M. Tech. Education / Learners in the Limpopo province are reported to be performing very poorly in their examination results. This is clearly seen in Grade 12 results which are published for the entire country, South Africa. This problem is caused by, among other things, the lack of effective communication between educators and learners. This study investigated the problem of communication between learners and educators by using a quantitative approach, through implementing sampling, data collection and data analysis. A total of 47 educators from four secondary schools falling under Soutpansberg East Circuit of the Vhembe District answered a questionnaire. The collected information was grouped into categories and revealed that aspects of effective communication, for example, feedback, asking questions and proximity should be considered in the teaching-learning activity to improve learner performance. The results of the study were translated in a number of recommendations for improved communication practice and further research.

M. Tech. Education / The purpose of this study was to determine how delegation, as a management tool, is being used in primary schools in the Tshwane West District. There are indications in Tshwane West District primary schools which suggest that delegation is improperly employed or not used at all. In some cases, workloads become so unbearable that many people even at management level resign their posts. Many of the primary schools in Tshwane West District have been identified as underperforming primary schools by the GDE through the Gauteng Province Literacy Strategy. The study therefore endeavoured to determine the use of this most important tool in the daily duties of school managers.

M. Tech. Education / Literature shows that transition from primary to high school is a challenge to learners. The aim of this study was to obtain, from qualitative data derived from structured interviews, and document review from a case study carried out in District D3 Tshwane North (Soshanguve) schools, an adequate understanding of factors that influence transition.

Thesis (MTech. in Education)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2009. / This study endeavors to establish how successful the merging of institutions in Gauteng has been. Previously there were 150 technical colleges in South Africa, of which 50 were in Gauteng Province. The 50 colleges have had to be reduced by the merger process into eight colleges each with various campuses. Each clusters of the colleges centralized its functions to its head office while the former colleges became campuses in each cluster. The merger process did not happen overnight as it affected all involved; i.e., learners and all employees. The study seeks to determine how successful the merger has been. A qualitative approach has been used in this study. Data has been collected through interviews and observations. The researcher interviewed various stakeholders such as learners, educators, heads of departments, administration staff as well as senior members of management. The researcher took a closer look at how various functions of the colleges were affected and the impact the merger had on human resources. Although the merger process has had some success, the researcher concludes that there were certain areas which showed some problems and challenges which need to be addressed by the colleges. The researcher concludes by making some suggestions on the findings of this study.

Thesis (MTech. degree in Education) -- Tshwane University of Technology, 2009. / The purpose of the study was to determine whether rural farm educators are managing the Revised National Curriculum Statement as a new approach to teaching the curriculum of outcomes-based education. For this purpose, Witbank 3 rural farm primary schools were selected. The study followed a qualitative approach. Data were collected from three principals and three educators who were all teaching multi-graded (combined grades) classes. The study found that the educators and the principals were not coping with the demands of the curriculum, therefore learners did not benefit from their everyday learning. The educators felt that there is too much paperwork involved in managing the implementation of the curriculum. The lack of support from parents, subject advisors and the deputy chief education specialist (circuit manager) is detrimental to managing the implementation of Revised National Curriculum Statement. This has led to a serious communication breakdown among these stakeholders. The research revealed grey areas in the Revised National Curriculum Statement in its interpretation of learning. The policy states that every child has the potential to learn, but it fails to state the conditions that allow for effective learning to all the learners. The study also found that the training received at the workshops is suitable for urban schools. Educators struggle to apply the teaching and learning strategies at rural farm schools. Subsequently rural farm educators resort to using the old traditional (telling and recalling) method of teaching/learning.

M.Tech. Business Administration. Business School. / The introduction of a real democracy in South Africa during 1994 created the opportunity for reconstruction of almost everything that originated from the apartheid regime. Change in the political arena was the catalyst and driving force in reshaping the demographical landscape. The playing fields of reconstruction included political, social, economic, sport, education and many other areas. Higher Education Institutions reflecting the demographics and ideology of the apartheid system in terms of cultural composition of students as well as the workforce, formed part of the reconstruction plan. Such change included the merging of tertiary institutions that originated from the apartheid era. Three institutions formerly known as Technikon North-West, Technikon Pretoria and Technikon Northern Gauteng, were merged into the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). The merger process of TUT was extremely complex in nature and composition resulting in a long and exhaustive process spanning a period of five years. The long change process directly and indirectly adversely impact upon TUT staff members. This study focuses on the adverse effects of diversity on staff members as a result of the various merger initiatives.

Eleven years into the South African democracy there are still huge challenges facing South African public schools, especially with regard to the notions of equity and redress. Increasingly historically advantaged and disadvantaged South African schools are entering into partnerships in an attempts to address the challenges facing them. This study focused on one such a partnership between two primary schools in an attempt to ascertain whether partnerships can in fact improve the situation.

This thesis investigates the curriculum discourses of academics within a University of Technology, exploring their responses to curriculum challenges and considering the degree to which national and institutional shifts contest existing curriculum discourses. Curriculum discourses are identified and discussed against the national and institutional environment and are found, to some degree, to reflect the entrenched assumptions of teaching and learning that were dominant during the apartheid era. Existing curriculum discourses also reveal the influence of curriculum practices adopted within the highly bureaucratic technikon system out of which the institution has evolved. This critical inquiry rests on the assumption that with more insight into socio-cultural values and assumptions, understandings of knowledge, teaching and learning, and existing power relations within individuals’ working context, the possibility of transforming curriculum will be increased. Selecting a small sample of twelve participants from the Durban University of Technology, I conducted in-depth, open-ended interviews intended to explore these academics’ curriculum discourses. Adopting discourse analysis as my primary method of data analysis enabled me to explore the discourses which academics use to construct the notion of curriculum and their own roles in regards to the curriculum. Further to this, I used my own experience of the institutional context and the literature on the national and international contexts of higher education to inform the study and add to the richness of the data. Issues of professional, disciplinary and institutional knowledge and culture are acknowledged to play a central role in participants’ curriculum discourses. These socio-cultural factors are found to affect academic identity construction and change, assumptions about knowledge production and dissemination and notions of teaching and learning. These insights are then overlaid onto a consideration of the extent to which academics have the agency to transform their curricula to align with current higher education policy and the societal and economic transformation agenda. Competing curriculum discourses evident in post-apartheid policy, enormous institutional changes resulting from mandated institutional mergers, changed institutional management team profiles, significantly different student profiles and increased student numbers have all to a large degree overshadowed issues of teaching and learning and led to confusion, disillusionment and uncertainty among the academics participating in this study. There is evidence of a weakening institution-identity with academics feeling uncertain about their roles and responsibilities within the institution, feeling under-valued by the institutional leaders and over-burdened in their workloads with limited support and resources. On the other hand there is a strong identification with workgroups which include both professional and departmental groups that share sets of assumptions and established practices that provide academics with the stability, familiarity, security and affirmation that they need. The issue of individual agency as reflected in the findings, demonstrates that there was a continuum of participant agency that tentatively points to a correlation between the level of agency and the amount of stability and value gained from allegiance to and participation in workgroups. Despite the increasing pressure upon academics to interrogate their own systems and disciplinary structures that chiefly focus on a traditional mode of specialised knowledge production, there is limited evidence of significantly changed understanding of curriculum practices. Furthermore there is little to suggest that these academics’ curriculum practices have been impacted by international trends towards globalisation, marketisation and shifts in modes of knowledge production. Traditional views of knowledge construction and low skills training discourses were strongly evident in the data. With the challenges presented not only by the need for economic and social transformation within South Africa, but also by the need to respond to fast-paced technological and knowledge advancements, exceptional leadership and improved capacity are required to enable rather than inhibit curriculum transformation. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007. / This study explores the coming into being of a new Learning Area called Arts and Culture in the school curriculum in South Africa since 1997. The critical questions ask why Arts and Culture was deemed necessary in the new curriculum (Curriculum 2005); what factors influenced its design and did the Review process of 2000/1 effect significant changes to the Arts and Culture curriculum? The study draws its methodology from narratology, heuristic theory, discourse analysis and literary criticism in various ways. It uses narratology as the basis for analysis and as a representational device. As I was part of the policy development, the study commences with a personal narrative that sets the scene for the research. The primary data derive from interviews with policy makers, arts curriculum developers and arts practitioners and detailed analyses of relevant arts education policies. The first level of analysis entailed a narrative analysis of the interviews, focussing on the point of view and voice of the speaker. Documents were similarly analysed using a narratological lens developed for this study. The second level of analysis brought together the two sets of data and their individual stories to produce two differently focalized stories about the Arts and Culture curriculum: a curriculum of the Heart and a curriculum of the Head, both in the service of social transformation in South Africa. A third story, representing an unseen character - resistance arts, was introduced as pivotal in the Arts and Culture story. The third level of analysis dealt with abstractions from the group stories, arguing that nation building and identity formation and the potentially transformative role of the arts were central to this Arts and Culture curriculum. Discontinuities in the socio-political context and the curriculum discourse between 1997 and 2001 resulted in shifts in focalization of the curricula and may do so in the future. Current discourse allows for the creolisation of the arts and a re-imagined cultural identity.

This thesis proposes a conceptual framework for the discussion of concepts of academic freedom and institutional autonomy in a South African higher education context. A four-cell matrix is presented at the start of the thesis that distinguishes four types of understandings of these concepts. Having discussed these concepts-in-use in different contexts, the grid is used as a framework to explicate local debates on academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Beyond the conceptual exploration, the thesis traces a variety of broader debates in higher education in an attempt to add a richness to the South African conversations relating to academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Postmodernism and its implications for higher education in South Africa is explored, as is the more recent phenomenon (or ideology) of globalisation. Finally, the advent of external quality assurance in South Africa is considered and its role in changing perceptions of academic work and academic identity through the potential circumscribing of the academic domain is explored. My hope is that this thesis will contribute to a broadening and deepening of the current South African debates, and at the same time, offer a uniquely South African perspective on global conversations on academic freedom and institutional autonomy. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.