Este trabalho trata da adequação do espaço para a escola infantil como um dos requisitos básicos para a inclusão da criança com necessidade especial. A pesquisa foi direcionada para as necessidades especiais físicas e visuais pois são as que demandam maiores adequações no espaço físico. O objetivo é o de lançar diretrizes de projeto arquitetônico para escolas de educação infantil, tornando esses espaços adequados às crianças com necessidades físicas e visuais. Desta forma, as crianças terão mais autonomia para vivenciar o espaço escolar e terão melhores condições de aprendizagem. O ambiente escolar deve oferecer espaços seguros, acessíveis e compatíveis com a metodologia pedagógica. Foi realizada uma pesquisa junto às escolas de educação infantil na cidade de São Carlos que atendiam em 2006, crianças com necessidades especiais, para detectar os problemas espaciais nos ambientes escolares infantis. Para coleta de dados foram utilizados vários procedimentos: entrevistas com diretores, aplicação de questionários aos pais e professores, realização de desenhos temáticos pelos alunos, fotografias e vistorias técnicas. Com base nos resultados da coleta de dados e levantamento bibliográfico, no final são apresentadas diretrizes de projeto arquitetônico. Tais diretrizes têm como objetivo tornar adequados os edifícios escolares destinados à educação infantil, otimizando o desempenho das crianças, principalmente das que apresentam necessidades especiais. / This work deals with adapting pre-school environments as one of the basic requirements to include children with special needs. The research was conducted for special physical and visual needs as they require more adaptations in a physical environment. The aim is to set guidelines of the architectural project for pre-schools making these environments suitable for children with physical and visual needs. Taking this into account, children will be more autonomous to experience the school environment, as well as have better learning conditions. The school environment should offer safe and accessible spaces which are compatible with the educational methodology. Research was carried out in pre-schools in the city of São Carlos attending children with special needs in 2006 to detect spatial problems in pre-school environments. In order to collect the data, various procedures were used: interviews with directors, asking parents and teachers to fill in questionnaires, asking the pupils to draw pictures of various themes, photographs and technical inspections. Based on the results from the data collection and literature review, at the end of the work guidelines of the architectural project are presented. The aim of these guidelines is to adapt pre-school buildings optimizing the performance of the children, mainly of those who have special needs.

This research investigates the benefits of adventure-based activities used as a learning experience at school level. In order to scientifically investigate these benefits the study is located at a school where an adventure-based programme is being developed as part of the school's curriculum. This programme consists of a range of adventure type experiences including, rock climbing, abseiling, canoeing, mountain biking, group dynamic activities, survival camps, ropes courses and adventure racing. At Lilyfontein School these activities form part of the Life Orientation and life Skill programmes from grade 1 to grade 11. Specialized and qualified staff are used to conduct some of these programmes. Adventure-based activities are rigorous and contain elements of risk which require problem solving, good decision making and sound emotional management. These aspects present both physical and mental challenges to any participant. This study postulates that learners engaged in these adventure type activities are faced with using meta-cognitive strategies to help them through these mental and physical challenges. In doing these activities regularly learners will develop meta-cognitive strategies that will enable them to become better self-regulated learners. A self-regulated learner is able to use meta-cognitive strategies like problem solving, decision making, selfevaluation, self-monitoring, self-reflective thinking or emotional control in life generally. The aim of this research is to conduct an on-going action research study of the adventure-based programmes to determine their worth for the learners at Lilyfontein School and consequently the future of such experiences in a school's curriculum. This forms the primary goal of this research. The secondary goal is to gather valid and reliable evidence required to make an argument for the School's Governing Body (SGB) and Curriculum Development Committee (CDC) to be able to substantiate decisions relating to any such future programmes. This research regards the school context as the activity system which forms a primary case study. In order to extract maximum information from this educational system, embedded case studies will be conducted and monitored. These embedded case studies will be made up of the following groups of people: firstly the learners engaged in a variety of adventure-based experiences, secondly the educators as they observe and perceive the consequences of these experiences, and thirdly the parents as they identifY possible influences of adventure-based experiences on the behaviours, beliefs or habits of their children. In this research study data collecting techniques are used to extract infonnation from the embedded cases. Infonnation is elicited from parents and educators through the use of questionnaires and interviews. For learners, narratives and interviews are used to get a more qualitative sense of their beliefs and feelings on adventure-based experiences. However, in order to capture and document the learners' use of metacognitive strategies as they engage in the rigours of an adventure-based activity a more empirical approach is used. This approach uses in-depth observation, recording and measuring of the learners in action. Video footage is used to record the learners' reactions as they battle with fear, mental-strength, fatigue and decision making to accomplish their goal during an adventure activity. This study claims that an adventure-based experience helps to mediate the learning that will develop selfregulatory strategies in a learner. The limited research in the adventure-based learning field and more significantly the lack of empirical evidence of how meta-cognitive strategies fonn a crucial component of adventure-based activities has meant that the researcher has developed his own recording, measuring and analytical tools to serve this end. He has chosen to use Engestrom's third generation Activity Theory model which provides a useful underlying theory as well as an analytical and interpretive framework for this study. The research was conducted over a period of three years. Findings are considered in relation to the National Curriculum Statement for the GET and FET bands to ensure its relevance in the school context to the National Department of Education's expectations for the Life Orientation curriculum. The empirical findings of this study at Lilyfontein School and their relevance to the curriculum content of the National Curriculum Statement ought to provide convincing data for very important curriculum policy decisions at Lilyfontein School and in the broader educational context.

This study explores practical school leadership and management, as enacted by women. The study, conducted in an interpretive paradigm, attempts to gain an understanding of women’s subjective experiences of school leadership and management. Two women principals from Ondangwa West Educational Region were interviewed. The two were selected through consultations with one of the senior inspectors in the region. Both had been principals for more than ten years and were seen by those who are concerned with their school to be successful. The study found that these women prefer a participative style of leadership and management, characterised by consultations with others, teamwork, collaborative decision-making and the use of power to empower others. They also strive for good human relationships because they believe that it fosters mutual respect, trust, openness and a good working atmosphere. All these human centred approaches are directed towards creating a school atmosphere that is conducive to teaching and learning and therefore result in effective schooling and quality educational outcomes. They do not experience gender discrimination in their work places. They have the full support of their supervisors. Though both are married with children, these dual roles do not prevent them from being successful in their professional work. In fact they have reached a stage where they feel confident as leaders and feel that they are acting as role models for fellow women principals and those aspiring to this position. The study concludes that the styles of leadership and management displayed by women are similar to those that are universally accepted as characteristics needed for effective school management and leadership. Though these leadership styles are traditionally associated with women, these characteristics are not gender specific. Therefore it will be in the best interest of schools, if school principals, both men and women, could borrow from these qualities in order to change schools from authoritarian to more democratic institutions.

Educational leadership and management is a very wide field of study with interdependent components that should form a chain reaction in order to bring about effective management. This study attempts to investigate planning in schools which is one of the educational leadership and management components or functions. Very little research work has been done on educational planning in the Ciskei schools. This is a shortcoming since the number of secondary schools has mushroomed in the late twentieth century. The Ciskei educational managers and parents need to know and take note of the possible situations in the various schools. This is opportune time, particularly that recent events, i.e. students' demands and strikes, are drawing parents closer to the education of their children. The researcher's experience of inspecting school administration since 1990 has reinforced his conviction that the managerial teams in the Ciskei secondary schools have little knowledge of management, and of planning in particular. Although the investigation is into secondary school administration, it is also pertinent to primary school planning. Management, i.e. school year-planning, control of work, staff development, appointment of teachers, policy governing students and teachers are discussed at length . Joint planning, i.e. a participative or consultative approach, and advance planning, are investigated in relation to the school year-programme. The existence of statutory bodies in the various schools is assessed in order to test parents' involvement in the education of their children. School tours are discussed in relation to students' involvement in the school activities. The analysis of the results highlights areas that require attention, and the recommendations given address the controversial issues in planning in the various schools.

Since the early 1990’s both South Africa and Namibia have been engaged in educational reform processes to address the discriminatory impacts and orientations of education under Bantu Education which were implemented in both countries prior to independence (Namibia in 1990, and South Africa in 1994). A feature of both educational reform processes is the underpinning theory of learning which draws on social constructivism, and which is articulated as learner centred education. This approach to teaching and learning infuses both policy frameworks. Another common feature is the introduction of environmental education into the formal education systems of both countries, a process which has been championed by development assistance, and which has been supported by programmes such as the Eco-Schools programme which is an international environmental education initiative started after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, and implemented in a number of countries, including South Africa. The programme has also been piloted in some schools in Namibia. To date no research has been done on the way in which the Eco-Schools framework (its practices, organizing principles, evaluation processes etc.) enhance learner centred education. This study therefore aimed to investigate and understand how the Eco-Schools framework can enhance learner centred education. The study was conducted in 2007 in three Eco-Schools in Namibia and four Eco-Schools in South Africa in the context of the broader national programmes of implementing learner centred education policies, and environmental education histories. The study used a case study methodology, using observation, interviews, and document analysis as the main methods for data generation. The analytical process followed two stages: the first involved an inductive analysis using categories which were organized into a series of analytical memos. The second phase of data analysis involved recontextualising the data drawing on theory and contextual insights to provide insights that address the research question, using analytical statements. The main findings of the study are that the Eco-Schools framework provides numerous opportunities to enhance learner centred education, through contextualization of learning, through strengthening school-community interactions, and through enabling active involvement of learners in decision making and a range of contextually meaningful Eco-Schools practices. The study also showed that the Eco-Schools framework allows for empowerment of learners in relation to diverse needs, and also allows for learner initiated contributions, although this aspect was not well developed in the schools that were included in this study. The study also found that the benefits of Eco-Schools in terms of enhancing learner centred education were limited to only a few learners who were involved in club activities or who were being taught by enthusiastic teachers who were participating in the Eco-Schools programme. The study showed that these benefits can be more widely shared if more teachers were to get involved, and if the Eco-Schools programme were better understood in relation to the curriculum requirements of various subjects and learning areas, and if the Eco-Schools practices could be more successfully integrated across the curriculum. The study also showed that various forms of support were required for implementing the Eco-Schools programme, most notably the support of the Principal, and the Department of Education. The study also identified that parents and other stakeholders in the school were supportive of the Eco-Schools programme since it was perceived to have relevance to learning, as well as the community. The results broadly confirmed that the implementation of Eco-Schools using a whole school, values based and active learning approach promotes a school culture which enhances learner centred education more broadly across the school. The study also found that the Eco-Schools programme added a new dimension to existing discourses on learner centred education, which could be described as a community linked or situated approach to learner centred education.

This study on learner absenteeism takes place in the Namibian context with a focus on the Kavango region, located in Northern Namibia, where absenteeism has been identified as a problem. The intention of the study is to find out the relationship between learner absenteeism and environmental factors. The research question was framed as: How do environmental factors influence learner absenteeism in schools, conceptualised as human activity systems in the Kavango Region (Namibia)? The wider intention of this study is to inform processes that can be put in place to reduce the impact of environmental factors on learner absenteeism, with the ultimate view of improving the quality of education. The literature review provides insight into learner absenteeism in developing and developed nations. It outlines the Namibian policies developed for improving learner attendance and retention of learners in schools, with the view of improving access to school. The study is located within the broader goals of education of Namibia. The research adopts a qualitative interpretive approach, and focuses on environmental factors influencing learner absenteeism in six case studies, which are selected schools in the Kavango province. The study uses a variety of tools such as questionnaires, focus group interviews, observations and interviews as well as document analysis. It uses a combination of inductive and abductive modes of inference in the data analysis. It draws on systems thinking to develop a model that theorises the interrelated roles of different stakeholders, namely, learners, teachers, parents, educational officials (including the regional office and the Ministry of Education). It proposes possible strategies for reduction of learner absenteeism that could contribute towards the improvement of the quality of education. It also mentions the benefits of reducing learner absenteeism in the schools involved in the case study. The findings clearly show that poverty is the main environmental factor that influences learner attendance. The impact of poverty does not, however, occur in isolation; it interacts and has influence over other environmental factors such as alcohol abuse, sickness, lack of parental involvement, lack of motivation from stakeholders and household work. The study also found certain educational factors influenced learner absenteeism, such as teacher attitude, pedagogical styles, and lack of security. The study ends with recommendations to reduce learner absenteeism and recommendations for further research.

Since independence, the Namibian education system has experienced a process of transformation from authoritarianism to democratisation. The philosophy underpinning this process is spelt out in the policy, Toward Education for All, with its four major goals being: Access, Equity, Quality and Democracy. Democratisation of education would mean that people would be equally involved in decision‐making processes both at the system and organizational level, so as to contribute collectively to shaping the destiny of education in Namibia. This would mean at the school level of an organization, that teachers are the facilitators of democracy and agents of change in the learning organization environment. To strengthen democracy and empower people’s participation in the decision‐making process, Namibia further adopted a decentralization policy which involved the devolution of power and administrative functions from central government to regional authorities. In the context of this policy framework, schools should take responsibility to introduce and manage change in their organizations. However, evidence suggests that schools have been slow to take up the challenge and that change is largely still initiated by regional officials. This study looks at how organisation development (OD) may play a role in encouraging a mindset where change may be initiated by the organisation itself. OD is a planned change strategy based on normative re‐educative and empirical rational strategies implemented systematically. OD is participant driven, involving a series of activities that move the organization to a preferred future. It focuses on human behaviour and organizational change through staff participation practising a bottom‐up rather than top‐down approach. This study reports on an OD intervention in a rural school east of Rundu, in the Kavango Educational region of Namibia. The study aimed at exploring staff involvement in an OD intervention and probed participants’ perceptions and experiences of the process. The study is an action research case study located within the interpretive and critical paradigms. Observation and semi‐structured interviews were the main data‐collection tools used in the study. In its preliminary investigation the study found that a lack of staff involvement in decisionmaking processes and participation in meetings were the major factors that were perceived to retard the effectiveness of the organization. The study further found that the authoritative style of leadership in the school contributed to the lack of cooperation and participation of staff members. In contrast, the staff responded positively to the OD intervention. Participants embraced OD as a democratic approach to change as it made a meaningful impact on their understanding and conception of organization change. The intervention further empowered participants with new skills and knowledge of initiating change and problem‐solving. Apart from that, the intervention provided a possible short‐term outcome that encouraged participants to adopt and apply OD in the future, without underestimating the difficulties associated with the process.

Peace Corps Volunteer teachers have played a significant role in Namibia’s attempts to restructure education in line with its policy of education for all. While we have learned a great deal in recent years about how Peace Corps Volunteer Teachers have achieved their stated goals and objectives of teaching students and training serving teachers, we still know relatively little about the role they may have played in school management. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Peace Corps volunteers work on the management and leadership of the schools they serve. The study focuses on the work of two volunteers based in a combined school in the Ondangwa West educational region of Namibia. The study adopts a qualitative approach and seeks to establish whether there has been an impact by Peace Corps volunteer’s work on the management and leadership of this school by focusing on (a) activities performed by Peace Corps volunteers; (b) the experiences of both management and staff in working with Peace Corps volunteers; (c) whether the presence of Peace Corps volunteers that served at the school influence the management and leadership of the school; (d) how the duties and activities performed by these volunteers were perceived by the students, teachers and community. The interview questions that were used to collect data from seven respondents were based on the literature from Peace Corps and the Ministry of Basic Education, Culture and Sport as well as education management and leadership literature. The findings indicate that volunteers that served at this school performed management and leadership related activities with the students, teachers and community and that these activities are having an effect on the management and leadership of the school.

Leadership has received much attention in both the business world and education. My thesis explores effective educational leadership through examining the management and leadership challenges that face principals in a multi-grade school. Schools in sparsely populated rural areas in Namibia have had to resort to multi-grade teaching to be able to be economically viable. Hard economic realities force people to move to bigger towns and cities. The constant demand for better schools, effective principals, qualified teachers and an improved service to the communities coupled with the demand for better working conditions and salaries for teachers drained the education budget even further. To keep in line with the four major policies of education namely equity, access, quality and democracy, the operation of smaller, rural multi-grade schools has become a necessity. The alternative – which is to close smaller schools and operate fewer, bigger schools at an affordable and reasonable cost - would deny rural communities access to schooling. This thesis is a case study of the leadership and management challenges of multigrade schooling in a single school. The goal was to understand how education managers and leaders perceived their role in making it possible for teachers and learners to cope with multi-grade teaching. I worked in the interpretive paradigm to be able to interpret the social and cultural context of a rural, multi-grade school in the Karas region. The methods included questionnaires, interviews and observation. One of the leadership models universally considered to be available to principals of multi-grade schools is instructional leadership. My study revealed that the concept was unknown to teaching staff, although there were indications that the model had been encountered. My findings also revealed that the communication between colleges of education and the regional education department staff was very limited. One of the major issues that arose was that principals were so occupied with teaching that important issues about training/evaluation and supervision of teachers, the ‘visibility’ of the principal, setting and implementation of the aims and goals of the school and regular communication with parents and community leaders were neglected. Probably the most significant finding was that head teachers are not trained in the management of a multi-grade school, hence most if not all of the head teachers run multi-grade schools like a single-graded school. The single most important problem was that the importance of multi-grade teaching had never been highlighted, particularly in light of new staffing norms, in spite of the fact that it was a phenomenon that was likely to be a permanent arrangement.

The study was conducted to investigate whether the use of a wider range of teaching methods can improve the quality of environmental learning in five Zambian primary schools. Nine teachers from five schools were involved in the preliminary stage of answering of questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions about the use of dominant teaching methods and new teaching methods; while only four were involved in the observations of four lessons. The study is a contribution to the on‐going debate on the investigation of whether teaching methods used by teachers can be one of the factors that can influence the quality of education. Definitions of quality and educational quality in particular, are not easy to establish and no agreed upon framework for educational quality exists at present. This study reviews the debates on educational quality, and identifies three major paradigms or discourses on educational quality; and considers the human rights, social justice and capabilities approaches and educational quality frameworks as being relevant to environmental learning and education for sustainable development in the Southern African Development Community context. This, together with a review of research on teaching methods in environmental education, provides the theoretical framework for this study. Using action research and an interpretative methodological framework, a series of research activities were undertaken to generate research data because the study was investigating the teachers’ practice with a view to probe change and to analyse the findings. Nine teachers participated in the preliminary stage of answering questionnaires and focus group interviews reflecting on existing teaching methods. In stage two of this study, teachers went through a planning workshop during which they planned lessons using new preferred teaching methods. The third stage was lesson observations of planned lessons. The final stage was the reflection workshop during which the teachers shared their experiences with the use of new teaching methods. The teaching practices of teachers using the new teaching methods were the subject of further analysis. In order to find out how the use of a wide range of teaching methods can improve quality of environmental learning in primary schools nine teachers were observed teaching lessons with new teaching methods. The Nikel and Lowe (2010) fabric of dimensions of educational quality was adapted and used to find out if teachers included dimensions of quality in the teaching process. Additional socio‐cultural and structural quality dimensions, identified through a review of southern African research, were used to find out if teachers included contextualized regional dimensions of educational quality. This was done to investigate whether the process of teaching and learning was relevant to the learners. Teachers involved in the research reflected that when they used a wider range of teaching methods the result was that the learning opportunities for learners were enhanced and that the methods added value to their teaching, improving the quality of their teaching. The use of a wider range of teaching methods showed the presence of several indicators of dimensions of educational quality, as reflected in the quality analysis tool. Teachers indicated that the use of a wider range of teaching methods led them to include the socio‐cultural dimensions such as the use of local languages and structural dimensions such as informal seating arrangements or group work that they would otherwise neglect if they used the traditional narrow range of teaching methods. A wider range of teaching methods provided learners with an enjoyable learning atmosphere during the lesson. The research also identified that this study can be taken further through broader observations, and that the educational quality dimensions tool is useful for different levels of the education system, and that it has potentially productive uses in teacher education, particularly for observations during teaching practice.