it may help us gauge the intensity of the interest in a subject or preoccupations that the producer ofa document may have. (Funnell, B. 997).

By using content analysis I was able to use a larger sample of both curriculums section C in Te Whariki and the section on Learning areas in the New Curriculum. Within both curriculums these two areas look specifically at children's learning. Content analysis is not looking for the "hidden meanings" of communication; it can provide an analysis of the frequency ith which certain words, themes, concepts, etc appear as a gauge of their importance. (Funnell et al. l 7) As I was not looking in depth at the meaning ot the words but trying to ascertain how often the words that I have chosen have been used within both curriculums.

The number of time the words are used will be indicators of the writers need to add the essence of the words into the documents, a quantitative analysis would give the data I would need to support or dismiss my hypotheses. I decided on the words that would carry the most information and these words were ithin my hypotheses, family, whanau and community. These

words would give me the data that would show by their frequency and how important they were to the writers of the two curriculums that were being investigated.

I went through selected sections of both curriculum books, counting how many times each word was used and at the end of each section I made a tally for each word. Once I had gathered the raw data I processed it on to an excel spread sheet this gave me the data in a numerical form and from there converted the information into a bar graph this gave e a visual form. I then had a very clear picture of the data gathered and this then allowed me to make some interesting conclusions to my hypotheses.

The word community was used 11 times in Te Whaariki and slightly highter on 13 for the New Zealand curriculum making a 2 point difference. The word family was clearly the word that was most used within Te wharriki while it was the word used least in the New Zealand curriculum. The word whanau was used in both curriculums but the use was limited, it was used twice in Te Whariki and 3 times in the New Curriculum. This data shows hat while both curriculums have used all three words, Te Whariki was a larger user of the word family and the New Curriculum used the word community more.

So my hypothises that TeWharriki would have a higher level of community and family involvement was not as clear cut as I had supposed. The writers of both curriculums obverously felt that the community was a valued factor that needed to be

added into the curriculums, however Te Whariki place far more emphasis on families as an important factor that they felt needed to have reused to emphasis its importance in he curriculum while in the New Curriculum families were not seen as a factor of any importantance with the word family used only once in the intire section . Whanau was also used in both curriculum however in a limited way and this was not a factor that I had forseen when selecting the words to be studies.

I Discussions ot Issues and Implications: As I was working through my hypotheses I had some predetermined ideas about the New Curriculum. I was sure that the primary sector curriculum would not value families and community as much as the early childhood curriculum did.