Principals were struggling with the interpretation of their roles in the implementation of the NCS in South African schools, parlty due to the huge change and complexity of the NCS. It was found that principals did not understand their roles in the implementation of the NCS, and as a result did not develop staff, were not familiar with the roles of educators as specified by policy and shifted the burden of developing educators to the Department of Education. A qualitative research approach was employed. A reputational case sampling was conducted on three secondary school principals in the KZN Vryheid District. A semi structured interview and a semi-structured questionaire were employed on these three principals to gather data. Theme analysis was used to determine how principals interpreted their roles in the implementation of the NCS. I found that principals did not have enough understanding of their roles in the implementation of the NCS. However, principals complained that the Department of Education was more concerned about expanding access to education than quality of education. They also lamented that teachers had a low self- esteem with the profession. I found that principals required detailed workshops on their roles in the implementation of the NCS, ongoing curriculum leadership training, and required LTSM resources and equipped laboratories.

South African universities are embedded in an unequal society. Transformation strategies and interventions in the sector attempt to address this, but arguably, the policies and practices which aim to bring about transformation are merely platforms for potential change and do not guarantee the achievement of their aspirations. This study engages with the notion of transformation in one university, looking at how an organisation for women has contributed to transformation in individuals and in the institution. It explores the idea that vulnerability is the starting point of transformation, and must be recognized and incorporated into how an organisation, institution or individual regards vulnerable groups, in order to build a more equitable society. The reframing of vulnerability is a process of acknowledging the way power works, and arguably, power’s melancholic nature and expression in society and in universities has particular challenges with regard to how vulnerable groups experience their vulnerability. If the framing of an individual as vulnerable does not also provide that individual with the conditions that shelter the vulnerability they experience, leading to a renegotiation of whom they can become, their “vulnerable” status is entrenched. The study explores ways in which an organisation for women uses its legitimized platform for renegotiating subjectivities, norms and performances, and the potential this has for transformativity.

M.Ed. (Education Philosophy) / The purpose of this study is to indicate that school renewal and improvement is necessary. The researcher aims to describe the crisis in schools in South Africa and tries to give a practical solution to this crisis, by means of a literature study. The literature study describes the crisis in South African schools, as well as the role different agents play in the improvement of school practice. Finally, ten criteria for school improvement are identified and briefly described and a visual, practical model is developed to show how these criteria can be utilized in practice. The most important findings are: • that the school principal, teachers, parents and pupils have a definite role to play in school improvement; • that a change for the better can be brought about; • for improvement to the implemented in a successful mannerthe process of change and improvement involves certain criteria, which must be adhered to. Recommendations are: • school improvement in practice is possible, when crisis in the school situation is removed; • school improvement can only take place with the active participation of the agents or roleplayers of improvement such as the school principal, teachers, parents and pupils. • the practical implementation of such a process of improvement be applied through a practical process model taking the ten criteria of improvement into serious consideration.

M.Ed. (Education Management) / The implementation of Outcomes-Based Education in South Africa is not as it was envisaged. This was attributed to lack of necessary skills and capacity by both office and school- based teachers to comply with policies of the Department of Education (In this concept the educators and teachers are used interchangeably). Due to the above, both institution and office-based teachers started blaming one another for poor implementation and monitoring as well as supporting the new curriculum reforms. Institution- based teachers blamed the office-based educators for the lack of capacity, monitoring and support as well as feedback. On the other hand the office- based educators blamed the institution based teachers for the lack of internal support within schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of capacity by District Learning Area Specialists in supporting and monitoring the implementation of Revised National Curriculum Statements (currently called National Curriculum Statements). To accomplish this aim, Heads of Departments, District Learning Area Specialists, and teachers were sampled randomly from Ekurhuleni West school district. The Heads of Departments and educators were selected from Thokoza, Vosloorus and Katlehong schools, while the District Learning Area Specialists were from Ekurhuleni West district office. The research was conducted in a form of case study. It focused on qualitative and descriptive research style. Various methods of collecting data such as interviews, observation, questionnaires and document analysis were used in order to ensure reliability and validity. Based on the literature reviewed and responses from the empirical research the study revealed that the type of support offered by the District learning Area Specialists is not enough for the teachers to implement and comply with all the policies of the Department of Education. It also revealed that excessive demands and pressure from the Department of Education left schools and districts with no choice but to rush to the implementation phase without capacity building. In order for both district and institution- based teachers to implement and comply with the policy, the study recommended that: conducive organizational structure; combination of support and external pressure; issuing of incentives; reward and sanctions; strategies and prioritizing of work; high level of professional leadership and capacity; district working towards developing partnership with schools; monitoring and support and that institution based teachers should become organized and effective. Finally, the researcher recommended for a further research on the IDSO (Institutional Development and Support Officer). The reason is that these district officials are the ones who develop the management and governance of schools. They ensure that all the school systems are put in place. It is believed that if the governance and management of schools are in order, it is likely that the curriculum implementation might improve.

Educational Management / South Africa is faced with educational transformation that is embedded in the current education policy. For this transformation to succeed, teachers, principals and those in the higher hierarchy in the Department of Education, will have to work together towards attaining the goals of Education. Teams are powerful learning entities than individuals seeking to learn on their own. Teams provide an environment which learning can be articulated, tested refined and examined against the needs of the organisation and within the context of the learning of others. To be effective, team based learning activity needs to be based upon the needs of the team, the needs of the individuals within the team and the needs of the organisation. By articulating these three sets of needs within the team, real progress and development will take place within an organisation. The principal should provide the staff with a forum where there is an interchange of information and the strengthening of relationships and the improvement of the school climate. Specific roles that relate to a specific task need to be clarified as well as those that relate to the team. Principals should realise that the role they play in a school is significant. Despite this significant role, they can never be solely responsible for the management of the school. To achieve excellence collective effort is needed. Involvement of team members in decision making will help in achieving the organisation's mission as well as the goals. This will result in the taking up of the school's ownership by all team members. Accountability will therefore be owned by all team members not only the principal. Team building can lead an organisation to success because it involves communication, effective coordination and division of labour. This will result in effective school management.

D.Ed. / During the past decade there have been far-reaching changes in the social and political structure in South Africa. As South Africa has entered the global stage, many companies are now competing internationally. There has been a rapid rise in the technological development which has often meant that people have outdated skills and can no longer be employed. Consequently, young people who wish to make a decision concerning their future careers, are presented with a host of new challenges. The reality of today's world of work demands an individual who can anticipate and adjust to change. The postmodem identity of the multiple selves, is in constant flux in order to maintain position in a rapidly changing world. Sunter (1999), Burr (1995), Mazarr (1999) all refer to the way metanarratives of the past have, in today's world, been called into question. All the old certainties of the past have evaporated. These changes have led to a lack of stability and a sense of hopelessness for the older generation. As a result, there has been an increasing lack of guidance both from parents and from those involved in educating the young people of the country, especially in terms of career choice. Subsequently, our young people are not empowered and many of them fall victim to unemployment and a sense of non-agency. The realities of people living and making meaning of life under very different social, cultural and economic conditions has profoundly important theoretical implications for career counselling (Donald, 1995). There are so many new options open in the world of work, that these confound the process of career decision making. Savickas (1993;1995;1997), suggests that the new work ethic for the 21" century will be one of self-development, changing the goal of career counselling from supporting careerism to fostering self-affirmation and improved decision-making. There is an urgent need to develop an approach which facilitates the process of career decision-making which suits the "spirit of the age" and which is discourse sensitive, but which also incorporates aspects of universal significance. The challenges which are faced by this need are: How can the career seeking adolescent be assisted to search for his/her own identity and recover his/her own voice? How can the adolescent be empowered to challenge and overcome the disempowering discourses which invite career "indecision*? Which way of working could assist the career seeking adolescent to position him/herself and enable him/her to exercise personal agency with regard to the dynamic world of work in the South African context, so that s/he can make a meaningful career decision? The intention of this study is to describe and explain the use of narrative ways of working to facilitate career decision making. This study was set in a postmodem South African context and used narrative ways of working in both career decision making and in the research process. Narrative ways of working use ideas which encompass aspects such as social construction of knowledge through language (Burr, 1995: Gergen, 1991), the power/knowledge relations (Foucault, 1980), and the "not-knowing" approach (Anderson & Goolishian, 1992). Career seeking adolescents took part in the study. The participants drew a lifemap and then they told their stories. I questioned the participants using the inner landscape of action, the outer landscape of consciousness and the experience of experience (Bruner, 1986; White, 1991) framework of questioning. All the participants wrote a reflection of the effect of the lifestory conversation. Other relevant knowledge was gathered from documents, such as school reports. I listened to each conversation which had been recorded. I transcribed the conversations and listened to them again several times. Each listening provided an opportunity to listen for themes which might have been missed. The participants listened to the retelling of the story which the researcher had written and themes which emerged, were co-constructed. Then the participants and the reseracher had a reflexive group conversation using the reflections of the process and further questions as stimulus. This conversation was transcribed and after multiple listenings the researcher wrote a retelling of this conversation. I asked reflexive questions about the career decision making process and each participant was invited to asked me questions about the process. These reflexive conversations were transcribed after multiple listenings. A reflection was written about the effects of the process. Other data collected was used to provide coherence with the knowledges elicited in the conversations. This research report follows a recursive rather than a linear structure. I avoided the objectification of knowledge as it is in direct contrast with the fundamental principles of narrative ways of working. Accountability for this study lies within the multiple reflexive conversations. The authenticity of the data was checked by the participants themselves and a peer researcher who is well versed in narrative ways of working. The retellings of the tellings, allow the reader to make meaning of the participants' and the researcher's stories of the experiences.

D.Ed. / Since postmodernism according to Von Recum (1990:10) has to do with the dissolution of universal meanings for the world and life, along with the process of egalitarianism, that is, equality for all people, and dehierarchisation, and dismantling of authority, the administration and management processes of colleges of education are invariably influenced by the movement. This investigation therefore seeks to find out the influence of postmodernism, that is, dehierarchisation and dismantling of bureaucratic authority by students and lecturers on the generic processes of administration and the significance of it for educational management. The dehierarchisation process will, in the view of this study, make it possible for the colleges of education to be democratised and to be transformed. It would appear that the colleges of education have difficulties in coping with the demands of the postmodern times that are characterised by democratisation and transformation. This study therefore intends to examine the paradigms or models that may help these institutions to succeed in accomplishing the missions for which they were established which is to nurture and to train teachers.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document Copyright / Thesis (PhD(Assessment and Quality Assurance))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Schools, like all organizations, are undergoing radical changes in the way that their business is conducted. "One of the most significant of these is that leadership, rather than management, needs to be seen as the most crucial focus for institutional development and growth in the years ahead," (Whitaker, 1993). In these projects I focus on three dimensions of leadership. First, a critical review of literature on the expected roles of principals in schools. Second, a case study of change management at a South African senior secondary school; and finally, a situational analysis of my organization with regard to organizational structure, leadership, decision making, communication and interpersonal relationships.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Education at Technikon Natal, 2000. / South Africa's apartheid policy under the previous Government entrenched a system of education that favoured the White minority at the expense of the other race groups, particularly Africans. African education was based on the ideology that Africans must be trained to serve their own community. Gross underfunding of African education resulted in underqualified educators, high leamer-educator ratios, low pass rates and lack of facilities / M