M.Ed. (Educational Leadership and Management) / In post-apartheid South Africa, socio-economic and socio-political challenges coupled with serious lack of adequate physical resources in historically disadvantaged public schools are barriers to effective curriculum delivery and the provision of co-curricular activities. The National Norms and Standards for School Funding policy has been designed to address equity and social justice by providing substantial funding to public schools ranked as quintile 1 and 2. The State funding has been earmarked for, amongst others, the purchase of learning and teaching support materials and other phyiscal assets for educational purposes. This study determines the perceptions and experiences of teachers and school managers on the management of physical resources. Governing bodies have been empowered and are held accountable to manage physical assets at public schools. In the case of fee paying schools, the State provides limited funding and consequently, governing bodies are expected to raise funds in order to supplement the State’s funds so that additional physical resources that further the ends of effective education in every public school, may be procured. The management of physical resources is found to be ineffective and inefficient in many schools, paricularly historically disadvantaged schools. This study was framed using the quantitative research method. A structured questionnaire was distributed to a randomly stratified sample consisting mainly of post level one educators and members of the school management teams. This research was conducted at 30 public schools in the Gauteng East district. The questionnaire consisted of three sections: Section A required the respondents’ biograhical details; Section B comprised of 30 items on the management of physcial resources at public schools and Section C contained 11 items indicating the processes concerned with physical resources management. The analytical procedures applied in the empirical investigation revealed that physical resource management consists of three factors, namely, effective management of phyical resources; effective procurement of physical resources; and the provisioning of physical resources by the Provincial Education vi Department. The findings revealed that the educators agree that the governing body effectively manage and effectively procure resources for the school. There was only partial agreement that the Provincial Education Department provides physical resources adequately. It was found that governing bodies and school management teams need to be provided with continual training by the Provincial Education Department. Furthermore, it appears that whilst structures and processes are established to manage physical resources, there is need to constantly appraise and review their functionality.

Multistate networks are arguably the purest expression of the charter sector’s original promise as an engine of innovation within the public school system. On its face, this contention may appear somewhat counterintuitive; the proliferation of schools affiliated with charter management organizations (CMOs) that have siphoned market share away from standalone, community-based operators is often faulted for bringing homogeneity to a corner of the education landscape that once valorized pluralism. Replicating networks that expand their proven models into more than one state, however, are subject to divergent policy landscapes, operational conditions, and community expectations. Accordingly, in order to comport with the dictates of discrete sets of external demands, the leaders of multistate networks necessarily preside over a rolling set of limited experiments through which they are able to assess the relative efficacy of varying approaches to educating students. With the public policy and private philanthropic incentive structures continuing to tilt in favor of replication, and with multistate operators generally struggling to match the success of their more geographically compact peers, it is imperative that leaders of these unique organizations understand how to meet the needs of their communities while simultaneously cultivating the sense of collective mission that promotes effective operation. This collective case study explores how the leaders of five multistate networks attempt to create coherence within their organizations notwithstanding these materially different environmental conditions. Data from interviews, observations, and artifacts were triangulated, and the resulting analysis revealed commonalities, distinctions, and trends that illuminate how these leaders navigate the barriers that imperil the creation of coherence within the multistate construct. This study assesses the leadership moves that the chief executives of multistate networks make when attempting to create coherence and proposes a novel categorization scheme that classifies these strategies as either ideological, structural, or interpersonal in nature. This study also provides a composite picture of the successful multistate charter leader by synthesizing the key attributes possessed by the study participants, explaining how they exercise humility and finesse while using the serial experimentation compelled by the multistate framework to seek out opportunities to drive continuous improvement throughout their networks. Examined through a conceptual framework that ties together the literature on coherence in educational organizations and charter school replication, these findings demonstrate how multistate leaders engage stakeholders based in their satellite regions in a dynamic process of calibrating the appropriate fit between network model and local conditions. Implications from this study are relevant to the policymakers and funders who have continued to provide regulatory and financial support to operators undertaking interstate expansion efforts, to the current and prospective leaders of multistate CMOs who are being entrusted to create high-quality learning environments for students in far-flung communities, and to the superintendents of traditional public school districts who can draw lessons from the manner in which this study’s participants are consistently experimenting, evaluating, and adapting.

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Eighteen years after the introduction of several education reform policies, education in South Africa continues to be unequal and complicated. Departmental officials within the Department of Basic Education, educationists and academics have disclosed the trauma and the devastation that the apartheid propagandists’ discriminatory policies have caused. This has forced the current stakeholders to embark on a vigorous campaign to re-evaluate the transformational policies that were designed to hasten progress to erase the inhumane atrocities of the pre-apartheid and apartheid eras. It has therefore become the National Department of Basic Education’s responsibility to change the discriminatory thoughts, attitudes and behaviours of the past. Most important of all, this department has had the responsibility of redirecting resources and investments to those schools that have been victims of the oppressive laws of the past and bring them on par with schools that had benefited from apartheid. The present government therefore has set its attention on correcting the imbalances of the past by focusing on the poorest of the poor and targeting the segments of society in which poverty is the dominant social ill, and by creating equity and social justice. This approach led to the formulation of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding in public schools in 1998 (South Africa, 1998), hereafter referred to as the “NNSSF in public schools”. This policy provides guidelines for the distribution of government resources to “poor schools” in order to align these schools with apartheid institutions of learning. Historically it has been concluded that schools with few or poor resources have difficulty in providing good quality education in comparison with those that had benefited from the apartheid regime. It has therefore become the post-apartheid government’s responsibility to bring the poor and rich schools on par. The state has realised that this can be done through the NNSSF in public schools and using equity and social justice as the catalyst. Through this policy it was the government’s intention to transform schools and redress the inequalities and imbalances of the past. This approach was intended to create an education system that would embrace learner diversity and ensure that all learners were granted equal educational opportunities, irrespective of their race, colour, creed or class. Using the qualitative method, the general aim of this research was to determine the perceptions of stakeholders in six schools with regard to the progress made by the NNSSF in public schools. Matters that have impacted on the implementation of equity and social justice are also discussed in this report. Included is also the identification of the challenges that may have been encountered in the implementation of the NNSSF in public schools. The core focus of the study is on the disparities between the intention and the implementation of the NNSSF in public schools in terms of equity and social justice, and the implications of this policy on the day-to-day functioning and operations of these six public schools. The schools that were evaluated were schools in quintiles 1, 2 and 5. The Education Laws Amendment Act, No. 24 of 2005 provides that the Minister of Education distinguish between five national poverty quintiles. Schools categorised in quintiles 1 and 2 are classified as “no fee” schools and these quintiles receive one hundred per cent state funding to the poorest of the poor schools. The findings of this research should benefit the poor in South Africa, who are black in the majority and have had a long history of discrimination through a system of segregated and unequal educational funding that had been in practice from the time that the South African Party in 1910 and the National Party in 1948 took control (Christie, 1991:55). During this period education for whites was free and compulsory while blacks were deliberately kept illiterate and ignorant for purposes of manual and household labour. It was for that reason that when the government of national unity came into power it ensured that statutory documents such as the Constitution of South Africa and the NNSSF in public schools policy became legislation to protect the democratic processes that are instrumental in redressing the inequities and imbalances of the past. There are still very few studies conducted by scholars based on the implementation of the NNSSF in public schools to achieve equity and social justice. In this study, the researcher looked at the effects of the funding policy on equity and social justice and found out that the gap between the previously disadvantaged (black) and the advantaged (white) is still wide owing to the slow and sometimes ineffective implementation of the NNSSF in public schools in pursuit of equity and social justice.

Education in South Africa requires a framework for the implementation of policies pertaining to the management of values in schools. The transition from the former apartheid system and its authoritarian value system to a democratic dispensation has necessitated a value system, characterised by fairness and openness. A primary assumption of the researcher is that all human action is underpinned by values, which are hidden and only observable in human behaviour. A literature study explored the philosophical thinking around values and stipulations about values occurring in international human rights documents. Furthermore, in order to contextualise an understanding of values, policies and legislation intended to shape democracy in South Africa were studied to identify core democratic values and moral principles, particularly with regard to the role of the principal and teacher in school management. Management models based on an understanding of school climate, culture and ethos were also examined to explore values inherent in the different leadership styles embraced by principals and teachers. Against this background, a qualitative inquiry was undertaken in three rural secondary schools in the North-West Province. Research sites and participants were selected by judgement sampling and data concerning the values embedded in the school culture and ethos and expressed by the principal and teachers were gathered through observation and interviews. Focus group interviews were held with teachers and in-depth individual interviews were conducted with the principals to identify how participants enact their roles in transmitting values to learners. The findings indicated that principals are not fully prepared to form partnerships with other stakeholders in the management of values, particularly in the management of traditional African values. External factors that impact values formation in schools, such as unreliable transport systems, result in a school culture which lacks a sense of urgency. Poor infrastructure and maintenance create an unpleasant school environment. Matters are aggravated by inadequate support by the Department of Education, teacher unionism and a lack of parent involvement. The study closes with recommendations to empower schools, parents and the community to participate actively in education so that social capital can be unleashed to strengthen democratic values in schools. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Educational Management)

The aim of the study was to investigate participants’ views on strategies for combating corruption in Zimbabwean public secondary schools with a view to promoting learner academic achievement. The study was undertaken at four (4) selected public secondary schools in Harare Metropolitan Province in Zimbabwe. The study adopted the case study as the principal research design and it was informed by the interpretive paradigm; thus, qualitative research approaches were used. Non-probability and probability sampling techniques were adopted in site and participants’ selection. A representative sample of fifty-four (54) participants was used from a target population of three-hundred and eighteen (318) participants. The study was informed by multiple theories. The study found that most of the participants perceived corruption as a major problem affecting the education of learners in most public secondary schools in Zimbabwe. It was found out that the adoption of a vibrant and robust anti-corruption strategy is the solution/panacea to solve this problem of rampant corrupt practices in educational institutions. The introduction of anti-corruption education in public secondary schools was singled out to be the ‘pivotal’ strategy that policy makers should adopt to disseminate educative anti-corruption information to learners. It was further established that the ‘Zero Tolerance to Corruption’ policy employed by the Government of Zimbabwe should be strongly supported by a multi-agency response to effectively combat corruption within the education system to propel sustainable learner academic achievement. The study findings further revealed that the public secondary schools lack the necessary anticipated formal anti-corruption education curriculum. The study concludes that anti-corruption education and the adoption of multi-strategies play a central role in combating corruption. Therefore, there is need to strengthen the anti-corruption strategies and support mechanisms currently being employed in Zimbabwe to successfully provide an environment that supports sustainable learner academic achievement. In line with the above, the study recommends the introduction of a formal anti-corruption curriculum in Zimbabwean public secondary schools to combat corruption. In addition, the study recommends further research in this seemingly grey area to contribute to the knowledge body regarding instituting good corporate governance in public secondary schools in Zimbabwe. / Die doel van die studie was om deelnemers se menings oor strategieë te ondersoek vir die bestryding van korrupsie in Zimbabwiese openbare sekondêre skole met die oog om leerders se akademiese prestasie se bevorder. Die studie is by vier (4) uitgesoekte openbare sekondêre skole in die Harare Metropolitaanse Provinsie in Zimbabwe onderneem. Die studie het die gevallestudie as die hoofnavorsingsontwerp geneem en dit is gevorm deur die vertolkende paradigma; kwalitatiewe navorsingsbenaderings is dus gebruik. Niewaarskynlikheid- en waarskynlikheidsteekproefnemingtegnieke is gebruik vir ligging en keuse van deelnemers. 'n Verteenwoordigende steekproef van vier-en-vyftig (54) deelnemers is gebruik uit 'n teikenpopulasie van drie-honderd-en-agtien (318) deelnemers. Die studie is gevorm deur verskeie teorieë. Die studie het bevind dat meeste van die deelnemers korrupsie as 'n groot probleem sien wat die onderrig van leerders in die meeste openbare sekondêre skole in Zimbabwe beïnvloed. Daar is bevind dat die gebruik van 'n dinamiese en robuuste teenkorrupsiestrategie die oplossing/kuur is om hierdie probleem van toenemende korrupsiepraktyke in opvoedkundige instellings op te los. Die inleiding tot teenkorrupsie-onderrig in openbare sekondêre skole is uitgesonder as die vernaamste strategie wat beleidmakers moet aanvaar om opvoedkundige teenkorrupsie-inligting onder leerders te versprei. Daar is verder bevind dat die Zimbabwiese regering se 'Zero Tolerance to Corruption'-beleid sterk ondersteun moet word deur reaksie van verskeie agente om korrupsie in die onderwysstelsel doeltreffend te beveg om leerders se volhoubare akademiese prestasie aan te dryf. Die studie se bevindings het verder getoon dat openbare sekondêre skole nie die noodsaaklike verwagte formele teenkorrupsie onderwyskurrikulum het nie. Die studie het tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat teenkorrupsie-onderrig en die gebruik van verskeie strategieë 'n sentrale rol speel om korrupsie te beveg. Teenkorrupsiestrategieë en ondersteuningsmeganismes wat tans in Zimbabwe gebruik word, moet dus versterk word om 'n omgewing te skep wat volhoubare akademiese prestasie vir leerders ondersteun. Ooreenkomstig hiermee, beveel die studie die bekendstelling van 'n formele teenkorrupsiekurrikulum in Zimbabwiese openbare sekondêre skole aan om korrupsie te beveg. Die studie beveel verdere navorsing in hierdie oënskynlike grys area aan om tot die kennis van goeie korporatiewe beheer in openbare sekondêre skole in Zimbabwe by te dra. / Inhloso yocwaningo ukuphenyisisa ngemibono yababambi-qhaza ngamasu okulwa nenkohlakalo kwezezimali ezikoleni zikahulumeni zamasekondari eZimbabwe ngombono wokuqhubela phambili ukuphumelela kwabafundi kwezemfundo. Ucwaningo lwenziwe ezikoleni zamasekondari zikahulumeni ezingu 4 ezikhethwe endaweni yedolobhakazi leprovinsi, leHarare iHarare Metropolititan Province eZimbabwe. Ucwaningo lusebenzise i-case study njengedizayini enkulu yocwaningo, kanti futhi lwasekelwa ngulwazi ngenqubo ye-interpretive paradigm; ngakho-ke kusetshenziswe inkambiso ye-qualitative research kucwaningo. Kusetshenziswe amathekniki amasampuli e-non probability kanye ne-probability ezindaweni lapho okukhethwe khona ababambi-qhaza. Kusetshenziswe amasampuli angamashumi amahlanu nane (54) ababambi-qhaza, kwisibalo sethagethi yabantu abangamakhulu amathathu neshumi nesishagalombili (318). Ucwaningo lusekelwe ngamathiyori amaningana. Ucwaningo luthole ukuthi ababambi-qhaza babone inkohlakalo kwezezimali njengenkinga enkulu enomthelela kwimfundo yabafundi ezikoleni zikahulumeni zamasekondari eZimbabwe. Kutholakale ukuthi ukwamukelwa kwesu eliphambili nelinomdlandla lokulwa nenkohlakalo, yisixazululo/ikhambi lokuxazulula le nkinga yenkohlakalo kwezezimali kwizikhungo zemfundo. Ukusungulwa kwenqubo yokulwa nenkohlakalo kwizikole zesekondari zemfundo kahulumeni yisu eliphambili abenzi bomgomo okumele balemukele ukusabalalisa kubafundi ulwazi lokufundisa nokulwa nenkohlakalo. Kuphinde futhi kwatholakala nokuthi umgomo wokungabekezeli neze inkohlakalo ngesaga esithi 'Zero Tolerance to Corruption' nguHulumeni weZimbabwe kumele usekelwe zikhungo ezehlukene ukuze kube nempumelelo ekulweni nenkohlakalo kwinqubo yemfundo, ukuze abafundi bakwazi ukuphumelela ezifundweni zabo. Ucwaningo luveze nokuthi, izikole zesekondari azinayo ikharikhyulamu ehleliwe yokulwa nenkohlakalo kwimfundo. Ucwaningo luphetha ngokuthi imfundo yokulwa nenkohlakalo kanye nokwamukelwa kwamasu amaningana kudlala indima ebalulekile ekulweni nenkohlakalo. Ngakho-ke, kunesidingo sokuqinisa amasu okulwa nenkohlakalo kanye nezindlela zokusekela ezisetshenziswa okwamanje eZimbabwe ukusekela ukuthi kube nesimo esisekela impumelelo yabafundi kwezemfundo. Ngokuhambisana nokungenhla, ucwaningo luncoma ukuthi kusungulwe ikharikhyulamu ehleliwe yokulwa nenkohlakalo ezikoleni zamasekondari zikahulumeni eZimbabwe, ukulwa nenkohlakalo. Kanti futhi nangaphezu kwalokho, ucwaningo luncoma ukuthi kwenziwe olunye ucwaningo kulo mkhakha ongacacile kahle ukungezela ulwazi maqondana nenqubo yokuphatha kahle ezikoleni zikahulumeni zamasekondari eZimbabwe. / Educational Foundations / D. Phil. (Sociology of Education)