A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Education School of Education Faculty of Humanities University of Witwatersrand / Arguing for the understanding of policy and its implementation as a multi-dimensional process, this study explores how provincial officials interpret and implement policy. It uses the context of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding (NNSSF) aimed at KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) independent schools to study what happens on the ground in relation to policy implementation. The aim is to explore knowledge and experience residing within local implementation contexts. It presents policy implementation from an interpretive perspective highlighting how provincial officials receive, interpret and transmit policy meanings. This research was conducted using a qualitative methodology. It is based on a case study of three KZN provincial officials in head office and one in the district office, sampled on a purposive basis. The interviews were administered to elicit responses from participants. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse data collected through interviews in order to discover among other things patterns, concepts, themes, and meanings. Premised on the theory of sense-making in policy; the study concludes that how policy is interpreted or understood depends largely on the repertoire of skills, knowledge, and experience of its implementers (Spillane, 2002). The research makes three key recommendations for policy, implementation, and research: 1. Allow local knowledge to flourish by engaging more with local implementers of policy as intelligent individual sense-makers and contributors. 2. Decentralise the system by delegating some decision-making powers to district and circuit levels. For example, allow them to have the power to advertise posts; make appointments; and perform other related duties that will contribute towards efficient implementation. 3. Capacitate district directorates through constant training and support. Chapter 1 introduces the study’s historical foundations and explains the underlying factors that influenced its composition; chapter 2 presents a literature review; chapter 3 outlines the research methodology; chapter 4 describes the data collection; and chapter 5 offers a summary, discussion, conclusions and implications. / MT2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education / 'Ihis research report examines the position and role of South African history thought to pupils in Black Secondary schools between 1953 and 1988. This includes the perceptions of those who were pupils in Black secondary schools from 1954 to 1975, and the views of teachers who offered South African history at these schools during the period examined. (Abbreviation abstract) / Andrew Chakane 2019

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The case study, presented in this report, is concerned with a particular form of adult education, namely, non-formal, adult Christian religious education - a form of education associated with local churches and which is provided by certain of them, usually on a parttime basis, throughout the year. More specifically, the case study examines the non-formal, adult Christian religious education provided by the Christian Life Ministries Training College, Freeway Park, Boksburg, in an attempt to answer the two overarching research questions, contained in the case, namely : "To what extent does the Christian religious education provided for adults by an apparently successful local church-based Bible school conform to the current theory and practice of this form of adult education, as discussed in the literature?" and "What factors are necessary for the successful establishment and continued existence of a local church-based Bible school on the Witwatersrand?" The research approach adopted was essentially qualitative, participative and collaborative in nature, and included three steps: Step one consisted of a literature review, to highlight the current thinking on non-formal adult Christian religious education at local church level. Step two consisted of the actual case study - the interviews, the surveys and the identification of important policy documents and action plans, to obtain the required information on the school, and step three consisted of an analysis and synthesis of the information thus obtained, in order to compare the findings with the theoretical model, provided by the literature review, and to answer in the process, the research questions referred to above. A review of the findings suggest that the school does, for the most part, compare fairly well to the current theory and practice of adult, Christian religious education and that it does owe its successful establishment and continued existence, in part, to the prevailing local conditions in the country. However, it does not appear to owe its establishment or continued existence to any prevailing local conditions on the Witwatersrand - none of which were identified in the research. After presenting the findings, the report concludes with summaries of the research approach and research findings, and with some final thoughts on the case study. It ends with some recommendations regarding the use of the findings and with suggestions for future research into the theory and practice of local church-based adult Christian religious education in a South African setting.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand, September 2016 / The research investigates the contribution of the low-fee private school sector towards access to quality education by examining two models of low-fee private schools in the Gauteng province, South Africa. The study generates insights about the contribution to quality education and implications of a growing low-fee private school sector for equity in the South African context. It looks at the factors that encourage the growth of the sector, the nature and challenges of running private schools and the quality of education offered by low-fee private schools. The study uses an exploratory qualitative research methodology and a case study design. Elite interviews with three experts; three founding directors; principals and two teachers from two low-fee private schools (one non-profit and the other one for-profit) in Bramley, Johannesburg were used as data collection instruments. The findings reveal that government support for private schools post-1994; excess demand due to middle class population growth in certain areas and differentiated demand owed to better quality and faith-based education are the key factors driving the growth of the private school sector in South Africa. The quality of education offered by low-fee private schools in South Africa is different across schools and mirrors the inequalities in the public school system. With reference to the literature, it is clear that the low-fee private school sector plays a noteworthy role, ensuring that some learners have access to schools in areas where government has not been able to keep up with the middle class population growth. Low-fee private schools give parents the opportunity to choose faith-based schools in a country where the public education system is faith-neutral. Although low-fee private schools are viewed as an alternative from public schools due to the poor quality offered by the latter, it is important to note that there are great differences with the quality offered by different schools in the private sector. / MT2017

Hegemonic discourses and ideologies of social work in South Africa, arose from the racist capitalism of colonialism and apartheid. Imperatives for social justice and social change therefore require that social work education reflect on and develop discourses of radical and critical knowledge and practice. The main aim of the study was to explore the extent to which South African social work knowledge and education, as reflected in various formal and narrative discourses, meets critical imperatives for social change and transformation. The study was qualitative in nature, using a depth-hermeneutic approach, with various interrelated, coherent empirical processes. These include reviewing extant theory to contribute to a framework of knowledge and practice constitutive of social change, conducting a politically engaged, critical thematic analysis of social work discourse constitutive of social change, as reflected historically in a selection of formal South African social work texts and in the narratives from group conversations among South African social work educators. Early South African social work knowledge and practice had emerged from the ‘social hygiene’ and eugenics movement, but later, Afrikaner nationalist ideology and liberal and racist capitalism shaped social work. In postapartheid South Africa, discourses of social development and reform within a free market rational economy; ideologies of liberalism and capitalism as solutions to structural social problems, neo-liberal discourses of individual responsibility and valorisation of agency, social control and regulation, are prevalent. Social work knowledge and practice consistently supported hegemonic ideologies of the state. Throughout the history of social work however, there was evidence of counterhegemonic, radical and critical discourse, albeit suppressed and hidden. Knowledge and practice constitutive of social change can be positioned on a continuum from oppressive, domesticating and colonizing knowledge and practice, to coercion and status quo maintenance, to institutional and societal reformist knowledge and practice; to transformational and critical knowledge and practice; and to radical and revolutionary knowledge and practice.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, August 2014. / The science teacher’s language, in the science classroom, has become a new language built with familiar Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) words, in this case English. This research study investigated the learners’ ideas and understanding of simple everyday words when used in the physics classroom. The study focused on bringing to light the existence of the problem of contextual meanings of everyday words in the physics classroom language. The participants in this study were mainly English second language learners and educators from 5 high schools in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, selected on the basis of their accessibility and socio-economic backgrounds. These consisted of 105 high school learner participants of physical science, (84 grade 11 learners and 21 grade 12 learners) and 5 physical science teacher participants (one from each school). The methods of data collection used were the questionnaire and the interview. The questionnaire items were developed using simple everyday words to test the learners’ understanding of every words when used in a physics context. The learners were interviewed soon after the questionnaire was marked. The respective physical science teachers were also interviewed to further probe on their learners’ answers. The findings in this study suggest that the learners have difficulties with the contextual meanings of everyday words when used in the physics classroom. The types of difficulties included learners assuming that certain words they meet in everyday life situations still carried the same meanings when they are used in physics contexts. The sources of the difficulties were that the learners thought they understood the science classroom language and the teachers also assumed that their learners understood this language. The findings also showed that the educators fail to notice that what seems clear and simple to them may be difficult and vague to their learners.

The aim of my research was to introduce drama, in the form of theatre for development processes, to local Grahamstown Primary School teachers, and to work closely with one teacher to explore theatre for development in the classroom, as a means of introducing both environmental education and learner-centred, constructivist teaching methodologies. I started my research by interviewing Primary School principals as well as sending out questionnaires to teachers, to survey their understanding and practice of drama and environmental education in the school curriculum and to invite them to participate in the research project. In collaboration with Educational Drama and Theatre students, I developed two workshops to introduce theatre for development processes such as image theatre and role-play to the teachers. Nine teachers attended this workshop which was video-taped. After the workshop I gave two lessons at a local school, in partnership with a teacher. Throughout this process I kept a research journal. All action components of the research were followed up with individual interviews, group discussions and a focus group. Although the study gave rise to multiple themes, I chose to highlight two: Firstly, Curriculum 2005 advocates a move towards more learner-centred,constructivist and process-orientated pedagogies. All of the participants in this study, including myself, had intentions of adopting a new approach tq education and teaching but found that we often reverted back to earlier learnt roles of product-orientated, text-based, authoritarian approaches to education which we originally had rejected. Secondly, I reflect on how we set out viewing environmental education, education, drama and research as a process and yet all the participants, including myself, continually tried to 'put on' the perfect performance in the form of a drama, a learning experience and research. This project was a participatory research project. The textwork of the research reflects a post-structural orientation. It has been written in the form of a drama to represent the many voices of the participants, but also to question the role of research in society and make research more accessible to non-academic readers. I also intend to perform the research process at a later stage.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2007. / This study sets out to explore the challenges faced by grade 9 educators in the implementation of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) in Maleboho East Circuit in Limpopo Province in view of the role played by this new education approach in the government’s agenda for social transformation. The study is mainly exploratory in design and has been undertaken within a qualitative framework. Thus, the study does not purport to come with explanations of cause and effect relations. It only explores the challenges that impact on successful implementation of the OBE approach. The research results show that the OBE approach is not effectively implemented in schools, due to inadequate teacher training, limited or little support to educators in their classroom practice, overcrowded classes and poor working conditions of educators. There is a need for a multi-dimensional approach that aims to address not only deficiencies in training, but also to impact on the attitudinal changes of educators. / N/A

Thesis (M.Ed.) --University of Limpopo, 2008 / This dissertation describes the schooling experiences of learners in farm schools in the Capricorn District of the Limpopo Province. The study examines how learners and teachers cope with the daily challenges they face in farm schools. The study followed a qualitative approach, where a case study design was used. Two methods of data collection were used, namely, interviews and observations. The study found that schooling in farm schools was characterized by a lack of basic learning and teaching resources such as classrooms, chalkboards, and basic amenities such as toilets. It was also found that the use of the multi-grade system adversely affected quality schooling