South Africa has, since 1994 undergone significant political, social and economic changes and all these changes have had an effect in most of the governmental departments. One department adversely affected in particular, is the Department of Education (DoE). The implementation of a large number of educational policies being developed at national and provincial levels to bring about radical changes, leave much to desire. That has led the researcher to be investigating Teachers’ Formative Assessment Practices in Grade 9 Technology classrooms of selected schools in the Fort Beaufort District of Education. The DoE had explored ways to better educate learners and to improve the entire school performance, hence the introduction of the new methods of assessment, to quote but one, assessment policy No. 19640 of 1998. The new assessment policy in the GET Band is a means of assessing learners in order to enhance individual growth and development; to monitor the progress of learners; and to facilitate their learning. This policy states that assessment and feedback are integral to the teaching and learning process and policy planners and practitioners must be adequately prepared to implement these policies. Assessment is the most powerful lever educators use to influence the way learners respond to teaching and behave as learners. It is crucial that appropriate and effective methods of assessment are employed to ensure effective learning. Therefore, the study examined, within the interpretive paradigm and taking a constructivist approach, experiences and concerns raised by participants concerning the implementation of formative assessment in the case. In order to investigate teachers’ perceptions and the implementation of formative assessment practices, in relation to emerging educational policies, one Grade 9 learning area – Technology - in five schools were purposefully sampled. Data from the participants were mainly collected employing qualitative methods, being in-depth interviews, observations and document studies. The main findings of the study were that participants’ (School Management Team members, teachers and learners) perceptions were not quite clear pertaining to what formative assessment is all about. They did not know how to implement it in their classes and as a result had a negative impact on them. This led to recommending that these practitioners must adequately and rigorously be re-trained in implementing the policy. The DoE ought to outsource such trainings to tertiary institution for certification purposes. In future, the DoE should, before implementing any policy, make sure facilitators know the policy, are adequately and thoroughly trained and skilled before embarking on any further training of policy practitioners.

In the new democratic dispensation, the Gauteng Education and Training Council (GETC) is the first statutory council instituted in South Africa, allowing civil society to participate in education policy-making. Against this background, this study explored the policy process and the participation of stakeholders. A literature study investigated the theory on policy and the participation of civil society in the policy process. The inception of the GETC was fully documented and a qualitative study undertaken to determine the role of the GETC in education policy-making. Data gathering was done mainly through semi-structured interviews with GETC members. The data was analysed, discussed and synthesised. The major findings were that stakeholders valued the opportunity to participate and members had high expectations of the contribution they could render in the policy-making process. Although most members had a good grasp of the policy process, lack of administrative resources and participative skills founded in the exclusion of large segments of society from partaking in such consultative structures in the past, was evident in some organisations. The function of the Administrative Secretary is deemed important in facilitating the functions of the GETC and training for this incumbent was emphasised. The lines of communication between the GETC and the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) need to be clearly structured in order to expedite the movement of documents between them. The I'vfEC needs to be more visible to GETC members. The GETC, MEC and the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) have to explore ways and means of establishing a sound relationship to serve the cause. Consensus between the GETC and the GDE should be reached regarding the role and place of the GETC in the GDE Policy Route. Areas for further investigation that would enhance the role of the GETC in the policy-making process have been identified. The study concluded that the GETC renders a valuable contribution empowering citizens to become involved in formal participative structures which will contribute towards broadening the basis of acceptance of responsibility for education, by society. This will assist in attaining its declared vision to improve the level of education in South Africa / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Comparative Education)

Thesis (Ph. D. (Administration)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / The thesis drew from a combination of phenomenology, interactionism and critical theories because South Africa in itself consists of a polity with national dynamics, within the matrices of globality in which connectivity plays a determining role, especially in terms of the capacity to competitively participate in the global knowledge economy. Guided by reading collectively and critically from the economic, physical development, policy analysis, interpretative as well as collaboration planning approaches, among others, and the mono-centric, multilevel and adaptive models of governance, the thesis constructed a conceptual argument that the primate enablers for modernized infrastructure, skills and culture attached to the preconditions for blended pedagogies, are modernized planning and governance. However, the attainment of planning, governance, infrastructure and skills is in itself inadequate to inculcate the culture necessary for the integration of elearning with conventional didactics. This observation is confirmed through international experiences that involve the developed countries that are in the very high and high Human Development Index (HDI) categories such as Australia, Poland and Korea as well as Thailand, Brazil and Algeria, respectively, where the presence of planning, governance, infrastructure and skills has not automatically precipitated a culture required for blended pedagogies. This evidence does not seek to underplay the significance of planning, governance, infrastructure and skills in the integration of e-learning with conventional didactics, but the thesis has established that the existence of modernized planning, governance, infrastructure and skills are a necessary, rather than a sufficient, condition. From the literature review, the thesis deduces that e-culture is a virtually sufficient condition for the establishment of blended pedagogies. Hence, variables such as GDP per Capita, Gross Fixed Capital Formation, Average Annual Growth of General Government Final Consumption Expenditure, Research and Development Expenditure and Public Expenditure on Education, that demonstrate the level of human development of a country, do not necessarily reflect capacity to enable the establishment of blended pedagogies. Such conditions do not always coexist with pre-eminence of communication using Internet and/or Mobile Phones, characteristic of the “Net Generation Culture”. The vi latter, as a specific form of e-culture, is heavily dependent on infrastructure and skills which are, among others things, reflected in Gross Fixed Capital Formation, Employment to Population Ratio, Labour Force Participation Rate, Labour Force with Tertiary Education, Total Electrification Rate as well as Employment to Population Ratio. The observation made above is corroborated by the experiences of developing countries such as Vietnam, Zambia and Kenya, which are in the medium and low HDI categories, wherein the absence of appropriate and adequate infrastructure, skills and e-culture together with planning and governance imperil the evolution of the national culture into that of the “Net Natives”. From an empirical perspective, consistent with the hybridization of philosophy, the thesis conveniently selected a target population that consisted of a total of 15 countries, wherein 14 of these observations provide a backdrop against which South Africa’s relative readiness and appropriateness of planning, governance, infrastructure, culture and skills for blended pedagogies are determined. A combination of purposive and quota sampling procedures was adopted to select the 15 countries across the four HDI categories. The 15 countries are classified in terms of the 2015 United Nations Development Programme HDI conceptions, which produced four levels of “very high”, “high”, “medium” and “low”. A total of 28 variables were selected for Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The thesis used secondary data sources for textual and empirical data, where the latter was largely drawn from the United Nations Development Programme Reports. The textual data were analysed qualitatively through thorough descriptions, classification and drawing of connections, the statistical data were organized into a 15 (observations) by 28 (variables) raw data matrix and analysed through the PCA. Verbal tools were used to provide thick descriptions of contexts regarding historical, social, demographic and economic backgrounds in order to situate the motive underlying the planning and governance of blending e-learning pedagogies with conventional didactics in South Africa. From a quantitative perspective, PCA was used for statistical modelling that standardized the data and produced a variety of useful statistical summaries such as Principal Components, Eigenvalues, Communalities, Correlation Matrix, Component Loadings, Component Scores and Scattergrams. vii Given that the raw data consisted of 15 observations by 28 variables, a 28 by 28 variables correlation matrix was generated. Of the 378 correlations that the thesis discovered, 183 are direct and 195 are indirect. However, 276 of the 378 relationships are negligible; only 102 correlations were strong and significant enough to deserve closer examination. Principal Component Analysis extracted a total of 15 Principal Components; and, the first seven according to the thesis, accounted for the cumulative percentage of 92% in the interrelationships. Furthermore, it is evident that Principal Component 1 consists of the characteristics of Modernized, Planning, Governance, Infrastructure, Skills and Culture, which are diametrically different from the Frustrated Development, Unsustainable State Intervention and Societal Inequalities, Limiting e-infrastructure, e-skills Constraint, Muted Development Potential and the Non-existent e-culture that are associated with the rest. Given the significance and strength of the eigenvalue and component loadings on Principal Component (PC) 1, it should signify the presence of enabling environments for e-infrastructure, e-governance, e-culture and e-skills consistent with modernized planning and governance of blended pedagogies. Therefore, a country that scores negatively on PC 1 and positively on PC 2 would represent a society that is far less prepared for blended pedagogies where an unrelenting state investment for e-infrastructure, e-governance, eskills and e-culture would translate into a replacement behaviour rather than integration of conventional didactics with digital technologies. This infers that the status of governance, infrastructure, skills and culture would remain less optimal for the adoption of blended pedagogies. For such countries, investing heavily in blended pedagogies without first creating the requisite conditions for engagement in the global knowledge economy would imply that they would have sought to exploit non-existent capacity in governance, infrastructure, skills and culture. South Africa's component score on PC 1 is -0.58, which would in terms of the analysis mean that this country lacks the character of modernized planning, governance, infrastructure, skills and culture that are necessary for engendering blended pedagogies. Countries such as Norway, Australia, Poland, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka that have variably trotted the blended pedagogies score positively on PC 1. Besides, viii some of these countries have not been successful in blended pedagogies, notwithstanding their apparent enabling environments. Conversely, South Africa's component score on PC 2 is extraordinarily higher than all of the 14 countries; and, it is 2.15 points higher than the nearest score. It is important to recognize that South Africa's score on PC 2 is an extreme case and a virtual outlier that has no connection to the rest of the fourteen countries, especially those in the Medium and Low HDI. Overall, South Africa's component scores highlight the relative dearth of appropriate planning, governance, infrastructure, skills and culture, that are necessary for the adoption of blended pedagogies. Whereas the thesis finds that there is no direct correlation between the level of human development and adoption of blended pedagogies, the latter appears to be a result of convoluted processes that involve the creation of enablers for e-culture largely through planning, governance, infrastructure, skills and culture. These qualities are embedded with societal equality, equity of access to services, capital formation, employment, education as well as Internet infrastructure. The thesis therefore, concludes that South Africa's potential for human development is derailed through endless planning that has become an end in itself. Planning for its own sake, which defines South Africa's democratic history, means that modernized governance, skills and e-culture that are necessary for blended pedagogies have remained substandard. The thesis establishes that South Africa’s national as well as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) planning demonstrates ambition and interest, which is however pursued in the absence of effective governance of implementation and adoption of appropriate educational technologies. Evidently, South Africa is yet to attain modernized planning, governance, skills and culture appropriate for the implementation of blended pedagogies, notwithstanding the infrastructure provided in some of the schools for teaching and learning. Instead, South Africa’s pedagogic digital transformation is characterized by replacement of conventional didactics with e-learning rather than integration for blended pedagogies. Therefore, this evidence suggests that, although South Africa’s educational ICT infrastructure seems to be relatively modernized, the absence of appropriate and adequate planning, governance, skills and e-culture impairs the successful implementation of blended learning. The thesis, therefore, recommends ix that adoption of blended pedagogies should be supported through the creation of eculture in households, underwritten by modernized planning, governance, infrastructure and skills for competitive participation in the global knowledge economy.

The new higher education system of South Africa is in the process of transformation. Part of the transformation process involves raising the use and status of indigenous languages to become essential part of the country‟s higher education system. The constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) laid a foundation responding to the imperative regarding the use and status of indigenous languages. The Ministry of Education (Higher Education) pays special attention to fitting their education policies to the constitution by incorporating subsection 27(2) of the Higher Education Act, 1997 (Act 101 of 1997) that states “subject to the policy determined by the Minister, the council, with the concurrence of the senate, must determine the institutional language policy of a public higher education institution and must publish and make it available on request”. The Language Policy for Higher Education was published by the Ministry of Education in November 2002. Lastly, the Ministry of Education appointed a Ministerial Committee “to advise on the development of African (indigenous) languages as mediums of instruction in higher education.” This committee published its report in 2005. This study investigates the fit between government language policies and institutional language policies. The focus is on indigenous languages in the South African higher education system. The main purpose is to argue for the design of an integrated institutional language policy framework in a holistic way. The study population consisted of the 23 universities and the indigenous language academic staff. A case study and survey were used. All twenty-three indigenous language units from the 23 universities‟ departments were used in the survey section of this research. A random sample of respondents was used, all the respondents were indigenous language academic personnel. Questionnaires were sent to each one who agreed to participate. This questionnaire was the main research instrument for collecting data. The research showed that there is no fit between government language policies and institutional language policies. It is recommended that improvements in fit between government language policies and institutional language policies be embarked upon across the 23 universities‟ staff members and stakeholders (students). / African Languages / Thesis (D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages))

The new higher education system of South Africa is in the process of transformation. Part of the transformation process involves raising the use and status of indigenous languages to become essential part of the country‟s higher education system. The constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) laid a foundation responding to the imperative regarding the use and status of indigenous languages. The Ministry of Education (Higher Education) pays special attention to fitting their education policies to the constitution by incorporating subsection 27(2) of the Higher Education Act, 1997 (Act 101 of 1997) that states “subject to the policy determined by the Minister, the council, with the concurrence of the senate, must determine the institutional language policy of a public higher education institution and must publish and make it available on request”. The Language Policy for Higher Education was published by the Ministry of Education in November 2002. Lastly, the Ministry of Education appointed a Ministerial Committee “to advise on the development of African (indigenous) languages as mediums of instruction in higher education.” This committee published its report in 2005. This study investigates the fit between government language policies and institutional language policies. The focus is on indigenous languages in the South African higher education system. The main purpose is to argue for the design of an integrated institutional language policy framework in a holistic way. The study population consisted of the 23 universities and the indigenous language academic staff. A case study and survey were used. All twenty-three indigenous language units from the 23 universities‟ departments were used in the survey section of this research. A random sample of respondents was used, all the respondents were indigenous language academic personnel. Questionnaires were sent to each one who agreed to participate. This questionnaire was the main research instrument for collecting data. The research showed that there is no fit between government language policies and institutional language policies. It is recommended that improvements in fit between government language policies and institutional language policies be embarked upon across the 23 universities‟ staff members and stakeholders (students). / African Languages / Thesis (D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages))

MEd (Educational Management) / Department of Educational Management / The aim of the study was to investigate challenges confronting SMT members in the implementation of school-based moderation of Mathematics assessment tasks. An in-depth study of literature was undertaken, taking into consideration the following research question: What are the challenges confronting SMT members in the implementation of school-based moderation of Mathematics assessment tasks in the Thohoyandou cluster of the Limpopo Province? The study used the qualitative and quantitative approaches. Purposive sampling was used in the selection of participants for the qualitative data and simple random sampling was used in the selection of participants for the quatitative data. Qualitative data was collected through the interviews and quantitative data was collected through questionnaires. The interview schedule was employed to collect qualitative data and 12 participants (8 SMT members and 4 curriculum advisors for Mathematics in the Thohoyandou cluster) were interviewed. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data and were completed by 75 Mathematics teachers. Qualitative data was analysed thematically and quantitative data was analysed through SPSS version 23. The study revealed that: Lack of understanding and knowledge of the process of school-based moderation of mathematics is a serious worm that needs to be addressed soon. Moderation of school-based assessment was not monitored appropriately. The study recommended that the Department of Basic Education should conduct workshops and train SMT members on the importance of school-based moderation to ensure quality teaching and learning of Mathematics.

MEd (Educational Management) / Department of Educational Management / Subject heads of departments (SHDs) play pivotal role in the leadership and curriculum delivery in secondary schools; yet they are still expected to lead departmental teams and to promote quality of teaching and learning. They find themselves in complex situations of leading departmental teams and of leading instructions in secondary schools. The purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges facing SHDs in promoting quality teaching and learning of dysfunctional Secondary schools. Qualitative research methodology was employed using case study research design to collect data through interviews and on-site observation checklists. Purposive sampling procedure was used to select four (4) out of seven (7) dysfunctional secondary schools. Sixteen (16) SHDs from the seven secondary schools were the population of this study. A total of ten (10) SHDs were sampled to be the participants in this study. Semi-structured individual interview schedules and on-site observation check list were used to collect data from participants. A voice recorder was used to record interviews and data collected was interpreted verbatim. The purpose of using on-site observation was to serve check the practicability and verification of data collected during interviews. Data from the two instruments was triangulated, analysed and interpreted verbatim. Common themes were drawn followed by interpretations and conclusions. The researcher presented general views of participants and linked them with relevant literature. The researcher hoped that this study will benefit teachers, school management teams (SMT) and researchers in understanding the challenges facing SHDs in promoting quality teaching and learning in dysfunctional Secondary schools (DSS). Empirical findings revealed that SHDs are facing complex challenges of promoting quality teaching and learning in dysfunctional Secondary Schools. Furthermore, it is recommended that SHDs should be supported internally by Principals and deputy principals. Equally importance is that external support by curriculum advisors should be ongoing. / NRF