M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / The purpose of this study is to determine whether parents can be classified as a facet determining or influencing educational standards. The researcher aims at describing the importance of the parent as determinant of educational standards by means of: a literature study, which confirms the importance of the parent, as well as an empirical study, based on a questionnaire which was submitted to respondents closely involved with schooling aspects. The literature study describes the parent and its role with reference to specific aspects like personality development, cognitive development, moral development, motivation, socialization, biographical and milieu aspects. Validity and reliability of the empirical components of the investigation was ascertained by means of Factor Analyses and Item Analyses. The identified variables (ie parents and their colloquial usage, their expectations, educational qualifications, handling of discipline, moral attitude, child motivation, involvement in school affairs, socio-andeconomic status, studyfacilities offered to the child and parents' marital state), constituted the multi-dimensional role used to investigate this specific facet. Multi-variate Analyses (MANOVA and HOTELLING T-SQUARE) as well as Singlevariate Analyses (ANOVA, Student t-test, Scheffe test) were used in the statistical analysis of the data. Hypotheses on gender, home language, educational qualification, professional capacity, involvement in either High School/Primary School, school model involvement, age, place of residence, religious commitment, marital status, size of family, language medium ofschools of own children and income category were set. The most important findings were: • parents are generally regarded as positive determinants of educational standards; • specific respondents, grouped according to biographical data, eg home language, involvement in either High School or Primary School, marital status, size of family and place of residence, indicated no differences in perceptions regarding the parent as likely determinant of educational standards. • parents' motivation and assistance offered to children; their moral beliefs and attitude; parents' discipline and study guidance and facilities offered at ho.,me were rated most important by the respondents. Recommendations are: • positive training of parents in eg. child motivation and study guidance can afford them psychological backup to support and motivate their children in a structured way; • orientation towards a sound moral belief system can influence children in a positive way; • parental involvement should be promoted intensively at school level as their involvement may stimulate their children's education and schooling (ie educational standards of a high level).

D.Ed. / In the literature survey of this study, the historic development of education in the RSA, from the arrival of the Dutch settlers in 1652, to the implementation of the state-aided school was discussed. Parental involvement throughout these years, was reviewed. The emphasis however, was a discussion on the state-aided school model since it became part of the South African education system in 1992; especially with regard to the additional functions and duties of parents in governing bodies. Although this school model had initially been called the Model C school, the name changed to the state-aided school and only recently to a type of public school. Organization and management of these schools nevertheless stayed basically the same. Part of the theoretical discussion were the numerous reasons for the implementation of this school model; amongst the most important being the fact that the state had reached its limit as far as the funding of education was concerned and that further financial input had to become the responsibility of parents and the community. The state-aided school was also the result of educational and political change in South Africa. White parents and teachers were concerned about their cultural and religious principles and saw in state-aided schools the possibility of satisfying these needs and values. Black, Coloured and Indian Education, as well as the rationalization and amalgamation of all education departments in the RSA into one Department of Education, also had an impact on the development of the state-aided school. The focus of this study however, was on the effective functioning of the governing bodies, consisting mainly of parents, in the state-aided schools. The crux of the problem, was greater parental involvement and whether these parents were able to manage the schools under their care properly. One of the concerns was that as teachers strive towards professional autonomy, parents would encroach upon their professional terrain. On the other hand though, some parents are not sufficiently encouraged or motivated to participate in school affairs.

M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies) / The purpose of this study is to get parents of black pupils in the senior primary phase of state-aided (model C) schools to evaluate the curriculum. After a short period of gradually being opened to pupils ,of all races, schools which has obviously been-government schools became state-aided, or semi-private schools. This meant that school had the liberty to decide on their own admissions policy. Most English medium schools became-so called open schools, that is, they decided to admit pupils of all races. Although the target population for the curriculum had thus changed, there was no adjustment to the curriculum. Teaching carried on as it had always done, with there being no mention of any form of multicultural education; the schools became assimilatory schools. In order to determine the attitude of the parents and to gauge what could be done about this problem, this study was embarked upon. A literature study of the curriculum, multicultural education and parental involvement in their child's schooling, with particular reference to the curriculum, was conducted in order to serve as a theoretical background and to act as a yardstick against which conclusions and recommendations could be made.