Curriculum development in Tanzania: an investigation of the formulation, management and implementation of the 2005 curriculum reform in selected disadvantaged districts

In the 21st Century, the need for Tanzania to navigate through the impact of globalisation with a more responsive school curriculum was evident, and TC2005 was an effort towards this end. My study was on the formulation, management and implementation of TC2005 with special emphasis on disadvantaged localities. I sought to answer three central questions: (1) What role did curriculum stakeholders play in the TC2005 process and with what effect? (2) How relevant and practicable was TC2005 to students, parents and communities? 3) How was management carried out and with what effect to actual classroom teaching? Critical Policy Sociology (CPS) was the conceptual framework guiding the research with data availed through questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions and documentary review. Purposive sampling provided the 201 participants of the study from state and non-state institutions, local and central government, school heads, teachers, parents and students. Data corpus was mainly transcriptions and summaries. An eclectic model adopted from Vidovich (2001), Gale (2002), Ball 1994, 1993) and Bowe et al (1992) guided data analysis with contexts that influenced production and enactment of TC2005 identified and interpreted. The findings suggested the existence of unequal power relations between the state and stakeholders with the former not only controlling and dictating terms from the centre, but also excluding even practitioners. Bi-partisan politics were also portrayed with parties struggling for inclusion of their values as the centre fought to retain status quo. The good intentions of TC2005 was noted, but weighed down by a multitude of limitations e.g. lack of resources, influence of the polity, donor pressure and global agenda. Finally, management of TC2005 process was authoritarian rather than participatory and thus the best use of other people’s skills to arrive at more effective decisions was not made. Hence TC2005 featured rigid syllabuses that were to be translated using State-vetted textbooks. Teachers’ sense of autonomy was eroded to render them unable to broker and craft their own policies as professionals