Learners in disadvantaged environments are less likely to do well at school. Yet some of the most successful schools operate in such environments. The purpose of this study was to establish the relative influence of various determinants of school success in disadvantaged environments. To this end literature study was done in two phases. The first resulted in a taxonomy of success factors, which was then used to guide the second in-depth phase. Thereafter an empirical study was done, involving qualitative field work at four successful schools in disadvantaged environments. Empirically it was discovered that there is no single most important success factor because all success factors are interrelated and interdependent. The over-arching success factor discovered in this study which was involvement of all stakeholders. / Education / M.Ed.

The principles of Total Quality Management (TQM), initially designed to effect continuous improvement in the business sector, have been successfully applied in educational settings. Hence, this study was undertaken to explore educator participation in the implementation of a TQM Strategy at selected academically underperforming secondary schools in the Moses Kotane Area to address shortfalls. A literature review on TQM provided a conceptual framework for the empirical inquiry. Special attention was given to the role of educators in TQM implementation. The empirical study used qualitative research methods to explore the use of TQM in fifteen schools selected by purposive sampling. Observation, document analysis and focus group interviews were used to gather data. The findings indicate that educators regard TQM as an improvement tool; however, they hold negative and positive views about TQM. Finally, recommendations were made to enhance the implementation of TQM in underperforming secondary schools in the Moses Kotane Area. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Education Management)

TQM has been identified as an approach that can be adopted to improve quality in business as well as in education. The main aim of this approach is to involve everybody in decision-making of the organization, in this case a school, with the purpose of achieving highest commitment from staff and customer satisfaction. TQM can be a way which can bring about changes in the education system. It is a philosophy with continuous improvement which can provide a set of practicable tools and techniques to meet the present and the future desires of any educational system. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the influence of TQM on school improvement in secondary schools in the Uthungulu District, Kwazulu-Natal. The questionnaires were handed to schools in the Uthungulu District which is made up of 5 circuits, namely, Umhlathuze Circuit, Umfolozi Circuit, Umlalazi Circuit, Mthonjaneni Circuit and Inkandla Circuit. The research concentrated mainly on School Management Teams (SMTs) and Post Level 1 educators (PL1 educators) from senior secondary schools (high schools). On the whole, respondents in the study area have shown a positive attitude towards understanding the significance of Total Quality Management principles in schools. The findings seem to suggest that everyone has a responsibility of encouraging implementation of TQM in schools. It is important to develop quality management systems, because without them, it is impossible to implement. The quality improvement teams should be empowered to manage themselves and provide programmes that will enable them to be more effective. The proposed model of the study provides information about basic elements and factors which need to be taken into cognisance during the TQM and implementation process. The model identifies the main principles of TQM with continuous improvement at the centre of them all. The main aim of implementing TQM in school should be continuous improvement. / Educational Management and Leadership / D. Ed. (Education Management)

South Africa is currently undergoing a process of change from a segregated education system to a more democratic system of education. The country is characterised by drastic policy shifts in the social, economic and political arenas. The problem that called for this research is that education managers at national, provincial, district, and circuit levels are facing challenges in the understanding, interpretation and implementation of education policies as they apply to support staff, educators, learners and their parents or guardians. Lack of access to and knowledge of acts, policies and procedures in educational leadership and management seem to impact negatively on the effective functioning of public schools in the provisioning of quality education in Limpopo province of South Africa. A qualitative research methodology coupled with ontology and epistemology theories were used in a phenomenological interpretive perspective. The rationale for choosing the qualitative approach was that the subject of this research study required data on the experiences, perceptions and views of the research participants. Three research instruments of data collection were employed, namely participant observation, document analysis and interviews. Purposive sampling was chosen to select the education managers as participants who were likely to be knowledgeable about and experienced in the phenomenon under study. Focus group and individual interviews were conducted with educators, education managers, and educator union representatives. I used content analysis method to catergorise data into themes. The findings in this study revealed that knowledge of the education policies is a pre-requisite for the implementation of such policies for quality education. It was evident that education managers have inadequate understanding of the formulation, interpretation and implementation of policies. Education managers had contrasting perceptions of education quality and divergent interpretationsof education policies. The deployment of circuit managers undermined the value of management qualifications, experience and expertise in such management posts. The absence of a policy enforcement agency and a lack of coordination within different levels of education management in the province have led to unresolved cases of misconduct and non-compliance with education policies. The researcher recommends that induction of newly appointed education managers, continuous training of the serving education managers, mentoring and monitoring of the implementation of education policies should receive priority for the provision of quality education in public schools. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Education Management)

Thesis on topic " The changes in management education in the Czech Republic at the turn of the entury through the eyes of the school directors at that time" captures the abolition of central control of education in the Czech Republic from 1999 to 2004 and describes the transition to the new decentralized management system. This is a qualitative analysis, propped on interviews with experienced directors of elementary and secondary schools. In observed period, these executives both personally and professionally experienced the effects of legislative changes in education. During the research, narrative interviews were used, analysis was based on grounded theory. Causal conditions, the phenomenon of interference sectoral management, intervening conditions (risk of anomie, the politicization of education, expertise versus bureaucracy in education management, education and support of school principals) and their effects on the central category were researched. During the research, the central category became school autonomy, and it's range, including the dynamics of change in the observed period, were researched. Thesis contains a description of the researched variables and evaluation of their relations with emphasis on relations to the dominant category. The result is a hypothesis (theory) anchored in...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:32:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Claudio Antonio Tordino.pdf: 987060 bytes, checksum: 003dd18c64815f08ff5f19d4c93f940f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-03 / Management Higher Education is an unique phenomenon in higher education after the Second World War. The spread of the belief that Administration conforms defined field of knowledge and the business management requires specific training prompted the institutionalization of knowledge and training and led to intense and extensive expansion of the area. Actually, the repertoire of knowledge that the management of contemporary corporations began to demand seems to require individuals whose capacity for assimilation, discrimination and power of synthesis are presented as extraordinary, to make the field appear as broad and multidisciplinary, for hosting knowledge from or drawn from different disciplines and areas of knowledge to be composed. This theoretical essay aims to explore the relationship between management higher education, interdisciplinarity and institutionalism, from the context that is engendered after the Second World War, in search for evidence the interdisciplinary nature of Administration and Institutional Theory, while discussing the difficulty of institutionalizing interdisciplinarity itself, including in such areas, given the disciplinary structure of higher education and academic background and interests that sustain it. The development of the study links the ideas so that the opening chapters point out the subject, problem and purpose, integrating them by describing the context, the theoretical framework and methodology under critical perspective. The chapters that follow, first of all, contemplate truth discourses about the knowledge, embracing the philosophical Nietzschean lenses and integrative and unifying perspective of this knowledge, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary, sponsored by humanistic vision. Then, approaching the institutionalization process, through the lines emancipationist, historical, rational choice, sociological and discursive that explain it, put in perspective the academy for the ideals, ideas and discourses that produce or embodies and conveys to conform Higher Education as an institution, which allows to interpret management higher education as a speech of professional education. The final piece of work turns to the discussion of the possibility of training in critical management, even accepting the determinations derived from the mode of production, provided that the training of teachers and students embrace the interdisciplinary perspective, research and authorship as the fulcrum of the teaching-learning process. This path shows a potential of transition from multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary by anchoring training in social reality: it is the bearer of the applicant complexity of another kind of education / A formação em Administração constitui fenômeno ímpar na Educação Superior do segundo pós-guerra. A disseminação das crenças de que a Administração conforma campo de conhecimento delimitado e de que a gestão de empreendimentos requer formação profissional específica ensejaram a institucionalização dos conhecimentos e da formação profissional, bem como levaram à intensa e extensa expansão da área. Em verdade, o repertório de conhecimentos que a gestão das corporações contemporâneas passou a exigir parece demandar indivíduos cuja capacidade de assimilação, discernimento e poder de síntese se apresentam como extraordinários, a fazer com que o campo apareça como vasto e multidisciplinar, por acolher saberes advindos ou retirados de diferentes disciplinas e áreas de conhecimento para compor-se. Este ensaio teórico se propõe a explorar a relação entre formação em Administração, interdisciplinaridade e institucionalismo, a partir do contexto que se engendra no segundo pós-guerra, na busca por evidenciar a natureza interdisciplinar da Administração e da Teoria Institucional, enquanto discute a dificuldade de a interdisciplinaridade institucionalizar-se, inclusive nessas áreas, dada a estrutura disciplinar da Educação Superior e da formação acadêmica e dos interesses que a sustentam. O desenvolvimento do estudo encadeia o pensamento de modo que os capítulos iniciais situem o tema, o problema e o objetivo, circunscrevendo-os por meio de articulação que se apresenta como descritiva do contexto, do quadro teórico de referência e da metodologia, sob perspectiva crítica. Os capítulos que se seguem, primeiramente, contemplam discursos de verdade sobre o conhecimento, acolhendo aspectos filosóficos com lentes nietzschianas e perspectivas integradoras e unificadoras desse conhecimento, interdisciplinares e transdisciplinares, auspiciadas por visões humanistas. A seguir, ao abordar o processo de institucionalização, pelas ópticas das linhas institucionalistas emancipacionista, histórica, da escolha racional, sociológica e discursiva que o explicitam, perspectivar a academia pelos ideais, ideias e discursos que produz ou encampa e veicula, para conformar a própria Educação Superior como instituição, o que permite interpretar a Administração como discurso de educação superior. A parte final do trabalho volta-se à discussão da possibilidade de uma formação crítica em Administração, mesmo que se acatem as determinações derivadas do modo de produção, desde que a formação de professores e estudantes acolha a interdisciplinaridade, a pesquisa e a autoria como fulcro da relação ensino-aprendizagem. Esse caminho apresenta potencial de ultrapassagem ao multidisciplinar em direção ao interdisciplinar, à medida que ancora a formação profissional na realidade social. Ela é a portadora da complexidade demandante de outro tipo de formação

Thesis (Ph. D. (Education)) -- University of the Limpopo, 2001 / Refer to document

University of Macau / Faculty of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

O estudo enfoca o financiamento da educação pública brasileira, especificamente a implantação da política de descentralização/desconcentração de recursos às escolas estaduais do Rio Grande do Sul (RS). O tema da descentralização/desconcentração de atribuições dentro do processo de reformas vivido pela área da educação nos últimos anos, especificamente no estado do RS, somado às questões da autonomia financeira da escola, suscitou a realização do presente trabalho. A questão central de pesquisa diz respeito às possibilidades e limites da política de autonomia financeira das escolas públicas estaduais para o avanço da gestão democrática na educação pública do RS. A pesquisa abrange a análise da implementação dessa política em duas escolas públicas estaduais, localizadas no município de Guaíba (RS), no período de 1995 a 2005. Foram estudadas as fontes de recursos com as quais as escolas contam para sua manutenção, a captação de verbas na própria escola e junto à comunidade, a gestão desses recursos e suas implicações no cotidiano escolar.O método escolhido para orientar a pesquisa foi o estudo de caso, que propiciou a investigação de uma política pública educacional dentro de seu contexto, a escola. O estudo baseia-se em várias fontes de evidência, como análise de documentos, coleta de dados financeiros, entrevistas, visitas às escolas e à 12ª Coordenadoria Regional de Educação e observação de reuniões nas escolas. As categorias analíticas que dão suporte à analise são a descentralização de recursos, a autonomia financeira da escola, a gestão financeira e a gestão democrática da escola. Em síntese, esperamos discutir a importância da gestão de recursos financeiros públicos transferidos para as unidades escolares, bem como aqueles captados e geridos no próprio estabelecimento de ensino, e suas implicações com a gestão democrática. / This study focuses on Brazilian public education financing, especially the implantation of the policy of decentralization/dispersion of resources in the public schools in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS). The subject of decentralization/dispersion of attributions within the reform process experienced by the educational area in the last years, especially in Rio Grande do Sul, in addition to the questions of financial autonomy of schools, lead to the realization of the present work. The main research question is concerned to the possibilities and limits of financial autonomy policies of public schools for the democratic management progress in the public education in RS. The research includes the analyses of implementation of these policies in two public schools, located in the municipality of Guaiba (RS), from 1995 to 2005. We studied from where the resources schools have for their maintenance came from, as well as the collection of money in the school itself and in the community, the management of these resources and its implications in the routine of the schools. The method chosen to guide the research was the case study, which was biased toward the investigation of an educational public policy inside its context, the school. This study is based on many sources of evidence, as analyzing documents, collecting financial information, interviewing, visiting schools and the 12º Regional Education Coordination and observing schools meetings. The analytic categories that give support to the analysis are: the decentralization of resources, financial autonomy of the school, financial management and democratic management of the school. In short, we hope to discuss the importance of management of public financial resources transferred to the schools units, as well as that ones collected and administrated in the teaching establishment itself and its implications towards the democratic management. / El estudio enfoca el financiamiento de la educación pública brasileña, específicamente la implantación de la política de descentralización/desconcentración de recursos a las escuelas estaduales de Río Grande do Sul (RS). El tema de la descentralización/desconcentración de atribuciones dentro del proceso de reformas vivido por el área de la educación en los últimos años, específicamente en el Estado de RS, agregado a las cuestiones de la autonomía financiera de la escuela, suscitó la realización del actual trabajo. La cuestión central de la investigación dice respecto a las posibilidades y a los límites de la política de la autonomía financiera de las escuelas públicas estaduales para el avance de la gestión democrática en la educación pública del RS. La investigación incluye el análisis de la puesta en práctica de esta política en dos escuelas públicas estaduales, situadas en la ciudad de Guaíba (RS), en el período de 1995 el 2005. Fueron estudiadas las fuentes de los recursos con los cuales las escuelas cuentan para su mantenimiento, la captación de montajes de dinero dentro de la propia escuela y junto a la comunidad, la gestión de estos recursos y sus implicaciones en el día a día de la escuela. El método elegido para orientar la investigación fue el estudio de caso, que propició la investigación de una política pública educativa dentro de su contexto, la escuela. El estudio se basa en algunas fuentes de evidencia, como análisis de documentos, colecta de datos financieros, de entrevistas, de visitas a las escuelas y a la 12ª Coordenadoria Regional de Educación y de la observación de reuniones en las escuelas. Las categorías analíticas que apoyan el análisis son la descentralización de recursos, la autonomía financiera de la escuela, la gestión financiera y la gestión democrática de la escuela. En síntesis, esperamos discutir la importancia de la gestión de los recursos financieros públicos transferidos a las unidades escolares, bien como aquellos captados y manejados en el establecimiento educativo, y sus implicaciones con la gestión democrática.