This study concerns the perceptions of school-based violence amongst grade nine male and female learners in a working class high school in Durban. The school's racial dynamics has seen a change from a largely Coloured population to a majority Black school population. As an educator in the school and as a member of the community in which it is located, I am aware of several instances of violence within the school and the locale. I am also aware of several incidents that have been noted by community members whereby male and female learners have retaliated violently against those male and female educators who remain reliant on physically violent methods of classroom management. Former school-based policies aimed at curbing violence within this school have proved to be unsuccessful. In drafting these policies, not only have the school's management team failed to consider learner-perceptions regarding their experiences of violence - they have also failed to recognize the gender dimensions of violence. This study attempts to fill this gap. Research data was gathered by means of a semi- structured questionnaire in the form of essays in which my research sample were requested to reflect on their recent experiences of school-based violence. The data suggests that violence is a common occurrence at the school and impacts negatively on all learners. However, there are differences in the effects of violence on male learners as compared to the female learners. Some of the violence affirmed a violent hegemonic masculinity while girls also committed violence against other girls and boys. No effective strategies exist to counter the prevalence of violence in the school. This study shows why it is necessary to focus on the gendered nature of violence in schooling. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

Classroom management in the context of under-resourced classrooms and mixed-ability classes is an issue that is under-researched in South Africa where most public schools are under-resourced and have mixed-ability classes. My interest in undertaking a study on managing the mixed-ability classroom is based on my experience as an educator in Africa, where I have had to manage classes of learners with mixed abilities. The literature about classroom management shows that there are different management styles available to the classroom teacher who is faced with managing learners of different abilities. Three common styles are the democratic management style, the autocratic management style and the laissezfaire management style. Thus, the main research question for this study is: How do teachers in underresourced South African schools manage their mixed-ability classes? A subsidiary question is: What management styles do classroom teachers employ to manage their classes? Ginott’s theory of congruent communication was used together with the democratic, autocratic and laissez-faire styles as the theoretical framework to interpret two case studies of teachers and how they manage their classrooms at one school in the Pinetown area of KwaZulu-Natal. Using two methods, interview and observation, the findings reveal that teachers in under-resourced public schools mostly make use of a democratic management style in the classroom. This is because it encourages inclusivity of all learners irrespective of their ability. Sometimes classroom conditions lead teachers to employ an autocratic management style. Order and discipline in the class is the rationale for the supplementary autocratic style. The study concludes that the democratic style of management is better suited than an autocratic style to under-resourced classroom conditions, which are populated with many mixed-ability learners having special needs, this is because it is more in line with South Africa’s policy on inclusive education. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2009.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Australian Centre for Educational Studies, Special Education Centre, 2006. / Bibliography: leaves 458-476. / Introduction -- Teacher perceptions of troublesome classroom behaviour -- Troublesome classroom behaviour and teacher stress in New South Wales secondary classrooms: Part I -- Troublesome classroom behaviour and teacher stress in New South Wales secondary classrooms: Part II -- Troublesome classroom behaviour and teacher stress in New South Wales secondary classrooms: Part III -- Student perceptions of the classroom environment in New South Wales secondary classrooms -- Natural rates of teacher approval and disapproval in the classroom -- Natural rates of teacher approval and disapproval in secondary classrooms in New South Wales -- Differential teacher attention to boys and girls in the classroom -- Differential teacher attention to boys and girls in New South Wales secondary classrooms -- Perceptions versus reality: behavioural interactions between teachers and students in New South Wales secondary classrooms. / The focus of this thesis is troublesome classroom behaviour and the behavioural interactions between teachers and students in secondary school. Following a review of the extant research literature, Section A of the thesis reports a study examining the perceptions of 145 secondary teachers from New South Wales with regard to behaviours they find troublesome in their classrooms. Talking out of turn was clearly identified as the classroom behaviour of most concern, most frequently occurring and, importantly, the main misbehaviour of the most troublesome individual students. In two studies completed in parallel, it was similarly shown that teachers who identified themselves as having particular difficulties with classroom behaviour, or who had identified ten percent or more of their class as troublesome, experienced higher levels of stress related to classroom behaviour and their students perceived the classroom environment to be characterised by differential treatment of students. Section B of the thesis comprises observational studies of teachers and classroom behaviour with a substantial focus on student and teacher gender. Reviews of the literature on teachers' "natural" use of approval and disapproval and on differential teacher behaviour towards boys and girls were followed by two parallel studies. The first study, involving 79 New South Wales secondary school teachers and their classes, showed that while teachers typically responded to students with more approval than disapproval, almost all approval was reserved for academic behaviour whereas approval for appropriate classroom behaviour was very infrequent. Teachers typically reprimanded students for inappropriate behaviour at a very high rate. The second study showed that boys attracted far more teacher responses than girls but that most of this involved reprimands for inappropriate behaviour. Section C of the thesis relates teacher perceptions to observed classroom behaviour. It was concluded that in classes with larger numbers of troublesome students there was reduced academic feedback to students and where teachers' rates of negative responding were higher there was a reduced perception of participation by students. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / vi, 500 leaves

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2003. / "A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy" Bibliography : leaves 314-323.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Australian Centre for Educational Studies, School of Education, 2008. / Bibliography: p. 159-177.

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Connecticut State University, 2004. / Website for materials: http://www.geocities.com/bobbyn18/Thesis.html?1074876403923 (viewed 12-29-2005). Bibliography: leaves 93-97. Thesis also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 2, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

This study examined experiences of teachers in ex-Model C secondary schools in Port Elizabeth with specific reference to the strategies adopted, challenges and rewards of teaching in diverse classrooms. It is located in the realm of diversity pedagogy and multi-cultural education and contextualized against the socio-political and colourful historical climate of education in South Africa. This study was conducted by using the qualitative research approach against the backdrop of the phenomenological design according to the interpretivist paradigm. Data were elicited through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 16 teachers from 4 ex-Model C English medium secondary schools (formerly White schools) who had experiences of teaching both pre-1994, when schools were mono-ethnic, and post-1994 when the schools were multi-ethnic. The interviews were transcribed and the rich thick data were analysed and categorized into themes and sub-themes by adopting a constant comparative method. The findings of the study indicate that teachers failed to embrace diversity to its fullest, although they did not mind teaching diverse learners. Furthermore, it is evident that they have not made concerted efforts to implement culturally responsive teaching strategies to cater for diversity in their classes as the approaches tend to be cosmetic and superficial. The findings indicate that teachers are stuck in the quagmire of business as usual-, colour-blind-, assimilationist, contributionist approaches that militate against culturally responsive pedagogy. It is recommended that teachers be empowered with skills in diversity education by various stakeholders such as School Governing Bodies, the Department of Basic Education and teacher unions so that they are better equipped to implement strategies in their classes that cater to the needs of a diverse learner population.

Magister Educationis - MEd / This study focused on improving the learners behaviour through classroom management and the implementation of human rights awareness as an intervention strategy. The purpose of the research was to prevent learners from misbehaving through the implementation of different teaching strategies. Learners transgression will not stop completely and a second objective was to use the implementation of human rights awareness as an intervention strategy if the learners behaviour become unacceptable. The strategies the educators has to instigate were primarily considered to be those associated with classroom management. / South Africa

The aim of this study is to visualize the pre-school pedagogy in The Gambia and to discuss the Gambian pre-schools ideal view on pedagogy compared to the Swedish tradition. Through an ethnographically inspired study conducted at a Gambian preschool called SBEC bilingual international school, where I used Interviews and observations as a method to gather my empirical data, I sought answers to my overall questions which was: Which are the pre-schools main visions and values? What is the Gambian society´s view on pre-school education? And what is emphasized in the classroom work? In my results I found that the vision of the pre-school was designed to give something back to the Gambian society and have an impact on the country´s future. I also found that the schools vison had a large impact on the kind of work that went on in the classrooms. The view on the pre-schools in the society varied a bit depending on which perspective that was used. Those who were active in the world of education had a different view on the importance of pre-school education than for example the government in the country. In my discussion I compare my results in relation to the Swedish pre-school tradition and among other things I found that the two countries traditions regarding pre-schools had a common factor in the focus on nurturing the children but differed quite a bit when it came to their view on the pedagogic activities and how they were implemented. / Syftet med den här studien är att visualisera förskolepedagogiken I en gambisk förskola och diskutera den förskolans ideala syn på pedagogik jämfört med med traditionen i svenska förskolor. Genom en etnografiskt inspirerad studie, genomförd på en gambisk förskola som heter SBEC bilingual school, sökte jag svar på mina övergipande frågor genom att använda intervjuer och observationer för att samla in mitt empiriska material. De övergripande frågorna var: Vilka är förskolans huvudsakliga mål och visioner? Vad har det gambiska samhället för syn på förskolleutbildning? Och vad fokuserar arbetet i klassrummet på? I mitt resultat framkom det att förskolans vision var utformad för att kunna ge något tillbaka till det gambiska samhället och kunna påverka landets framtid. Jag fann också att skolans vision hade stor inverkan på vilken sorts arbete som pågick i klassrummen. Samhällets syn på förskolan varierade beroende på vilket perspektiv som användes. De som var aktiva inom utbildningsväsendet hade en annorlunda syn på vikten av förskoleutbildning än till exempel staten i Gambia. I dikussionen jämför jag mitt resultat i relation till den svenska förskolans tradition. Jag fann bland annat att förskolans traditioner i båda länderna hade en gemensam faktor när det gäller uppfostran av barnen men en annorlunda syn på den pedagogiska verksamhet och hur den implementeras.