A transformative curriculum to prepare undergraduate tourism students for postgraduate study

Abstract

Tourism is an emerging field of study worldwide and in South Africa there are a number of higher education institutions (HEIs) that now offer a variety of programmes in this regard. Although these programmes are a primarily vocationally-driven, HEIs are increasingly developing vertically articulated programmes on NQF7 and NQF8 in order to prepare students for further postgraduate study. In addition, students today seeking higher education may be considered part of the so-called Generation Z cohort. This generation is associated with unique social characteristics for which current curricula may not be effectively designed. In addition, the curricula designed to cater for further study in tourism may be considered highly content-based and delivered in a teacher-led learning environment that does not provide an effective platform for authentic learning.

Curricula should be designed to promote authentic learning in which the learning environment is developed with the student in mind, where the student takes ownership of the learning process and a lecturer provides a facilitation role and does not direct learning. This, coupled with a constructive Whole Brain® aligned curriculum should promote amongst others; critical thinking, critical reflection, active engagement, experience-based learning and cooperative learning. A curriculum that is designed to promote authentic learning among students may also provide the platform for students to be better prepared and to develop graduate attributes required for the real world of work. Although there has been much discourse in the field of vocational tourism curricula and undergraduate curricula there is a relatively unexplored opportunity to transform the curricula in order to better prepare these undergraduate students for further study as this field is relatively underexplored.

In this study a constructivist-action research lens is used through a convergent mixed method design to gather empirical evidence from document analysis, a survey among tourism students, a focus group with faculty colleagues, interviews with colleagues at other HEIs in South Africa and from a panel of international experts by means of a Delphi study.

The study reveals that constructivism is a learning theory that suggests learners actively construct their understanding of the world through their experiences and interactions. In the context of research methodology as a subject, applying constructivist principles can enhance authentic learning in several ways. This study presents innovative solutions to transform the tourism research methodology curricula at TUT in order to better prepare undergraduate students for postgraduate study. Specific recommendations for transformation are presented and discussed.