Sublllitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the DEGREE Of DOCTOR Of EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at theUniversity of Zululand, 2003. / This study examines teachers' perceptions of the elements of whole school development and the extent to which certain essential features of such development are associated with school effectiveness. The study aims at determining the extent to which school effectiveness is associated with the following four elements (or sets of elements) in terms of respondent dimensions: (1) access to technical and human resources; (2)adoption of a clear culture, vision and identity; (3) involvement in efficient strategic planning, structural arrangements and procedures; and (collectively) (4) gender, age, teaching qualifications and teaching experience. To this end an instrument was constructed based on the Government bluebook for inspection of schools. The bluebook-based instrument was found to be descriptive and, therefore, intended to collect data of a qualitative nature. On the grounds of this serious omission the instrument had to be adapted so as to yield quantitative data covering all the essential features of school organisation. Care was taken to ensure that the instrument has content validity that covers all the essential features of school organisation. The findings revealed that there is a very strong association between the essential features of whole school development and school effectiveness. The analysis of responses in respect of these essential features has enabled us to arrange them in a rank order. The factor that covers adoption of a clear culture, vision and identity was rated in the first position. This was followed by a factor dealing with access to technical and human resources. The last position was occupied by the factor dealing with involvement in efficient strategic planning, structural arrangements and procedures. The study revealed that while age, gender and teaching experience, as aspects of teacher characteristics, did not influence teachers' opinions on the essential features of school organisation, the variable of teaching qualification was found to be influential in this regard.

The purpose of this study was to discover how ethnicity, gender, and mentoring influenced the career experiences of Jamaican administrators in Sunshine County Public Schools (SCPS), a pseudonym that was used for a large public school district in Florida. This qualitative, phenomenological study focused on the career experiences of eight Jamaican administrators in SCPS. Seven of the participants were all native-born Jamaicans and one was a first generation Jamaican, born in England to Jamaican parents and raised in Jamaica until the age of 14. The researcher gained this understanding by interviewing participants in-depth about how their Jamaican ethnicity, gender, and personal mentoring experiences impacted their personal and professional journey as administrators in SCPS. Findings and conclusions will inform mentoring and educational leadership literature on strategies for success geared toward this understudied population. / by Denise P. Barrett-Johnson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Human capital development is one of the key factors in human development in which the state plays a tremendous and critical role. Policies and systems established by the government to enable education, trade and socialisation help or undermine human capital development. The study argues that in the post-apartheid era, the government has moved on from apartheid human capital development to equal human capital development. The state has moved away from providing a fragmented system of a racial and exclusive education and training system to a non-racial and inclusive education and training system that creates equal opportunities for learning for all races. The study identified several challenges that hinder human capital development and recommended that there is need for the current government to create clear working relations between various bodies administering the post-school system. In order to arrive at those findings, the study adopted a quantitative research methodology. / Economics / M.Com. (Economics)