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OECD Education Working Papers

Curriculum reform.

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A literature review to support effective implementation

Countries consider curriculum reform as an important and necessary measure to make schools enter the 21st century and respond to a fast-changing world. In recent years, many OECD countries have engaged in curriculum reform as a way to equip children with the knowledge, skills and competences needed for tomorrow. However, how to initiate such change in the most suitable and effective way remains somewhat challenging. In other words, there is a missing step between the intention, and the realisation of this curriculum renewal, crystallising what has been coined in the literature “the implementation gap”.

This paper analyses the curriculum reform literature through the lens of the OECD proposed implementation framework that promotes, among others, inclusive stakeholder engagement. Curriculum reform has indeed long been considered from a “top-down” perspective, but has progressively shifted towards a more “bottom-up” approach, emphasising the central role of teachers in the process. The analysis is enriched with successful practices and examples from different countries, and concludes with a specific resource for countries to make the lessons learned actionable through the planning of a coherent curriculum implementation strategy

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Author(s) Pierre Gouëdard, Beatriz Pont, Susan Hyttinen and Pinhsuan Huang

11 Dec 2020

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• Published: 07 June 2018

Curriculum reform: Why? What? How? and how will we know it works?

• Shmuel Reis 1  

Israel Journal of Health Policy Research volume  7 , Article number:  30 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 20 February 2018

In a recent IJHPR article, Dankner et al. describe a reform in one longitudinal strand within Basic Medical Education i.e.“ public health and preventive medicine curriculum” using a Competency Based Medical Education approach. This reform raises several concerns: What should prompt a medical school to change a curriculum? How should such change be conducted? What kinds of paradigms may inform such a change? What constitutes a success in a curricular reform? And, how can curricular reform be evaluated within a reasonable time framework?

This commentary addresses these concerns and concludes that curricular reform should follow as much as possible the current wisdom of educational innovation and change strategy, follow a clear vision, mission, and selected educational paradigm, and pay attention to stakeholders, context, culture and politics. The design should allow for the emergence of unintended consequences. Implementation needs careful planning and monitoring and the evaluation should be multi-faceted. Finally, since all Israeli medical schools are now using the Competency Based Medical Education approach and aligning their curricula and testing accordingly, a fascinating collaborative opportunity exists to professionalize this process and hopefully make a positive impact.

Curricular reform in Basic Medical Education (BME i.e. medical school) has been a hot topic for quite some time. New medical schools strive to embody innovation, and seasoned ones are seeking compliance with current principles of adult learning, the needs of society, the changing nature of healthcare and how current students learn best. Israel is no exception, with a new and innovative medical school now into its sixth year (Safed) and all four of the others having already gone through at least one curricular overhaul in the last decade. In a recent IJHPR article, Dankner et al. describe a reform in one longitudinal strand within BME i.e.“ public health and preventive medicine curriculum, during 2013- 2014, according to the competency-based medical education (CBME) ... aimed to strengthen competencies… (of) epidemiology and statistics for appraisal of the literature and implementation of research; the application of health promotion principles and health education strategies in disease prevention; the use of an evidence-based approach in clinical and public health decision making; the examination and analysis of disease trends at the population level; and knowledge of the structure of health systems and the role of the physician in these systems” [ 1 ].

This reform raises several concerns: What should prompt a medical school to change a curriculum (whether a reform of the full curriculum or one limited to a specific course)? How should such change be conducted? What kinds of paradigms may inform such a change? What constitutes a success in a curricular reform? And, how can curricular reform be evaluated within a reasonable time framework? This commentary addresses all/several of these concerns.

What should prompt a medical school to change a curriculum (whether a reform of the full curriculum or one limited to a specific course)?

The literature is replete with reasons for radical change in the traditional medical school curriculum [ 2 , 3 ] that was launched over a 100 years ago through the Flexner report. A hundred years later, both healthcare and learning have been transformed [ 3 ]. The focus of care has transitioned from acute to chronic conditions, from hospital to the community, with technology transforming care and learning. Student centeredness (analogous to patient centeredness) has replaced teacher centeredness, eLearning is replacing lecture based teaching, and new paradigms such as competency/outcome based education are replacing content or time based education [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Curricula are called upon to comprise standardized outcomes, yet allow individualized learning trajectories; support self- regulated learning and foster curiosity; promote professional identity formation as their major goal, and contextualize learning through early clinical exposure, longitudinal experiences and service learning [ 4 ].

Dankner et al. aimed to “ evaluate and update objectives for the public health and epidemiology curriculum for medical students; to review and revise the current curriculum; to introduce a revised curriculum in public health; and to introduce appropriate teaching methods in accordance with the competency-based medical education (CBME) approach” within a larger curricular reform [ 1 ]. The authors present a detailed and appropriate rationale that includes both the transformed content of preventive medicine, epidemiology and public health as well as a transformation of medical education at its core. This approach is supported by Borkan et al. [ 5 ] when advocating for a circumscribed, rather than an entire medical school curriculum reform, based on their experience in introducing a Health Systems Science innovative program for a cohort within their medical school.

How should such change be conducted?

Kern’s six steps are often used as a guide for curricular design. These are: 1) Problem identification and general needs assessment 2) Needs assessment for targeted learners 3) Goals and objectives 4) Educational strategies 5) Implementation 6) Evaluation and feedback [ 6 ]. However, curricular reform is not just about the technical pedagogical aspect. Change, especially in a complex system such as a medical school, is fraught with resistance, inertia, power and ego struggles which call for a strategic approach as well. Appointing a dedicated committee, submitting a proposal and receiving an approval from the governing parties is just the tip of the iceberg. McKimm & Jones [ 7 ] offer 12 tips that expand on Kern’s roadmap and which shed light on the hidden part of the iceberg. Their tips include: Create the vision, aligned to mission; Develop a strategy for change involving key stakeholders; Quick visible wins and communication are vital; Analyze the internal environment and culture; Consider the external environment, cultural contexts, and political influences. These aspects: vision and mission, change strategy, accounting for the different stakeholders, quick wins, considerations of context, culture and especially local and outside politics, and more are the hallmarks of an informed approach to curricular change. Recently, Velthuis Floor et al. conducted an in-depth inquiry into a curricular reform identifying 3 major challenges: the large number of stakeholders championing a multitude of perspectives, dealing with resistance, and steering the change process [ 8 ].

Thus, the medical education literature fortunately supplies reformers with reasonable, practical guidelines as well as exemplars, spanning both aspects (design and change strategies) of such endeavors [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ].

What kinds of paradigms may inform such a change?

The authors use the competency/outcome based medical education (CBME) paradigm which indeed is currently the most visible paradigm [ 2 , 3 , 9 ]. It emerged from “ (i) the redefinition of the doctor, which includes features previously not emphasized, and (ii) the strong wish to certify doctors based on outcomes (i.e. attained competence), rather than inputs (i.e. time in training, rotations completed, etc.)” [ 10 ]. In the last 40 years, several paradigm shifts were postulated in medical education i.e. the bio-psychosocial model, patient and student centeredness, problem based and system based curricula. In the March 2108 issue of Academic Medicine, an additional elaboration on CBME (time variable CBME) is presented. The challenge presented by this new paradigm is not merely a technical one, as it entails profound transformations, requires new competencies, creates disequilibrium, resistance, a sense of loss and often takes longer than technical change [ 8 ]. Also, although we are fortunate to be guided for these challenge by existing literature, critics still question the paradigm’s rationale and solid evidence that it makes a positive difference is still lacking [ 11 , 12 , 13 ].

What constitutes a success in a curricular reform?

A curricular reform that is CBME-informed should be easy to evaluate. When outcomes and competencies are described behaviorally, their assessment flows directly. Currently, CBME programs have included entrustable professional activities (EPAs) as milestones in the progression towards mastering a competency [ 14 , 15 ]. In addition to assessing individual students’ learning, an evaluation of the new curriculum is warranted. In the article by Dankner et al. [ 1 ], the proposed evaluation consists of student satisfaction end of course surveys, a comparison of knowledge levels between the graduates of the old and new curricula and an evaluation of MD thesis quality before and after the intervention. These are necessary components that go beyond the usual “happiness” index of students’ surveys. Nevertheless, current recommendations of curricular reform suggest that it is important to also pay attention to process (i.e. effectiveness, implementation process and fit with goals) outcome (effects on participants’ learning, categorized as instructional or nurturant) and impact (longer term program effects) [ 16 ].

Moreover, curricular innovation should call forth evaluation innovation, which may entail attention also to outcomes such as professional identity formation, professionalism and commitment to social accountability. Formative assessment may be harnessed to both enhance learning (when applied through the learning process) and make the hidden curriculum explicit [ 17 , 18 ]. In the present case, the longitudinal, 6 year-long curriculum lends a special opportunity to monitor the learning and program developmentally, i.e. measure increments in knowledge, attitudes and skills over time and evaluate the graduate’s competencies at graduation and possibly in subsequent stages of the professional life cycle.

How can it curricular reform be evaluated within a reasonable time framework?

Educational interventions are notoriously difficult to evaluate [ 16 ]. It takes at least a decade to design and implement an entire medical school curriculum. Evaluation needs to be planned and implemented for longer than this time framework, a rare and unusual event. The same will be true for a longitudinal strand such as the public health/ health promotion curriculum described by Dankner et al. [ 1 ]. Monitoring the program and the learners for the duration of 6 years, comparing to the former curriculum and looking for transfer to the work-place as well as impact on practice and care delivery requires a robust infrastructure and a long haul approach (10–20 years, [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]). Nevertheless, reports of shorter term evaluations exist; they employ methods such as portfolios, evaluation of faculty development and teachers’ perceptions in the new curriculum, interviews of teachers, learners and education managers, longitudinal participant observation in teaching, and measuring educational climate [ 17 , 18 , 19 ].

Conclusions

Curricular reform, be it of an entire medical school curriculum or a significant longitudinal component should follow as much as possible the current wisdom of educational innovation and change strategy. It should follow a clear vision and mission, a selected educational paradigm, and pay attention to stakeholders, context, culture and politics. It goes beyond the technical and is complex. As such, a buy-in, strong leadership support and early wins are paramount. The design should allow for the emergence of unintended consequences. Implementation needs careful planning and monitoring and the evaluation should be multi-faceted, employing a mixed-method innovative design with short- and long-term components. Since all Israeli medical schools are now using the CBME approach and aligning their curricula and testing accordingly, a fascinating collaborative opportunity exists to professionalize this process and hopefully make a positive impact.

Abbreviations

Basic medical education (medical school)

• Competency based medical education

Entrustable professional activities

Israel journal of healthcare policy research

Medical doctor

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SHMUEL REIS, M.D., M.H.P.E., is an Associate Professor and Academic Head, Medical Education Center, Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel. He is also the chairperson of HEALER the Israeli Society for Medical Education, and a practicing Family Physician. He is clinical professor (emeritus) in the Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel, and was the director of the Faculty Development Unit and course director of the Clinical Skills Course in this faculty.

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Developing Medical Education Curriculum Reform Strategies to Address the Impact of Generative AI: Qualitative Study

Ikuo shimizu.

1 Department of Medical Education, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

Hajime Kasai

Kiyoshi shikino.

2 Health Professional Development Center, Chiba University Hospital, Chiba, Japan

3 Department of Community-Oriented Medical Education, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

Nobuyuki Araki

Zaiya takahashi, misaki onodera, yasuhiko kimura, tomoko tsukamoto, kazuyo yamauchi, mayumi asahina, shoichi ito, eiryo kawakami.

4 Department of Artificial Intelligence Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI), represented by large language models, have the potential to transform health care and medical education. In particular, GAI’s impact on higher education has the potential to change students’ learning experience as well as faculty’s teaching. However, concerns have been raised about ethical consideration and decreased reliability of the existing examinations. Furthermore, in medical education, curriculum reform is required to adapt to the revolutionary changes brought about by the integration of GAI into medical practice and research.

This study analyzes the impact of GAI on medical education curricula and explores strategies for adaptation.

The study was conducted in the context of faculty development at a medical school in Japan. A workshop involving faculty and students was organized, and participants were divided into groups to address two research questions: (1) How does GAI affect undergraduate medical education curricula? and (2) How should medical school curricula be reformed to address the impact of GAI? The strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) framework was used, and cross-SWOT matrix analysis was used to devise strategies. Further, 4 researchers conducted content analysis on the data generated during the workshop discussions.

The data were collected from 8 groups comprising 55 participants. Further, 5 themes about the impact of GAI on medical education curricula emerged: improvement of teaching and learning, improved access to information, inhibition of existing learning processes, problems in GAI, and changes in physicians’ professionality. Positive impacts included enhanced teaching and learning efficiency and improved access to information, whereas negative impacts included concerns about reduced independent thinking and the adaptability of existing assessment methods. Further, GAI was perceived to change the nature of physicians’ expertise. Three themes emerged from the cross-SWOT analysis for curriculum reform: (1) learning about GAI, (2) learning with GAI, and (3) learning aside from GAI. Participants recommended incorporating GAI literacy, ethical considerations, and compliance into the curriculum. Learning with GAI involved improving learning efficiency, supporting information gathering and dissemination, and facilitating patient involvement. Learning aside from GAI emphasized maintaining GAI-free learning processes, fostering higher cognitive domains of learning, and introducing more communication exercises.

Conclusions

This study highlights the profound impact of GAI on medical education curricula and provides insights into curriculum reform strategies. Participants recognized the need for GAI literacy, ethical education, and adaptive learning. Further, GAI was recognized as a tool that can enhance efficiency and involve patients in education. The study also suggests that medical education should focus on competencies that GAI hardly replaces, such as clinical experience and communication. Notably, involving both faculty and students in curriculum reform discussions fosters a sense of ownership and ensures broader perspectives are encompassed.

Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications have great potential to resolve many challenges in health care, such as diagnostic implementation, diagnosis facilitation, and decision-making [ 1 , 2 ]. Furthermore, generative AI (GAI), represented by large language models (LLMs), can influence all activities in society because of its ability to perform a wide variety of natural language tasks, exhibiting deductive reasoning and chains of thought [ 3 ]. A typical example is ChatGPT, a representative generic LLM service recently developed by OpenAI [ 4 ]. Different from previous deep learning-based algorithms, LLMs can predict the likelihood of a given sequence of words based on the context of the words that come before it. Thus, LLMs can produce natural and meaningful language sequences by learning a sufficient amount of textual data.

As GAI algorithms are applied in a variety of domains, the potential and risks of GAI are being debated upon. In particular, the potential impact of GAI on education has become apparent. On the one hand, GAI has the potential to assist education in terms of providing an adaptive and personalized environment [ 5 ]. On the other hand, the impact of GAI on education is disputed [ 6 ], with studies raising concerns about the ethical considerations of ChatGPT [ 7 ], evaluation practices [ 8 ], scientific integrity [ 9 ], and potential negative effects on students’ higher order thinking skills [ 10 ]. As with past introductions of new technologies into education, GAI is disrupting traditional practices and forcing teachers to adapt to its potential positive and negative impacts [ 5 ]. For example, GAI is now capable of passing various certification examinations, including those for medical licensure in at least questions without images [ 11 , 12 ]. Thus, there is a movement in higher education to limit learners’ use of GAI. Further, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has published the guidance for GAI in education and research [ 13 ], and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan has also developed guidelines for the use of GAI in higher education in general [ 14 ]. These academic views on GAI do not uniformly declare that AI tools pose a serious threat to higher education. Although current GAI algorithms may have factual errors and biases, many nuanced responses point to its ability to enhance student learning. Further, many researchers expect that academia will adapt its teaching and assessment practices to accommodate the new reality of living, working, and learning in a world where AI is freely available [ 15 ].

Nevertheless, these general higher education policies cannot be applied directly to medical education. This is because medical education is not only a type of higher education but also a place to acquire the professional competencies required for postgraduate work. Hence, as AI is being used routinely in clinical and medical research workplaces, literacy of information technologies, including AI and GAI, should be part of competencies acquired at graduation. Moreover, there is a need to focus on teaching students how to use GAI and similar tools in an ethical way that fosters critical thinking [ 16 ].

However, strategies for introducing GAI into medical education curricula that consider the unique characteristics of medical education have not yet been established. Medical education curricula should be blended sophisticatedly based on educational strategies, assessment, the educational environment, and the individual students’ learning style [ 17 ]. In this context, GAI, especially in competency-based education, which is the standard curricular concept in medical education today, aims to help students acquire the competencies they should be able to demonstrate after graduation. Furthermore, while faculty usually take the lead in curriculum development, it is worthwhile to incorporate the views of medical students—the medical professionals of the near future.

Although experts have provided general reviews on the implementation of GAI in medical education curricula [ 1 , 3 , 18 ], there have been no reports discussing the problems and challenges in the actual process of adaptation in medical schools. Therefore, in response to the call for discussing the challenges of the adaptation process, this study analyzes the impact of GAI on medical education curricula and strategies in the context of faculty development. This is a critical time in the history of medical education that requires a new paradigm, and this study intends to add value through collaborations between educators and students in the context of ongoing innovation.

We pose the following research questions: (1) How does GAI affect curricula in undergraduate medical education? and (2) How should the medical school curriculum be reformed to address the impact of GAI?

This study was conducted at Chiba University School of Medicine, a national university in Japan. All medical schools in Japan offer a 6-year curriculum to students entering after high school [ 19 ] and share a model core curriculum (MCC) as the nationally uniform exit competency for certifying medical degrees. The latest MCC (revised in 2022) lists the ability to recognize and use information technology, including AI, as 1 of the 10 core competencies; the achievement objectives included in the MCC define approximately two-thirds of each university’s curriculum, with the remainder allowed to be unique to each university [ 20 ].

As part of our official faculty development program, we organized a workshop for faculty and students to collaborate and invited participants from both faculty and students in August 2023. A detailed lecture on basic theory and general functions of GAI by an AI expert (EK) was conducted just prior to the workshop. Then, the participants were divided into groups of 7-8 faculty members and students to answer the above research questions. We invited faculty participants from all of the 58 departments in our school, and 47 departments agreed. Student participants were selected from students who had attended formal meetings. No participants but 1 had any experience with credited courses on AI or GAI.

Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) Framework

We used the strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) framework for the workshop ( Table 1 ) [ 20 - 23 ]. In analyses using the SWOT framework, the implementer identifies 4 internal or external components of stakeholders. Strengths refer to internal elements that facilitate the achievement of goals, whereas weaknesses refer to internal elements that hinder the achievement. Opportunities are external aspects that help stakeholders achieve their goals, including both positive environmental aspects and opportunities to initiate new activities. Threats are external aspects that can obstruct achieving goals [ 24 ]. The SWOT framework was first described academically by Learned et al [ 25 ] and has been used as an important tool for dealing with complex strategic situations by reducing the amount of information to improve decision-making. Specifically, it has been used to find gaps and matches between competencies and resources and the business environment [ 26 ] because it can assess alternatives and complex decision-making situations. In particular, education and health care are both major areas where SWOT has been frequently used [ 27 ]. Several examples of implementation in the medical education domain have been reported in academic journals and used for strategic planning in chaotic situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 [ 28 ].

The strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) framework.

Following the analysis with the SWOT framework, this group work used the cross-SWOT (or TOWS [threat, opportunity, weakness, and strength]) matrix method to develop strategies ( Table 2 ) [ 28 , 29 ]. Cross-SWOT analysis combines the relationships between internal and external environmental factors resulting from the SWOT analysis in a 2 × 2 grid to devise strategies for each of the 4 categories (strength and opportunity [SO], weakness and opportunity [WO], strength and threat [ST], and weakness and threat [WT]). The SO category focuses about how to exploit strengths for maximizing the potential opportunities. The ST category examines how threats can be transformed to opportunities. The WO category considers how to overcome the weaknesses with the opportunities. The WT category highlights how to avoid threats by minimizing weaknesses.

The cross–strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) matrix.

We chose the SWOT and cross-SWOT methods for this study because, first, they are suitable for our research questions since brainstorming questions can be used to reach a consensus. Further, these methods can establish strategies based on external as well as internal factors and barriers as well as facilitators. This feature is crucial for medical education, whose connection with society cannot be ignored.

All group work was tabulated and recorded on Google spreadsheets. To promote common discussions and minimize differences between groups, each group was assisted in discussions and work by 1 facilitator trained in SWOT analysis, in addition to the participants.

Qualitative content analysis was conducted to analyze the comments in the product of group work consisting of SWOT and cross-SWOT [ 30 ]. The analysis comprised the descriptions of the manifested content and interpretations of latent content [ 31 ]. Further, 4 researchers (IS, HK, KS, and NA) read the comments at the discussion and coded them to identify themes that emerged from the qualitative data independently, followed by SI checking the analysis. Points of disagreement on the data were discussed by all authors, and consensus was reached.

Ethical Considerations

This study was performed following the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the ethics committee or institutional review board at Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine (3425). All participants were informed in advance via a written document that their opinions would be recorded anonymously and analyzed collectively and that they could not withdraw after participation. The participants then communicated their consent on paper.

A total of 55 participants (49 faculty and 6 students) discussed the group work, and all agreed to participate in this study. Table 3 shows the specialty of faculty (basic, clinical, or social science), affiliation, and gender of the participants. Students were assigned to all groups.

Overview of the participants.

In terms of the impact of GAI, content analysis of the discussions using the SWOT framework resulted in 169 items, from which 5 themes were established (improvement of teaching and learning, improved access to information, inhibition of the existing learning processes, problems in GAI, and changes in physicians’ professionality). These themes were categorized into positive, negative, and both positive and negative impacts based on the bias of the SWOT analysis ( Table 4 ).

Impact of GAIs a in medical education curriculum.

a GAI: generative artificial intelligence.

b Not applicable.

In total, 1 positive impact was the improvement of teaching and learning. The faculty members believed that GAI would assist them in creating better instructional content and materials and help them become more efficient. Students also thought that GAI could be incorporated to assist them in the learning process, for example, summarizing information. Further, GAI could be useful as a new emergent tool because it allows students to suggest ideas. The participants also noted that clinical education requires resources such as case scenarios and images, and the ability to generate them would be useful for education. Representative comments are presented below (note that the symbols in parentheses indicate the identification number of each comment; S, W, O, and T denote the SWOT matrix categories that were described in Table 1 ).

Faculty can use GAI to produce quality resumes. S601

GAI saves time in making slides for lectures. S101

Students can pick up the key points they learn. S408

Another positive impact was improved access to information: the participants believed that the GAI would make it easier for students to gather information, given that the use of GAI is simpler than traditional search functions. Further, in cultures where English is not the native language, such as Japan, literacy in English—the de facto standard academic language of the world—is a major issue. Hence, participants expected that facilitating literacy in second languages, such as English for Japanese students, would improve the curriculum.

The GAI response could be used to obtain opinions on various aspects. S402

GAI can translate English literature easiliy. O501

GAI can save time in searching for new information. S605

Conversely, 2 themes were identified as negative impacts. First, teachers were concerned that the use of GAI would reduce learners’ ability to think independently. It was also noted that existing learner assessment methods would be less applicable and that continuing with existing learning strategies would result in lower orders in the cognitive domain. Second, potential problems in GAI such as doubt of authenticity and ethical issues were concerned.

Some students may finish learning only by memorizing superficial knowledge. W104

Students will have less opportunity to think for themselves. W601

If students write reports and essays with the assistance of GAI, it would be impossible to assess them properly. T106

We are not sure if the information output by GAI is really correct. We need to accept the assumption that it may contain incorrect information. T101

Copyright and portrait rights issues have not been resolved. T201

Further, a third major, both positive and negative, impact was identified as the change in physicians’ professionality. Subthemes included those related to the positioning of medical expertise, such as the declining value of specialized knowledge and the ability to gather information from patients, and those that were summative, such as the changing nature of work due to labor-saving clinical and research work, the resulting reevaluation of face-to-face contact, and the increased volatility of the roles of future physicians.

Patients and family members can use GAI to obtain medical knowledge. T304

Physicians will no longer be expected to just know expert knowledge. T801

The competency to interact directly with patients and their families will be more important. T108

The paperwork burden of writing medical certificates and charts will be reduced. O702

Errors in some of clinical routine work can be reduced by replacing the physicians. O703

Creative work will be left to humans. T203

In terms of medical education curriculum reform strategies to address the impact of GAI, content analysis of results of the cross-SWOT analysis established 3 themes from 104 items (learning about GAI, learning with GAI, and learning aside from GAI; Table 5 ).

Strategies of curriculum reform to address the impact of GAI a .

b SO: strength and opportunity.

c ST: strength and threat.

d WO: weakness and opportunity.

e WT: weakness and threat.

f Not applicable.

As for learning about GAI, participants suggested that in addition to learning the characteristics of GAI, they should learn about the proper use of GAI in medicine as well as ethics and compliance to mitigate its impact. These topics were suggested primarily in response to the weakness of the medical education curriculum. Representative comments are presented below (note that the symbols in parentheses indicate the identification number of each comment; SO, WO, ST, and WT denote the cross-SWOT matrix categories as described in Table 2 ).

Understanding pitfalls of GAI. WT504

Learning how to use GAI in the clinical and learning process. WO603

Implementing information ethics education. WO404

Learning with GAI was proposed for the use of GAI in existing curricula. Subthemes were obtained to improve the efficiency of learning and to support to gather and disseminate information. Further, it was suggested that teachers could also use GAI to generate educational materials. Moreover, participants pointed out that supporting adaptive and group learning as well as promoting the use of digital patients who are more diverse than real patients into education would introduce clinical case-based learning.

Summarizing the outline of the learning content with GAI. WO201

Creating self-assessment drills to support learning. SO201

Providing learning content based on career plans and level of understanding. SO503

Utilizing GAI to support learning achievement for each small group. WO801

Providing more clinical encounters with virtual patients. SO305

Finally, learning that does not rely on GAI was also identified as one of the subjects to focus on in medical education curricula. As subthemes, the participants suggested maintaining the GAI-independent learning process, introducing higher order learning into the learning of knowledge domains, providing more communication exercises, and promoting participation and experience in the workplace, such as clinical clerkships.

Placing more emphasis on performance assessment than on essay or writing tests. WT303

Promoting interactive learning. WO502

Improving humanistic professional skills, such as empathy for patient concerns. ST702

Reducing lectures and increasing skills training and clinical clerkships. SO402

Principal Findings

In this study, the impact of GAI on medical education curricula and the direction of curriculum reform based on the existence of GAI were investigated in the context of faculty development. In medical education research, the same attempt has been made by previous studies to summarize the results of SWOT analyses through qualitative analysis [ 21 , 32 ], which is an appropriate approach for gathering stakeholders’ opinions on the impact of an issue. Similarly, in this study, the inclusion of students in addition to medical school faculty from all areas of medical education in this study of GAI curriculum reform helped to strengthen the conclusions about GAI.

In recent years, the use of GAI in medical education has been the subject of only a few recommendations by some experts and reports of advanced practices [ 33 , 34 ]. However, the general state of medical education curricula has not yet been well defined, and to our knowledge, no study has yet investigated and summarized the needs of medical schools and their faculty members who manage the actual curriculum. Among the study’s findings, the need to learn about the shortcomings of GAI and some of the specific ideas for incorporating GAI into existing educational strategies were consistent with the recommendations of experts [ 34 ]. For example, Boscardin et al [ 33 ] have compiled a resource for medical educators to increase their AI literacy.

Further, the application of GAI may be particularly effective for learning in disciplines such as clinical medicine [ 35 ], where decisions are based on background knowledge backed by solid evidence. In clinical reasoning [ 36 ], for example, GAI can extend our views on a problem. Ultimately, it can add several differential diagnoses that we may not have thought of. Hence, the combined use of GAI in the clinical workplace is expected to be part of a physician’s skill set and, through training, will be expected to assist physicians in the practice [ 33 ].

Interestingly, we found a new approach that can promote the use of simulated patients in education and adaptive learning as part of “learning with GAI.” The educational use of digital patients can complement learners’ clinical experiences through experiential learning theory, providing a mechanism for information gathering and clinical decision-making in a safe environment [ 37 ]. While generally useful for understanding standardized clinical conditions [ 38 ], participants expected that the educational significance of digital patients could be amplified through the use of GAI, which can easily generate a wide variety of problems. Digital patients with GAI can even be expected to acquire some interactivity [ 39 ].

The ability to use GAI to create a variety of educational resources with less effort is also a key factor in promoting adaptive learning [ 40 ]. It is hoped that the incorporation of good practices into GAI-made educational resources will lead to the practical application of these appropriate strategies in medical education curricula. As a letter indicates, “learning with GAI” may apply to “learning about GAI” as well [ 41 ].

Furthermore, we found perspectives in this report that have not been recommended by AI experts in the past. A distinctive example is the recommendation that curricula should focus on “changes in physicians’ competencies” as the impact of GAI and “learning aside from GAI” to respond to these impacts. In areas such as medicine, where competencies of health professions are indispensable human resources, competencies that cannot be replaced by GAI, as listed from the cross-SWOT analysis in our study, will continue to be required, and as GAI becomes more prevalent in the clinical workplace, the role of physicians is expected to be focused on tasks that cannot be replaced by AI. For example, experience in the workplace cannot be replaced by GAI, nor can evaluation be faked, and hence will be emphasized more in future medical education curricula. Moreover, learners could expect to reach higher orders of cognitive domain such as “apply” and “analyze,” rather than “know” and “understand.” In this respect, evaluating GAI-generated information could also be an effective learning and assessing approach.

In terms of learners’ assessment, participants were concerned that existing assessments using students’ output may be less reliable. This suggests that summative assessments using high-stakes testing, at least in the knowledge domain, will be harder to implement. Instead, a novel assessment system has been proposed, by which the utility of assessment can complement the former approach by integrating the results of various types of feedback opportunities programmatically [ 42 ]. Such a concept of assessment may become increasingly important in future medical education curricula. Simultaneously, the importance of assessing skills and attitudes will increase because they will account for a greater proportion of a physician’s competence. These transitions are consistent with, and in fact promote, the paradigm shift in medical education, noted a decade ago [ 43 ].

Another interesting aspect of our report is that faculty and students proposed their own strategies for curriculum reform based on the impact of GAI through faculty development. Our attempt enabled faculty to engage their own intentions in the university’s curriculum reform. Classical faculty development has often adopted a top-down approach for communicating educational know-how and policies [ 44 ]. Similarly, policies for the use of GAI that have been formulated in various countries and several universities have adopted the same top-down approach. However, in curriculum reform, the usefulness of a bottom-up approach that takes advantage of faculty members’ initiative has long been pointed out [ 45 ]. Specifically, adopting a bottom-up approach facilitates faculty consensus on the curriculum and minimizes gaps in the objectives of reform and what needs to be done. In this respect, GAI is not just an educational device or technique; rather, it has the potential to revolutionize education, and its technological progress is rapid. When such an innovative technology is quickly introduced, it is essential that the entire organization is ready to embrace change [ 46 ]. If faculty development with respect to GAI is conducted by teaching expert knowledge and providing recommendations on how to (or not to) use GAI, the faculty development will have a limited effect for curriculum reform. Conversely, our faculty development program allows faculty members to formulate their own curriculum reform proposals and thus is expected to lead to the introduction of more effective ways of incorporating GAI in the context of each university. Among the items mentioned in the results of analysis, the negative impacts of GAI and the reform strategies to overcome them had much in common with public proposals, but it is significant that the faculty members themselves were able to outline their own proposals. Furthermore, Steinert et al [ 46 ] points out that faculty development is also a place of community of practice. From this perspective, it is significant that students, who are stakeholders in the learning process, are also involved, and the fact that the GAI has provided an opportunity to incorporate students’ opinions on matters that will have a large impact on their future as health professionals will give validity to the reformed curriculum. The strategies we developed were incorporated into the Guidelines on the Use of Generative AI in Teaching and Learning in our university in October 2023 (an internal document). We believe that this adoption suggests that the findings of our efforts are highly useful.

Limitations

This study had several limitations. First, it was conducted at a single medical school in Japan. Since medicine is highly context dependent, future implementation of GAI in medicine may vary greatly depending on cultural and curricular characteristics. However, certain commonalities in higher education and undergraduate medical education competencies may serve as an example of how GAI may be used. Second, the number of students was smaller than that of faculty, and although the facilitator encouraged participants to pay attention to the issue of hierarchy and generate opinions during the workshop, he did not incorporate any structural devices to eliminate the issue of hierarchy between students and faculty. However, since the issue of GAI has a common impact on faculty and medical students, we do not expect that hierarchy had a significant impact on the product. Third, although the clinical workplace contains multiple health professions besides physicians, we did not incorporate the opinions of other professionals than physicians this time. In the future, similar workshops with interprofessional participants should incorporate more diverse opinions to further enhance the relevance of the developed strategies.

We conducted a qualitative analysis of the impact of GAI on medical education curricula and strategies for responding to it using the SWOT framework and cross-SWOT matrix. We recruited faculty and students to identify both positive and negative impacts of GAI on medical education curricula as well as “changes in physician specialties” as a characteristic of medical education. Curricular response principles were broadly classified into “learning about GAI,” “learning with GAI,” and “learning aside from GAI.” These principles will be the 3 pillars of medical education curriculum reform in the GAI era. Particularly, it is crucial to investigate how to maintain and promote learning aside from GAI.

Acknowledgments

We appreciate all the participants of the faculty development. We would like to thank Editage for English language editing.

Abbreviations

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

The challenges of curriculum materials as a reform lever

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Morgan polikoff morgan polikoff associate professor of education - usc rossier school of education.

June 28, 2018

• 22 min read

Executive Summary

There is increasing momentum behind the idea that curriculum materials, including textbooks, represent a powerful lever for education reform. As funders are lining up and state leaders are increasing their policy attention on curriculum materials, this report discusses the very real challenges of this effort. The report draws on my experience over the last several years collecting and analyzing textbook adoption data, as well qualitative interviews of school district leaders and teachers. It identifies challenges in three main areas: collecting and analyzing textbook adoption data; encouraging districts to make different adoption decisions; and encouraging teachers to make different use decisions. The report concludes with specific recommendations, which are aimed primarily at state policymakers who seek to use curriculum materials as a policy reform. 

INTRODUCTION

In widely read Brookings reports, Whitehurst in 2009 1  and Chingos and Whitehurst in 2012 2  wrote about the impact of curriculum and its potentially transformative power as a lever for reform. Their arguments were straightforward. First, citing recent experimental studies, they documented that curriculum materials can have large direct effects on student learning 3 . Second, they noted that school and district leaders could not make textbook adoption decisions on the basis of textbook quality, because such evidence did not widely exist. Third, they claimed that there was little data of even a descriptive nature on textbook adoption patterns and practices, but that this would be relatively easy to collect. And finally, they argued that if the above issues were solved, textbooks could be an inexpensive (both politically and in dollars and cents) reform strategy.

The Chingos and Whitehurst report ended with specific recommendations, including the following: a) State education agencies should collect data from districts on the instructional materials in use in their schools; b) the NGA and CCSSO should put their weight behind the effort to improve the collection of information on instructional materials; and c) foundations could provide the start-up funding needed to collect data on instructional materials and support the research that would put those data to use.

While it is of course not known whether their report is the direct impetus, it is clear that some of the recommendations they made are coming to fruition. For example, the Gates Foundation is moving into the area of curriculum materials, 4 and other funders appear interested as well. Chiefs for Change recently released a statement on the importance of curriculum materials and the role of state departments of education in collecting better data on the topic. 5 And a number of researchers, myself included, have begun paying attention to curriculum as a reform lever and collecting and using data to analyze the impact of materials on student achievement. 6

But how good are the prospects for this as a serious reform effort? And what are the potential barriers? The purpose of this report is to take stock of where we are and to offer suggestions for this effort moving forward. 7 To answer these questions, I draw on three main sources. One source is my recent efforts to collect textbook adoption data in the five largest U.S. states – I draw on my experiences in doing this work and also the data that we have ultimately collected and analyzed. 8 A second source is a set of interviews of school district leaders in the state of California focusing on their districts’ textbook adoption policies and practices. And a third source is evidence on teachers’ use of textbooks, drawn from both my data collection efforts through interviews and others’ efforts through surveys.

In what follows, I organize my discussion around what I view as the three main areas of challenge:

• The challenge of collecting and analyzing textbook adoption data to determine which books are most effective.
• The challenge of getting the most effective books in teachers’ hands (i.e., through school and district textbook adoptions).
• The challenge of getting teachers to use these books once they have them.

I conclude with specific recommendations for how to overcome these challenges. While I am optimistic about this reform strategy, textbooks will not be a successful reform without serious, sustained engagement along these dimensions. 

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The challenges of collecting and analyzing textbook adoption data 

My team’s experiences in collecting and analyzing textbook adoption data suggest that there will be a number of hurdles if states seek to undertake this kind of effort.

Collecting the Data

Textbook titles seem like straightforward pieces of data to collect, but in fact the issue is more complicated than it may seem. Even well resourced state departments of education may struggle to simply collect the data in ways that make it usable for the kinds of research Chingos & Whitehurst recommend.

First, there is the simple fact that even a piece of information as seemingly innocuous as textbook titles may be seen as having political implications. And these implications may lead to resistance to sharing the data. For instance, teachers or district leaders may worry that collecting data on textbook adoptions is the camel’s nose under the tent that may lead to more prescriptive state control over curriculum issues (which are historically the bailiwick of local authorities). Unless the collection is made mandatory and routine, then, there will likely be some resistance to sharing the data. But the more prescriptive the effort is, the more educators’ hackles may be raised.

Second, there is the complication of whom to ask for the data. Setting aside schools of choice, districts are very likely the units responsible for making the actual purchases in most or all states. But in some states, districts are typically “uniform adopters” (all schools in the district use each adopted book), and in other states they are not. Will states really get in the business of surveying every school in a state to gather this information? If they survey districts, will districts actually know what books are used in schools? Respondents—either district or school—may also lack key information such as adoption years, which are necessary for the most sophisticated analytic approaches.

Third, there are many complications in identifying books that make this task more difficult than it may seem at first blush. Many book series have multiple editions—Pearson’s enVision Math had state-specific versions, then a Common Core version, and now an enVision 2.0 version—it is easy to confuse these in data entry. Districts/schools may differ in the type of license they select—digital materials, consumable books, multi-year licenses, etc.—will this kind of information be collected? Some of these problems could be solved by collecting ISBN numbers, as suggested by Whitehurst and Chingos, but there are challenges with that approach as well (people may be less willing to fill out surveys if they have to go find ISBN numbers, for instance). Then of course schools and districts have up to 13 grades, multiple subjects, and sometimes four or more academic tracks—will textbook information be collected on all of these, or just some? How will titles be linked to courses?

Fourth, while some of the complications just mentioned could be avoided if data were collected each time materials were purchased, many districts do not purchase books. Some districts use materials like EngageNY—full-year materials that they obtain for free online. Other districts assemble or develop their own materials. How would a state data collection account for these eventualities?

Analyzing the data

Once the data are collected, there are multiple analytic strategies that can be used to determine which textbooks work best, and there is not consensus on the best approach. Some researchers have used matching or other regression-based approaches with school-level achievement data, while others have used student-level data and value-added analyses. Regardless, the goal is to identify the causal effect of districts’ choice of one textbook over another.

In general terms, the main methodological concern is to eliminate selection bias so that the identified “impacts” of a textbook are not actually attributable to some other preexisting difference among districts choosing one textbook over another. Koedel and his coauthors have used various matching approaches, presenting evidence that districts’ textbook adoption choices are not strongly related to observable school and district characteristics. 9 They also conduct a series of falsification tests that provide convincing evidence that selection is not at play. However, in unpublished analyses, my colleagues and I have investigated textbook effects in other subjects (science), other grades (middle school mathematics), and other time periods (post-Common Core) and found that there seems to be more evidence of selection bias in those areas than in prior studies. Specifically, we have found sometimes large differences among schools adopting particular textbooks in terms of prior achievement or other demographic variables. This could be evidence that something is changing in textbook adoptions to make selection bias more of a concern. Regardless of the specific technical concern, the point is that the science on using observational data to estimate textbook impacts is far from settled, and the methods that work in one instance may not work in all others. Furthermore, the time and resources to get this analytic work done may be substantial.

trying to get schools or districts to make better adoptions

Suppose we were able to collect good enough textbook adoption data from large numbers of schools and districts and use it to calculate impact estimates for each book. Would districts make use of these data in their adoption decisions? My research team’s interviews with school district leaders suggest many reasons why they may not. Of course, it is possible that if the data were better we might have found different things in our interviews, but there are likely some real barriers to getting districts to make different/better adoption decisions.

First, the very decentralized nature of educational governance makes getting virtually any reform adopted at scale a real challenge. In some states (approximately half) the state is involved in school and district textbook adoptions by putting out a formally approved list of materials in certain grades and subjects. California does this, though California’s textbook adoption list is advisory—districts are not required to purchase off the list. In states with these kinds of lists, getting the most effective books to appear on the state list would go a long way toward getting the best books in the most schools. But in California we found around a quarter of schools used books from off the state-approved list. And many other interviewees, even in districts that adopted from the state list, expressed concern about the quality of the state’s review process. In states without a list, schools and districts are generally on their own to figure out which books to adopt. 10 In short, changes to state laws or policies that strengthen the role of the state in textbook adoptions would probably be helpful if the goal was widespread adoption of the most effective books. 11

Second, school districts have complex, highly ceremonial practices when it comes to textbook adoptions, which would likely be a barrier to more streamlined forms of decision making. We found in our interviews that virtually all districts have processes that involve a) one or more committees of teachers, b) evaluation of textbooks against complex rubrics (even in the case where the books were on the state list and thus had already been evaluated), c) multi-week pilots, and d) one or more formal votes before reaching a final decision. While better evidence could certainly be fed into this process along the way, it is far from guaranteed that the process would result in the best books being chosen.

Third, the timeline for getting evidence of effectiveness in the hands of district leaders to inform their decisions is challenging at best, and impossible at worst (though this depends at least in part on how states handle revisions to their standards over time). In the core subjects, most states have standards adoption and revision cycles every 7 to 10 years. Publishers put out new versions of books perhaps two years after a new set of standards is adopted, and states put out their lists thereafter (for instance, California put out its math textbook list during the 2013-14 school year, approximately three years after the adoption of Common Core). In order for impact estimates to be calculated, there needs to be a reasonably large number of districts adopting books and using them for at least a couple years. This would mean that the earliest impact estimates could probably have been obtained post-Common Core would have been perhaps 2016. By this point, almost every district in the state had already made an adoption purchase, meaning they were/are not looking to make another purchase soon. By the time the next textbook adoption cycle happens at the district level the standards will have been in place for approximately a decade (assuming they are not dramatically changed in the interim), and it is not even clear that publishers will be publishing the same versions of their books. Of course, if the standards stay stable and the published books stay mostly unchanged, then the results could be useful to districts making another adoption at that time, but this is a large number of contingencies given the transient nature of education policy.

Encouraging teachers to make better textbook use decisions

The fact is that, while many teachers still use textbooks, large proportions of teachers use them as simply one resource among many. This finding is confirmed in both large, state- and nationally-representative surveys, as well as in our interviews of California teachers. In our 67 interviews, no teachers said they used only the district-adopted textbook for their 8 th grade mathematics instruction. Most teachers reported that the adopted book was inadequate in one of two ways—it lacked sufficient opportunity for students to practice foundational skills, or it lacked sufficient enrichment exercises to cover the more conceptual content in the standards. Whatever the gap in the materials, teachers reported supplementing with lessons from old books or with materials they sourced from various websites on the internet. An illustrative quote from one of our teachers was ““We have had to use additional resources. We can’t just settle on just using the [Textbook Title]. There isn’t enough quality in it in order to make it a full, 100 percent program. If you just used the book itself and nothing else, it wouldn’t be enough for them to learn the entire curriculum.” Given this view of textbooks, getting even the best-quality materials to be used with fidelity by teachers may be a challenge.

Teacher surveys suggest that textbooks may not be the main source of lessons for large proportions of teachers. For instance, a five-state study found that 72-80 percent of teachers (depending on subject) reported using instructional materials developed by them or their colleagues at their school at least once a week, as compared to 43-53 percent for materials created by external organizations such as publishers. 12 Another national survey pegged the proportion using district-adopted textbooks once or more a week at about 62 percent. 13 National data from the American Teacher Panel found greater than 90 percent of teachers reported using Google, and more than 70 percent reported using TeachersPayTeachers and Pinterest, to find lessons. 14 Regardless of the data source, it is clear that textbooks are widely used but are far from the only source of curriculum in typical American classrooms. Furthermore, these numbers are quite a bit lower than those cited in Chingos and Whitehurst’s report, 15 suggesting that the use of textbooks has declined over time. Certainly it is possible that this could change if teachers had better books available, but textbook reform would likely affect a modest proportion of the curriculum of the typical classroom.

To be sure, our teacher interviews did find certain district-level policies that seemed to be associated with better implementation of standards. For example, we found that teachers did need some sort of backbone for their curriculum, and having a formal textbook adoption provided that. Teachers in districts that did not formally adopt a curriculum, or that took a very long time after the standards were written to do so, complained about the lack of support and their concomitant inability to fully implement the standards. So districts should adopt something, and it’s possible that a stronger backbone—offered by a more effective textbook—would be used even more. In addition, teachers said they needed specific kinds of professional development focused on both the textbook itself and the standards more generally. They were critical of publisher-provided professional development, which they said often focused on surface elements of the materials. And they often were unable to state specific changes that were called for by the standards, perhaps reflecting a lack of deep knowledge of the standards. In short, teachers in general would like to have both a formally adopted material and support to understand and implement the standards through professional learning opportunities.

recommendations

There are good reasons to believe that curriculum materials can serve as an important reform lever. But this report has laid out some of the challenges in getting this reform to achieve its desired impact. Based on these issues, I make the following recommendations.

In terms of data and analysis:

• The best approach will be to routinize data collection, perhaps at the time of purchase, for each district in the state. If this is not possible, embedding annual data collections in other data collection activities could also work, but recalling will always have more error—and probably more burden—than more automated approaches.
• The state should decide which subjects, grades, and courses will be the target of its collection efforts. This decision might be informed by surveying educators to understand where textbooks are currently most used.
• At a minimum, the state should collect titles/publishers, editions, and adoption years for any book on which they gather information. Again if this is done routinely at purchase it would be straightforward.
• The state should consider what it wants to collect from districts or schools that do not claim to use any formal textbook. Short surveys or audits of curriculum materials from samples of teachers in those sites may be the best approach. It would not be appropriate to collect no data simply because the district does not use textbooks—access to quality curriculum is an equity issue that is under the state’s purview.
• Rather than merely collecting the data and hoping someone analyzes them, the state should have in place plans or a relationship that ensures the data get routinely analyzed by qualified researchers or staff. Otherwise this is unlikely to happen.

While these recommendations will not ensure that trustworthy impact estimates will be created, they will go a long way toward ensuring that the conditions at least exist.

In terms of district adoption and teacher use:

• There appears to be little reason for states not to put out lists of quality materials. These lists can drive adoption decisions and can simplify the task of adopting for schools and districts. 16 That said, states should be sure that their adoption processes are transparent and high quality so educators can trust the results. In states where such a move would be politically feasible, they should consider incentivizing or mandating districts purchase off the state-approved list.
• Intermediary organizations, like California’s County Offices or New York’s BOCES, can serve an important role in helping smaller districts collaborate on, select, and implement materials. States should consider supporting these organizations directly for this purpose.
• Because the use of non-textbook resources is large and growing, states should consider evaluating these for quality and creating curated lists of approved supplementary resources. They could also work with districts or intermediary organizations for this effort. Doing this might ease the curriculum selection burden for teachers and result in better quality materials in teachers’ hands.
• Similarly, states should consider getting in the business of supporting quality professional development aligned with the standards and to support the implementation of the top-rated curriculum materials. This could ease the burden on schools and districts and prevent them from having to find or create their own learning opportunities.
• Finally, states should plan regular data collection and analysis related to teacher adoption and use of curriculum materials. They might specifically work with districts that are adopting new materials to use those opportunities to research implementation and effects.

Together with the data collection and analysis activities described above, these efforts are likely to help ensure public school students have access to high quality curriculum in all of the state’s schools. Without these kinds of sustained efforts, the strategy of using curriculum materials to leverage educational improvements may be unlikely to succeed in the long-term.

The author did not receive any financial support from any firm or person for this article or from any firm or person with a financial or political interest in this article. He is currently not an officer, director, or board member of any organization with an interest in this article.

• Whitehurst, G.J. (2009). Don’t forget curriculum .  Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. 
• Chingos, M. M., & Whitehurst, G. J. (2012). Choosing blindly: Instructional materials, teacher effectiveness, and the Common Core .  Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
• Agodini, R., Harris, B., Atkins-Burnett, S., Heaviside, S., & Novak, T. (2010). Achievement effects of four early elementary school math curricula: Findings for first and second graders . Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.
• See for instance http://k12education.gatesfoundation.org/tag/curriculum-instructional-tools/ .
• http://chiefsforchange.org/statement-on-the-need-for-high-quality-curricula/ .
• Bhatt, R., & Koedel, C. (2012). Large-scale evaluations of curricular effectiveness: The case of elementary mathematics in Indiana . Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis , 34(4), 391-412. Bhatt, R., Koedel, C., & Lehmann, D. (2013). Is curriculum quality uniform? Evidence from Florida . Economics of Education Review , 34(1), 107-121. Koedel, C., Li, D., Polikoff, M. S., Hardaway, T., & Wrabel, S. L. (2017). Mathematics curriculum effects on student achievement in California . AERA Open, 3 (1), 1-22.
• Most of the thinking on curriculum materials has been done in mathematics. The discussion presented here should apply to other subjects, but there has been less thought on curriculum issues in ELA and (especially) social studies than other subjects.
• This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1445654, the William T. Grant Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and an anonymous foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders.
• Bhatt & Koedel, 2012; Bhatt, Koedel, & Lehmann, 2013; Koedel et al., 2017.
• One exception to this was that small districts often turned to California’s County Offices of Education to select textbooks—they relied on services made available at the county level, and they sometimes even worked with other districts in the county to make county-wide adoptions. Leveraging these intermediary organizations be another useful strategy to encourage widespread adoption of higher quality materials.
• Another route would be to simply make effectiveness data available through external rating organizations. EdReports does this already, though their ratings are based on content analyses of textbooks as opposed to impact estimates. We found few districts (<20 percent) reported using EdReports ratings in their decisions, however.
• Kane, T. J. (2016).  Never judge a book by its cover – use student achievement instead .  Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.
• McDuffie, A. R., Drake, C., Choppin, J., Davis, J. D., Magaña, M. V., & Carson, C. (2017). Middle school mathematics teachers’ perceptions of the Common Core State Standards for mathematics and related assessment and teacher evaluation systems. Educational Policy, 31 (2), 139-179.
• Kaufman, J. H., Thompson, L. E., & Opfer, V. D. (2016). Creating a coherent system to support instruction aligned with state standards: Promising practices of the Louisiana Department of Education . Santa Monica, CA: RAND.
• Moulton, J. (1997). How do teachers use textbooks? A review of the research literature .  Washington, DC: U.S. Agency for International Development, Health and Human Resources Analysis for Africa Project.
• Kaufman et al., 2016.

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An Analytical Study on Issues, Challenges and Reforms in the Pakistan Studies Curriculum at Secondary Level

International Journal of Social Sciences

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JHSS, Vol. 13, No. 2, July to December

Ms. Sabeeha

Though history as a discipline and historical instances are used for different agendas since centuries, it provided new grounds to 'nation building' after the emergence of Nation State in the previous colonies during the 20th century. The academicians and writers started writing and interpreting history to serve 'national interests' and promote 'national sense'. Each State tried to sort out common features in the different ethnic and social groups living in that political boundary. The creation of Pakistan in August 1947 was a sort of unique experience when Islam was used as a common factor to unite heterogeneous ethnic entities. The ideological fathers, with the colonial legacy of identity crisis tried to promote common features for the Pakistani Nation. For this purpose, the new state managers formed different commissions which provided guidelines for textbooks writing. The successive governments followed the policy which developed 'historical content' in all textbooks for 'constructing image' of different individuals, institutions and creeds. This 'insertion' in textbooks might have some positive impact in promoting 'Pakistani nation' but the process culminated in alienation of multiple ethnicities on one hand and use of historical accounts as a propaganda tool on the other hand. The present paper is an attempt to scrutinize the historical content in the textbooks of Pakistan Studies taught at secondary level in public schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The scrutiny would be dealing with two aspects: a) need; b) credibility of the material; c) presentation. The paper would cover textbooks for grade 9 and 10, published by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa textbook board.

Bilal Yousaf

This study was meant to explore and report the problems being confronted by the education in Pakistan and suggest for the resolution of these problems. Education plays the role of leadership in the society. The functions of the educational institutions are to develop the people physically, mentally, psychologically, socially and spiritually. It improves and promotes the economic, social, political and cultural life of the nation. There is no doubt in accepting the fact that education brings about a change in the social, political and cultural scenario of the country; though the change remains slow but it does have an impact on the society at large. Until now the role of secondary and college education in Pakistan has been simply preparation for tertiary education, which in the minds of most people means strictly a university education. All over the world universities are guiding and co-operating with the industrial and agricultural development organizations and they are developing their economics rapidly and meaningfully. There is a close link between education and development. In Pakistan, after more than five decades, the developmental indicators are not showing positive results. The participation rate at higher education is low comparatively to other countries of the region. There are problems of quality of staff, students, library and laboratory. Considering the gigantic problems of education in Pakistan, I select this topic for research.

Political participation and unity of nation on political affairs in the country to increase the participation of youth in political affairs their political development is a basic requirement. Pakistan studies support creating political awareness among the youth of the nation. This research study investigated that how the 10th grade ‘Pakistan to study textbook’ creates a political sense among the youths. This study was conducted through content analysis of 10th-grade textbooks, and the students’ political development level was also measured through a survey questionnaire focused on the questions related to political development elements. The sample for content analysis was 10th grade Pakistan studies textbook, and for the survey was 120 students of 10th grades enrolled in secondary schools of Quetta city. Major findings high lights that political development was not supported by the Pakistan studies textbook.

Usman Amjad

Muhammad Muzaffar

This paper reviews the current key issues and problems in the education system of Pakistan that pose a challenge for the future growth of the country. The paper uses documentary analysis as the research methodology for data collection. The paper attempts to understand which factors have contributed to the downfall of Pakistani education system. The first part of the paper explains how the system is operated by the government. Moving on, the problems be them external or internal in nature are highlighted and it is delineated how these problems have contributed to greater social demise. The paper further looks into some solutions to the problems aforementioned and urges the government to contribute in due diligence what is required to the education system.

Dr. Z U B A I D A ZAFAR

Education is a key to political stability and socio-economic development of a nation. Unfortunately, there are diverse systems of education providing different types of education leading to stratified education system. The researchers investigated education system of Pakistan, its functioning and problems and used mixed method approach. In quantitative section researchers adopted survey method and questionnaire as tool for a sample of 210 respondents through multi-stage systematic sampling and SPSS for analysis. In qualitative part researchers used interview guide as a tool for 35 respondents (university level teaching faculty and students) and adopted Domain Analysis technique for qualitative data analysis. The results of present study indicate that education brings political stability by realizing the people their national rights and duties and thus through such awareness leads to harmony, participation and cooperation. Education shapes the personality of the people to play part i...

Bulletin of Education and Research

This study was designed to determine the role of Pakistan studies in promoting political awareness among the secondary level students in Pakistan. The study was delimited to three divisions of the Punjab province. A sample of 480 students was taken from the High and Higher Secondary Schools of Faisalabad, Multan and Rawalpindi Divisions. The tools of research adopted in this study were content analysis of the curriculum of Pakistan Studies and a test regarding the basic political knowledge. The collected data were analyzed by using the descriptive as well as inferential statistics. The content analyses showed a little inclusion of the text on the basic political knowledge and the test results confirmed the lower level of political awareness among the students. The integration of the basic political information in the books of Pakistan studies at secondary level was recommended in this study.

Journal of Management and Social …

Shamaila Hasan , Eresearch Journal ISSN: 2706-8242

This paper aimed to look at present education system of Pakistan. There exists an inherent promise and intensive potential in educational policies of Pakistan for revolutionizing socioeconomic change in the country through education. Pakistan since its independence in 1947 has faced the insufficient educational institutions and lack of qualified teachers which resulted in challenges of access and quality. To deal with educational problems, a number of educational policies were released. The policies came at different times, during different regimes, in with diverse policy document. They varied in their size, intention and seriousness. The existing education system in Pakistan is considered not being adequately responsive to the demand of quality education. There is a wide range of issues and concerns related to the teaching and learning setup. To improve the existing education system of Pakistan development of any strategy should give due consideration to these issues and concerns. Introduction:

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• Although its law requires Pakistan to provide free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of five and sixteen, millions are still out of school, the second highest number in the world.
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Curriculum reform in African higher education: solving society’s problems and meeting its needs

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• Published: 07 July 2023
• Volume 43 , pages 141–149, ( 2023 )

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Higher education is often regarded as a crucial driver of development in Africa. Notably, the curricula in African higher education institutions are central to the discourse of development and the production of graduates who are sufficiently critical to challenge the historical, political, economic and social status quo in Africa. Curriculum experts in Africa have called for revisiting the purpose and the content of higher education curricula in Africa, and embracing an indigenous knowledge system that not only brings about development in nations themselves or the continent as a whole, but which also enhances human capacity. This paper argues that it is important for higher education institutions to embrace a curriculum that is synchronised to the particularities of African societies. One way to achieve this is by reforming the curriculum to reflect the realities and needs of the African continent, rather than providing a mere replica of the Western model. This paper also argues that curriculum reform is inevitable if the university is to fulfil this important role. This paper aims to answer the pertinent question; In what ways are Africa’s higher education curricula solving societal problems and meeting societal needs? This paper is guided by the theory of critical pedagogy developed by Paulo Freire and is developed through a review of the literature. The findings show that curriculum reform that promotes indigenous knowledge systems in Africa is imperative for meeting some of the needs of the African continent.

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Introduction

The development of any nation or society hinges largely on the education of its people. Education serves as the bedrock for nation building—be it education that takes place in formal or non-formal settings. In the case of Africa, however, the educational systems have been criticised as having little or no impact on national or continental advancement (Msila & Gumbo 2016 ). If this is the case, Afful-Broni et al. ( 2020 ) argue that some important questions need to be asked: What type of education are we referring to? How do stakeholders in education delivery ensure that citizens have access to an education that is relevant to the needs of a nation and its people? In addition, I ask: What should be the content of the curriculum in African educational institutions? Based on these questions this paper argues that it is not enough for education to be available and accessible to Africans; it is equally important for education to be relevant to the specific needs of Africa, and to be geared to the human empowerment that is required for the advancement of the continent. One way to achieve this is to reflect on solutions to Africa’s challenges using our own indigenous standards and models of reasoning. This does not in any way suggest that other external bodies of knowledge are irrelevant, but it is important to assert African indigenous knowledge in all aspects of our educational systems, especially the curriculum.

Asserting indigenous knowledge should begin by reforming the curriculum in schools and higher education institutions (HEIs); however, the focus of this paper is on higher education, where the curriculum serves as an important tool for promoting African histories, cultures and experiences. Unfortunately, Africa is saddled with the enduring legacy of colonial education, and its educational curricula, programmes and policies are largely influenced by global market forces and educational policies that are not entrenched in indigenous systems and structures (Msila & Gumbo 2016 ). The curricula in many African HEIs are problematic—mainly because they do not capture knowledge systems that are contextualised to issues in the African environment (Katundu, 2020 ). In Africa, we have a responsibility to look inwards and focus on the rich intellectual competence of the African heritage, rather than using the Eurocentric and Western forms of knowledge as a standard for intellectual prowess. I argue that promoting indigenous knowledge in our curriculum should not be an add-on or alternative knowledge, but it should rather be centred. Further, new educational approaches that constitute a life-sustaining force for African nations and communities are vital. Accordingly, curriculum reform is not mere theoretical discourse or political talk; it is a call for meaningful action and enduring practices.

Although there are several publications on the subject of curriculum reform and the Africanisation of the curriculum (Chikoko, 2016 ; Kamwendo, 2016 ; Le Grange, 2014 ; Nkoane, 2014 ; Shava, 2016 ), little has been written on curriculum reform in relation to meeting societal needs, especially in the context of Africa. These societal needs include, but are not limited to, employment, wealth creation, access to education and improved living standards, as well as building human capacity. For example, the average rate of unemployment in Africa stands at roughly 8% (Statista, 2023 ) compared to an average of 6% in Europe (Europa, 2023 ) and 3.1% in the USA (Statista, 2023 ). Also, it is estimated that 244 million children between the ages of six and 18 are out of school in sub-Saharan Africa (UNESCO, 2022 ). Consequently, it is expedient that we interrogate conventional modes of knowledge production in Africa, considering that external Eurocentric and Western ideals substantially inform our educational standards. It is against this backdrop that this paper will answer the question: In what ways are Africa’s higher education curricula solving societal problems and meeting societal needs?

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the current state of higher education curricula in Africa and to rethink ways in which the curricula can be reformed to accommodate the peculiarities of African societies, with a view to solving societal problems and meeting societal needs. The purpose of this paper is not to promote any form of division between African indigenous knowledge and Western knowledge, as both are dynamic and both influence the other; rather, it is imperative to challenge the domination of colonial ideologies over the promotion of indigenous knowledge in African HEIs. Issues of poverty, low gross domestic product (GDP), cultural relevance, terrorism, quality education, high unemployment rate and poor living conditions are some of the challenges confronting the African continent. These challenges are not peculiar to Africa alone, as some are also faced by countries in Asia and even the global North. Considering the public good of the university to society, it would be a disservice to exclude or pay inadequate attention to these issues in the university curriculum. While several studies exist on curriculum change or reform, the decolonisation of the curriculum and the Africanisation of the curriculum (Heleta, 2016 ; Le Grange, 2014 , 2018 , 2020; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2017 ; Woldegiorgis et al., 2020 ), this paper will take a step further to examine curriculum reform in relation to the needs of African societies.

The subsequent sections in this paper synthesise literature to bring the argument in the paper to the fore. The next section discusses the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire, as a theoretical lens through which to further understand the notion of curriculum reform. This is followed by a discussion of curriculum and curriculum reform to provide an understanding of these terms. An analysis of the Africanisation and indigenisation of the curriculum is done next, which then informs the section on rethinking the curriculum as well as the section that argues whether the curriculum should favour local imperatives or global relevance. The paper concludes with my thoughts on curriculum reform in Africa.

Critical pedagogy

The discourse in this paper is guided by the theory of critical pedagogy, which was first developed by Paulo Freire in 1968 in his book titled The pedagogy of the oppressed . The theory was well received by academics and scholars such as Kincheloe ( 2007 ), and Duncan-Andrade and Morrell ( 2008 ), with the theory of critical pedagogy being updated since Freire’s first text (Freire, 1996 , 2005 , 2013 ). Critical pedagogy calls for people who are living under oppressive conditions to develop new foundations for learning (Stevens, 2002 ). Basically, critical pedagogy is a teaching approach directed at helping learners question any form of dominant beliefs and practices; it helps learners become critically conscious throughout the process of learning by thinking, reading, writing and speaking, as well as going beyond their comfort zone in knowledge acquisition. To be critically conscious, it is important that students understand the meaning, social context, root causes and consequences of any action, event, experience, process or organisation. The overall aim of critical pedagogy is to liberate learners from oppression, which could manifest in various forms such as through the method of education or the curriculum. The theory of critical pedagogy therefore advocates for diverse methods and goals for empowering learners. In this paper I will focus on the four goals that lie within its scope.

First, critical pedagogy advocates for anti-colonial education by arguing that it is important for a people to have their own system of education and develop their own culture. Ideally, education should not be an extension of the culture of the colonisers neither should an education system or the content of education be imposed on a people. Education is authentic when it is relatable and applicable to a population for the improvement of their lives and for society as a whole; not the kind of ‘alien’ education that is unfortunately popular in Africa and not relatable to learners. Second, critical pedagogy argues for the promotion of indigenous knowledge in education. According to Kincheloe ( 2007 ), when the oppressed learn about their own culture, histories, religion, heritage and the like there is a high tendency for them to experience transformation which can ultimately lead to their liberation and empowerment. There is much to be learnt from such people’s indigenous knowledge, for example indigenous medicine and arts and crafts, as well as the cultural, political and religious orientation, and one of the ways to produce this knowledge is to ensure it is well captured by the curriculum so that it can be taught to learners from a young age. Third, critical pedagogy theory posits that education should promote emancipation and intellectual growth (Freire, 2005 ). It should bring about freedom and corresponding positive changes to an individual and a society. People long for freedom in order to gain the power needed to control their own lives and promote unity and justice within the community to which they belong. Critical pedagogy acts to expose the forces that prevent individuals from making decisions that have a positive effect on their lives and their communities (Kincheloe, 2008 ). Fourth, critical pedagogy postulates that one of the goals of schooling is to alleviate human suffering and oppression. Education engenders prosperity, but the question remains as to whether all African countries are harnessing the prosperity benefits of education.

Freire’s theory of critical pedagogy is considered a suitable theory for this paper because it is strongly aligned to the realities of the African people with regard to educational reform that fosters the emancipation of a people—the African people, as is the case in this paper. In addition, Africa fits into Freire’s narrative of the oppressed, with its unforgettable history of colonisation and subtle recolonisation. Africa is indeed rich in talent, brains and resources but for too long we have promoted Western forms of education and knowledge at the expense of our indigenous knowledge which is essential for dealing with our unique problems and needs. If the continent is to experience true development it is important to be committed to sponsoring African experiences and truths. It is also crucial to appreciate and be proud of who we are and what we stand for.

Curriculum and curriculum reform

The curriculum serves as an essential means for putting the idea of higher education into practice and has therefore become one of the most important factors in any higher education system (Annala et al., 2022 ). Although the term ‘curriculum’ was first used within the context of higher education, it has not since received as much attention as it has within the school context (Le Grange, 2016 ). According to William Pinar’s etymological root of the term ‘curriculum’, which he first developed over 45 years ago, the word ‘curriculum’ emanated from the Latin word currere , which means ‘to run the course’ (Pinar, 2011 , p. xii). Le Grange ( 2016 ) views the curriculum as a simple, tightly coupled system which allows for the alignment of what students learn and the intended learning outcomes, as well as the assessment of these. Aoki ( 1999 ), on the other hand, maintains that the focus of the curriculum goes beyond what is planned (curriculum-as-planned) to include how it is lived by both teachers and students (curriculum-as-lived). The curriculum is an important aspect of society; it is a pathway to travel and a course of action to be taken by both educators and learners (see Apple, 1991 , 1993 ). The curriculum should not take a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach; rather, it should be designed in a way that addresses the particularity of a people or nation. This means that an imposed curriculum is not tailored to the needs of a particular people, as Paulo Freire argues in his theory of critical pedagogy. Ahwee et al. ( 2004 ) have also differentiated three aspects of the curriculum that they claim have not received adequate attention from universities—the explicit, the hidden and the null curriculum. As the name suggests, the explicit curriculum is what is made known and available to students and includes course content, assessment guidelines, recommended readings, module outcomes and the like. The hidden curriculum refers to the knowledge students gain about the culture of a university and the corresponding values, while the null curriculum is the excluded knowledge content that is never taught or learnt. As much as these three distinctions help to clarify the working of the curriculum, the question remains as to the rationale of a null curriculum. Why would universities leave out some knowledge that should be taught and learnt? It could be argued that subjects that are not taught are equally significant as the ones that are taught, and this is particularly relevant to issues pertaining to curriculum development in the African context. It could further be argued that the null curriculum sends a strong message to students that what is not taught might not be important. That said, it is not always wrong for some subjects to be left untaught, as it is a truism that universities cannot teach all subjects.

In the case of Africa, Nkosi and Van Niekerk ( 2017 ) assert that black/African knowledge has been underutilised in the curriculum. Hence, curriculum reform is required to challenge the idea of imperialism or homogeneity. Curriculum reform implies that Africans should demand changes to the curricula such that they are able to develop and implement their own ideas, agendas, plans and strategies as free citizens in their own countries (Katundu, 2020 ; Makgoba & Seepe, 2004 ). Freire equally submits that an education that is authentic is that which is relatable and applicable to a people for the improvement of their lives and society. Unfortunately, some countries in Africa still have a long way to go in terms of development, a situation that is traceable to major shortcomings in their education systems. Central to these educational systems is the curriculum. Arguably, the curricula of some HEIs in Africa, such as those in Nigeria, do not reflect the realities of the nations they represent. The following paragraphs draw on empirical examples of curriculum reform or the lack of it in South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania and Mauritius.

South Africa’s current curriculum structure was adopted during the apartheid era between 1948 and 1994, and still has certain major changes to undergo in relation to the significant social and political development the country has undergone (Council on Higher Education [CHE], 2013 , 2018 ). The South African student protests of 2015 tagged ‘fees must fall’ paved the way for a renewed drive to reform or decolonise the curriculum, among other prevalent issues in the educational system of the country such as access to equal and quality education (Msila & Gumbo 2016 ). One could then argue that promoting African knowledge indeed requires urgent changes to the curricular and pedagogic modes of the school system. In South Africa still, there is a major shortfall in graduate outputs in terms of access, equity, overall numbers and the success rates of students (CHE, 2018 ). For example, only one in four students at contact institutions (institutions where students attend physical classes) graduates within the stipulated time of 3 years for a 3-year degree programme; 35% of the total intake and 48% of contact students graduate within 5 years; white South African students complete their higher education degrees at an average rate of 50% higher than black South African students, and access, success and completion rates continue to be racially skewed (CHE, 2013 ). These performance patterns do not correspond to the much-needed development the country requires.

Hence, the CHE set up a task team to carry out a thorough investigation to identify a possible intervention (CHE, 2018 ). Specifically, the team focused on the undergraduate curriculum as a key element of the teaching and learning process. The outcome of this review reveals that modifying the existing curriculum structure is a condition for significant improvement in graduate output and success (CHE, 2018 ). The review report also makes a strong case for systemic change and for a flexible curriculum structure that captures quality, effectiveness and efficiency, as well as openness to diversity across the South African higher education sector. In a report titled ‘A proposal for undergraduate curriculum reform in South Africa: The case for a flexible curriculum structure’, the CHE ( 2013 ) argues that South Africa’s peculiar history calls for a fundamental systemic review of the undergraduate curriculum. According to the CHE ( 2013 ), curriculum reform will mean more time, more flexibility, more rigour and more steadfastness.

Nigeria, which gained its independence from British rule 62 years ago, is another case worth examining. Higher education in Nigeria dates back to the colonial era when the first HEI (Yaba College of Technology) was established in 1947. Today, Nigeria has the largest number of HEIs in Africa, with 279 at the time of writing this paper (Statista, 2022 ). As the most populous African country, with over 200 million people, and as an ethnically diverse nation with 371 ethnic groups, the Nigerian cultural experience is one of the richest in the world. Yet, the content of the curriculum still very much reflects Western ideologies, which are not relatable for most Nigerian students. For example, Nigerian students are taught winter as one of the seasons, even though there is no winter season in Nigeria.

Further, the Nigerian curriculum has been severely criticised for being loaded with too many theoretical and abstract concepts, rather than practical and hands-on trainings. An example is students who study mechanical engineering at university; they mostly learn the theoretical aspects of the course and rarely visit a mechanic’s workshop during their study to gain hands-on practical experience. The implication of this is that the majority of university graduates do not acquire the practical skills required in the workplace after graduation.

In Tanzania (similar to other African countries), Katundu ( 2020 ) explains that in research, for example, students are taught to rigidly follow guidelines on writing proposals, research reports, dissertations and theses. There is rarely flexibility and innovation in the way research is done and reported, which may be attributed to the colonial bureaucratic models that influence how research is done in most African universities (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2017 ). This homogeneity of academic and research practices can also be attributed to the globalisation processes that are also prevalent in other contexts, even in the global North. Globalisation is not bad in itself, as it offers substantial advantages for the world at large; however, it should not dislodge local imperatives in African research.

In spite of the shortcomings discussed, hope is not lost for curriculum reform in Africa. A few African universities are taking steps to decolonise the curriculum by breaking away from the status quo of Western ontologies and epistemologies. One such university is the African Leadership University (ALU) in Mauritius (Chilisa, 2012 ). At the ALU, as Katundu ( 2020 ) explains, the university is committed to certain key principles in an attempt to Africanise its curricula. First, the university persuades students to make use of other languages apart from English to make them realise that knowledge is produced, consumed, and tested in other tongues as well. Two, the university is transforming its storage system to include non-textual sources of African music, history, food, architecture, culture, beliefs, artefacts and the like. Three, the ALU asserts that students imbibe an African ethos by thinking and acting in line with the highest African ethical standards, while also expecting the same from others. It would be beneficial for universities across Africa take a cue from this example to promote unified decolonised curricula for the good of Africa and its people.

It is important to critically interrogate and disrupt the current structure of educational delivery by transforming education about, and on, Africa to education for Africa and by Africa (see Gaotlhobogwe et al., 2018 ). This aligns in particular with Freire ( 2013 ) and Kincheloe ( 2007 ), who argue that the promotion of indigenous knowledge in education is important if people are to experience liberation and empowerment. A reformed curriculum is one that embodies knowledge that is embedded in African histories, experiences and realities (Le Grange, 2016 ). This notion notwithstanding, I concur with Le Grange ( 2016 ) that curriculum reform in African HEIs does not suggest outrightly destroying Western knowledge; rather it suggests decentring it. Also, we must bear in mind that interaction between Africa and the rest of the world has resulted in an influence on African culture as well as borrowed Western concepts that have become a part and parcel of the African culture. Hence, Msila and Gumbo ( 2016 ) posit that we cannot talk of a pure African culture that is not influenced by or that has not benefited from Western culture.

Africanisation/indigenisation of the curriculum

In this section, I examine Africanisation and indigenisation to further understand the pathway to curriculum reform in Africa. Both concepts are related, as they speak to a similar course of promoting local African knowledge, practices and peculiarities. In other words, Africanisation and indigenisation acknowledge the vital role of African indigenous knowledge in education delivery. In simple terms, Africanisation can be regarded as a way of making something ‘African’ in relation to history, identity, culture, practice and philosophy. Broadly defined in terms of education, Africanisation, Chikoko ( 2016 ) maintains, is a process of and an approach to achieving African-centredness within the structure of educational delivery, including teaching, learning and educational administration. Indigenisation, on the other hand, is, I argue, a process and an approach for upholding our roots and not neglecting our sources in relation to the curricula, pedagogy and educational instruction. In addition, indigenisation points to the African identity, its survival history as well as its hopes for the future. The terms ‘Africanisation’ and ‘indigenisation’ have been associated with curriculum reform (Msila & Gumbo 2016 ), suggesting that the African higher education curriculum should embrace an African ethos and African indigenous knowledge systems. Nkoane ( 2014 , p. 3) argues that ‘Africanisation is a platform that holds African experiences as sources for the construction of forms of knowledge’.

In his speech at the Higher Education Summit held in October 2015 (South African Government, ), the South African Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, called for the Africanisation of universities. He further stated that all universities should do away with the problematic features of their colonial past and examine the issue of decolonising the curriculum. Similarly, Ntuli ( 2014 ) calls for re-Africanisation instead of Africanisation to allow language and culture to become the core of what universities do. Interdisciplinary approaches linked to African languages, values and cultures are at the heart of Africanisation (Kaschula, 2016 ). With regard to language, Kaschula ( 2016 ) and Le Grange ( 2016 ) argue that since the intellectual domination of Africa is linked to English supremacy, it is then reasonable to expand the intellectual repertoire by using local knowledge as a reference point, thereby making room for a deeper level of transformation. They opine that language forms the basis of indigenous knowledge, knowledge formation and the African identity and culture. The challenge I foresee, however, with using local languages as a reference point is the multilingual nature of most African countries. For example, Nigeria has three main languages spoken by the three major tribes (and a host of other languages from the minority tribes) while South Africa has nine official languages. The question would then be whether consensus would be obtained for a preferred language above others, without leading to a battle for linguistic superiority. On this note, Pityana ( 2014 ) submits that research done in Africa should be written and published in Africa, while also emphasising the need to create a multi-ethnic curriculum. Perhaps, a multi-ethnic curriculum would work within the multi-ethnic contexts of many African countries, although with its own challenges. Learning becomes applicable when it embodies a sense of identity, ownership and belonging through education. To promote indigenisation is to empower learners to know their culture, ancestry, heritage, communities and identities, and to be able to relate the self to the teaching and learning process, just as Paulo Freire theorised.

That said, indigenising the curriculum is non-negotiable because colonial education has isolated learners from their past, their histories, their cultures, their spiritual and moral values, their heritage, and their indigenous knowledge system (Ngohengo, 2021 ). It is important to note that Africanising or indigenising the curriculum does not suggest outrightly de-Westernising the curriculum, rather it means asserting Africa at the centre of knowledge, validation, and dissemination. I consider it unrealistic to completely exclude Western knowledge from the African curriculum for two reasons. One, we live in a globalised and a highly interdependent world; and two, the history of colonisation cannot be entirely eradicated in Africa. In terms of the latter, the official language of the coloniser remains the official language of most colonised African countries to date, although not all. In Nigeria, for example, the official language is English, having been colonised by Britain. The English language is therefore the language of instruction in Nigerian schools while the official language in Benin Republic remains French, having been colonised by France.

Africanisation and indigenisation have their own inherent values and so they are not necessarily viewed through the lens of colonisation; however, it is almost impossible to talk about Africanisation and indigenisation without touching on the concept of decolonisation, especially in the context of teaching and learning (Le Grange, 2018 ). Decolonisation, according to Woldegiorgis et al. ( 2020 ), is a radical process geared to redefining and redesigning higher education standards and systems, as well as the appropriation of teaching and learning in local contexts and local realities. As Msila and Gumbo ( 2016 ) argue, colonisation in African countries and apartheid in South Africa reveal how autocratic regimes utilised education to supress African values, identity and experiences. This is the notion of oppression that Freire refers to in his theory of critical pedagogy and was evident in the Bantu Education Act that established an inferior educational system for black South Africans, as opposed to the quality education that their white counterparts enjoyed. Although this narrative has now changed as the country has undergone substantial transformation that promotes equitable education for all citizens, it has led to an extensive debate on decolonisation in the African context.

African elders and leaders are regarded as the holders and custodians of the indigenous knowledge that is needed to preserve the legacy of ‘Africanness’. Further, African elders constitute a key source of knowledge generation for transforming the curriculum in schools, as well as towards community engagement (Dei, 2020 ). Dei ( 2020 ) strongly opines that there is a lot to gain in terms of indigenous science, arts and environmental technology if elders’ indigenous knowledge is incorporated in course content. He further suggests that African elders could be invited into educational institutions to teach subjects like African history, culture, morals and character education, thereby also establishing a relationship with local communities, schools, educators and learners (Dei, 2020 ). This can otherwise be regarded as community engagement or what Webb ( 2006 , p. 13) terms ‘meaningful engagement’. Unfortunately, schools and HEIs have not tapped into such rich indigenous knowledge and the experiences of elders to help young learners. Rather, teachers, especially the young ones, rely greatly on African histories and stories read in books, which cannot in any way match up to first-hand knowledge and experience.

romoting Africanisation might raise a question about educational excellence. It should be noted that promoting Africanisation or indigenisation should not in any way compromise excellence. Rather, Africanisation and indigenisation question the conventional and dominant notion of excellence that favours the historic interests of the Western world while second-guessing the excellence of anything related to Africa. Afful-Broni et al., ( 2020 , p. 12) fittingly captures the point about Africanisation/indigenisation and academic excellence thus: ‘promoting Africanisation is not a “watering down” of school curriculum or even academic standards. Africanisation is about contextualising knowledge to ensure that learners are able to identify with the processes of educational delivery. It is about ensuring that African learners can own and develop a sense of identification with their knowledge while sharing it globally’. As Paulo Freire advocated in his theory of critical pedagogy, an education that is oppressive and alien, and that does not represent the social context and experiences of a people, should be questioned. The next section examines ways in which we can rethink the curriculum in relation to Africa’s problem and needs.

Rethinking the curriculum: solving society’s problems and meeting its needs

Rethinking the curriculum calls for a reconsideration of the relationship between education and society. To rethink the curriculum is to confront African intellectual discomfort and ask such questions as how Africans can apply their voices, languages, culture and history to critical and practical discourses that affect them, rather than seek the acceptance and validation of ‘foreign’ knowledge. To do this, certain schooling, teaching and learning practices should be critiqued to avoid reproducing colonial pedagogies that are not necessarily relevant to Africans.

One important systemic element that needs to be captured by the African higher education curriculum is the transition from school to higher education. The curriculum for undergraduate Engineering degree programmes in South African universities offers a good example of the transition in knowledge from basic engineering to engineering sciences, to complex problems, designs and research. Students are also adequately and differentially prepared based on their educational, linguistic and socioeconomic background (CHE, 2013 ). Accordingly, the prior learning capabilities of a large student population should not be assumed; hence, provision should be made in the curriculum for appropriate stages of development that cater for various students.

It is important for students to be exposed to enriched learning that is socially and professionally relevant in a contemporary world, and that positions them as active participants in the global space (CHE, 2013 ). In the same vein, Woldegiorgis et al. ( 2020 ) argue for the relevance of a discipline for a purpose. They submit that there is a need to review the curriculum to ensure its disciplinary contents are tailored to societal relevance, the public good, value for money as well as solving human problems. The following paragraphs suggest some reforms that could be considered in the African higher education curriculum.

Digital teaching and learning are fast becoming the norm, especially since the outbreak of Covid-19 globally. HEIs in Africa should move with the technological trend that is sweeping across the world in order to stay relevant. Without doubt, online learning was around before the pandemic, but Covid-19 made it increasingly popular. The implication of this is that HEIs should ensure the flexibility of their curricula by redesigning or at least amending them to incorporate this trend.

A practical curriculum as opposed to a curriculum that is overladen with theories is also essential in meeting the developmental goals of an African society. The issue of graduate unemployability is one of the concerns of employers in Africa (Trust Africa, 2015 ). Employers are often faced with retraining these graduates in skills that they expect them to already possess. In view of this, Trust Africa ( 2015 ) emphasises the need to ensure that there is synchronisation between the curricula developed by African HEIs and the workplace.

Scientific inventions and innovations are not alien to Africa. From ancient times, Africans have been engaging in indigenous skills and crafts for their own survival. Msila and Gumbo ( 2016 ) rightly mention that Africans have been using technology in their day-to-day activities since time immemorial. They have fished, made weapons, woven baskets, made and designed jewellery, made sandals, formulated indigenous medicine, produced carpentry and printed fabrics among a host of other things for their own survival. It would therefore not be out of place if these skills and crafts were embedded in African educational curricula in order for the younger generation to have hands-on training in these crafts. Unfortunately, foreign items are preferred over beautifully handmade African crafts, even by Africans themselves.

African HEIs will do well to position issues affecting Africa and Africans at the top of the agenda in relation to the curriculum. Such issues include poverty, terrorism, quality education, the brain drain and healthcare. Rather than populating subjects and courses with discourses that have little or no benefit for Africans, priority should be given to the issues that are core to Africa. For instance, every African child should be empowered through education from a young age to learn entrepreneurship and skills that would make them financially independent because poverty seems to be at the centre of most of the problems confronting the continent.

The afore-mentioned curriculum changes are major and cannot be done by mere marginal amendment. An effective curriculum reform calls for a coherent redesign that is tailored to realistic expectations.

The curriculum: local imperative or global relevance?

In my opinion, the local and the global terrain are two phenomena that are always contesting for preference. In the context of the curriculum, it is important that students are trained to be versatile and well-grounded so as to compete both locally and globally. Nevertheless, in any nation of the world, lasting change will only take place if more attention is paid to local issues and less to external global demands, irrespective of how pressing the latter appears to be. According to Pinar ( 2011 ), there is a need to refocus the curriculum on significant individual experiences in such a way that the curriculum content is aligned to the society it serves. From Pinar’s submission it can be deduced that individual and societal experiences should be prioritised over global ones. Africa needs education that is tailored to addressing the rising levels of poverty, unemployment, social inequalities, the brain drain, terrorism, gender-based violence and other forms of violence that are rampaging through the continent. Again, this aligns with Freire’s submission that education should be relatable and applicable to a people for the advancement of their lives and society.

Furthermore, many African HEIs are more concerned about international yardsticks for measuring institutional successes, such as the global institutional rankings, the internationalisation of higher education, and teaching and learning collaborations, rather than thinking through and focusing on African initiatives and African-centred education that will benefit local priorities. Understandably, globalisation is a strong force that influences all aspects of human life, including education, and makes African HEIs aspire to be on par with their international counterparts; however, we should consider making conscious efforts not to neglect local imperatives. One of the goals of education is to strengthen local knowledge and cultural resources while also developing human capacity to be able to respond to societal problems and needs. Education is more than material gain, it affirms a learner’s sense of self, purpose, identity, culture and meaning. This understanding of education, which should be entrenched in the curriculum, could be attained through teaching, and learning and the administration of education that begins with the individual and flows down to the community, the nation and the continent at large. Education that fails to prioritise the self and the local is de-rooted, decontextualised and not anchored on the foundations of human existence (Kamwendo, 2016 ). Knowledge should begin with what we know and what is relevant, before linking it to a broader context. This is in line with Katundu’s ( 2020 ) argument that local contextualisation allows Africans and African learners to own their knowledge before attempting to make connections with global knowledge. That notwithstanding, I submit that learners should be equipped with fully developed knowledge and skills that enable them to be locally relevant and globally competitive.

This paper has argued that reforming the curriculum implies rethinking it to ensure its relevance for the public good of African society and the people. Education presents numerous opportunities for a nation and its people; if well harnessed, education can enable people to lead prosperous lives and also have fulfilling visions and ambitions. Therefore, it is important that the content of the education curriculum that African learners are exposed to is relatable to them and the society they live in. Africa needs a kind of education that provokes deep thought in the African learner about the needs and problems confronting Africa, and ways of advancing the continent. As mentioned earlier, all forms of knowledge are dynamic and important in their own way; nevertheless, we should establish what speaks to our particularities as Africans and follow that path. If we are to see the development we desire in Africa, African HEI curricula should be centred on teaching African realities and knowledge systems. African higher education stakeholders should continue to engage in further thinking on some of the issues upon which the survival of African people and African communities rest, which in turn should inform curriculum reform.

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Reforms Spur Faster Housing Approvals in California

A state law removed hurdles, creating a more predictable process for homebuilding.

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Procedural hurdles can slow housing development and add costs because builders must pay for more staff, attorney, and consultant time, as well as interest on borrowed money, while they wait for local governments to approve proposals. These additional costs ultimately are passed on to buyers and renters, contributing to higher housing prices in markets with restrictive zoning and lengthy permitting processes, compared with places that have more flexible regulations. 1

One study from California found that more than 80% of proposed multifamily housing developments required “entitlement,” the process for securing all necessary government approvals for a construction proposal. 2  The research also showed that the entitlement process for similar housing developments can vary widely across jurisdictions. For example, a multifamily development in Oakland takes a median of six months, compared with more than 25 months in San Francisco. To address these disparities in entitlement timelines, spur housing production in more communities, and make affordable housing development a faster, less costly, and more predictable process, California lawmakers in 2017 passed S.B. 35. 3

A 2023 study published by New York University’s Furman Center and sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts, suggests that S.B. 35 is helping to speed up affordable housing approvals. 4  The findings indicate that well-designed efforts to speed up permitting processes can be effective, offering lessons for policymakers throughout the country who are interested in addressing the slow pace and high costs of housing development. And although the 2023 study focused only on the California law, other states are also increasingly passing legislation to remove barriers to housing development, such as eliminating unnecessary environmental studies; allowing builders to have their permit applications reviewed and approved by third parties when jurisdictions fail to complete reviews promptly; limiting the reasons for denial of permit requests; and requiring clear, predictable processes for reviewing permit applications.

Research also shows that Americans overwhelmingly support such policies. In a nationally representative 2023 Pew survey of more than 5,000 American adults about various law changes designed to improve the availability and affordability of housing, 86% of respondents favored requiring “local governments to use a quick and clear process for making decisions about building permits.” 5  In California, which because of S.B. 35 arguably has the most experience with such a law, 87% were in favor. 6

S.B. 35 requires faster permitting in targeted areas

California enacted its Housing Element Law, also referred to as the state’s “fair-share” housing law, in 1969 to ensure that each locality plans and zones for a sufficient amount of housing for people at all income levels, as determined through the state’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA). 7  Under RHNA, cities and counties are required to update the housing elements of their general plans every five or eight years. And the Housing Element Law gives the California Department of Housing and Community Development enforcement authority to bring communities into compliance with their obligations under the Housing Element Law.

Despite this legal framework, California communities have routinely failed to produce sufficient housing. 8  One contributing factor is that some cities have imposed significant procedural obstacles that block or slow the construction of new housing even in places where zoning rules provide plenty of land for high-density housing. 9  Common barriers include locally imposed conditions for approval of proposed developments, such as discretionary architecture, site development, and historic preservation reviews, as well as lawsuits brought to obstruct construction of new housing. 10  Researchers have even demonstrated that litigators successfully invoked California’s Environmental Quality Act to impede housing projects in vacant or underutilized areas near transit that expressly aligned with the state’s environmental and climate policy goals.

S.B. 35 aims to promote affordable housing development, prevent displacement, and protect environmentally sensitive areas. It streamlines local discretionary and state-mandated environmental review processes in cities and counties that have not met their production targets under the Housing Element Law for housing projects that: 11

• Are urban, multifamily developments that meet specific affordability thresholds.
• Do not involve the demolition of affordable or tenant-occupied housing.
• Do not require subdivision (unless certain criteria are met).
• Are not proposed for environmentally sensitive or significant areas.
• Pay union-level wages for contractors and subcontractors.

S.B. 35 is speeding up housing approvals in some cities

The researchers examined S.B. 35’s impact on five jurisdictions: Berkeley, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Oakland, and San Francisco. The Furman Center analysis also reviewed how officials in these localities explain the law to developers and how existing local laws affected S.B. 35’s implementation in each community.

In total, the researchers identified 49 proposed developments that could benefit from S.B. 35 and compared them with similar developments entitled from 2014 to 2017 in those same jurisdictions that probably would have met key S.B. 35 requirements had the law been in place at the time. The findings showed that housing developments moved more quickly under S.B. 35 than they had previously in three of the jurisdictions—Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Berkeley.

For example, in Los Angeles, the median approval time for 18 S.B. 35-qualified developments, including 16 that were 100% affordable housing, was 2.7 months, compared with approximately seven months for 11 earlier developments that probably would have qualified for the law had it existed. San Francisco approved 10 developments—nine that were 100% affordable and one group housing property with approximately half of the units below market rate—after S.B. 35 implementation. For nine of these developments, the median time to approval was about four months; no data was available for the 10th property. From 2014 to 2017, the city approved only one similar project, and that approval took more than a year. The results for Los Angeles County and Oakland were unclear because of limited information for certain proposals.

Recent evidence indicates that procedural rules continue to pose challenges. An audit published in 2023 by California’s Department of Housing and Community Development found that, even with the advent of S.B. 35, San Francisco still takes more than three years on average to approve new housing, the longest timeline of any jurisdiction in California.

Other states are crafting bipartisan policies to allow more homebuilding

Although the Furman Center study focused on California’s S.B. 35, other states, including Montana, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Washington, have passed laws in recent years to speed up the development process and address the shortage and high costs of housing. (See Table 1.)

In 2023, Montana policymakers enacted four laws to streamline and accelerate the development review process. S.B. 407 prohibits municipalities from requiring review by external boards as part of local design review, except for structures and places designated as historic. S.B. 131 requires municipalities to review land division applications within 20 working days of receipt, and S.B. 240 and S.B. 170 establish new exemptions for certain subdivisions.

Policymakers in Texas took a different approach, enacting a law in 2023 that allows permit applicants to use certain third-party reviewers and inspectors if local governments do not respond to applications promptly. Tennessee went a step further in 2024 by allowing builders to choose whether to have the locality or an accredited third-party professional conduct certain reviews and inspections. These examples show the range of strategies that state policymakers are using to help create more homes and address housing shortages and high costs.

Over the Past 7 Years, at Least 10 States Have Passed Laws to Simplify Permitting

Summary of relevant streamlining legislation, by state, 2017-24

Source: State legislatures' websites

Lessons learned

The early evidence from California’s experience implementing S.B. 35 highlights several lessons:

• The reduction of procedural hurdles appears to be speeding up approvals for qualifying developments in several jurisdictions, but the effects are limited to areas that are already zoned for multifamily, affordable housing development. In 2023, California lawmakers passed S.B. 423 to extend the provisions of S.B. 35 for 10 years, through Jan. 1, 2036, and to more types of housing. Researchers should continue to track the impact of S.B. 35 and S.B. 423 on the speed and cost of development over time, and any subsequent effects on buyers and renters.
• S.B. 35 offers a clear review and approval process for affordable housing in jurisdictions where complex local rules and frequent opposition have impeded new development. This predictability can help to boost housing supply by removing obstacles for builders who are committed to creating homes for lower-income households.
• Procedural reforms can be crafted to guard and promote other statewide priorities. For example, policymakers can carefully select the criteria by which proposed developments can be eligible for a streamlined process to ensure that concerns such as environmental protection and fair wages are not sacrificed when new housing is built.
• State laws are unlikely to fully standardize the housing approval process across jurisdictions because other local rules already in place affect how each locality implements the law. The researchers found that each of the five jurisdictions studied implemented S.B. 35 differently, resulting in divergent experiences for builders in terms of the ease and efficiency of the process.
• Faster approval times increase the supply of housing and reduce the cost of development, both of which help boost affordability. For example, Minneapolis enacted a range of zoning reforms from 2009 through 2021 and restricts application reviews to 60 days to help expedite permitting. As a result, the city has added so much new housing that rents have risen less than 1% per year dating back to 2017, even as residents’ incomes have risen far faster. The combination of higher incomes and very low rent growth has markedly improved housing affordability in the city. Normally, flat rents might discourage new construction because they lower landlords’ future revenue expectations, but because permitting has become easier and faster, builders have continued adding housing. 12

New research shows promising evidence that California’s S.B. 35 is having the intended effect of speeding up the pace of affordable housing approvals. Since the law’s passage, several other states have implemented laws to reduce procedural hurdles to development through a range of approaches and in a diversity of geographic and political contexts. Together, the findings from California and the demonstrated momentum to enact similar approaches in other states show that streamlining housing development is an issue with bipartisan appeal that has the potential to ensure a greater supply of housing at lower costs.

Acknowledgments

This brief was written by Pew staff members Ruth Lindberg and Alex Horowitz and was based on original research by Moira O’Neill, associate research scientist and affiliated scholar, the University of California, Berkeley, and associate professor of urban and environmental planning and associate professor of law, the University of Virginia, and Ivy Wang, graduate student researcher, Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California, Berkeley. The project thanks Esther Berg, Jennifer V. Doctors, Carol Hutchinson, and Chelsie Pennello for providing important communications, creative, editorial, and research support for this work.

• Edward Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko, “The Economic Implications of Housing Supply,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 32, no. 1 (2018): 3-30, https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.32.1.3.
• Moira O’Neill et al., “Examining Entitlement in California to Inform Policy and Process: Advancing Social Equity in Housing Development Patterns,” California Air Resources Board and California Environmental Protection Agency, 2022, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3956250. Moira O’Neill and Ivy Wang, “How Can Procedural Reform Support Fair Share Housing Production? Assessing the Effects of California's Senate Bill 35,” New York University Furman Center, https://furmancenter.org/files/How_Can_Procedural_Reform_Support_Fair_Share_Housing_Production_508.pdf.
• Office of Senator Scott Wiener, “Senate Bill 35—Housing for a Growing California: Housing Accountability & Affordability Act,” https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/sites/sd11.senate.ca.gov/files/SB%2035%20Fact%20Sheet_1.pdf.
• Moira O’Neill and Ivy Wang, “How Can Procedural Reform Support Fair Share Housing Production?”
• “Survey Finds Large Majorities Favor Policies to Enable More Housing,” Alex Horowitz and Tushar Kansal, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Nov. 30, 2023, https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2023/11/30/survey-finds-large-majorities-favor-policies-to-enable-more-housing.
• “Support for Policies That Promote More Housing Crosses Geographic Lines,” Alex Horowitz and Tushar Kansal, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Jan. 31, 2024, https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2024/01/31/support-for-policies-that-promote-more-housing-crosses-geographic-lines.
• Paul G. Lewis, “California’s Housing Element Law: The Issue of Local Noncompliance,” Public Policy Institute of California, 2003, https://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/content/pubs/report/R_203PLR.pdf.
• Paul G. Lewis, “Can State Review of Local Planning Increase Housing Production?,” Housing Policy Debate 16, no. 2 (2010): 173-200, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10511482.2005.9521539. Moira O’Neill and Ivy Wang, “How Can Procedural Reform Support Fair Share Housing Production?”
• Paavo Monkkonen, Michael Manville, and Spike Friedman, “A Flawed Law: Reforming California’s Housing Element,” UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, 2019, https://www.lewis.ucla.edu/research/flawed-law-reforming-california-housing-element/ . Moira O’Neill, Giulia Gualco-Nelson, and Eric Biber, “Examining the Local Land Use Entitlement Process in California to Inform Policy and Process: Working Paper #2,” Berkeley Law Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment; Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development; and Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Columbia University, 2019, https://www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Examining-the-Local-Land-Use-Entitlement-Process-in-California.pdf.
• Jennifer Hernandez, “California Environmental Quality Act Lawsuits and California’s Housing Crisis,” Hastings Environmental Law Journal 24, no. 1 (2018): https://repository.uclawsf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=hastings_environmental_law_journal.
• California Government Code, Section 65913.4(a), https://casetext.com/statute/california-codes/california-government-code/title-7-planning-and-land-use/division-1-planning-and-zoning/chapter-42-housing-development-approvals/section-659134-effective-until-112036-streamlined-approval-process. Office of Senator Scott Wiener, “Senate Bill 35—Housing for a Growing California.”
• “Minneapolis Land Use Reforms Offer a Blueprint for Housing Affordability,” Alex Horowitz, Linlin Liang, and Adam Staveski, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Jan. 4 , 2024, https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2024/01/04/minneapolis-land-use-reforms-offer-a-blueprint-for-housing-affordability.

Land Contracts Pose 5 Major Risks for Homebuyers

As of 2022, about 1.4 million Americans were using a form of alternative financing known as land contracts for their home purchases. In a land contract—also called a contract for deed or a land installment contract—the home seller extends financing directly to the buyer without the involvement of a third-party lender.

A Swing Constituency Could Help Allow More Homes

A housing shortage estimated at 4 million to 7 million homes is driving up rents, prices, and homelessness nationwide, spurring cities, towns, and increasingly states to consider passing laws to allow more housing. Many of these efforts are gaining broad acceptance, but others face more resistance. Why? A survey conducted for The Pew Charitable Trusts provides some insights.

Don’t miss our latest facts, findings, and survey results in The Rundown

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