his thesis reports on a qualitative study of stakeholders’ constructions of gender in the context of the Free Primary Education policy in three primary schools in Lesotho. Through the lens of the social constructionist paradigm, the thesis examines how parents, teachers and children living in and around these primary schools think, act, and feel in relation to gender in their academic and social worlds. It looks at the ways in which these stakeholders engage with issues of gender in Lesotho communities ravaged by gender inequality. Based on parents’, teachers’ and children’s constructions of gender, the thesis suggests strategies that might help address inequitable gender relations in and around the primary schools. The thesis grounded my personal life experiences, as the researcher, as crucial in the development of methodological strategies and processes of this study. In a flexible and responsive manner, the study utilised informal conversations, semistructured interviews, observations, questionnaires and document analysis, as methods of data collection. It found that, influenced by ‘discursive constructs’ of providence and God’s will, child-adult relations, naturalness of gender differences and attributes as well as the Basotho culture, parents and teachers constructed gender in ways that reinforced existing gender inequality in and around the primary schools. The structural and social organisation of the schools that tended to allocate girls and boys into rigid social categories, and parents’ and teachers’ constructions of gender which reinforced inequitable gender relations, were found to have significant impact on the regulation of children’s experiences and meanings of gender. The study found that children’s experiences of gender informed how they actively engaged with issues of gender and the meanings they attached to being girls and boys. The study traces how Basotho culture and religion have been fundamental to gender inequality and violence in Lesotho. These factors encouraged the schools to use structural/physical identities (such as having biological sex as a boy/girl), as the bases for allocation of girls and boys into rigid and inequitable social categories. The dominant discourses of gender that emanated from these factors, ascribed stereotypic attributes to males (boys and men) and females (girls and women) as means to ground inequitable gendered human aptitudes, which were used to justify gender inequality. The study also identifies ways in which girls defy the insistence on their subordination, and sees fault lines where gender inequality can be confronted without abandoning Basotho culture. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

No abstract available. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

The dependency of educators in Lesotho on externally developed curriculum theories and concepts is fundamental to issues of relevance of the school curricula. This study set out to develop the meaning of environmental literacy in the context of three secondary schools and to explore appropriate teaching methods for the development of this concept in the science curriculum. The participatory action research process involved a team of four science teachers, including the researcher, in partnership with an environmental centre. We progressively developed the meamng of environmental literacy by monitoring teaching innovations in the classroom, holding meetings and workshops and attending conferences where we shared classroom findings and reflected on our emerging understandings based on classroom experiences. Data collection involved: audio-recording of classroom lessons, interviews with teachers and students, audio-visual recording, classroom observations and students' questionnaires. The research process made apparent the complex nature of the process of clarifying and developing environmental literacy in this context. Classroom actiyities planned to inform the team's understanding of the meaning of environmental literacy and develop appropriate teaching methods encountered constraints associated with the education system and the legacy of colonialism. These contextual constraints crystallised the need for the education system to be transformed in order to make schools more conducive environments for the gevelopment of students' environmental literacy. While initially teachers were reluctant to engage in critical reflection, the research process did encourage the team to revise and expand their understandings of both environmental literacy in the science classroom, and the action research itself. The emerging meaning of environmental literacy in this context and how it may be developed among students does not involve a definition with prescriptive, effective teaching methods, but provides insights and understandings gained by the participants in their engagement with a reflective process of reconslructing meaning. I have come to understand environmental literacy during the study to be a process that should draw strongly on the local knowledge and understandings into the science curriculum, through participatory process-based curriculum development models.

Thesis ( M. Ed.(Educational Management)) - Central University of technology, Free State, 2011 / The purpose of this study is to investigate teaching strategies that ensure the inclusivity of learners with physical and/or mental impairments in the mainstream schools in Lesotho. The intention being to equip educators with strategies that can be employed in order to address this didactical challenge at mainstream schools. The inclusion of impaired learners can be achieved only if teachers understand the purpose of inclusive education as defined by Van Rooyen and De Beer (2006) that inclusive education is an education system that ensures that all children learn and participate regardless of their disabilities. The study followed a mixed method approach, in the form of a survey, that is semi-structured questionnaire for teacher respondents while an observation coupled with informal discussion was utilized for the learner respondents. Population and sampling consisted of 211 teachers randomly drawn from 23 primary schools found in Berea and Maseru districts of Lesotho. The completed questionnaires were collected and analysed. The study found that there are challenges experienced by physically and/or mentally impaired learners with their teachers and peers. According to the findings of the research, Lesotho teachers in mainstream classes do not have enough training to work with impaired learners. Given this situation, it is not only recommended that the current group of teachers are re-skilled and re-trained through short courses and workshops, but also that teacher training colleges and university in Lesotho are encouraged to constantly review and update their programmes so that they are responsive to the professional needs of educators. Appropriate inclusive teaching strategies are also recommended to assist in addressing this challenge. Educators should be sufficiently supported by the para-professionals in order to make inclusive education successful. Government experts should work collaboratively with the Lesotho College of Education and the National University of Lesotho with regard to the attainment of these skills and competencies, in order to improve the work of the educators at schools. At school level, special educators should be hired in order to identify learners with impairments.

This study focused on the implementation of ICTs in secondary schools in Lesotho. The main question addressed was: What are the enabling and constraining factors in the implementation of ICTs in schools? The work was undertaken in recognition of the fact that schools in the country were autonomously acquiring computers and using a variety of curricula without much coordination and policies from the government. There were factors encouraging schools to delve into this educational change: and challenges were already evident. This required further investigation. The research approach commenced with a critical review of the literature. Literature was drawn from developed and developing countries in order to understand the process of ICT implementation from a variety of contexts. The enquiry about the implementation process in all the countries focused on the rationale behind the use of ICTs in schools. ICT policies guiding implementation, principal leadership, teacher professional development and ICT resources. The literature review was followed by case studies of three secondary schools in Mafeteng district in Lesotho. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods of research, the study sought to determine from key people in three case study schools their overall understanding of how the process of implementation was carried out and what they perceived as enablers and constraints. The findings revealed that planning, access arrangements, training, support and to a lesser extent resources played a role in either impeding or encouraging the key ICT implementers at school and classroom level. Additionally, the key role of the principal and the MoE were highlighted in the study.

The aim of this study was to find out the academic and social experience of Lesotho students who studied at institutions of higher in the Western Cape between 1990-1997.

The purpose of this research is to investigate and describe parents’ perceptions of the private community school at Hareeng Enghs/i Medium Community School in Leribe district. The study uses the conceptual framework of parental choice of school. This is done with a view that parents’ choice of schooling is related to the assumption that the private community school has a good learning environment. Because the parents assume that the school is good, the study shifted to explore the question of what makes a good learning environment. In order to obtain an exhaustive examination, data was derived from three sets of questionnaire. Data was obtained using openended questionnaires from a sample of Hareeng English medium Community school parents and teachers, andPhelane public school teachers. The results show that the parents’ choice in this study is not informed by the idea that the school is either public or private. Instead the study found that parents’ choice is influenced by the idea that the school has a good learning environment. When analysis of parents’ understanding of a good learning environment is done, the study discovered that parents’ understanding though educational, is not consistent with the literature on school quality.

A research report submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education by combination of coursework and research. Johannesburg, 2016. / As a fulfillment to the Constitutional obligation which is to offer education as human right to everyone, Lesotho has introduced free primary education in schools. This is also a commitment to the Education For All movement. Despite the initiative the country has taken, there are some vulnerable groups of children who are deprived of their right to education. These include girls who fall pregnant while still pursuing their studies. These girls are faced with challenges which include being expelled from school when they fall pregnant. Those who are allowed to continue their studies, they experience marginalisation that may result into exclusion from school. This qualitative study has therefore investigated marginalisation that is experienced by the girls who fall pregnant while still at high school in the Maseru district of Lesotho. The study was conducted through interviews with teachers, pregnant girls, and girls who have babies and still in school, and girls who should be in school, but have been asked to leave school. The findings revealed that girls in schools and out of school are marginalised for similar and different reasons by their teachers, parents and peers. Teachers use language and labeling which humiliate these girls while parents neglect their daughters when they fall pregnant. Rejection by peers has also been revealed in this study. All these marginalisation experiences could be attributed to the silence of the Lesotho Educational Act about teenage pregnancy. Schools in the sample have different policies with regard to teenage pregnancy. As a result some schools exclude teenage mothers from education. / MT2017

This dissertation presents a descriptive analysis of theological education in the Lesotho Evangelical Church, focussed largely on the work of Morija Theological Seminary. The dissertation provides an historical overview of the Lesotho Evangelical Church‘s work of theological education, and describes analytically various elements of and the roles of participants in preparation for the ordained ministry in the Lesotho Evangelical Church. This project proceeded as an organisational case study, and employed enthographic tools such as participant observation, documentary research, focus group interviews, and semi-structured individual interviews over the course of approximately two years between 2005 and 2007. Specific areas of investigative concentration included Campus Life and General Course of Study; Contextual Applicability of Pastoral Skills and Knowledge; Field Education; Christianity in Culture; Poverty; and HIV and AIDS. This dissertation presents data and discussion related primarily to findings in the first of these areas, and investigates data related to worship life, governance, and interpersonal relationships at Morija Theological Seminary as they relate to the educational task of the institution and its role within and connectedness to the history, life, and organisational structure of the wider Lesotho Evangelical Church. Findings are presented in conversation with Michel Foucault‘s presentation of the development of ―delinquency‖ in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, and within the context of assertions about normative relationships within Christianity and theological education, including Craig Dykstra‘s suggestion that theological seminaries should be "communities of faith and learning." The descriptive analysis and accompanying research data are presented as the first step of what Don Browning has called "fundamental practical theology." / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

Following the introduction of a new curriculum, Business Education, in Lesotho secondary schools this study focused on investigating teachers’ experiences in implementing the new curriculum in their classrooms as well as the factors associated with the success or failure of its implementation. This qualitative case study was used to provide in-depth insight into the day-to-day implementation of Business Education, successes and failures of teachers (teachers’ experiences). It further gave me an opportunity to delve into the weaknesses and strengths of the cascade model of training teachers, which was offered to teachers during implementing a new curriculum. Data was collected from three secondary schools in Maseru, Lesotho where six teachers were purposively selected from Lesotho Commercial Subjects Teacher Association (LECSTA). The data collection methods used are influenced by interpretivist paradigm and the study used individual interviews with open-ended questions, non-participatory observation and documents reviews of the lesson plan books, scheme of work and record of work done as well as the students’ test scripts. A review of few documents was used to compliment data collected through the first two methods of data collection. A theory of curriculum change was used in the study and ethical issues were considered. The findings of this study revealed that teachers were not adequately trained on how to implement Business Education and not many teachers were involved in the design of the new curriculum. They were not even trained on the teaching methods because the NCDC just assumed that they would not have problems. Teachers also showed that performance of Business Education is not good because teachers hate teaching theory, as a result concentrate more on practical, which leads to students hating it as well. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.