South Africa has had a number of curriculum reforms since 1994 which have been based on both political
and education grounds. However, there is a dearth of knowledge about the nature of the envisioned
graduates, especially with respect to social challenges. This can be addressed by exploring the curriculum
ideology which outlines the vision of subjects within an education system by clarifying the aims of the
subject, the content knowledge taught, the instructional process, the roles of teachers and students, as well
as the assessment processes. There are at least four curriculum ideologies, namely, the scholar academic
ideology, efficiency ideology, student-centred ideology and social reconstruction ideology. The aim of the
current study was to investigate the curriculum ideology of the Grade 11 Biology curriculum by analysing
the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement. Results show that Biology adopts a multi-curriculum
ideology approach with greater emphasis on scholar academic and student-centred ideologies. Charac-
teristics of the social reconstruction ideology were the least observed. This implies that Biology is de-
signed to advance the discipline but will probably not lead to social and student empowerment with regard
to current social challenges.

doi: 10.15700/saje.v33n2a700