The purpose of this research was to determine student involvement in secondary school administrative decision making. Sixteen principals were selected to participate in the research representing secondary schools having a minimum enrollment of fifteen hundred in grades ten through twelve and nine through twelve in the Indianapolis school system and Marion County school districts.Interview data were catagorized under four major concerns dealing with fifteen major topics: assembly programs, athletic activities, building plans, curriculum, discipline policy, dress code and appearance, extracurricular activities, grading procedure, length of periods and school day, school board representation, staff employment, use of building, teacher appraisal, faculty meetings, and parent-teacher association.The first concern through the selection of one of three statements was to determine the administrator's philosophy on student involvement as a part of administrative decision making. The second concern was to determine the administrator's perception of the degree of student involvement in the fifteen selected areas. The third concern was to determine the administrator's perception of the degree of student involvement in related functions within the framework of the fifteen selected areas. The fourth concern was to determine the administrator's perception of future involvement in the fifteen selected areas.A value scale with numerical weights for interpretative purposes determined answers in the following manner:Individual Compilation SCALEWord ChoiceValueTotal #PrincipalsValueTotalVery reasonable516x580Reasonable416x464Undecided316x348Unreasonable216x232Highly unreasonable116x116Compilation of the sixteen principals' responses to the role of student involvement in secondary school administrative decision making thus were recorded in numerical degrees of acceptance and rejection of the very reasonable 65-80; reasonable 49-64; undecided 33-48; unreasonable 17-32; and highly unreasonable 1-16. Numerical weights were based on the individual value multiplied by the total principals as a unit, indicating the perceived role of student in secondary school decision making as a group.Participants were personally interviewed in their school offices by appointment. Informality characterized the interviews in which the instrument was used to secure data and additional comments were tape-recorded.All sixteen respondents reflected degrees of interest and recognition of student involvement in secondary school administrative decision making in their representative schools. Those topics receiving the greatest perceived degree of student involvement were: extracurricular activities, assembly programs, curriculum, dress code and appearance, building plans, faculty meetings and building use. The principals were undecided in involving students in grading procedure, teacher appraisal, school board representation, length of periods and school day, and athletic activities. They rejected discipline policies and staff employment as unreasonable involvement of students. The sixteen principals envisioned future student involvement as increasing in curriculum and extracurricular activities along with teacher appraisal and parent-teacher association.All sixteen principals believed in the philosophy of student involvement as a part of secondary school administrative decision making. The seven topics receiving the highest value scores for student involvement resulted in the following conclusions: (1) student involvement in the organization, leadership and after-school structure patterns in extracurricular activities; (2) assembly programs with emphasis on student performing groups for greater student contribution and participation; (3) student involvement in curriculum planning concerning organization and content of elective subjects; (4) more administrative support in parent-teacher association drive for student membership; (5) student participation in new building plans to gain insight of functional design and equipment from the users of those facilities; (6) student involvement in faculty meetings only when participation contributes to a particular student related subject on the meeting agenda; (7) students help supervise the use of the building to promote better understanding of the maintenance and tax value of a public building.

Thesis (DTech (Human Resources Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2005. / This thesis describes a model for developing and implementing leadership strategies in any public school and Education Department in South Africa. To shape this model, first of all, a general literature review was undertaken. Transformational, transactional, developmental, competency-based and instructional leadership, as well as leadership styles, leadership principles, the human dynamics of leadership, qualities of leadership and the role of leadership in change were researched and studied. Although the National Education Department and the Western Cape Education Department place great emphasis on effective leadership, newly appointed educational leaders and managers often feel they would have liked more induction and training regarding leadership than they received. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has programmes whereby they do capacity-building work sessions with educational leaders. The mentioned programmes are mostly held once a year for newly appointed leaders in education over a period of two days. An educational leader can only attend a work session once. The educational leader has a great responsibility towards all stakeholders and must therefore be well equipped as a leader. However, many problems regarding the lack of leadership skills, effectiveness, managing of the curriculum, staff and resources in schools have necessitated the Western Cape Education Department to bring out a circular on effective leadership, emphasising the role and responsibilities of the educational leader regarding effective leadership and management. The Education Department wants to maintain the efficacy of academic, leadership and managerial standards at schools. A well structured developmental, corrective training mechanism is an attempt to deal with the poor work performance and abilities of principals and senior staff members. The national minister of education, Mrs. Grace Naledi Pandor now recently made a announcement that she intend to empower educational leaders through workshops in 2006 regarding their responsibilities, leadership capacity, and effectiveness. Against this background, the researcher undertook a survey to determine the extent to which leadership strategies are being employed at schools in the Western Cape. A questionnaire Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) was used to gather information and data. Structured interviews and a focus group discussion were also held.

D.Ed. (Education Management) / This research departs from the premise that within the school, the principal as a professional leader, is vested with some kind of authority which he' exercises in order to ensure effective and efficient management of his school. He is the central authoritative body and the pivot on which management powers and their delegation " hinge. He derives this apparent authoritative legal status from his position as a principal and professional leader ofa school (Bray, 1988:44). Placed in this situation, the principal is called upon to utilize a wide range of competencies in carrying out his job and delegation is one of the most important management techniques he must rely on, if he wants to be successful. However, delegation of authority does require consideration of some legal implications such as the legal limitation that certain tasks delegated by law cannot be further delegated. Schools, like other organizations, are legally established organizations set up to serve specific functions, and like all organizations, they need to be administered and properly managed. Invariably, within the school final authority over most aspects of schooling rests with the school principal. Engelking (in Hostrop,1990:200) argues that "the principal of a successful high school is an initiator, one who displays creativity and vision in decision-making, one who is able to delegate responsibility as appropriate and analyzes information relative to school problems"...

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Continuous changes and renewal take place in the field of technology as well as in the field of education. Consequently increasing demands are made on the educational leader as manager and his managerial task becomes very comprehensive. No educational leader, however, can cope with all these demands unless he delegates authority and responsibility effectively. This study focuses on delegation of authority and responsibility as part of the managerial task of the educational leader and as a subordinate task of organising without which the efficient functioning of the school as an organisation cannot be realized. For the realization of effective delegation, it is absolutely essential that the educational leader possess knowledge of the factors which may influence the task of delegation. These factors relate to the delegator as well as to the delegate and may lead to non-effective delegation practices. Several guidelines, for example educational leader as well as for proper training for the subordinate to the whom authority and responsibility is delegated, effective communication and motivation, making use of correct feedback and time-management techniques and the utilization of the right person for the right task, can be followed in order to realize effective delegation.

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Whether we are setting goals, achieving them or coping with the issues which arise in organizing and carrying out day-to-day activities, depends on our ability to make and implement decisions. The decision-making process in the school organization therefore depends solely upon the knowledge the principal has of this process. Knowledge of the decision-making process should enable the principal to sharpen and improve his decision-making skills. To accomplish both the making and implementing of decisions in the school organization consistently well, is no mean·tasks. In striving to determine the importance of decision-making in the school organization the main objective in. this study is to examine and describe, that the implementation of decision-making without wider involvement by the teachers could severely jeopardize the effectiveness of the decision making process. In addition to the above-mentioned objective, the question on how to make the decision-making process workable in order to eventually achieve the organizational objectives, is thoroughly investigated in chapter two. This stresses again the need to realize that the effectiveness of a principal in a school is directly related to the quality of the decisions being made. Thus a principal can be viewed as a specialist in the field of decision-making. Decision-making, then becomes synonymous with managing the school organization. As mentioned above the entire decision-making process, including the steps required to reach a sound decision and the factors influencing the decision-making process, all contribute to making wider involvement in the decision-making process worthwhile.

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published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study is motivated by growing concern among teachers and principals about who controls the learning process and was conducted in the Chatsworth/Phoenix area of KwaZulu-Natal among selected primary and secondary schools from the former House of Delegates. The findings are thus applicable to these schools only. Since both groups lay claim to this control, a clash between them becomes inevitable. Principals have been blamed for "objectifying" teachers. Level-1 educators accuse these autocratic principals of treating them as pawns in a public service chess game. Teachers desire stability and security in the classroom and want to be appreciated. Like other professionals, they tend to regard suggestions about how they should do their work as reprimands. Teachers want to control their destinies and influence their working conditions. Instead of growing in their jobs, teachers complain of being "locked-in". Topdown bureaucratic principals prevent these educators from developing their decision-making skills. With these conditions prevailing in the teaching profession in the early nineties, the researcher set out to examine the effect of management styles on teachers in the classroom. Furthermore, he wanted to gauge the extent to which teachers were allowed to participate in decisionmaking, especially in those areas which affected their efficiency and job satisfaction. With the gradual empowering of level-1 educators as a result of the teacher's trade union (SADTU) and the resultant decline of the prescriptive role of superintendents, principals have had to rapidly adjust their management style to become more democratic and recognise teachers as the key personnel in the education process. At present principals have a high regard for their staff and view them as dedicated and motivated. Their managerial style show a strong bias towards participative decision-making, and they encourage teachers to initiate and implement new ideas. These principals have come to realise that if education in general is to benefit, they will have to adopt the "bottom-up" approach. Teachers dislike prescription and supervision of their work and cited these factors as a major cause of increased stress levels. However, it is important for level-1 educators to understand that if they expect to enjoy the confidence of educational managers and to be part of the decision-making mechanism, they need to show a high degree of professionalism and a deep sense of responsibility - both of which they undoubtedly have in abundance. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Educational Management)

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education