D.Ed. / The individual's right to basic education is entrenched by Section 29 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Section 12 of the 1996 Schools' Act compels the state and each of the nine provinces to provide public schools out of funds provided for that purpose by the provincial legislature. Education is therefore a right and the state is compelled to provide the education. The constant growth in the demand for education and the amending of educational problems inherited from the apartheid era, have a substantial impact on available state and provincial financial resources. Education is expensive and the state contribution to education is dwindling, due to the enormous demands made by other state responsibilities. The Legislator has, through founding and implementing the system of governing bodies (Sections 20 and 21 of the SASA of 1996), handed the responsibility of education in the community, and the governance of and control over such education, to the parents. In the school the principal is the professional manager of education and is accountable to the local education authority. Individuals from the community, possessing certain skills and competencies, are needed to make the system of governing bodies work. The skills and competencies needed from the community, are those the schools lack, such as business experience, and financial expertise. The necessary personal experience and qualities are easy to come by in the more advanced middle class and upper class communities. The poor and less advanced communities suffer from a lack of higher order skills and competencies. These communities are not -iionly poor in materiality, but also poor with regard to skills, competencies and business experience. The control over the school's finances is one of the more sensitive areas when discussing the control responsibility to be exercised by the governing body. The principal, as professional manager of the school, is also the administrative manager. His duties include the managing of the school fund. The responsibility of the governing body is to make sure that the school fund is managed optimally so that learners, parents and community benefit.

<p> The AACN has asked academic leaders to align the performance of their organizations to the prescribed standards within the <i>Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice</i> document and has provided indicators of quality suggestions for program enhancement as a means of promoting continuous performance improvement. However, the AACN has not prescribed a strategy that specifies the manner in which colleges should achieve these benchmarked standards, which has created uncertainty among administrators about whether the indicators of quality lead to improvements that are actually indicative of improved performance.</p><p> This dissertation used multiple linear regression research design to determine whether predictive relationships exist between the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) indicators of quality and the Baldrige core values and concepts of performance improvement within Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accredited baccalaureate colleges of nursing.</p><p> The purpose of this study was to determine whether the behaviors associated with specific AACN indicators of quality reflect behaviors that the Baldrige core values and concepts have already proven to be successful in achieving continuous performance improvement. The results revealed nine AACN indicators of quality behaviors most likely to enhance performance improvement outcomes within baccalaureate colleges of nursing. They include; (1) Resources are budgeted for research, development, business operations, public relations, marketing, and human resources; (2) Establishing and upholding policies that reflect faculty and leadership development resources; (3) Student experiences include service learning opportunities; (4) Practice partnerships include collaborative practice initiatives; (5) Collecting data and making program changes that focus on the level of graduate satisfaction with their preparation for the profession; (6) Faculty have input into the governance of the college/school; (7) The majority of faculty have a presence in state, regional, national, and international professional activities; (8) Opportunities for baccalaureate graduate's employment with practice partnerships; and (9) Formal mentoring program for clinical preceptors.</p><p> The results underline the fact that continuous performance improvement within baccalaureate colleges of nursing is a deliberate and dynamic analysis-driven endeavor dependent on an organization's ability, willingness, and initiative to continually strive to narrow the chasm between actual and potential performance results.</p>

<p> Seeking and finding highly effective principals to lead our schools is one of the highest priority tasks for a school head. Research has documented the importance of the principal for improved student achievement. Waters, Marzano, and McNulty (2004) reviewed the literature over the past 35 years and identified 21 specific leadership responsibilities that have a statistically significant, positive correlation to student achievement. The purpose of this descriptive survey study was to deepen our understanding of the ways that international school heads identify high-potential principal candidates. </p><p> The survey, Dimensions of Quality Leadership Candidate Identification (DQLCI), was distributed to a random sampling of the complete population of international school heads of full member schools in all regional associations. From a population of 732 international school heads, an average of 184 valid responses (25%) for the four questions was received. However, two regions received a higher percentage response rate thus improving the external validity of the results for the two regions: East Asia Regional Council of Schools (44%) and the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools (56%). </p><p> Specifically, the study examined four areas that heads attribute to identifying each of the 21 responsibilities upon screening principal candidates: the principal candidate quality, the value that heads attribute to each of the 21 responsibilities upon screening principal candidates, the perceived ease of identifying each of the 21 responsibilities in principal candidates being screened, and the best method of identifying each of the 21 responsibilities when screening principal candidates. </p><p> The results indicated that international school heads felt that the quality of candidates was just a little better than average with qualitative data highlighting the shallow pool of quality candidates. Heads perceive the 21 responsibilities to have high value in the candidate screening process. Five themes emerged from a factor analysis or data reduction process. Heads value the following factors (in descending order of importance): (1) Ideals and Beliefs about the School's Learning Culture; (2) Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; (3) Personal Communication and Relationships; (4) Managerial Leadership; and (5) Principal as Change Agent. These themes provide a clear topical framework for principal preparation programs and for the design of effective principal recruitment tools. </p><p> In response to the third question, the heads became more uncertain about their ability to identify the 21 responsibilities. Heads deemed interview, then reference checks, the two best methods to identify the 21 responsibilities in candidates; however, qualitative data points to the need for multiple measures to triangulate the data and build a better profile of a potential candidate. </p><p> Recruiting high-quality leadership is difficult in the best of conditions but the nature of international school leadership recruitment is complex. It is important for an international school head to be proactive and able to develop systematic and intentional hiring practices.</p>

<p> Military organizations are often called upon to assist with emergency management missions, so it is critical that they have appropriately established and well understood organizational perceptual factors. Military organizations are often unique within a nation, which increases the challenge for scholars to effectively analyze how organizational factors are influenced by the dynamics of national use of military forces for emergency management missions. There are several disparate theories of government organization, but the most recent and relevant is Keith James' organizational science of disaster and terrorism prevention and response theory. James' theory identified several important organizational factors specific to emergency management organizations. These factors include organizational structure and networks, processes, teams, leadership, and technology. James' organizational factors guided the development of this qualitative comparative case study's interview protocol with 24 members from the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of the United States National Guard and Israeli Homefront Command. Results revealed why two nations use their military forces for disaster response as well as provided a description of how each organization is used within their respective nation. The data affirmed aspects of James' theory, including relevant structural, networking, and procedural factors and identified the other organizational factors within James' theory as possible areas for future research. Finally, based upon interview participant perceptions, recommendations were made to the leadership of the Homefront Command and National Guard regarding areas of potential organizational emphasis to include internal messaging, additional doctrine, and clarified organizational structures for disaster response.</p>

No description available.

Police organisations spend a substantial proportion of their time and resources working with offenders. The nature of police work with offenders and in particular the strategic culture that shapes those working relationships deserves more attention. A series of developments over the past two decades, that can collectively be debated as representing a ‘new’ police work with offenders, has led to the police role expanding in mission and scope, undertaking different roles with offenders and working in novel partnership contexts. These changing modes of police work with offenders include in particular developments in youth justice, the management of prolific and priority offenders, approaches to drugs misuse, and managing those offenders who present a risk of serious harm. The objective of the thesis is to develop fresh insight through exploring these developments at a senior and strategic level. The thesis engages with these questions through a grounded theory methodology that encompasses an analysis of national policy documents and a case study based upon semistructured interviews with senior police officers and key strategic stakeholders from a small shire police area in England. The key findings identify that the changes in police work with offenders represent a big, ambitious and expansionist policy ambition, manifesting in a more proactive and partnering practice, and founded upon policy drivers of prevention and managing risk. The findings are suggestive of a somewhat chaotic and incohesive policymaking context for policing, suggesting the changes to be chaotic in their genesis and also partly accounted for by ‘gap filling’ in respect of other agencies. The developments sit in tension with short-termism and single-agency thinking, and there is a sense of a predominantly operational-level focus to senior-level thinking and of a ‘retro-fitting’ of legacy police roles to new practice settings. The changes in police work with offenders that are identified provoke consideration of significant policy and practice implications for the police, in particular tensions between ‘core’ and ‘expanding’ ideas for the scope of the police. The findings also identify strategic challenges in the implementation of the changes within policing, most particularly the challenges of doing things differently and of doing things together with other agencies, and the positionality of the changes as being ‘ephemeral’ and ‘peripheral’ within the wider policing organisation. The changes carry a significance for police culture and professional identities; there are worries of professional ‘degeneration’, of police officers ‘going native’, which prompt in turn consideration of the cultural competence and literacy of the police in respect of the new partnering contexts. Finally, the findings stimulate interesting debates in respect of ‘newness’ and continuity in policing and of the implications of both for police strategy, practice and identity. Overall, the thesis calls for a cohesive (rather than fragmented) engagement with the developments across police work with offenders, and for deeper and more sensitive understanding of these ‘new’ modes of police work.

D.Ed. / The transformation of the education system in South Africa is unavoidable due to social transformation in a newly democratised state. The newly established Gauteng Department of Education had to face challenges since 1994 to promote quality education, ownership and stability due to the fragmentation and diversity in communities and schools. In order to restore the culture of service delivering and to promote teaching and learning in schools, it is vital for schools to be provided with resources and conditions that are conducive to quality education. Trained educators and effective management of schools are equally important to ensure that learners receive the best quality education. Total quality school management provides the key to the solution, because the spiral of development, which includes constant monitoring and evaluation throughout the planning, leading and implementation cycles. Total quality school management is an integral part of delivering effective and efficient service. Total quality school management refers to the action, processes and structures necessary to ensure the delivery of highest quality of service to the clients. Total quality school management cultivates the appropriate partnerships and networks in service of the clients. In South Africa the indicators of these frameworks are invariably slanted toward issues of equity, efficiency and redress, but should largely be structured toward the improvement of service and education.

M.Ed. / The purpose of this research was to investigate the challenges facing the Development Support Grouping (DSG) in the implementation of the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS). Based on this, the researcher sought to present guidelines to improve the process of educator evaluation. The Integrated Quality Management System is a national policy aimed at increasing productivity among educators. IQMS comprises three programmes namely: Development Appraisal (DA), Performance Measurement (PM) and Whole school Evaluation (WSE). The three programmes ought to complement each other and run concurrently. The role of the Development Support Groups (DSG) is of cardinal importance in the implementation of IQMS. Because of the tremendous challenges inherent in IQMS and the fact that the DSG are responsible for baseline and summative evaluation, it is necessary to ascertain the challenges that the DSG are likely to encounter whilst exercising their roles and responsibilities during the implementation of IQMS. The research concentrated on schools in the Vryheid District of KwaZulu- Natal. The quantitative research methodology was employed to elicit the perception of educators with regard to the implementation of IQMS in schools as well as the challenges facing the DSGS. The findings of the research were clustered according to the four sections of the questionnaire. Some of these findings were: • A large majority of educators in Vryheid District seem not to understand the purpose of IQMS. • A higher percentage of respondents do not believe that the training they receive had prepared them for implementing IQMS. • Most respondents do not strongly agree that WSE evaluates the effectiveness of school in terms of national goals. • A smaller percentage of respondents agreed that WSE provides feedback as a means of achieving continuous improvement. • Most educators believe that lesson observation is necessary for educator development. • The contribution of the DSG towards educator development is of a limited extent. • Educators do not have sufficient time to serve on DSG.

This study aimed to investigate the innovation practices and the factors contributing to innovativeness in Bah&ccedil / eSehir Science and Technology High School (BSTHS). The study was designed as a case study and different qualitative data collection techniques were used to collect the data. 17 participants of this study were chosen among administrators, science and mathematics teachers and 4 students. The study documented both managerial and academic innovations at the School. Besides, the factors contributing to innovativeness at BSTHS were documented. Research findings show that the BSTHS was successful in establishing a place within the Turkish Education System as a new and original education institution. The BSTHS administration is working on, based on an effective leadership, providing most suitable conditions for education and learning, and they are doing that with a participatory administration approach. Beyond that, they constructed an effective network with the support of the Bah&ccedil / eSehir University towards the development of the school in line with its targets. According to the research findings, foremost aspects that make the BSTHS innovative and original are a new curriculum, an individual-based education system, application of new technologies in education and learning processes and the establishment of the institution as a self-learning organization. It is argued that different factors (e.g., leadership, participative management, social interaction, knowledge share) are combined with quality inputs (e.g., students, staff, technology, physical infrastructure) have contributed to the creation of a culture of innovation. Hence, it is concluded that extensive physical or financial resources are not enough to accomplish innovativeness. Besides, a culture of innovation needs to be cultivated in order to accomplish innovation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between teachers&rsquo / intentional, emotional, and cognitive readiness for change and perceived faculty trust in colleagues, in principal, and in clients (students and parents).The study was designed as a correlational study and the participants comprised of 603 teachers working at primary and secondary level public schools selected from the four school districts in Ankara via cluster sampling. For the data collection, newly developed Readiness for Change Scale and Turkish adaptation of Omnibus T-Scale were utilized. Both descriptive and inferential statistics techniques (Canonical Correlation) were used for the data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis for Readiness for Change Scale and Omnibus T-Scale were also performed within the scope of this study. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed by the software PASW Statistics 18 while the confirmatory factor analysis was performed by the software AMOS 4. The results of the study revealed that teachers&rsquo / readiness for change and perceived organizational trust were significantly correlated with each other in a way that intentional, emotional, and cognitive readiness for change were all associated with teachers&rsquo / readiness for change and contributed significantly in perceived organizational trust. Conversely, the results indicated that perceived faculty trust in colleagues, in principal, and in clients (students and parents) are all correlated with perceived organizational trust, and contributed significantly in teachers&rsquo / readiness for change. Consequently, the results of this study revealed that organizational trust is an essential internal context variable, which is correlated with teachers&rsquo / readiness for change. In this respect, the decision-making body of educational organizations, MONE, and schools should undertake necessary precautions to empower trust-based relationship within the teacher, principal and client (students and parents) triangulation for effective implementation and desired outcomes of the change interventions.