Research Article Open Access

A Bernsteinian Analysis of the Recontextualisation of Knowledge in the 5090 Biology Syllabus in Zambia

Abstract

This study was focused on exploring the recontextualisation of knowledge in the 5090 biology syllabus in Zambia. The study will help to understanding the rules that is the instructional and the regulative discourse in the syllabus as this will enable the biology teachers to effectively teach biology in secondary schools. Learners have not performed well in the 5090 biology syllabus. The performance poor performance in the 5090 biology has been attributed to a number of reasons. One of the many reasons is that teachers do not know what they are to teach and how they are to teach. An analysis of the syllabus will inform the biology teachers with the content in the syllabus and how the content is to be transmitted. Bernstein’s classification and framing concepts have been used as analytical tools. Indicators were developed to guide the analysis. The document was inductively coded using Atlas ti 8 software. The findings indicated a strong framing (F+) in the selection, sequencing, evaluation criteria and in the hierarchical rules. Pacing was not indicated in the document. The classification was weak in the inter disciplinary, intra disciplinary and in the inter discursive relations.

Mafunase Mwale, Overson Shumba

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