A critical assessment of the challenges encountered in implementing the updated religious studies curriculum in Zimbabwe secondary schools

Abstract

In 2017, Zimbabwe started to implement the updated Religious Studies curriculum under a new policy framework. However, there have been policy gaps and challenges in implementing the new curriculum. There has been little scholarly attention on curriculum reforms, particularly on Religious Studies policy and implementation challenges. The lack of inclusive policy formulation and hurried implementation of the policy has affected the desired goal to promote inclusivism, tolerance and pluralism. The Religious Studies policy, which was implemented in 2017, allows the teaching of religions such as Indigenous Religion, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Contrary to the stated policy, secondary school teachers continue to lack policy fidelity as they use confessional approaches among other pedagogical and philosophical approaches, which present challenges in secondary schools. The purpose of this study was, thus, to critique policy and implementation challenges of the 2017 updated Religious Studies curriculum in Zimbabwe’s secondary schools, interrogating the gap between the policy and curriculum implementation. Literature suggests that factors that inhibit policy implementation of a multi-faith Religious Studies policy in multi-faith societies include resistance by dominant religion, unpreparedness to meet reforms, teachers’ personal background and lack of support from government. This study sought to develop an understanding of policy gaps and challenges faced in implementing the updated Religious Studies curriculum which is multi-faith oriented. The study further aimed to gain an understanding, from policy implementers, of how policy implementation challenges affected their teaching objectives. The Effective Curriculum Policy Implementation (ECPI) theoretical framework guided this study since the intention was to conduct the research as well as to contribute to effective policy implementation and reduce challenges affecting the implementation of the updated Religious Studies curriculum. A mixed research approach was employed where semi-structured open-ended questionnaires, individual interviews and document analysis were used to collect data. Forty Religious Studies teachers in secondary schools responded to a questionnaire. Two senior Religious Studies teachers, one ZIMSEC official and two District Schools Inspectors were purposefully selected to participate in the study through interviews. It emerged from the study that there were some policy gaps in the 2017 updated Religious Studies policy and the implementation of the policy had several challenges. The major challenges identified include the following: inadequate policy framework, unavailability of educational material resources in the teaching and learning of the updated Religious Studies curriculum, lack of resources, lack of technical support, personal background of teachers, educational levels of teachers, pedagogical deficiencies of teachers,lack of supervision, influence of responsible authority like the church, dropping of the subject and biased summative assessment. A critique of policy implementation and challenges indicates that they are mainly related to exclusivism due to dominance of one religion in the old curriculum as well as weak policy framing which hinder acceptance of other religions. Participants believed that the challenges they faced could be resolved and they proposed some intervention strategies. The study recommends that curriculum review of 2023, particularly in Religious Studies, should take into consideration intervention strategies such as in-service training of teachers, capacitating teacher training institutions to educate trainee teachers with methods that take into consideration multi-faith societies and government financing curriculum reforms. The study concluded that inclusivism, tolerance and plurality could be achieved if a multipath policy was implemented effectively.