M.Cur. / The rationalization of nursing colleges was implemented to change the manner in which the state institutions were administered for the purpose of improving service delivery, reduce state expenditure and maximize the utilization of these state institutions by making them accessible to all eligible users. The nurse educators’ experiences in this regard had to be explored and described because people react differently even to the best of intentions. The following research questions that gave direction to the research study were formulated. • What are the experiences of the nurse educators following the rationalization of the nursing colleges in Gauteng? • What are the supportive guidelines that can be formulated to assist the nurse educators cope in the nursing college that has undergone the rationalization process? The purpose of the research was to describe the supportive guidelines that might assist the nurse educators cope in the receiving nursing college that had undergone the process of rationalization. The objectives that would enable the fulfillment of the research purpose were formulated. The objectives of the study were: • To explore and describe the experiences of the nurse educators in a nursing college that has undergone the process of rationalization. • To conceptualize the experiences of the nurse educators • Describe the supportive guidelines to assist the nurse educators cope in the nursing college that has undergone the process of rationalization. A qualitative, contextual, exploratory, descriptive and phenomenological research design was used to address the research questions and objectives (Mouton 1998). The study was conducted in two phases. Phase one focused on the description and exploration of the nurse educators’ experiences following the rationalization of nursing colleges in Gauteng. Phase two focused on the conceptualization of findings and the description of the supportive guidelines. The method of selecting the participants of the study was purposive so that participants who met the criteria could be included in the study. The sample was obtained from the target population of thirty six nurse educators who were deployed from the nursing colleges that were closed down and those who were employed in the nursing college before the implementation of the rationalization of nursing colleges in Gauteng. A pilot study of four nurse educators was done. The four nurse educators were not included in the focus group interview. Twelve nurse educators from General Nursing Science, Midwifery, and Psychiatry and some of the managers (HOD’s) participated in the study. Community Nursing Science nurse educators were not available due to work commitment outside the nursing college. A focus group interview (Krueger 1994) was conducted within ethical considerations. Audio tapes were used to capture the data. Field notes of the gestures and emotions expressed by the nurse educator during the interview were taken. Tech’s (in Cresswell 1994) protocol to systematically process the contextual data was utilized. Trustworthiness was maintained to ensure credibility of the study (Lincoln & Guba 1985.) The two categories, seven sub categories and the related themes that emerged from data analysis were conceptualized and supported by relevant literature. The two main categories were positive experiences and negative experiences. The sub-categories of the positive experiences were: sharing of resources, empowerment of the nurse educators, collaboration of the receiving nursing college with the community to improve nursing education and acquisition of trans- cultural knowledge. The sub- categories of the negative experiences were: fear, perceived behavior of the authorities concerned with rationalization of nursing colleges in Gauteng and aspects pertaining to racial issues. These categories and their related themes were conceptualized and supported by relevant literature. Guidelines that would assist the nurse educators cope in the receiving nursing college were formulated. It is recommended that the authorities concerned with the rationalization of nursing colleges in Gauteng and the management of the receiving nursing college should consider the guidelines to assist the nurse educators cope in the receiving nursing college and in future rationalization of the nursing college. In conclusion, the study has sheared light on the importance of conducting a research before implementing a major change such as rationalization of state institutions to ensure sustenance of the objectives of the change. The employees’ wellbeing should be considered because the success of the rationalization depends on them. Rationalization of institutions, whether public or private, requires effective management to facilitate a reasonable integration process.

Schools are essentially concerned with people and the development of knowledge and skills. Schools require leadership in order to achieve their goals. Furthermore, schools are tasked with being relevant in their contemporary societal contexts as well as for society in the future. Regarding the type of leadership in schools, Sergiovanni contends that schools need special leadership because they are special places, because they are lifeworld intensive and because “school professionals don’t react warmly to the kind of hierarchically based command leadership or hero leadership that characterizes other kinds of institutions” (2000:165 - 166). Against the backdrop of this commonly held belief, this research project undertook to investigate a school where the new curriculum had been successfully implemented in a context where there was absent leadership. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon, the school type and context, the human interventions and the school culture were considered. The qualitative approach was selected for this research with a grounded case study as the relevant research design. Epistemologically, this research is located in the constructionist paradigm and an interpretivist theoretical perspective will be employed in the research project. Interpretivist philosophies promote the notion that human action can be distinguished from physical objects by virtue of the fact that they are inherently meaningful. The data were collected by means of some semi structured interviews and a dyad interview. Both convergent and divergent questions were posed to the participants in the data collection strategies. The process of data analysis was approached from a grounded theory perspective. This approach requires that a theory should emerge from the data rather than the data proving or disproving an existing theory. Six themes were identified through the process of data analysis. These themes were then processed into five findings which collectively developed and compiled a substantive theory. The findings of this study revealed that schools require leadership. Leadership should be considered in its broadest sense with all educators possessing the potential to lead. In addition, the appropriate use of power and authority were identified as essential ingredients for successful leadership. School culture was also found to be an essential component of successful schools. Not only is school culture essential for the successful daily functioning of schools, but an appropriate school culture is imperative for dealing with change and the successful implementation of new policies, curriculum and school reform initiatives. A collaborative school culture was identified as the type of school culture that is appropriate and that would support and facilitate the management of change. In light of the findings, implications for policy and practice are presented and suggestions for future research are made. Lastly, the limitations of the study are noted and the conclusions of the study discussed. It is hoped that this study will assist policy makers and school principals to seriously consider their leadership style in terms of sharing power and authority and in the creation of school culture that are empowering and positive, one that considers individual potential as well as group cohesiveness. / Prof. B. Smit

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The culture of teaching in most South African schools is one of isolation and independence. Once individuals have qualified as teachers, there is a strong sense of getting on with the job of teaching, rather than beginning a journey of critical reflection and change. This study aims to address and contribute towards shifting this ethos and establishing a joint reflective school culture. / South Africa

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis was undertaken as an empirical study which focused on curriculum implementation in a remote geographical region in post-apartheid South Africa, known as the Overberg. The identity basis on which teachers receive and implement CUrriculum 2005 in the Overberg region, served as the cenrtal focus for undertaking this study. Accordingly, it was found that the personal, ontological, contextual, training, professional and pedagogical influences have had an impact on the composition of the identity basis of teachers in the Overberg region. The teachers received and implemented Curriculum 2005 in the light of the impact of their prior identities. / South Africa

Effective implementation of education reforms consists of alterations in curriculum materials, instructional practices and behaviour, beliefs and understandings on the part of the teachers involved in the reform (Fullan and Hargreaves, 1993: 5). A process of implementation is therefore, a learning process, learning how to do something new (ibid.). This study was done to establish how Biology teachers in Caprivi have responded to the reform process ten years down the line. I used a qualitative case study of two secondary schools. Four Biology teachers, two school principals and two groups of learners participated in the study. Data was collected by means of interviews, lesson observations, a workshop, and school inventories. The data was analysed within an interpretive framework. The results of the study show a move into 'activity-based teaching'. It shows a shift from the traditional transmission teaching approach. In general teachers seem to equate 'activity-based teaching' with the learner-centred approach.

A country’s competitive advantage is linked to its educational outcomes. South Africa, as a developing country wants to shift from being a resource based economy to being a knowledge based economy. To enable such a shift, schools must be able to graduate learners who are adequately prepared for the demands of institutions of higher learning. Schools, therefore, must become centres of excellence and a culture of performance must be prevalent in schools. The National Development Plan as outlined by the National Planning Commission (2011) identified education as one of the pillars from which South Africa’s economy will be driven. However, recent studies have rated South Africa’s education system as one of the worst among middle income economies and sometimes even worse than many low-income African economies. To bridge that gap, there is a need to drive schools to be centres of excellence. This study sought to identify factors that influence a performance culture in schools. In order to achieve this objective, literature was scanned and five factors that influence a performance culture were identified (organisational school climate, teacher attitude, school managerial processes, organisational school value and organisational school structure). These factors were initially identified and used by Marcoulides and Heck (1993) in a corporate organisation and later adopted for testing in a school setting by Gomez, Marcoulides and Heck (2012). A school in Johannesburg East district was sampled through convenience sampling and data was collected through a questionnaire which was administered to the principal, teachers and staff, school governing board members, parents and alumni of the school. The total sample was 120 and a total of 94 questionnaires were returned giving a response rate of 78%. Descriptive statistical techniques were performed to establish the mean and standard deviation of perceptions among the respondents. Inferential statistical techniques were used to measure and ascertain reliability through Cronbach’s alpha, comparisons of responses through t-testing and ANOVA, association through correlation and hypotheses were tested through multiple regression analysis. All the variables were found to be valid and reliable. Furthermore, statistical results revealed that in the sampled school, even though all the five factors had an association among each other, only organisational school culture and organisational school value had an association to the dependent variable, performance culture. Organisational school value, however, was found to be the only variable of great influence to performance culture at the sampled school. The ideologies and activities that represent the values, therefore, influence the performance culture of a school.

In democratic South Africa, policies place much emphasis on the need for transformational leadership. This challenges school leaders to ensure that their practice is in line with the democratic and inclusive values espoused therein. This thesis is an account of my journey of learning about educational leadership and how I attempted to influence transformation at my own school. The development of my living theory of educational management is grounded in my desire to make a positive change to the quality of teaching and learning at my school, by embodying and exemplifying such values in my leadership. My learning as an educational leader comprises my living theory on improving my educational leadership within a socially challenged context. I explain the context and problems experienced at my school and provide evidence of the need to move from the hierarchic, autocratic form of leadership, still prevailing at many South African schools. I adopted the theoretical framework of servant leadership to enable me to develop a more contextually sensitive and visionary style of leadership through critical reflection on my own practice. My stimulus for this journey of learning stemmed from the perceived contradiction between my espoused beliefs about leadership and my actual practice. My own autocratic leadership style was one of the main barriers that prevented teachers from attaining autonomy and taking on leadership roles within the school. My leadership style was more in alignment with the values of accountability, discipline and efficiency than those of care, trust and the development of the potential of others. This interrogation of my ontological values informed my subsequent interventions to improve my practice. Following an action research design, I investigated the quality of my leadership to determine which areas I needed to improve, took action to improve these and evaluated the change against the values inherent in the notion of servant-leadership. I embarked on a journey that helped me to shift my practice from being based on previously held authoritarian professional values towards values that underpin a more transformational leadership, such as care and trust. My journey of learning was guided by the tenets of self-study action research, which required critical self-reflection and holding myself accountable for my own actions The practical knowledge I gained through this self-reflection on my practice enabled me to make professional judgements, which then became conceptual knowledge in the form of a living theory generated by my research. This was made possible through a continuous process of data generation to extract evidence to test the validity of the claims to knowledge I made. Multiple sources of data (written, graphic and multimedia) were used to better understand the scope of happenings throughout the research and to monitor my practice over time. I explain how I used my improved understanding of leadership to promote collegiality for building quality relationships to promote teacher leadership for school improvement and how I subjected these claims to social and personal validation procedures. The significance of this study is that it contributes to new forms of practice and theory in terms of showing how a values-based approach to school leadership can influence positive change in teacher practice. While this study is a narrative of my practice, it is also a narrative of theorising about how my colleagues and I have come to know and how our thinking has changed about our work and ourselves. Although I had to indicate a cut-off point in this action research enquiry, the knowledge gained will continue to develop and influence my practice in the future and hopefully will be judged as useful by others in positions of leadership. The thesis is thus an original contribution to educational knowledge in the field of self-study action research. It demonstrates how sociohistorical and sociocultural insights from Apartheid to Post-Apartheid South Africa can be integrated within a living theory of transformational leadership.

The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent foundation phase teachers adapt Curriculum 2005. The study was guided by two research questions: (1) What are the critical components of Curriculum 2005 (foundation phase)? (2) What are the adaptations that teachers have made in teaching this curriculum? The specific focus of this study is foundation phase teachers’ initial implementation of the revised version of Curriculum 2005, the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS). An Innovation Configuration Checklist was developed identifying the critical components of the RNCS and the variations of each. Using the checklist, foundation phase teachers were surveyed to establish the adaptations being made during implementation. The findings of this study indicate that there is less active learning and more teacher directed activity than is required by the RNCS. Assessment appears to be a problem area. Most teachers understand what is expected of them in terms of assessment and attempt to put it into practice. Assessment has however, proved to be burdensome and time consuming. Teachers’ planning demonstrates a sound understanding of the procedures to be followed. Teachers do however, need support in terms of deeper pedagogical content knowledge. Although teachers comply with the technical aspects of curriculum development they neglect the emancipatory aspects of the RNCS. The situation in foundation phase classrooms might be described as one where much change is taking place, but little transformation is happening at present. Teachers are nevertheless, reflecting on how to improve their teaching and continue to explore ways to adapt and improve the RNCS.

This thesis is concerned with the ‘problem’ of change in education, an issue characterised in much of the literature as a paradox of innovation without change. The thesis draws upon school-based empirical research, undertaken in the context of the reactions by Geography, History and Modern Studies teachers to the notion of teaching integrated social subjects, set against the wider framework of the Scottish Executive’s curriculum policy. The thesis first sets the topic in its Scottish and wider context, before undertaking a comprehensive review of the themes that emerge from the worldwide literature on educational change. These include the paradox of innovation without change, teacher mediation of change initiatives, departmental and school cultures, the subject centredness of schooling and factors that have been noted to underpin successful change initiatives. The thesis sets out a theoretical position that draws upon the critical realist social theory of Margaret Archer. This approach posits a centrist approach to the contentious structure/agency debate, suggesting a complex relationship between social structures, cultural forms and individual agency, whereby social reproduction and transformation are played out through continual social interaction. From this foundation of theory, I develop a practical methodology for researching change in school settings. My empirical work consists of a questionnaire sent to 100 schools, and two linked case studies, where data was collected through semi-structured interviews, observations and analysis of school documents. The research identifies trends in school provision and, through the case studies, the processes of curriculum making are investigated using the aforementioned methodology. The thesis concludes that such processes are ineluctably social practices, and that those seeking to innovate in schools should pay attention to the social dimensions of change – the engagement of people with ideas and the social structures that impede, distort or promote change. The thesis concludes by presenting a set of general principles that might serve to facilitate change promoted by future initiatives.

By 1994 education in South Africa had collapsed (TRC, 1998; CCOLT, 1996). In response, South Africa's first non-racial government initiated a wide ranging School Reform (SR) program. However, almost a decade after the reforms commenced there have been very few substantial changes in the majority of South African schools: The Education Rights Project (2003a) and the South African Human Rights Commission argue that SR is failing the majority of South Africans. This thesis explores an alternative, School-Community Development (SCD), that integrates school reforms with programs that draw members of the school's neighbouring community (the "school-community") into the process of changing schools. I argue that SR is an inadequate response to the problems that confront schools. Using the case study method I show that SR is enhanced when integrated with locally developed social, cultural, economic, and school development programs. The thesis makes two contributions to the literature. First, the thesis challenges the "simplistic solutions to educational problems" (Anyon, 1997, p. 12) that constitute SR. Second, the thesis presents a materially grounded critique of SR in South Africa that evokes the "multiple voices" (Sayed, 2002, p. 32) from the four case study schools. Accordingly, our understanding of "making change work at the micro level", a neglected area of South African educational research (Sayed and Jansen, 2001, p. 7), is enhanced. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate