Teachers' Perceptions on the New Business Studies Curriculum in Samoa

This book describes teachers’ perceptions on the teaching of the reviewed (2000) Business Studies Curriculum in Samoa. McGee (1997) states that curriculum as a field is concerned with making decisions about what is the most worthwhile knowledge for students to learn why they should learn it and how they should learn it. The aim of this study was to find out teachers’ views on teaching the reviewed Business Studies Curriculum in secondary schools which was drafted and documented by the Samoan Ministry of Education Sports and Culture (MESC). Commercial Studies when it was first introduced in 1986 was a syllabus in Years 9 10 and 11 (an outline of topics such as banking shipping transportation insurance exports and imports employment manufactures with one or two accounting topics). This clearly indicated an imbalance of topics between economics and accounting in all levels especially in Year 11 where it was all pure accounting. Students’ books were the only curriculum materials prepared and available for teachers to teach this old syllabus.