Pedagogical Challenges Besetting Business Studies Teachers
in Secondary Schools: A Botswana Perspective
Burman Musa Sithole1 and Mutendwahothe Walter Lumadi2
1Department of Languages and Social Sciences Education, Uni
...
Pedagogical Challenges Besetting Business Studies Teachers
in Secondary Schools: A Botswana Perspective
Burman Musa Sithole1 and Mutendwahothe Walter Lumadi2
1Department of Languages and Social Sciences Education, University of Botswana
2Department of Curriculum and instruction, University of South Africa, South Africa
Telephone: +27 83 736 2231,+27 12 429 8747, Fax: +27 12 429 4909
E-mail: 1, 2
KEYWORDS Business Education. Business Studies. Constructivist Pedagogy. Entrepreneurial Pedagogy. Experiential
Pedagogy
ABSTRACT This study sought to examine the pedagogical challenges faced by Business Studies teachers in
Botswana’s junior secondary schools. Respondents’ views were recorded using structured interviews. The research
revealed that Business Studies teachers in Botswana were facing certain challenges that can be grouped into three
main categories: (1) challenges relating to teaching the subject matter and constraints in using entrepreneurial
pedagogies and inadequacy of financial resources); (2) challenges relating to the students themselves (students’ lack
of prior knowledge in the subject, scaffolding tasks in mixed ability classes, immaturity of students in relation to
subject content and misconceptions by students that the subject is difficult); and (3) challenges relating to policy
such as the inability to implement pedagogies prescribed in the syllabus. These challenges should not be regarded as
unique to Business Studies. Collectively, however, they do bring to light some of the principles that could inform
the development of a distinctive pedagogy for Business Studies
INTRODUCTION
Business Studies is offered in the Botswana
secondary school curriculum at both junior and
senior secondary school levels (See Fig. 1 for
map of Botswana).
At junior secondary school level, it is offered initially as a single subject in Form 1, followed by two options in Forms 2 and 3; these
options are Commerce and Office Procedures,
or Commerce and Bookkeeping/Accounting (Republic of Botswana 2008a; Republic of Botswana
2008b). The content in the Business Studies
syllabus is such that it incorporates the acquisition of both academic and practical skills that
may help the students to fit into post-school
working environments. This is why Business
Studies is classified as a “practical subject” in
Botswana’s Revised National Policy on Education of 1994
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