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

M. Tech. Cost and Management Accounting / The South African school system mainly consists of private independent schools and public ordinary schools. Public schools are divided into Section 20 and Section 21 schools. Section 21 schools are financially self-managed, whilst Section 20 schools' finances are centrally managed by their respective provincial education departments. The only means of income for Section 20 schools in South Africa is an annual fund allocation from the government, which is based on an annual "paper budget" submitted by each school. This study investigated the effective functioning of the Section 20 school funding system in the Tshwane North, Tshwane South and Tshwane West districts of the Gauteng Province in South Africa.

The purpose of this study was to investigate attitudes of White teachers towards multi-racial education and factors affecting these attitudes. The original sample was to consist of English and Afrikaans speaking White teachers in Krugersdorp. However, the Transvaal Education Department denied permission to conduct the stud) and the sample was changed to one-hundred-and-forty teachers doing post gradv.-~e work both at the University of the Witwatersrand and Rand Afrikaans University. Since the new sample for the study consisted of teachers enrolled for postgraduate study, the findings of the study are limited to similar populations. The research design usgd was descriptive. Attitude Towards Segregation scale adapted from Kosenbaum and Zimmerman (19u9) was administered to both groups of teachers. Responses were summarized by calculating the mean and standard deviation to each item. An analysis of variance test was administered because of the multi-variate characteristics of the hypothesis to be tested. When sample cells hum unequal sizes, the corrections were made by the O.L.M. process. Also post hoc comparisons were made by the application of Duncan's multiple range test.

This research presents an understanding of being a teacher and of teacher's work in schools which are defined as 'rural'. In asking the question, "What does it mean to be a teacher in a rural school?" I produced data of their daily practices and social realities that constitute the lived experiences of teachers within the context of rural education. Employing a critical, emancipatory framework, I documented the multiple identities and meanings that emerged, and drew attention to the teachers' need for change. The need to change what rural means, what rural schooling is, becomes the space to challenge and question oppressive practices and for opportunities of freedom. Using a narrative inquiry approach, I produced data of the lives of four teachers who work in two high schools in the Vulindlela District. The data sources used to produce the data included four life history interviews, which were conducted as the main methodological strategy, critical conversations and collages. Through narrative analysis, four reconstructed teachers' stories were produced. The storied narratives are reconstructions of lives told by two groupings of teachers: constructed by teachers that commute to the rural school from one rural area to another, and those that live in the same area as the school. Through the reconstructed teacher stories, the study makes visible how gender identities read against the history and traditional coding of rural settings. It also shows how these identities narrate these individual lives in particular ways, and how the teachers threaten these spaces to rework their meanings and practices for different ways of thinking, living and working as teachers in schools in rural settings. The study contributes towards an understanding of the relationship between 'school life' and 'whole life' . The study concludes that these teachers' personal and professional identities are negotiated on a daily basis, shaping and being shaped by particular social spaces in which they live and work, and make sense of the kind of the teachers they are and want to be. The teaching and learning choices and judgments they made in their classroom are intertwined with other variables other than just teaching. Being a teacher in a school within this particular schooling context, they are challenged with conditions, and have to constantly confront them. Alongside this, teachers enacted certain practices to disrupt, and challenge stereotypical understandings and meanings that we have come to adopt about rural schooling. This study shows that these four teachers in rural schools enacted certain practices 'within the school' and 'beyond the school'. They were able to cultivate commitment, connectedness and care. We see how the notion of "Engaged Pedagogy" (Hooks, 1994) plays itself out in rural schools by teachers who work there. They cultivate this type of pedagogy through constant reflection and by engaging in practices within the formal teaching time, during lunch breaks and beyond the formal teaching time. Through ongoing reflection in how they teach and what they teach they challenge traditional oppressive practices and establish better innovative ways of thinking and working as teachers. By making the change, rurality is transforming and, therefore, rural schooling too is being transformed. The desire expressed by the four teachers to support, care and to express love for learners as a way of improving the life for the learners in the school opened up opportunities for them to excel. By learners feeling good about themselves, they were able to perform better and in this way changed the experience of rural schooling. So to answer my research question, what does it mean to be a teacher in a rural school? It meant to work 'within the school' and 'beyond the school'. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

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

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTERS IN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY at the UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND, 2006. / This study examines factors contributing to school dropout among learners in a rural farm school. The researcher used the qualitative case study method as a research design. The participants in this study were ten young people between the ages of 16 and 20 who dropped out of school, four mothers of the learner participants, as well as two educators. Data was collected though the use of school records, semi-structured interviews and one focus group interview. Data analysis was done through the process of coding. The findings reveal that several factors contribute simultaneously to school dropout: personal problems, the family, economic causes, school factors, teachers and friends. The emphasis, however, lies with economic factors and school factors that include the actions of teachers. Strategies in identifying and intervening with at-risk learners are recommended. It became apparent with this research that the actions of teachers as well as inadequacies within schools need to be addressed as a priority if the problem of school dropout is to be dealt with effectively.

South African society is currently negotiating a new future. As a result, the sense of identity amongst all groups in South Africa may be undergoing change. This dissertation attempts to identify what type of sense of identity exists in pupils in four different school environments. These schools ranged from a racially integrated to an isolated and racially separate school. A review of the traditional literature on the self (or sense of identity), reveals that it does not allow for the possibility of change in a sense of identity, or the role that language and the social environment plays in the development of a sense of identity. As a result, Harrean and Sampsonian type thinking was used as the theoretical base of the research. Further, discourse analysis was the method of research used. Different schools were found to exhibit different senses of identity, and the implications of this are discussed. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Educational Psychology), 2017 / The growing epidemic of bullying is one that warrants urgent deference. When considering the repercussions of this issue in the South African context specifically, it is essential that a high level of criticality is taken into account. This is mainly due to South Africa’s rich historical background and the country’s urgency to protect and respect the basic human rights of all individuals in the country (Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention; and the Department of Basic Education, 2012). According to our Bill of Rights, “everyone has the right to be free from all forms of violence, on the part of either the government or other sources; not to be tortured in any way; and not to be treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way” (CJCP & DBE, 2012). Any act or behaviour which goes against these essential human rights thus results in grave ramifications such as the infringement of human rights. The purpose of this study was thus to investigate the prevalence, nature, and intervention surrounding the issue of bullying in South African high schools. More specifically, this study aimed to explore the possible differences between the prevalence, nature, and intervention in government/public and private high schools. In addition, the possible differences between gender and the issue of bullying were further investigated. The study employed the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire in order to find possible associations between the two independent variables (type of school and gender); and the issue of bullying. The total sample comprised of 358 grade eight to eleven learners from one private school and one government school in Johannesburg. The statistical analyses were done by means of frequencies and cross-tabulations using the chi-square statistical test with school type and gender as independent variables. The overall results on the prevalence of bullying indicate that 27.7% of high school learners have experienced bullying in school. Neither the type of school nor the gender of the learner was found to have a significant impact on the prevalence of bullying. In addition, the current study found that verbal bullying is most commonly experienced by the learners, followed by social bullying. Common areas for bullying behaviour are the playground and the classroom (with and without the teacher present). Boys have been found to partake, as well, as experience bullying more than girls. Teacher and learner intervention are commonly reported, whereas adult intervention is not seen as a means of support for learners. / XL2018

M. Tech. Education / This ethnographic study investigated the nature of bullying in selected primary schools in the Pretoria inner city as experienced by learners, parents, teachers and principals. A review of the existing literature formed the basis for the offered description of the phenomenon. The work examined concise definitions of bullying, including the existence of bullying, the effects of bullying, the perceptions of learners who are bullied, the frequency of bullying, the School Management Team's reaction to incidents of bullying, the school policy on bullying, teachers' experience of bullying of learners, the parents' experiences of bullying of their children and how other countries handle bullying. The research describes various forms of bullying, reasons for bullying, the effects of bullying and measures against bullying.

Domino Servite School (DSS) is a private school, founded in 1986, and situated on KwaSizabantu (KSB) mission station in the Natal midlands. This research into DSS is a case study which aims to present an illuminative evaluation in the Whole School genre, within that branch of educational research concerned with effective schools. The project aimed to make use of a compatibility paradigm accommodating nomothetic and anthropological data. In attempting triangulation of methodological approaches, it tried to establish the extent to which DSS may be considered an efficient and effective 'New Private' school. It also aimed to understand the school's raison d'ětre. In order to illuminate the relevance and social processes of DSS, evaluation made use of internal and external referents. The internal investigation sought to make judgements in reference to the efficiency of the school as an organisation. On the macro-level, whole school evaluation required extensive curriculum evaluation. On the micro-level, appraisal of teaching and assessment of pupil performance was undertaken. This internal investigation required a critical analysis of the school's formal, informal and hidden curriculum. The external evaluation sought to make judgement in reference to the effectiveness of DSS. On the macro-level, this required evaluation of the findings of the internal investigation in terms of a broader South African context. Implications, for example of the school's 'private' status, and its 'Christian' curriculum in respect of multi-culturalism, education for nationhood , and ethnicity were examined. The analysis of these dimensions paid attention to the school's spatial context in terms of both its 'rural' and missionary setting. Here the focus was on the school's formal curriculum. Analysis of the inter-relational context paid attention to its informal curriculum or the way in which the school deals with the commonality and diversity of its clientele and staff. The inter-relational context of the school examined the hidden curriculum, or the relationship between the school and the broader South African Community. A critical ethnographic account of this institution was therefore possible because of the dual focus on the internal and external evaluation reference points. Internal evaluation made extensive use of direct (non-participant) observation, structured and nonstructured interviews, questionnaires, and documentary analysis. Indirect (participant) observation, in particular Clinical Supervision (CS), was also used. Indirect (non-participant) observation made extensive use of Flanders' Interaction Analysis Categories (FIAC). Teacher self-evaluation was also included, while analysis of pupil performance made use of 'standardised' achievement testing and a tracer study. External evaluation required detailed study of local and international literature on issues relating to private schooling, rural and multi-cultural education, education for nationhood and ethnicity. The research found that much of the school's curriculum path is incongruous with its rural context largely because of its association with the former Department of Education and Training (DET), and because of its missionary heritage. As such the school is presently (1) located within a questionable (formal) curriculum tradition which has little relevance to, nor potential for, the transformational needs of either rural Natal or South Africa in general. However, this does not preclude the possibility of the school making a contribution to education for development in South Africa. (2) The school advocates a mono-cultural Christian value system and modified cultural pluralism which attempts to assimilate pupils from diverse socio-economic and ideologically homogeneous backgrounds. Multi-cultural education, plural values, religious and values democracy are therefore not part of the school's raison d'ětre. (3) The school, through its associated organisation Christians for Truth (CFT), represents a social view espousing either a modified cultural pluralism or multi-nationalism which allows for allegiance to a transcendent value system without compromising group. values and associations. This means that the school aims at assimilating or amalgamating diversity into a mono-cultural unity that transcends group identity. This transcendent culture is defined in Christian terms. The study recommends inter alia, further investigation into the educational implications of_values neutrality and the particularism of secular humanism; a comparative analysis of a random sample of private missionary schools and ordinary state controlled rural schools so that more generalisable results might be obtained; and a more thorough investigation into the parental and pupil contributions to the school, their attitudes and perspectives on missionary education and their feelings about the management styles evident in the organisation.