Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research focused on the experiences of female principals of co-ed high schools in the Western Cape. It investigated the path that their careers followed from the decision to become a teacher to ultimately being appointed as a principal and then having to lead the school. It further investigated the personal, organisational and social factors that were influential along the way. In addition, it probed the motivation and drive behind their career choice as well as the barriers and challenges encountered along the way. The researcher interviewed nine female principals. They were asked to tell their life story, with emphasis on their career route thus far. Key questions were asked, focusing on the motivation behind their career choice, whether they had been actively prepared for promotion and how their appointment was received. The interviews were transcribed in order to prepare them for data analysis. Any content that recorded experiences that contributed to their growth and development in teaching was coded accordingly. This produced a spectrum of codes. The codes were then placed into a diagram and grouped together, based on their meaning and implications. Identified groups included education and training, self-belief, work-life balance, mentorship, support and the stereotyping of women. The interconnectedness of the group was considered, together with their collective impact on the individual principals’ career route. The research findings indicated that the career route of the principals was determined by various factors on a personal level as well as on organisational and social levels. On a personal level, qualifications obtained and the influence of parents, family and own teachers played a role. This was critical in preparing the individual for the career path that was to follow. On an organisational level, opportunities taken, work ethic, mentorship and gender barriers were factors encountered. On a social level, the stereotyping of women and the changing family structure were factors that had to be contended with. Once appointed, it was found that the support from family, colleagues and learners contributed to their success. It emerged that the potential of these women had been identified early on in their careers and that they gained confidence when they were granted opportunities to learn and grow. To become a principal was in most cases never their intention but something that developed as they went about doing their work with commitment and diligence. Throughout, it remained a priority for them to invest in the lives of learners and the greatest joy was derived from seeing learners develop into young adults who were contributing to society.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Under No Child Left Behind legislation of 2002, school principals shoulder the burden of school success determined by test scores of students. Challenges principals face demand school leaders possess greater knowledge and skills than administrators of the past. The need for well-trained, skilled school leaders makes it important to study the subject of school leadership training. This study examined a school leadership preparation partnership between the University of North Texas and Dallas Independent School District. Primary supporting references include work by Bottoms and O'Neill (2001) calling for the 16-member states of the Southern Regional Education Board to train a new breed of principal to meet the current demands for student achievement in public schools. This research adds to the body of knowledge of school leadership development programs, particularly those that involve cohort-based study groups and shared service partnerships between school districts and universities. Major questions investigated: 1) How did participation in the program change the involvement of administrative interns in campus-based decision-making? 2) How has participation in the program changed the ways participants perceive themselves? 3) What actions have members of the cohort group taken in their teacher-leader/administrative positions to affect student achievement? 4) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the UNT/DISD/SREB Leadership Development Program partnership? Information was gathered from 16 of the 26 program participants through questionnaires, interviews, and document study.

M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This study examined the perceptions of school superintendents of districts and building principals of schools within selected shared service arrangements in the state of Texas who receive services from the cooperative, and selected directors of rural shared service arrangements pertaining to the responsibilities and roles of shared service arrangements when site-based decision-making (SBDM) was used as the guiding philosophy.

This research study examined the perceptions of school administrators and of historic site directors toward the function of the sites in the public school curriculum. In-depth, personal interviews were conducted, tape-recorded, and transcribed at six selected sites, representing the various ethnic historic settlements of Texas, a variety of population densities, each of the major physical geographic regions, and different economic levels in the state. Data analysis involved careful study of the taped interviews, comparisons of responses given by people of similar roles, and comparisons of responses regarding the same site. Documentation of elements of the historic sites, of programs offered, of participation of the local school district in programs, and of written school policies were examined. The perceptions of the interviewees along with recommendations for changes were noted. Responses varied from expressed impression of students who are steeped in local history and are bored with their heritage, to enthusiastic positive opinions that the prosperity of the community is directly related to the strong identification of the citizens with its local history. The role of local history and of specific sites in the curriculum of the public schools is not consistent in Texas. This research study suggests that positive gains are possible if communication between local historic site/park/museum personnel and professional educators who are responsible for planning and implementation of school curriculum can be improved. Professional educators tend either to value local history and historic sites as part of the curriculum, or to avoid the question of meeting state mandates for classtime through the use of off-campus visits to historic sites by interpreting recent reforms to prohibit them. Professional personnel who oversee the historic sites tend to offer programs to the public schools that will meet the mandated curriculum, while adhering to the scheduling constraints of school reform legislation.

Texas 5A high school and junior college athletic directors' perceptions concerning graduate courses and competencies relating to athletic director performance were investigated. Graduate courses needing emphasis for prospective directors, most and least beneficial graduate courses, perceptions of values of graduate courses, and selected skills necessary for performance of duties were ranked. Significant differences of perceptions of values of graduate courses between 5A high school and junior college athletic directors were found using chi square. Significant differences between graduate course areas and competency areas in Communications, Technical, Business and Public Relations were found utilizing a t-test. 5A athletic directors receive adequate preparation in Communications. Junior college athletic directors receive adequate preparation in Business and Public Relations.

This study was concerned with determining the awareness of secondary public school teachers, in the Lewisville Independent School District, regarding the laws which relate to their profession. Fifty-nine true or false statements, involving nine areas of public school law, were administered. The study compared teachers' knowledge in areas of school law based on their personal background. The thesis was divided into five chapters. These chapters included the Introduction, Review of Literature, Procedure, Analysis of Data, and Summary and Recommendations. The findings of this study indicated the majority of teachers and administrators had an average knowledge of school law. Areas with lower incorrect responses included students' rights and the copyright law. A recommendation was made to plan an inservice meeting with emphasis placed on the most frequently missed responses

I conducted a legal analysis of decisions by Texas Commissioners of Education in appeals by Texas school administrators from nonrenewal decisions made by Texas school districts from 1983 to 2013. I analyzed the findings of fact and conclusions of law described in the commissioners’ rulings to determine the legal basis of school districts’ decisions to nonrenew school administrators’ term employment contracts. I also examined the legal rationale for commissioners’ rulings and determined which party most commonly prevailed in these administrative proceedings—the respondent school district or the petitioner school administrator. In particular, the study determined factors that contributed to commissioners’ decisions to overrule or support school districts’ nonrenewal decisions. A careful review of commissioner decisions, which are accessible on the Texas Education Association website, identified 44 commissioner decisions involving appeals by superintendents, associate superintendents, public school administrators, athletic directors, or central office administrators concerning school districts’ term contract nonrenewal decisions from 1983 to 2013. Commissioners’ decisions in these cases were surveyed using legal research methods. This study provides recommendations to assist local education agencies to refine current policies and regulations regarding the nonrenewal of administrators’ term contracts, and provides insight on Texas Commissioners’ rulings on term contract nonrenewal appeals brought by Texas school administrators. The findings revealed that school boards’ lack of understanding of local policies and lack of evidence resulted in commissioners granting 27% of appeals. Additionally, commissioners denied 73% of the appeals because school boards provided at least one reason that met the substantial evidence standard of review, and respondents failed to substantiate allegations or enter evidence in evidentiary hearings.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:30:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lilian Aparecida Cruz Dugnani.pdf: 1950236 bytes, checksum: e4b23173f306bbdd3e34da4bfbd52b9b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-17 / Pontif?cia Universidade Cat?lica de Campinas / The present study is integrated to the group of research actions Processes of Subject Constitution in Educational Practices PROSPED, from the Psychological Prevention and Intervention line of research of the Master Graduation Programme Strictu Sensu in Psychology of the Pont?fica Universidade Cat?lica in Campinas. Its aim is to investigate the potential of the school psychologist's actions in promoting changes to the school management practices. Official data show that longer permanence at school does not necessarily result in better education of the students since there is an increase in the number of literate and a decrease in the number of full literate ones. This leads us to think that there seems to be a dissonance between projects supported by the System and the ones that effectively happen at school. We take as theoretical foundations the assumptions of cultural-historical Psychology in that if you understand the human reasons and interests are built on concrete conditions of existence, mediated by instruments of culture, from the relationships established between the subject and the social, and the social and the subject, in a permanent dialectical movement. In the light of the materialistic dialectical and historical method, the data were constructed from the selection of 22 meetings, out of 128 meetings held in the course of the years 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, with four managers of a public elementary school, a Director, a Deputy Director and two pedagogical advisors. Both meetings have the audio recording and transcript of the same, and the use of artistic expressions and the synthesis of mediators dialogues undertaken as tools in common. The results revealed that there is a way to work that fluctuates between school managers recognize the challenges that require the transformation of reality and who originate from relationships established between the various agents of the school, and mobilize to overcome them, that we call facing the conflicts, and the mobilization to deny conflicts and move on, that we call look away and that is one of the causes of paralysis in school. It was evidenced that the aesthetic mediations and semiotic, promoted by the arts and for the summaries, enabled the managers to experience two essential movements for making real the changes in exercising the management at school: the migration of emotion and the mobilization of the will. / O presente estudo est? integrado ?s a??es do grupo de Pesquisa Processos de Constitui??o dos Sujeitos em Pr?ticas Educativas PROSPED, da linha de pesquisa Preven??o e Interven??o Psicol?gica, do programa de P?s-gradua??o Stricto Sensu em Psicologia, da Pontif?cia Universidade Cat?lica de Campinas. Objetiva investigar o potencial das a??es do psic?logo escolar na promo??o de mudan?a das pr?ticas de gest?o na escola. Os dados oficiais revelam que a maior perman?ncia na escola n?o tem resultado em melhor escolariza??o dos alunos, na medida em que h? o aumento do n?mero de alfabetizados b?sicos e uma queda no n?mero de alfabetizados plenos. Isto nos leva a pensar que parece haver uma disson?ncia entre os projetos postos pelo sistema e o que ocorre efetivamente na escola. Tomamos como fundamentos te?ricos os pressupostos da Psicologia Hist?rico-cultural em que se compreende que os motivos e os interesses humanos s?o constru?dos nas condi??es concretas de exist?ncia, mediados pelos instrumentos da cultura, a partir das rela??es estabelecidas entre o sujeito e o social e o social e o sujeito, em um movimento dial?tico permanente. ? luz do m?todo materialista hist?rico e dial?tico, os dados foram constru?dos a partir da sele??o de 22 encontros, de um total de 128 reuni?es realizadas no decorrer dos anos de 2010,2011,2012 e 2013, com 4 gestores de uma escola p?blica de Ensino Fundamental I e II, a saber: um diretor, um vice-diretor e dois orientadores pedag?gicos. Em comum os encontros t?m a grava??o em ?udio e transcri??o dos mesmos, a utiliza??o de express?es art?sticas e da s?ntese como instrumentos mediadores dos di?logos empreendidos. Os resultados revelaram que h? um modo de funcionar dos gestores escolares que oscila entre reconhecerem os desafios que se imp?em ? transforma??o da realidade escolar e que emanam das rela??es estabelecidas entre os diversos agentes da escola, e se mobilizarem para super?-los, a que denominamos de enfrentamento dos conflitos e, a mobiliza??o para negar os conflitos e seguir adiante, o que chamamos de desviar o olhar, e que ? uma das causas do imobilismo na escola. Evidenciou-se ainda que as media??es est?ticas e semi?ticas, promovidas pelas artes e pelas s?nteses, possibilitaram aos gestores vivenciarem dois movimentos essenciais para a efetiva??o de mudan?as no modo de exercer a gest?o na escola: a migra??o da emo??o e a mobiliza??o da vontade.