Teacher collaborative curriculum design in technical vocational colleges: a strategy for maintaining curriculum consistency?

The Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) curriculum requires continuous renewal and constant involvement of stakeholders in the redesign process. Due to a lack of curriculum design expertise, TVET institutions in developing contexts encounter challenges maintaining and advancing the quality and relevance of their programmes to the needs of the labour market. The purpose of this multiple-case study is to describe the potential of teacher collaborative curriculum design (TCCD) in TVET colleges for improving the internal and external consistency of curricula. The study describes how four teams from different TVET college departments redesigned their programmes systematically and relationally to improve their internal and external consistency. The findings indicated that although the teams found the re-design task a challenge, they felt positive about the TCCD experience and its outcomes. The design teams also perceived the consistency of their programmes to have improved. The criticality of the support offered to the teams and the variety of the teams' design work were salient themes captured during the design process. It is concluded that supported TCCD teams, applying a systematic and relational approach, can be an efficient strategy for maintaining the consistency of the TVET curriculum.