<p>Namibia was under South African rule until March 1990. On 11 September 1962, the Odendaal Commission was set up by the State President of South Africa to enquire into the welfare and progress of all the inhabitants of South West Africa, particularly the African people. The Commission was required to make recommendations for the development of the various African people inside and outside their designated areas. The outcome of the Commission was the division of South West Africa into ten designated areas for the various native nations. These areas later became the homelands for the Africans in South West Africa. This thesis was concerned with examining the Kavango Legislative Council, its constitution, its powers, the role of the traditional authorities within the body, and the legislation passed by the Council.</p>

<p>Namibia was under South African rule until March 1990. On 11 September 1962, the Odendaal Commission was set up by the State President of South Africa to enquire into the welfare and progress of all the inhabitants of South West Africa, particularly the African people. The Commission was required to make recommendations for the development of the various African people inside and outside their designated areas. The outcome of the Commission was the division of South West Africa into ten designated areas for the various native nations. These areas later became the homelands for the Africans in South West Africa. This thesis was concerned with examining the Kavango Legislative Council, its constitution, its powers, the role of the traditional authorities within the body, and the legislation passed by the Council.</p>

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of South Africa, 2002.

The purpose of the research was to investigate stakeholders’ perceptions and experiences of teachers’ participation in school management and decision-making. Teachers’ involvement is a contested issue in schools. The goal was to find out to what extent and in what way teachers participate in school issues, as well as gain insight and understanding on the effects of participation of teachers in schools and how principals enhance democratic practice for quality education. The research was a case study conducted within the interpretive qualitative paradigm. I used document analysis, semi-structured interviews and observation to collect data for validity purposes and to counter subjectivity. The findings revealed at least a significant progress in terms of the Education Act, no 16 of 2001 requirement, of teachers’ participation in management and decision-making in schools, which has been an issue in the past. The study revealed that decisions are taken after consultation through consensus. The study revealed that the participation approach promotes ownership and commitment of staff to higher performance and common goals. The findings emerged that participative management has advantages for achieving higher performance through collaboration, consultation, and broader participation. The foremost findings include school principals’ roles in enhancing a collegial management approach by delegating, sharing leadership and responsibilities, and establishing organisation structures and committees involving teachers. Meetings serve as a platform for communication and sharing of information with stakeholders. However, there were also signs of tensions amid school management teams (SMTs) and teachers on participation in school matters in all aspects. Furthermore, its time-consuming nature, authoritarianism and accountability emerged as major challenges affecting the implementation of the participative approach. In addition to that, the study revealed that lack of knowledge and skills, unwillingness to involve others and to participate affects the implementation of the theory. As a result, the study recommends to the policies makers and the Ministry of Education to organize training for all stakeholders on participative management to empower them. Moreover, the study recommends to regional managers, inspectors, and advisory teachers (AT) to provide information to institutions responsible for teacher training to accommodate the theory into their curriculum. School principals should undergo training programmes or in-service training for participative leadership purposes to enhance their leadership capacity and to carry out their responsibilities effectively.

Since independence, the Namibian education system has experienced a process of transformation from authoritarianism to democratisation. The philosophy underpinning this process is spelt out in the policy, Toward Education for All, with its four major goals being: Access, Equity, Quality and Democracy. Democratisation of education would mean that people would be equally involved in decision‐making processes both at the system and organizational level, so as to contribute collectively to shaping the destiny of education in Namibia. This would mean at the school level of an organization, that teachers are the facilitators of democracy and agents of change in the learning organization environment. To strengthen democracy and empower people’s participation in the decision‐making process, Namibia further adopted a decentralization policy which involved the devolution of power and administrative functions from central government to regional authorities. In the context of this policy framework, schools should take responsibility to introduce and manage change in their organizations. However, evidence suggests that schools have been slow to take up the challenge and that change is largely still initiated by regional officials. This study looks at how organisation development (OD) may play a role in encouraging a mindset where change may be initiated by the organisation itself. OD is a planned change strategy based on normative re‐educative and empirical rational strategies implemented systematically. OD is participant driven, involving a series of activities that move the organization to a preferred future. It focuses on human behaviour and organizational change through staff participation practising a bottom‐up rather than top‐down approach. This study reports on an OD intervention in a rural school east of Rundu, in the Kavango Educational region of Namibia. The study aimed at exploring staff involvement in an OD intervention and probed participants’ perceptions and experiences of the process. The study is an action research case study located within the interpretive and critical paradigms. Observation and semi‐structured interviews were the main data‐collection tools used in the study. In its preliminary investigation the study found that a lack of staff involvement in decisionmaking processes and participation in meetings were the major factors that were perceived to retard the effectiveness of the organization. The study further found that the authoritative style of leadership in the school contributed to the lack of cooperation and participation of staff members. In contrast, the staff responded positively to the OD intervention. Participants embraced OD as a democratic approach to change as it made a meaningful impact on their understanding and conception of organization change. The intervention further empowered participants with new skills and knowledge of initiating change and problem‐solving. Apart from that, the intervention provided a possible short‐term outcome that encouraged participants to adopt and apply OD in the future, without underestimating the difficulties associated with the process.

This study on learner absenteeism takes place in the Namibian context with a focus on the Kavango region, located in Northern Namibia, where absenteeism has been identified as a problem. The intention of the study is to find out the relationship between learner absenteeism and environmental factors. The research question was framed as: How do environmental factors influence learner absenteeism in schools, conceptualised as human activity systems in the Kavango Region (Namibia)? The wider intention of this study is to inform processes that can be put in place to reduce the impact of environmental factors on learner absenteeism, with the ultimate view of improving the quality of education. The literature review provides insight into learner absenteeism in developing and developed nations. It outlines the Namibian policies developed for improving learner attendance and retention of learners in schools, with the view of improving access to school. The study is located within the broader goals of education of Namibia. The research adopts a qualitative interpretive approach, and focuses on environmental factors influencing learner absenteeism in six case studies, which are selected schools in the Kavango province. The study uses a variety of tools such as questionnaires, focus group interviews, observations and interviews as well as document analysis. It uses a combination of inductive and abductive modes of inference in the data analysis. It draws on systems thinking to develop a model that theorises the interrelated roles of different stakeholders, namely, learners, teachers, parents, educational officials (including the regional office and the Ministry of Education). It proposes possible strategies for reduction of learner absenteeism that could contribute towards the improvement of the quality of education. It also mentions the benefits of reducing learner absenteeism in the schools involved in the case study. The findings clearly show that poverty is the main environmental factor that influences learner attendance. The impact of poverty does not, however, occur in isolation; it interacts and has influence over other environmental factors such as alcohol abuse, sickness, lack of parental involvement, lack of motivation from stakeholders and household work. The study also found certain educational factors influenced learner absenteeism, such as teacher attitude, pedagogical styles, and lack of security. The study ends with recommendations to reduce learner absenteeism and recommendations for further research.

In the first chapter the author outlined the context of the study, the overview, terminology and the research aims, as well as research questions. The purpose of the study was to explore the management of change in schools of the Kavango region in Namibia. It aimed to determine the guidelines, factors that influence change, the role of the principals in managing change and strategies used to train school managers to cope with new demands and changes. The literature reviews, in Chapter 2, address the theories of change management. They further outline the role and successes of school principals in managing change. The literature revealed a lack of information-sharing and skill amongst staff members in general, and principals in particular. The description of the methodology in Chapter 3 addresses how the research questions were approached using purposeful sampling and semi-structured interviews as part of an interpretive approach. A thematic analysis of the data was undertaken from which important recurring concepts were derived. This process continued during data collection. The findings from the data analysis in terms of twelve themes (cf. 4.4) which were composed by grouping together related concepts are presented and described in Chapter 4. Findings showed that participating principals lack skills in managing change, but it appears that there is potential for improvement if they are trained to understand the management of change and leadership theories. A summary of the main findings of the study is found in Chapter 5, together with conclusions and recommendations. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are also addressed. An analysis of the study indicated that there is lack of support, monitoring and coordination of the management of change programmes at the regional level. Reference was made to leadership and management programmes such as the Education and Training Sector for Implementation Programme [ETSIP] initiated by the Ministry of Education [MoE] to assist principals. The findings suggest that programmes petered out because follow-up was limited. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Education Management)

In the first chapter the author outlined the context of the study, the overview, terminology and the research aims, as well as research questions. The purpose of the study was to explore the management of change in schools of the Kavango region in Namibia. It aimed to determine the guidelines, factors that influence change, the role of the principals in managing change and strategies used to train school managers to cope with new demands and changes. The literature reviews, in Chapter 2, address the theories of change management. They further outline the role and successes of school principals in managing change. The literature revealed a lack of information-sharing and skill amongst staff members in general, and principals in particular. The description of the methodology in Chapter 3 addresses how the research questions were approached using purposeful sampling and semi-structured interviews as part of an interpretive approach. A thematic analysis of the data was undertaken from which important recurring concepts were derived. This process continued during data collection. The findings from the data analysis in terms of twelve themes (cf. 4.4) which were composed by grouping together related concepts are presented and described in Chapter 4. Findings showed that participating principals lack skills in managing change, but it appears that there is potential for improvement if they are trained to understand the management of change and leadership theories. A summary of the main findings of the study is found in Chapter 5, together with conclusions and recommendations. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are also addressed. An analysis of the study indicated that there is lack of support, monitoring and coordination of the management of change programmes at the regional level. Reference was made to leadership and management programmes such as the Education and Training Sector for Implementation Programme [ETSIP] initiated by the Ministry of Education [MoE] to assist principals. The findings suggest that programmes petered out because follow-up was limited. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Education Management)

The National Curriculum of Education was implemented with the broad view of including all learners as laid out in the document Toward Education for All. The curriculum emphasised that the topic distillation should be studied. According to the Examiners Reports, the topic distillation is one of the topics where learners face difficulties in the Namibian Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary (NSSCO) examination Grade 12. This led me to do research on understanding how Physical Science teachers mediate the topic distillation in Namibia specifically in the Kavango region. The study was carried out at two rural schools with two teachers teaching Grade 11. The community member who I asked to demonstrate the making of Kashipembe was also a participant during this study. Kashipembe is a local cultural brew alcohol beverage commonly made in the Kavango East and West Regions of Namibia, which was used as a learning context in this research study. The study used a qualitative case study underpinned by an interpretive paradigm. Data was generated through the use of document analysis, semi-structured interviews, stimulated recall interviews, lesson observations, brainstorming and practical demonstration of making Kashipembe. These different methods of data gathering were used with the aim of triangulating and validating the data. Therefore, my theoretical framework adopted Vygotsky’s (1986) mediation of learning, social constructivism and pedagogical content knowledge according to Shulman’s (1986) theory. The emergent themes were identified inductively and they were colour coded. These themes were later developed into analytic statements which were used in the study. The findings indicate that the use of community knowledge and experience during the teaching of scientific concepts like distillation is important. These findings can also be used by the practising teachers to make their teaching more effective in the curriculums where distillation is included. Therefore, the Namibian curriculum developers need to include this community knowledge in the curriculum to make it easier for the learners to make sense of the topic distillation.

The study seeks to identify factors affecting compliance to TB treatment and determine those that make some patients complete TB treatment in Andara district, Kavango region in Namibia. The self-efficacy model by Shortridge-Baggett and Van der Bijl (1996) was the conceptual framework which guided this study. A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive and comparative study design was used. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire administered by a registered nurse. A total of 49 respondents were interviewed: (23 compliant and 26 non-compliant). Informed consent was obtained from each respondent prior to data collection. SPSS and MS Excel were used to analyse data and describe differences between the two groups. Respondents (N=26) gave „feeling better‟ 7 (27%), „distance‟ 8 (31%), „lack of family support‟ 4 (15%), no food 2 (8%), side effects 2 (8%), other reasons 2 (8%) and medicines not working 1 (4%), as their reasons for not completing treatment. However, long waiting times at the clinic, non availability of food and lack of knowledge of TB or treatment are the significant factors contributing to non-compliance. / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)