Abstract:
Bridging the gap between academic knowledge and the transformational needs
of the society is the core concern of the tertiary TVET (Kelly, 2009, Maclean,
2007). As a first measure to assure relevance, the collaboration of key
stakeholder was recommended for the design and development of the
curriculum for HND level programmes in Ghana’s polytechnics (URC, 1991).
Yet, the relevance of the sector’s curriculum has remained a major concern,
because of its volatility and contextualization in the needs it seeks to address
(Varghese, 2009). This study therefore sought to explore the design and
development of? relevant curriculum for Ghana’s HND programmes; using
the HND Electrical and Mechanical Engineering programmes as cases in
point. Through the hermeneutic-phenomenological approach, interview and
documentary analysis data were gathered from a variety of stakeholders. In all,
a total of 17 participants and four focus groups were sampled for the study.
The major finding from the study was that the type of collaboration employed
to design and develop the HND curriculum eludes convergence; a critical
element in the attainment of relevance. Some major consequences of this
situation have, thus, been non-consensus in the need(s), content of knowledge
and pedagogic strategies the HND level employs, and the disassociation of
some stakeholders from the HND curriculum. It is therefore recommended
that the convergence of representatives of stakeholders at the stages of need(s)
definition and generation of strategies to adopt should be considered in all the
key stages of the curriculum process, if relevance of the curriculum is sought
for.
