This study focuses on stress management of educators, and specifically in the KwaZulu–Natal geographical region. The study consists of four focus areas (which are presented in article format), namely: * The first article identifies the role–players and their functions in delivering quality education to all South Africans. The article identifies the role–players from literature research and discusses their influences on the South African educational environment. A biographical profile of the educators of the KwaZulu–Natal area is compiled in the article by means of empirical research. * The second article employs both theoretical and empirical research to focus on the causes of stress to educators in public schools. In addition to identifying the causes of stress, the article also determines how stress impacts on the work performance of educators in KwaZulu–Natal. * The third article reports on management and leadership qualities of a school, and how guidance can assist in the transformation process. The study further examines the effects of a principal's leadership behaviour on the school's learning culture in KwaZulu–Natal. * This final article is a comparative study. It provides an overview of similarly focussed studies by Jackson (2004), Jackson and Rothman (2006) and Van Wyk (2006) with regard to the causes of stress among educators (but in different application settings namely the North West and Free State provinces). The focus in the final article is to determine if the stressors and its influences in education are generic throughout South Africa, or localised to KwaZulu–Natal. The research design consisted of selecting four districts randomly from the twelve in KwaZulu–Natal. From these districts, a total of 1 500 participants were randomly selected from the total population of 2 123 educators in the four districts. This amounted to a sample of 70.6% of the population). A total of 358 respondents completed the questionnaires resulting in a response rate of 23.3%. The study employed the statistical software programme SPSS 17.0 for Windows to analyse the data. A number of quantitative statistical techniques befitting the doctoral level of research were used to analyse the data. These techniques are: * Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy; * Bartlett's test of sphericity; * Exploratory factor analysis; * Cronbach Alpha's reliability coefficient; and * Pearson's correlation coefficient. The major findings of the study were that: * Three major role–players are identified in the first article, namely the educators, the Department of Education and the learners. To effectively facilitate quality education, management is a crucial component, whilst these role–players are also influenced by the macro environment. * The second article identified causes of stress. These causes account for a favourable 71.6% of the variance explained, and are: organisational support, overload, remuneration, control, job insecurity, job opportunities and growth opportunities. * The third article identified seven factors of importance in management and leadership. These factors explained a favourable 78.6% variance and are: Management and leadership styles, financial security, management and leadership fairness, stressors, empowerment, job security and sense of control over the work environment. * In the final article it is clear that the stressors are generic to South Africa. The majority of stressors have been identified by studies in the Free State, North West and in this study in KwaZulu–Natal. These stressors are organisational support, overload, growth opportunities / task characteristics, rewards and remuneration, and job insecurity. The ultimate recommendation of the study is because stress impacts negatively on the educators and their performance, a national strategy is partly required to improve educator stress as there are a number of common stressors in the three separate studies. Yet, further research is needed to substantiate the prevalence of these factors in all the provinces. A provincial approach is recommended for province specific stressors, while the national strategy could address the common stressors in conjunction with a provincial stress relieve programme. The study culminates in a final perceptual map of stressors, it causes and educator management that could handsomely assist in the drafting of such a national stress strategy for educators. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This study focuses on stress management of educators, and specifically in the KwaZulu–Natal geographical region. The study consists of four focus areas (which are presented in article format), namely: * The first article identifies the role–players and their functions in delivering quality education to all South Africans. The article identifies the role–players from literature research and discusses their influences on the South African educational environment. A biographical profile of the educators of the KwaZulu–Natal area is compiled in the article by means of empirical research. * The second article employs both theoretical and empirical research to focus on the causes of stress to educators in public schools. In addition to identifying the causes of stress, the article also determines how stress impacts on the work performance of educators in KwaZulu–Natal. * The third article reports on management and leadership qualities of a school, and how guidance can assist in the transformation process. The study further examines the effects of a principal's leadership behaviour on the school's learning culture in KwaZulu–Natal. * This final article is a comparative study. It provides an overview of similarly focussed studies by Jackson (2004), Jackson and Rothman (2006) and Van Wyk (2006) with regard to the causes of stress among educators (but in different application settings namely the North West and Free State provinces). The focus in the final article is to determine if the stressors and its influences in education are generic throughout South Africa, or localised to KwaZulu–Natal. The research design consisted of selecting four districts randomly from the twelve in KwaZulu–Natal. From these districts, a total of 1 500 participants were randomly selected from the total population of 2 123 educators in the four districts. This amounted to a sample of 70.6% of the population). A total of 358 respondents completed the questionnaires resulting in a response rate of 23.3%. The study employed the statistical software programme SPSS 17.0 for Windows to analyse the data. A number of quantitative statistical techniques befitting the doctoral level of research were used to analyse the data. These techniques are: * Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy; * Bartlett's test of sphericity; * Exploratory factor analysis; * Cronbach Alpha's reliability coefficient; and * Pearson's correlation coefficient. The major findings of the study were that: * Three major role–players are identified in the first article, namely the educators, the Department of Education and the learners. To effectively facilitate quality education, management is a crucial component, whilst these role–players are also influenced by the macro environment. * The second article identified causes of stress. These causes account for a favourable 71.6% of the variance explained, and are: organisational support, overload, remuneration, control, job insecurity, job opportunities and growth opportunities. * The third article identified seven factors of importance in management and leadership. These factors explained a favourable 78.6% variance and are: Management and leadership styles, financial security, management and leadership fairness, stressors, empowerment, job security and sense of control over the work environment. * In the final article it is clear that the stressors are generic to South Africa. The majority of stressors have been identified by studies in the Free State, North West and in this study in KwaZulu–Natal. These stressors are organisational support, overload, growth opportunities / task characteristics, rewards and remuneration, and job insecurity. The ultimate recommendation of the study is because stress impacts negatively on the educators and their performance, a national strategy is partly required to improve educator stress as there are a number of common stressors in the three separate studies. Yet, further research is needed to substantiate the prevalence of these factors in all the provinces. A provincial approach is recommended for province specific stressors, while the national strategy could address the common stressors in conjunction with a provincial stress relieve programme. The study culminates in a final perceptual map of stressors, it causes and educator management that could handsomely assist in the drafting of such a national stress strategy for educators. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Black South Africans have been exposed to an unequal and divided education system. It has been expected that the basis for an equitable education system would be laid in the post apartheid period. In this thesis I have provided an analysis of education policy development in South Africa between May 1994 and mid-1997. My main aim has been to understand the policy vision that the post apartheid state has enacted as the basis for educational reconstruction. The conceptual framework of this thesis is located in the academic fields of Education and Development and Policy Sociology. I have focused on the interaction between the broad delimitations set by the structural, economic and political dimensions in society on the one hand, and the political and policy dynamics that have given education policy its specific meaning on the other hand. The role of the government in enacting a specific policy vision has been at the centre of my analysis. The government has effected a conservative vision with the adoption of the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) macroeconomic strategy. GEAR has targeted the development of an export-based global economy along post fordist lines. Predicated upon an emphasis on fiscal discipline, the dominant policy orientation has supported equity but without an emphasis on redress. This approach has not provided the necessary basis for education reconstruction. The National Qualifications Framework (NQF)and Outcomes-based education (OBE) embody a definite vision in terms of which education policy would be aligned with economic development. This vision is based on the false assumption that education should playa fundamental role in producing the sophisticated labour demands of a globally competitive economy. The logic of both GEAR and the NQF is internally inconsistent and the relationship between these two policy frameworks is unsustainable. By mid-1997 a definitive narrow and conservative education policy vision had been established which would impede the development of an equitable education system. Education policy 'narrowing' has not been achieved easily, nor has its outcome been inevitable. The specificity of the political context and policy processes has shaped the policy outcomes. A moderate constitutional dispensation has impeded the possibility of developing a radical policy vision. The semi-federal powers awarded to the provinces have led to inconqruence between national and provincial policy. Court challenges aimed at protecting historically acquired educational privileges, have been brought by conservative groups against national education legislation. The apartheid-era bureaucrats, whose jobs were protected by the negotiated constitution, have impeded the development of progressive policy. They brought the conservative policy reformism of the apartheid state into the new policy processes. The NQF has been developed on the basis of a policy consensus between labour and capital in support of skills training and upgrading of workers. Participation in policy processes has been determined 0[1 the basis of identified stakeholders This has given rise to a technicist policy approach that bas excluded many interest groups, academics and professional experts. Most teachers felt alienated by the curriculum policy process. Policy has been developed in a reconstituted civil society. The progressive education movement has been demobilised, and its place has been taken by a constellation of conservative forces who have used the moderate political climate to advance conservative policy interests. The government has had to make policy within a constrained political and policy environment. With regard to the main conceptual underpinning of this thesis, i.e. the relationship between equality and (economic) development, it is clear that the government has favoured the development dimension in pursuit of an education framework that would aid the generation of a globally competitive economy. Social equality has thus been sideline. I have advanced the view that where the government has reneged on the delivery of the social welfare and educational demands of an expectant polity, education policy has manifested as, means of compensatory legitimation at the symbolic level to 'signal', rather than give effect to real change. In my analysis of school access and school curriculum policy, I have suggested that policy has been limited to 'signalling' a commitment to a reconstructed and equitable education system. This has masked the conservative framework that has come to underpin education policy by mid-1997.