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Abstract not available. / Thesis (M.Ed. ; Education) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1995

This collection of articles and the book are a product of one piece of research on the careers of women in teaching. The research began with a statistical analysis of the career characteristics of women and men in teaching in one educational authority using data collated from Teachers' Service Cards. Then the research focused on women in primary teaching. Career history interviews were conducted with twenty-five married women who were headteachers of primary or infant schools from two educational areas of an English midlands county. The data for the research consisted of the Teachers' Service Cards, the interview material, together with DES official statistics on Teachers in Service. The articles appear in the order they were published. The first article contains an examination of material from the Teachers' Service Cards. Articles two, three and four are analyses of aspects of the women head teachers subjective careers based on the interview data. The fifth article examines aspects of the local labour market for primary teachers using the interview data. The sixth article argues that the use of career history material can make a significant contribution to sociological understanding about careers. The seventh article uses official statistics to explore the effects of the wider contexts of expansion and contraction on primary teachers careers. The book represents an attempt to bring together the themes and issues in the articles and to develop them further.

Writing is the act of putting thoughts into visible print, a means of articulating and refining one's thinking and a means of communicating such thinking to others. In the past twenty years, a growing number of research studies have been concerned with elucidating the mental faculties, routines and sequences involved as people compose messages in writing representing thoughts in forms which they hope will be mutually understood by intended targets of the communication. Such research has been useful in illuminating ways in which writers can express themselves, and be taught to express themselves, in ways suitable to the task in hand. The bulk of such research has been concerned with English, and it seems to be presumed that the outcomes of such studies carry relevance for languages other than English. Equally, it seems to be presumed that the findings pertain to composers using English when it is a second language of state or a foreign language. This thesis explores in a modest way the validity of these presumptions using as subjects primary school age children from Hong Kong. The study is hence concerned with English, the world's premier international language, and Chinese, the world's most commonly used language. The thesis presents research into the composing processes in English and in Chinese employed by 18 primary school pupils in Hong Kong. It offers an in-depth study of the key subprocesses of generating, transforming, pausing and revising. The research was exploratory in nature and sought to gather evidence which might throw light on what happens when primary school pupils in Hong Kong compose in Chinese and in English. The strategy employed was a multiple case study approach. Subjects were asked to write two scripts, one in Chinese and one in English. Although the mother tongue of all the subjects is Cantonese, a dialect of Chinese, in school they are required to write either in Modem Standard Written Chinese or in English, the second language of Hong Kong. The subjects were given set tasks, either to write in a narrative or an expository style. The methods used to gather evidence and data were composing aloud and transcribing their utterances, video and audio-recorded observation, text analysis, on-task observational notes, cued-recall interviews and retrospective reports. The subjects' reflections were cued by being shown the video recordings.

The central focus of this study concerns the impact in Korea of an in-service teacher training (INSET) course on teachers’ classroom practice and their perception change. A qualitative case study involving observation and interviews was carried out during a period of six months before and after an INSET course. The three-week INSET course itself was observed. This was followed by the observation of five consecutive English lessons given by the two teachers. The teachers also took part in four semi-structured interviews. While the observations shed light on how the teachers implemented what they had learnt from the INSET into their teaching practice, the interviews explored a range of issues. These included their general expectations and outcomes of the INSET course, their perception changes and difficulties in putting new ideas into practice. Interviews also explored their perceptions of longer-term outcomes. The main finding in this study indicated that the two teachers faced some difficulties and challenges in implementing new ideas or knowledge obtained from the INSET course into their classroom practice, and did not do so to the same extent. The contextual differences between the INSET and real practice, the content of the INSET, and lack of school support were identified as constraining factors that limit implementation. The analysis also showed that the teachers’ confidence and motivation resulting from the INSET led to their better career prospects and affected their professional identity. Some important implications from the study for language teacher training are discussed to highlight how the potential impact of INSET could be optimised: (i) INSET should provide ongoing support to promote developmental continuity after the course; (ii) INSET should consider teaching contexts sensitively, especially large classes and limited materials; and (iii) trainees continue their professional development under their own initiative even after the INSET course.

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There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a comprehensive review of the growth of primary education in Kenya and to examine developmental patterns that have emerged during the evolvement of this education, from pre-colonial times to the coming of European influence and the post-independence era. The study had as its main goal the discovery of how these patterns of change have shaped today's education in Kenya, and how they are likely to influence the future planning of primary education in the Republic of Kenya.The report was predicated on the proposition that since patterns of change in education are likely to be a common feature to all nations around the world, it might be advantageous to examine Kenya’s development patterns in a wider context of at least two other nations—one, a developing, non-Western country, and the other, a developed, Western nation. It was further proposed that a review of educational growth experienced in these two nations might contain implications relevant to the future planning of education in Kenya. The two countries selected were: the Republic of India and the United States of America.The study was conducted by means of a wide survey of the literature on Kenyan education available in and through the Ball State University Library. In the chapters dealing with the development of primary education in India and in the United States, data collection was based on literature materials available. Chapter seven included questionnaires developed as data-gathering instruments in Kenyan primary schools. These instruments were proposed as a beginning point in designing programs of educational evaluation in Kenyan schools.The following patterns were observed with regard to the emergence of modern education in Kenyan:1. An informal, traditional African system of education existed in Kenya long before and at the coming of Europeans to Africa.2. The modern primary school in Kenya emerged with the coming of European influence, particularly the Christian missionaries. This influence transformed African indigenous education from its traditional nature to the formal, Western system.3. Efforts of Kenyan educational authorities to make the school relevant to modern African needs has resulted in transitional problems which have included insufficient educational facilities and resources to meet the needs of all children of school going age in the nation. To combat these problems, the Kenyan government, with the cooperative efforts of other educational agencies in Kenya, has instituted extensive rural development programs to expand educational facilities and to offer a wide base of alternative programs for post-primary education.Based on the review of educational developments in India and in the United States, the following patterns were recommended for experimental implementation in Kenya:1. Installation of a combined multi-purpose primary and secondary school system to determine if a multipurpose school system will increase educational alternatives for a wider range of pupil interests and aptitudes.2. A national review of the current primary and secondary school curricula to determine whether the two curricula systems are compatible with each other.3. That a school curriculum be designed based on community improvement projects with the intent to improve and increase agricultural production.4. Implementation of extensive in-service and retraining programs for primary school teachers while long-term measures are taken to systematically upgrade teacher education by making all teacher training colleges part of a university system.

This research investigated the correlation between the principal's leadership style and the school organisational climate. The literature study established the importance of leadership in the context of an open and positive school organisational climate. In this regard, it was found that a supportive principal leadership style is positively related to an open and positive school climate, where educators are engaged and enjoy high collegiality and intimate relationships. The school organisational climate as variously defined, relates to educator perceptions of principals or school management behaviour and refers to how educators experience, especially the management aspects that influence the climate in the school. Thus, organisational climate is related to the quality of experiences an educator has in the school, which is expressed in how he or she experiences the school life. The Organizational Climate Descriptive Questionnaire for Elementary Schools, consisting of six organisational climate descriptive dimensions was used for data collection. The dimensions describe the behavioural aspects of principal leadership namely, supportive, directive and restrictive and educators' behavioural aspects namely, collegial, intimate and disengaged. The behavioural interactions of principals and educators provided the basis for the analysis of the correlation between the principal's leadership style and the school organisational climate. It was established that there was a correlation between principals' leadership styles and school organisational climates. It was found that the organisational climates of the surveyed schools are characterised by principal leadership behaviour that is high on directive behaviour, slightly below average on supportive and restrictive. Educator behaviour was found to be slightly below average on collegial behaviours. Educator behaviour scored below average on intimate behaviour and scored slightly above average on disengaged behaviour. Principal openness behaviour was found to be below average while educator openness behaviour was found to be average which translate to school organisational climates that are relatively closed, which actually indicates a relationship between principal leadership style and school organisational climate. This research therefore draws a conclusion that there indeed is a correlation between school principals' leadership styles and school organisational climates. / Thesis (M.Ed. (Education Management))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.