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This longitudinal study on the transition from school to work of a group of Indian school-leavers from two co-educational schools in Durban is an attempt to analyse the processes underlying the construction of educational and career routes. It deals with the lived experiences of boys and girls from different social-class backgrounds within the school, the family, and the work situation. This passage from school to work, which also includes the experiences of unemployment, is examined against the background of social interactions in micro settings, as well as the influences of social, structural and cultural forces. In particular, the career pathways are studied within the context of the cultural background of Indians, and their socio-historical location in the South African society as a minority and an intermediate status group in a racially-divided society. As the students proceeded through the last three years at school and into the first few months of work various qualitative, field research methods were used to get some insight into the changing and complex nature of the transitional process. These methods included participant observation, focus sed and unfocussed interviews, and discussions. Such qualitative research methods were valuable for an understanding' of the meanings and values on which the students' actions were based. The structural and interpretive analysis of the family, the school, the labour market, and a patriarchal, capitalist, apartheid society points to the significance of ideological values, hegemony, class relations, racial, gender, and political and economic influences on the construction of educational and career identities. The analysis also indicates the close relationship which exists on the one hand between the cultural interpretations and practices of various social actors; and on the other hand, the structural conditions in which these are located. The findings provide some account of how social-class relations are continued and sustained via related and different inequalities such as race and gender. Race, class and gender exist side by side in this reproduction process. By focussing on the close relationship which exists between the actions and decisions of the students, and the structures of society, this study attempts to bridge the gap between structural and interpretive explanations. The students' interpretations of their educational and career choices are brought into a closer relationship with the structures of society. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1988.

The inadequacies of Black education have been approached from various angles including government intervention in the form of legislation, socio-economic measures, and others. People have also discovered this inadequacies and are struggling to resolve them in the form of 'alternative schools' or 'people's education' campaigns. The focus of this thesis is on community participation in the provision of education looking at two case studies in the Durban Functional Region. The theoretical framework for the study was threefold: derived from the development literature incorporating community participation; followed by a review of the literature on space; and a discussion on education - people's education. Data was gathered from intensive interviews, group discussions, newspaper articles, school reports and other documents. This assisted in giving an insight into the particular forms that community participation took in the two case studies. The following processes were identified from the study: processes of conflict and opposition and processes of co-operation in sharing a common task. These were analysed based on parameters such as: goals, concerns, students, community involvement, accountability, finance, sustainability and empowerment. The salient yet powerful features of the study were that of 'space' and 'locality' which presented a powerful force explaining the specificity of the processes in each of the case studies. The case studies succeeded in critically illuminating the precise meaning and evolution of community participation, its theoretical consistency, spatial sensitivity and also assessed its practicality. Furthermore, the study emphasised that local and domestic strategies in the provision of education need to be re-enforced through positive national or state interventions. Finally, as demonstrated in the two case studies, context-specificity should be the guiding principle in any community participation efforts. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, 1993.

This narrative inquiry study explores the past and present relationships between the personal and professional experiences of teachers and their evolving teacher identities. In this study, I take on the role of participant-researcher to work together with two other teachers in my school to share and study our personal and professional stories of lived experience in order to better understand how our teacher identities might be evolving in response to the South African educational context. The diverse contexts from which we have journeyed frame the different experiences that we share. In considering the question of how teachers’ past lived experiences might have shaped our teacher identities, I identify political, social, educational and economic forces as well as teacher and family legacies that have emerged from our personal and professional narratives. In looking at the question of how teachers’ current professional experiences might be affecting our evolving teacher identities, I highlight the daily lives of the teachers in this study, their influences and experiences, their inter-personal relationships, their passion for their subject and finally their future expectations that may or may not bring about change. Overall, this study draws attention to the value of teachers examining the personal and professional experiences that they have had in order to understand why they take on and project the identities that they do and how these identities might evolve and change in response to new situations and challenges. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2010.

This study investigated teachers’ management of learner problems in the context of an impoverished school community. The rationale for the study took into consideration the constant demands placed on learners and teachers by poverty-related issues. By illuminating the factors that affect teachers’ work performance in the context of an impoverished school community, it is hoped that all education stakeholders would be motivated to support, assist and guide teachers to overcome the current challenges with regard to poverty in schools, thus enhancing their work performance as well as that of their impoverished learners. The study employed a qualitative research design. Through a process of purposive sampling, five teachers from a primary school from the Phoenix Ward of the Pinetown District in KwaZulu-Natal were selected. The data were generated by means of semistructured interviews. The data gathered were coded and organized into themes, categories and sub-categories. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings suggest that the consequences of poverty at school level are numerous and become even more complex when there is a lack of parental support at community level. Furthermore, they reveal that poverty impacts negatively on learners’ academic performance. Factors associated with poor work performance by learners included abuse, parental apathy, the environment, and a lack of resources, to name but a few. Praise and recognition, as well as democratic leadership styles on the part of teachers have a positive influence on learners’ work performance. Flexibility, care and visible intervention by teachers and the school have been found to have a positive impact on learners’ attitude towards school. The study concludes with a number of recommendations to address and manage the problems experienced by learners in impoverished contexts. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

This study examines the social actors and issues involved in constructing and contesting the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), in order to identify whose interests are involved in shaping an institution which transmits dietary habits and food knowledge to the nation’s children through the mid day meal. For the historical analysis, I collected data from historical accounts of the NSLP, congressional hearings, laws, and newspaper articles. For the contemporary analysis, I interviewed 15 actors representing organizations key to federal NLSP policy making. To frame my analysis, I utilize a model of power, based on the work of Arts and Van Tatenhove (2004), and the work of Burstein (1991), who describes issue creation and movement in policy domains. The key findings of this study are that actors with the most financial resources (e.g. the food industry) do not automatically achieve their interests in the policy making process. In fact, at key times of contestation, economically powerful actors form alliances and adjust their agenda in reaction to the use of other forms of power by economically weaker actors. This information can help economically weaker actors (e.g. the farm to school movement) understand how to increase their influence in the policy domain.

This thesis draws on student testimony, curriculum analysis, and statistical tests to explore 1) the degree to which gender, financial aid status, and race/ethnicity correlate with student perceptions of Intro to IR course content and 2) the degree to which students conceptualize IR as interrelated with social identities, as opposed to an abstracted state-centric discipline.

Understanding the political nature of adult education program planning is important for practitioners and researchers. This multivariate study clarified the relationships between contextual factors (nature of the power relationship and degree of situational conflict), individual planner's characteristics (perceived problem solving effectiveness, years of experience program planning), and the use of different power and influencing tactics in adult education program planning. Based on theoretical models specified by Cervero and Wilson (1994) and later Yang (1996), the Problem Solving Inventory (Heppner, 1988) and the Power and Influencing Tactics Scale (Yang, 1996) provided instrumentation.A sample of 245 graduate students and faculty in Adult and/or Continuing Education programs completed the informed consent and all the self-report study instruments. Participants were middle-aged (M = 40.84), female (65.1%), and white (82.0%). Most held master's degrees (50.8%) or bachelor's degrees (41.1%) and worked in a public organization (57.1%) of moderate size. Most participants reported low conflict situations and strong perceived problem solving ability.Two significant canonical correlations were initially identified, though only the first held practical importance. In the first canonical correlation (Rc = 0.524; Rc ² = 0.275; p>0.01), high conflict was the singular meaningful predictor variable and there were several moderately strong criterion variables: high counteracting, low reasoning, and low consulting. This canonical correlation was named "When reasoning and consulting fail: counteracting in the face of conflict." Furthermore, in consensual planning situations, reasoning and consulting were favored, while counteracting was not. Three of the hypotheses that were generated to specifically test different uses of influencing tactics under different individual and contextual conditions were partially accepted. Being an early attempt to characterize complex constructs quantitatively, this study suggests that further work is needed to identify and measure the factors that are most critical. Future qualitative research should clarify the nature of power and conflict, and focus on describing the actual use of different influencing tactics in the field. Quantitative research should focus on reliability of instruments and theoretical model clarification with a broader range of adult education program planners. / Department of Educational Leadership

This thesis begins with an introduction and methodology that presents two major research questions: “Can restorative justice exist within a zero-tolerance framework,” and, “What are the challenges that stand in the way of implementing restorative justice ideologies fully at Glenside High School?” The author provides an autobiographical statement to give context to his positionality within this research. A comprehensive literature review highlights a brief history of restorative justice, a description of the harmful effects of punitive discipline, and results from different communities that have implemented restorative justice. The three major respondents are introduced in order to provide context to their positionality within this research. The author presents his research findings based on qualitative field notes from site visits to a public, Southern California high school in addition to responses from interviews with teachers and a restorative justice expert. The author concludes by arguing for the implementation of restorative justice in a widespread manner in individual schools, in addition to comprehensive teacher training in pre-professional programs for prospective teachers and the need to shift from “teach to the test” ideologies to holistic student development pedagogies.

The number of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is on the rise, both in the United States and around the world. The Individuals with Disabilities ACT (IDEA 2004) and No Child Left Behind Act (2001) mandate that children with disabilities, including children with ASD, be educated in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). The general education classroom is increasingly identified as the LRE. General education teachers are increasingly responsible for educating students with ASD, often with little or no training on ASD or intervention methods. Few previous studies have explored general education teachers’ experiences and attitude towards inclusion of learners with ASD. This study examines general education teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of inclusion in their schools and their experiences teaching in inclusive settings. This study illuminated two areas of interest: first, teachers were supportive of inclusion, and second, teachers identified areas where they felt inclusion policies needed to be improved in order for inclusion practices to be more effective. This paper subsequently analyzes the aforementioned trends and provides recommendations for further study of inclusion of students with ASD in the general education classroom.