In contrast with the large number of poorly performing schools in Swaziland over the past decade (1991-2000), a few schools have managed to attain consistently good results. One such school is St Michael's High. This study draws on the perceptions of different major stakeholders at St Michael's of factors deemed to have contributed to academic success at the school. The study thus follows Fertig (2000), who advocates research in effective schools to be done by looking at the perceptions of different stakeholders rather than in relation to an objective checklist. In this study, St Michael's High is found to be an effective school. Its experience can play a vital role in helping other ineffective and failing schools to improve their academic standing and tarnished public image, provided the schools unreservedly commit themselves to changing their ways. This investigation is aimed at understanding the roles which the school leadership and associated stakeholders have played in making St Michael's an exemplary school in Swaziland. Its findings indicate that the schools that themselves take the initiative to improve their effectiveness are the ones which are successful, which accords with the consensus in research literature on school effectiveness. The evidence gathered in this study suggests that St Michael's is characteristic of such effective schools. Since this is a qualitative interpretive case study on perception of success factors in a girls' high school within the city of Manzini, interviews comprising semi-structured questions were highly useful in tapping the understanding of how various stakeholders contribute to the academic achievement of students in the school. The findings, organised in the form of themes, help illuminate what appears to be a systematic and well-focussed approach toward the academic development of the school and the fulfilment of its goals. Every aspect of the school system is thoroughly explored. The validity of the stakeholders' claim that St Michael's High is a dream school for most Swazi children is verified by the school's examination results for the past decade. But what the research reveals are the cultural, academic, social, and moral values and beliefs which serve as a strong anchor for the school leadership and management, and without which St Michael's as an organisation would be unable to meet the challenge of implementing academic and national reconstruction.

This research was conducted in the Waterberg District with particular focus on the Nylstroom Circuit. The primary aim of this research was to assess the performance of farm school governing bodies in the Limpopo Province. The farm schools that were selected for this purpose were in the Nylstroom Circuit since it had a number of farm schools. The school governing body members such as the chairpersons, the principals and educators in the governing bodies of those farm schools participated in this study. The primary data collection method used in this research was semi-structured interviews. Participant observations were carried out on the sites before the interviews were conducted. Documents were analysed at the randomly selected schools. This research revealed that many farm school governing bodies cannot perform their duties because of various challenges such as poverty, illiteracy, lack of time off from work and the long distances that have to be travelled to meetings. In order for these farm schools to overcome these challenges, this research made a number of recommendations, based on the conclusions reached. / Educational Studies / (M.Ed. Educational Management))

Summaries in English and Afrikaans / Text in English / The aim of this investigation was to determine whether values, the style of discipline and father involvement, influence achievement motivation in secondary school pupils. A survey of existing literature on this subject reveals that style of discipline does influence academic achievement. Baumrind's research is a major source of information in this regard. Research also indicates a positive correlation between academic achievement and the father's ability to assume the leadership role in the family. A positive correlation between the choice of values, for example religious, social, etcetera, and academic achievement is indicated in past research on academic achievement. An investigation done in a large rural town in South Africa, however, reveals no significant correlation between the above mentioned factors and academic achievement. However, a negative correlation between achievement and popularity as an important value, suggests that under-achievement is found more frequently among pupils whose parents value popularity highly. / Die doel van hierdie ondersoek was om te bepaal of waardes, die dissiplineringstyl en vaderbetrokkenheid, die kind se akademiese prestasie bei:nvloed. 'n Ondersoek van bestaande literatuur op hierdie gebied, wys daarop dat die dissiplineringstyl, akademiese prestasie bei:nvloed. Baumrind se studie is 'n belangrike bron van inligting in die verband. Navorsing dui op 'n positiewe korrelasie tussen akademiese prestasie en die vader se vermoe om die leierskapsposisie in die gesin te handhaaf Bestaande literatuur oor die onderwerp dui ook daarop dat die keuse van waardes, byvoorbeeld godsdienstige-, sosiale-, ensovoorts, positief korreleer met akademiese prestasie. 'n Ondersoek in 'n groot plattelandse dorp in Suid-Afiika, wys geen beduidende korrelasie tussen die bogenoemde aspekte en akademiese prestasie nie. 'n Negatiewe korrelasie tussen akademiese prestasie en gewildheid as waarde, word wel aangedui, wat suggereer dat leerlinge dikwels onderpresteer wanneer hulle ouers op gewildheid gesteld is. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

Text in Afrikaans / Die gesin word as die kemeenheid in die samelewing beskou en speel 'n belangrike rol in die opvoeding, versorging en sosialisering van die kind, asook in die instandhouding van die samelewing. In vele opsigte vertoon die eietydse gesinslewe tekens van disorganisasie, soos in die hoe egskeidingsyfer, gesinsverbrokkeling, gesinsmoord, hoe voorkoms van buite-egtelike verhoudinge en saamwonery weerspieel word, en bestaan daar tereg kommer oor die funksionering van en opvoedingsbegeleiding in die gesin. Eietydse samelewingsverskynsels oefen 'n wesenlike en belemmerende invloed op die opvoeding van die kind en jeugdige in die gesin uit en dra by tot die toenemende kwesbaarheid van die eietydse kemgesin. Vanwee die eise waaraan hedendaagse gesinsopvoeding onderwerp word, is dit nodig dat die erosie in die gesinslewe teegewerk moet word. Hierdie studie poog om die verband tussen gesinsopvoeding en eietydse samelewingsverskynsels so te interpreteer dat riglyne vir die instandhouding van 'n toereikende gesinslewe geformuleer kan word. / The family is regarded as the basic unit of society and it plays an important role in the education, care and socialisation of the child, and in the maintenance of society. In many instances, contemporary family life shows signs of disorganisation, such as the high divorce rate, family disintegration, family murders, high incidence of extramarital relationships and cohabitation, and arouse concern about the functioning of and educational guidance within family life. Modem-day societal phenomena have a detrimental effect on the education of the child and youth in the family and contribute to the vulnerability of the contemporary nuclear family. Given the stringent demands which face today's family education, it has become necessary to counteract the erosion of family life. This study attempts to determine the relation between family education and modern-day societal phenomena to such an extent that guidelines for the preservation of adequate family life can be formulated. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Sosio-Opvoedkunde)

This study pointed out that without parental involvement in the children's education, the latter cannot fulfil its pre-set goals. The family together with the community, have to contribute a lot to the development and improvement of the education system. Implications of parental involvement, together with parents, and children's rights was discussed. The latter fact was supplemented with the educational laws of South Africa and the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. To determine the problems experienced by teachers in dealing with parents, concerning school related matters, teachers and parents' responses are discussed in this study. In this study America and Britain have been put as examples as far as parental involvement in children's education is concerned. It was concluded that the government together with the parents have to take drastic steps to rectify the situation in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape Province. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (History of Education)

This study looks at School Governing Bodies and its role and their effectiveness in school management. In terms of the South African Schools Act, all schools are now required to have School Government Bodies to compliment the formal school administrative structures. The research looks at how these bodies have functioned in a rural context. The empirical evidence, supported by other research evidence show that even though these bodies are sometimes dutifully constituted in schools, their functionality and effectiveness remains limited due to a number of reasons. This research study has shown that the ineffectiveness of SGBs in a rural context is attributed to that following key issues- firstly, there is limited knowledge of the functions of SGB, which can be traced to the lack of training on the body member; secondly, there is a inadequate framework in many public schools to engage with the SGBs; and finally there is a lack of school resources to make effective use of these bodies.

This study sought to investigate the involvement of parents in the development of their children’s literacy. The study was conducted in a rural school in the Omaheke region of Namibia, a school selected for reasons of representativeness and convenience. The research took the form of an interpretive case study focussing on a study sample of nine parents, their children, and one teacher in the Ngeama community. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and then subjected to comprehensive descriptive analysis. The findings of the study indicate that parents in the Ngeama rural community have not been effectively involved in their children’s acquisition of literacy, for a number of reasons. These include the parents’ not feeling appropriately empowered to influence the development of their children’s literacy, the absence of environmental literacy programmes within the community, and the shortage of literacy materials such as newspapers and magazines. Perhaps the most important factor is that there is no public or school library in the Ngeama community. In view of these findings, the study recognizes a need for parental empowerment in terms of knowledge, skills, understanding and resources allocation regarding the education of their children. It recommends that a relationship of trust and understanding be built between the school and the community to ensure the sound development of literacy skills. The study further recommends the establishment of a library in order to enhance the literacy levels of teachers, parents and children alike.

In South Africa, School Governing Bodies include parent component. This indicates that the participation of parents in the governance of a school is regarded as having a role to play. Since it would be impossible to include all the parents in the School Governing Body their representatives are elected to the School Governing Body. This study investigated the role of parents’ representatives in School Governing Bodies in rural public schools of the Butterworth District in the province of the Eastern Cape. Among others the study found that parents’ representatives experience various challenges with their role in this regard. For instance, in many instances School Governing Bodies struggle to maintain a full complement of the parents’ component. However, there are various ways and means that can be used in order to improve the situation.

This research focuses on aspects of parental involvement in homework and the differing power relations which homework uncovered within the family. It is concerned with the deeper implications of homework through exploring the attitudes, behaviours and beliefs of teachers and/or parents and/or pupils and to consider who really is in control of the homework process, the perceived and actual roles of the participants, the resistances to homework and the possible changing social factors which impinge on homework. This thesis offers a unique contribution to the homework discourses as it uses a qualitative approach, drawing on an extended version of the French and Raven (1959) conceptualisation of power as a means of interrogating the data, by labelling certain attitudes, behaviours and beliefs, to seek explanations of the patterns of power. These patterns of power are exposed through the family’s story of their engagement, or not, in the homework process. The notion of engaging pupils in the learning process is at the heart of many of the recent educational initiatives, arising from the National debate on Education (2002). At the heart of these new initiatives is the notion of learners being actively involved in the learning process, in and out of the classroom to encourage them to take responsibility for their learning. A number of implications for pupils, parents, teachers and the government are considered. These particularly relate to the effective practices of teachers and parents as a means of preventing the pupils from controlling the homework process and to the government to consider appropriate and effective means of ensuring that all concerned are engaged in conducting homework which is interesting, stimulating and motivating.

Parental involvement in schools has been contested for decades. Although it is clear that parents have a responsibility to care for and nurture their children, the legislated role of schools to educate children leaves somewhat ambiguous the role of parents. Using Hannah Arendt's notions of public and private and the emergence of a social sphere this conceptual research examines the complex relationship of parents to schools. Using the British Columbia Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils (BCCPAC) Parent Advocacy Project as one model, this study illustrates how parents can play an important role in the public school education of their children. Parental involvement and legislated governance of schools have emerged as major educational issues in Canada. The struggle for control in education has its roots in the history of public education, legislation, the emergence of unions and the postindustrial global production/consumption market place economy. These issues reveal the emergence of a "social" sphere blurring the public/private distinctions, dominated by bureaucracy and alienating citizens from their political responsibilities to determine a good life. The emerging role of parents as advocates for their children in the schools may restore some balance to the public/private relationship, however, it may also reveal some of the problems of power and control within the system. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate