Rationalisation and redeployment of educators in South Africa negatively affects teaching and learning in schools. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of educators and stakeholders on rationalisation and redeployment as a policy. The study was conducted in schools of the Mopani district in Limpopo Province. Limpopo schools experience redeployment every year as the learner enrolment fluctuates. This increase or decrease of learner enrolment causes compulsory transfer of educators from the school with low enrolment to the school with greater enrolment. A legal framework, social justice and transformational leadership theory underpinned this study. The study used a qualitative research framework and methodology located within the constructivist paradigm to explore the experiences of educators and stakeholders on rationalisation and redeployment as a policy. This qualitative study employed a case study design, the case being redeployment of educators. Principals, educators, secretaries of school governing bodies, union members and circuit managers were selected as stakeholders to participate in the study. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with principals, secretaries of governing bodies, union members and circuit managers. Two focus groups with educators, who were once redeployed, were used, one from a primary school and the other from a secondary school. Observations and document analysis were also used in this study for triangulation. Data were coded and analysed through qualitative content analysis. The study found that rationalisation and redeployment affect the morale of educators It was also revealed that principals use the process for their personal advancement. Again, rationalisation and redeployment hinder the school performance as it takes place in the middle of the year. This study recommended that rationalisation and redeployment be done once within a three-year cycle. It was also recommended that redeployed educators should be counselled to boost their low morale. / Educational Management and Leadership / Ph. D. (Education Leadership and Management)

The role of school management on the qualitative provision of inclusive education in designated full-service schools in North West Province is vital for optimum accommodation of learner diversity in ordinary mainstream primary schools. The school management of designated primary schools are assigned with the task of ensuring that inclusive education policy and practices are adopted and implemented by all stakeholders as prescribed by policy in their respective schools. This dissertation sought to investigate at a micro perspective the impact of school managers as individual employees and their response to the new inclusive education system in their schools. The study also identifies factors that facilitate or hinder their role. A qualitative approach and the case study design were applied in this study. Five schools were purposefully selected and total of 40 participants were involved. The participants include five principals, five deputy principals, ten heads of departments (HoDs) and 20 members of the SBST. Data were collected by conducting individual interviews for principals and deputy principals and focus group interviews for HoDs and members of SBST. The findings reveal that the school managers, SBST and stakeholders like parents do not yet understand the reasons behind expansion of inclusive education in their schools. The study reveals that the school management are still finding it difficult to fulfil their role and responsibility. This is owing to numerous challenges emanating from inadequate support from district based support teams or departmental officials, pedagogical barriers, systemic barriers, insufficient staffing, lack of human resource development through trainings, infrastructure challenges, resistance to policy such as SIAS and lack of knowledge of assistive devices. Subsequent to that, literature review reveals that studies on implementing inclusive education in schools focus largely on the plight and role of teachers and that little attention was paid to the role of school management on the provision of inclusive education. To enhance the impact of school management on provision of inclusive education and to address prohibiting factors noted form the findings, the study recommends to the department an intensive and structured capacity building programmes for departmental officials, school management, curriculum specialists, senior managers with specific reference to inclusive teaching strategies, admission within protocol of SIAS policy, and curriculum differentiation using assistive devices. A proposed model to improve the impact of school management on the provision of inclusive education with specific reference to administer admission within SIAS protocol is presented. / Educational Management and Leadership / M. Ed. (Education Management)

The study sought to investigate the role of Heads of Departments (HoDs) in the teaching of mathematics in primary schools of the Eastern Cape Province in the OR Tambo Inland District using a qualitative approach and a case study design in particular. Data was collected using both semi-structured and focus group interviews with eight purposively selected heads of departments in the district in six schools. Data was analysed using Colaizzi’s method of data analysis from which three themes emerged. The first one was that the current performance management system interfered with the roles and responsibilities of the HoDs in schools in their daily activities and in the organisation of their work. Second, the barriers in achieving learners’ good performance in mathematics interfered with the HoDs’ responsibilities to achieve good learner performance in the subject. Third, a weak support system and inadequate resources interfered with the learners’ performance in the subject. The results here indicate that HoDs for mathematics experience various obstacles, which affect subject teachers’ implementation to yield positive results, ultimately leading to poor teaching and learning of the subject. These include the admission of learners without the necessary foundations in mathematics which was viewed as an obstacle to learner performance. The study further suggested that the HoDs of mathematics should be capacitated on use of teaching aids, management and administration to improve learner performance in the subject. / Educational Management and Leadership / M. Ed. (Education Management)

The mandate from the government is for schools to integrate Environment Education (EE) in all subjects. However, some Life Sciences teachers in the Vhembe District still fail to integrate EE into their lessons. This qualitative case study, hence, investigated how Life Sciences teachers in Vhembe District of Limpopo Province are supported by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to integrate EE into their lessons. The purpose of this study was to develop guidelines to enhance the support given by DBE, to Life Sciences teachers, in their attempts to integrate EE into their lessons. Studies have been conducted about factors that inhibit the integration of EE in school subjects. However, little has been written about how the DBE supports teachers to integrate EE in their lessons. This study contributes knowledge to this gap. This study was based on interpretivism, followed a qualitative approach and a phenomenological case study design. Three schools in Vhembe District in Limpopo Province were conveniently selected and one Life Sciences teacher was purposively selected from each school to get rich-information about the research topic. One subject advisor was also purposely selected as a participant from the Vhembe District under, Mutshindudi circuit. Data were collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with the teachers and the subject advisor. Before the interviews, the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document, pacesetter and textbooks were first analysed. Findings from the CAPS document analysis show support for teachers towards integrating EE in Life Sciences, although, the pacesetter does not provide such support. The teachers, however, do not take advantage of the offered support from the documents because they do not read these curriculum documents. Further, the findings reveal that the subject advisor was not doing enough to support the teachers as the limited support that the teachers received was only reactive. This study also found that lack of training for teachers and the subject advisor, lack of understanding of EE and lack of resources were still challenges in the integration of EE in the research context. This study recommends that there should be a more proactive support for to integrate EE into their lessons so as to produce environmentally informed learners. Thus, the DBE must take responsibility of providing teachers with necessary trainings and resources for EE to support them to integrate it into the lessons. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Specialisation in Environmental Education)

Managing teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms in Thabo Mofutsanyana Education District, Free State is a study undertaken to determine how teachers manage teaching and learning in multi-grade classrooms. A qualitative research design has been used. Literature review explored the origins of multi-grade teaching, its advantages and disadvantages, teaching and learning in multi-grade classrooms, the use of resources, difficulties faced by teachers teaching in multi-grade classrooms and overcoming these difficulties. Data revealed that teachers struggle to manage teaching and learning in multi-grade classrooms because they use curriculum policy documents which are meant for mono-grade classrooms. Teachers are overloaded with work. Peer tutoring, self-directed learning and cooperative learning help teachers to manage teaching and learning. Based on the findings, recommendations were made to the teachers, PED and DBE. The findings and recommendations will help the teachers in managing teaching and learning in multi-grade classrooms. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Didactics)

Managing teaching and learning in multi-graded classrooms in Thabo Mofutsanyana Education District, Free State is a study undertaken to determine how teachers manage teaching and learning in multi-grade classrooms. A qualitative research design has been used. Literature review explored the origins of multi-grade teaching, its advantages and disadvantages, teaching and learning in multi-grade classrooms, the use of resources, difficulties faced by teachers teaching in multi-grade classrooms and overcoming these difficulties. Data revealed that teachers struggle to manage teaching and learning in multi-grade classrooms because they use curriculum policy documents which are meant for mono-grade classrooms. Teachers are overloaded with work. Peer tutoring, self-directed learning and cooperative learning help teachers to manage teaching and learning. Based on the findings, recommendations were made to the teachers, PED and DBE. The findings and recommendations will help the teachers in managing teaching and learning in multi-grade classrooms. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Didactics)

This study aimed to explore teaching difficulties of Natural Sciences teachers when offering lessons in the Planet, Earth and Beyond strand. The aim was to understand their teacher knowledge, type of instructional strategies, and classroom discourse and interactions in their Natural Science classroom. The following question guided the study: What are the teaching difficulties of Planet, Earth and Beyond strand? A qualitative case study design was used for the study. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and observations. The study revealed that NS educators: carry misconceptions to class; show poor knowledge of context in specific aims and assessment strategies while also choosing poor and irrelevant instructional strategies and; still see themselves as authority in class by applying a one- way approach. It is recommended that: educators be trained on how to implement active and critical learning, while empowering them with knowledge on NS specific aims and assessment strategies; departmental heads, SMTs, and subject advisor should engage in regular class visits in the NS educators` classes, reviewing lesson plans that educators prepared; schools should provide educators with CAPS relevant documents; the DoE should provide more education to educators on the importance of following the curriculum as prescribed in the CAPS document; the department should provide educators with relevant teaching aids and practical apparatus and in the absence advice educators on how to improvise and; the subject advisors should assist educators in identifying misconceptions. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Sciences Education)

Human Immunodeficiency Virus is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age worldwide. It is also a major contributor to infant mortality. The effective application of prevention of mother-to-child transmission strategies effectively reduces the risk of mother-to-child transmission. The intent of this study was to determine the availability and accessibility of the PMTCT programme in one district of the North West Province of South Africa. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual design was utilised to gain better understanding of the experiences of both the HIV positive pregnant women and the Health Care Workers regarding the availability and access to the PMTCT programme. The study population consisted of HIV positive pregnant women between 18 and 49 years of age and Health Care Workers aged between 21 to 60 years of age. The non-probability purposive sampling technique was utilised to identify potential research participants. Data were collected by means of individual semi-structured interviews with HIV positive pregnant women and focus group discussions with the Health Care Workers. Adherence to Tesch’s eight descriptive methods was utilised as the primary form of data analysis, organisation and interpretation. The findings of the study revealed that availability and accessibility of PMTCT services are still problematic. Distance, waiting periods, and long queues were among the few mentioned as problematic. There were also few positives such as communication, counseling and health education. Strategies for facilitation of the availability and accessibility of the PMTCT programme were developed based on the findings. Themes emerged from the HIV positive pregnant women’s data included: acceptance of one’s sero positive status, maternal concerns, stressors about HIV status, as well as lack and shortage of resources and support by health care professionals and family; while emerging themes from the Health Care Workers included: fear of disclosure by HIV positive pregnant women, child feeding, formal trainings and workshops on PMTCT programme, as well as lack and shortage of resources and loss to follow-up activities / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

Seventeen years after the passing and enactment of the South African Schools Act (SASA), Act 84 of 1996 which regulates the establishment of democratically elected school governing bodies (SGB) and which contains directives on how to organise and manage school funds, SGBs are still struggling to understand their roles and responsibilities. This study is aimed at investigating the perceptions of school governing body members as regards to their financial management roles in selected no-fee schools in the Maraba Circuit of the Limpopo Province, South Africa. The study used a qualitative research design within the interpretive paradigm. In addition, decentralisation theory served as the theoretical framework for the study. A sample comprising 22 participants from six selected no-fee schools was purposefully selected to act as the research participants. Semi-structured interviews and document analyses of official documents were conducted in order to collect the requisite data. The research participants included school principals, SGB chairpersons, treasurers and finance officers. The data collected was qualitatively analysed through coding and categorisation. The study revealed that the perceptions, experience and understanding of their financial management roles of SGB members often differ. In addition the study discloses that many of the participants lacked competency. In other words they lacked the proper knowledge and skills required to manage their school funds effectively. It would appear that their lack of the proper knowledge and skills was related primarily to their literacy levels and lack of training. The study concluded with the recommendations that SGB members be empowered through continuous and effective training to enable them to understand and fulfill their financial management roles. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

Human Immunodeficiency Virus is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age worldwide. It is also a major contributor to infant mortality. The effective application of prevention of mother-to-child transmission strategies effectively reduces the risk of mother-to-child transmission. The intent of this study was to determine the availability and accessibility of the PMTCT programme in one district of the North West Province of South Africa. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual design was utilised to gain better understanding of the experiences of both the HIV positive pregnant women and the Health Care Workers regarding the availability and access to the PMTCT programme. The study population consisted of HIV positive pregnant women between 18 and 49 years of age and Health Care Workers aged between 21 to 60 years of age. The non-probability purposive sampling technique was utilised to identify potential research participants. Data were collected by means of individual semi-structured interviews with HIV positive pregnant women and focus group discussions with the Health Care Workers. Adherence to Tesch’s eight descriptive methods was utilised as the primary form of data analysis, organisation and interpretation. The findings of the study revealed that availability and accessibility of PMTCT services are still problematic. Distance, waiting periods, and long queues were among the few mentioned as problematic. There were also few positives such as communication, counseling and health education. Strategies for facilitation of the availability and accessibility of the PMTCT programme were developed based on the findings. Themes emerged from the HIV positive pregnant women’s data included: acceptance of one’s sero positive status, maternal concerns, stressors about HIV status, as well as lack and shortage of resources and support by health care professionals and family; while emerging themes from the Health Care Workers included: fear of disclosure by HIV positive pregnant women, child feeding, formal trainings and workshops on PMTCT programme, as well as lack and shortage of resources and loss to follow-up activities / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)