This study explored how primary school educators expect to be supported and how they experience support from internal and external sources in a South African school district. Support for educators is vital in order to improve basic education in terms of South Africa’s long-term development goals and particularly in light of the poor performance of primary school learners in universal benchmark tests. Furthermore, the myriad of curricular changes introduced by the Department of Basic Education have increased the need for educator support in South Africa. A qualitative approach, located in an interpretive paradigm was adopted and a case study research design was employed. The requisite data were gathered by means of interviews, document sourcing and non-participant observation in three public primary schools. The main finding of the study was that there is limited amount of technical support, aimed at improving the quality of education, while affective aspects, i.e., meeting the socio-emotional needs of educators appear to be neglected. A broad theme that emerged was participants feeling like they are under surveillance; perceiving district officials to be on fault-finding missions when they conduct school visits and classroom observations; and feeling like they are on their own once they return to school from attending offsite workshops. In addition, the participants who served as heads of departments (HODs) reported that their workload prevented them from providing adequate internal support. A key recommendation of this study is that more curriculum instructors and HODs be employed and that they receive adequate preparation in order to provide appropriate support to primary school educators. In addition, it is recommended that the provincial and district officials increase the frequency of their school and classroom visits in order to spend more time supporting primary school educators. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

This is a qualitative study that investigated the experience of school inspectors in ensuring quality teaching and learning in primary schools in Northern Uganda, using hermeneutics phenomenological design. The study was underpinned by relative ontology, personal epistemology and accountability theory. In-depth interviews and document analysis were used to explore the understanding of the school inspectors on quality teaching and learning, techniques they use to ensure quality teaching and learning, their effectiveness and challenges. The study revealed that the inspectors understand quality teaching and learning as a multidimensional reality that entails attaining of literacy and numeracy; life skills; holistic development of learners; teachers’ competencies and professionalism; measure of learning achievement; broadness without ambiguity; collaborative; innovate; dynamic and contextual issue. The main techniques that the inspectors used to ensure quality teaching and learning in the primary schools are: assessment of quality of inputs into educational programs; assessment of educational processes; assessment of learning outcomes;psychosocial support; ensuring compliance with educational standards, laws and regulations; creating awareness on educational standards, laws and regulations; administration of rewards and sanctions. The study showed that the inspectors believe that they have been effective in supporting teachers; improving learning, learning environment and professional development of teachers; fighting corruption and malpractices among teachers. They however experienced insubordination of teachers; negative attitude of teachers towards the teaching profession; inadequate training of teachers; failure of teachers to adhere to educational laws; policies and regulations; excess work overload to the school inspectors; negative perception of some teachers on school inspection; corruption; lack of resources for school inspection; ineffectiveness of the head teachers; and difficulties in enforcing educational standards, rules, regulations and laws. They mainly use laws, policies and regulations and peer to peer support as the strategies to solve problems which they encounter in ensuring quality teaching and learning in the primary schools. The unique contribution of the study is that quality teaching and learning as understood by primary school inspectors is a multidimensional reality that can best be achieved using a logical, psychosocial legal approach. Policies, practices and future studies need to examine critically the dynamics and characteristics of these approaches to quality teaching and learning in primary schools. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / pt2021 / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

DEd (Curriculum Studies) / Department of Curriculum Studies and Education Management

MEd (Educational Management) / Department of Educational Management / The aim of the study was to investigate challenges confronting SMT members in the implementation of school-based moderation of Mathematics assessment tasks. An in-depth study of literature was undertaken, taking into consideration the following research question: What are the challenges confronting SMT members in the implementation of school-based moderation of Mathematics assessment tasks in the Thohoyandou cluster of the Limpopo Province? The study used the qualitative and quantitative approaches. Purposive sampling was used in the selection of participants for the qualitative data and simple random sampling was used in the selection of participants for the quatitative data. Qualitative data was collected through the interviews and quantitative data was collected through questionnaires. The interview schedule was employed to collect qualitative data and 12 participants (8 SMT members and 4 curriculum advisors for Mathematics in the Thohoyandou cluster) were interviewed. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data and were completed by 75 Mathematics teachers. Qualitative data was analysed thematically and quantitative data was analysed through SPSS version 23. The study revealed that: Lack of understanding and knowledge of the process of school-based moderation of mathematics is a serious worm that needs to be addressed soon. Moderation of school-based assessment was not monitored appropriately. The study recommended that the Department of Basic Education should conduct workshops and train SMT members on the importance of school-based moderation to ensure quality teaching and learning of Mathematics.