Curriculum transformation is a global phenomenon that is responsive to various imperatives including institutional, national, global, political and disciplinary demands.  In response to the most recent COVID-19 pandemic and the realisation of what was learnt through the national school curriculum that could not prepare learners, schools and parents for uncertain times, a review of curriculum reforms is, therefore, warranted.  Drawing from a review of curriculum reforms within South Africa, this paper argues for a more responsive curriculum that resonates with the current and future needs of society complexified by 21^st century innovations, uncertainties and disruptions.  Natural disasters, extreme climate conditions, political instabilities and the digital explosion are emerging as a new order globally.  As such, education, in its broadest conceptualization must respond to the new order.

The current conceptualisation of the school curriculum within South Africa has not fundamentally changed across its four iterations of curriculum transformation since the introduction of outcomes based education.  Taking a curriculum studies perspective to the curriculum reforms within South Africa where the curriculum is the object of inquiry, this paper also presents a critique, illuminating the sustained influence of the Tylor rationale and disciplinary boundedness that continues to shape curriculum reforms and argues that this continued path to curriculum reforms will continue to increase the gap between the social realities and future aspirations of society and curriculum reform policies. 

The paper is guided by the following research question:  What might a responsive school curriculum be to prepare the learners for an uncertain world context and 21st century skills?  Drawing on Michael Apple's (2018) notion of academising the political or polictising the academic, as a theoretical constructs in this paper, curriculum reforms within South Africa since democracy will be critiqued to illuminate the continuances and gaps for a responsive curriculum that will prepare the learners to respond to the immediate socio-economic needs of their lives and to respond to the technological advances that come to shape the way they become, interact in their spaces and beyond and prepare for the uncertain and disruptive future.  The paper is also informed by theoretical constructs such as new materialism, entanglement, intra-action (Barad) and affordance (Deleuze) to understand how objects, matter and humans interact to explore new meanings and possibilities along the their (learners') learning journey that will prepare them for the uncertain future.

The paper is informed by a desktop review of curriculum reform policies within South Africa, supported by interviews with 9 primary school teachers and a questionnaire to subject advisors (n=26) on the monitoring of the recovery curriculum implemented in response to COVID-19. Three Provinces within South Africa were the sites of the research.

The review of curriculum reforms since democracy was largely symbolic and informed by dominance of Ralph Tylor and traditional disciplines of study despite substantial advancements in curriculum theory, transdisciplinary knowledge systems and technological advancements with substantial affordances. The findings from the interviews with school teachers reveal the packed nature of the school curriculum and, more importantly, the disjuncture between who they are and what they learn. The findings from the survey reveal that curriculum implementation is an ecology formed within the site of delivery and is beyond that of a teachers responsibility.

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