The study investigates teachers’ perceptions of their professionalism and how this professionalism is observed by both teachers and school community. The investigation takes place at three Junior Secondary Schools. In composing the research, the researcher adopted a qualitative and quantitative approach based on an interpretive paradigm. The study is concerned with how teachers view themselves as professional people. Since the extent of teachers’ professionalism is always questioned by the school community, teachers’ professionalism is not guaranteed to be easily accepted and recognised. The findings reveal that teachers in general accept the fact that they face an enormous challenge in performing their duties as they are required to act professionally and ethically at all times. SACE, the education “watchdog” has further strengthened the issue by proclaiming legally enforced ethical standards for teachers in South Africa. The study describes how teachers who joined the teaching profession for different reasons conceptualise teacher professionalism differently from each other but also agreeing on other issues. The findings of this study also show how educational policies, teachers’ conditions of service, personal beliefs and relationships between parents, learners and teachers can influence teacher professionalism.

M. Tech. Education / Teacher absenteeism is a threat to the education system and contributes to falling education standard and academic under achievement. Educators contribute to the school's objectives when they are present at school, and teaching learners. The purpose of the study is to come up with strategies and practices that can be used to curb teacher absence.

Thesis (MTech (Education))--Peninsula Technikon, 2004 / "The ability to collaberate effectively is important for educators who have to work together to serve learners who have learning disabilities in general education classrooms. The rationale for this study was to evaluate school-based assistance. The study focused on the conceptualisation, design, implementation and impact of a Teacher Support Team programme, as implemented at a primary school. The main objectives were to establish whether effective collaberation requires that educators have knowledge and skills that they share with one another for the purpose of solving classroom problems. It also sought to highlight the importance of collaberation among professional staff."

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / The government has the mandate not only to provide but also to plan, control and assess the development of education for the enrichment of the entire country and all its people. This is implemented by the District Office. For this implementation to succeed the teachers must show their cortunitment in schools. Ministry of Education (2000:104) asserts that assuring quality of the education system is the overriding goal in education which must be attained by teachers. Teachers can only achieve this important goal by knowing and practising their responsibilities as educators. This practice may ultimately lead to their being more committed. Ngobeni (1996:2) indicated that taking responsibility for their profession, teachers must be aware of the depth of the commitment they have made in choosing teaching as a career. The public education system has introduced many educational policies with the aim of improving quality "in education. Some of the priority needs identified by the government were the implementation of Teacher Developmental Appraisal System, Outcome Based Education and the Whole School Evaluation (Department of Education, 2001: 9). It is therefore important that the District Office delivers and support teachers through workshops and seminars to be equipped with the variety of skills for implementing these policies.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Education at the Durban Institute of Technology, 2003. / This research investigates the South African Developmental Appraisal System (DAS). It is concerned with exposing implementation problems arising from its perception by educators in four secondary schools in the Central Circuit of the Inanda District ofKwaZulu-Natal. / M

Thesis PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: ABSTRACT Chapter 1 investigates teacher wages in the South African labour market, in order to ascertain whether teaching is a financially attractive profession, and whether high ability individuals are likely to be attracted to the teaching force. Making use of labour force survey data for the years 2000 to 2007 and for 2010, wage returns to educational attainment and experience are measured for teachers, non-teachers and non-teaching professionals. The returns to higher levels of education for teachers are significantly lower than for non-teachers and non-teaching professionals. Similarly, the age-wage profile for teachers is significantly flatter than it is for non-teachers, indicating that there is little wage incentive to remain in teaching beyond roughly 12 years. The profession is therefore unlikely to attract high ability individuals who are able to collect attractive remuneration elsewhere in the labour market. Chapter 2 deals with explicit teacher incentives in education. It provides a technical analysis of Holstrom and Milgrom’s (1991) multitasking model and Kandel and Lazear’s (1992) model of peer pressure as an incentivising force, highlighting aspects of these models that are necessary to ensure that incentive systems operate successfully. The chapter provides an overview of incentive systems internationally, discussing elements of various systems that may be useful in a South African setting. The prospects for the introduction of incentives in South Africa are discussed, with the conclusion that the systems in place at the moment are not conducive to introducing teacher incentives. There are however models in Chile and Brazil, for example, that may work effectively in a South African setting, given their explicit handling of inequality within the education system. Chapter 3 makes use of hierarchical linear modelling to investigate which teacher characteristics impact significantly on student performance. Using data from the SACMEQ III study of 2007, an interesting and potentially important finding is that younger teachers are better able to improve the mean mathematics performance of their students. Furthermore, younger teachers themselves perform better on subject tests than do their older counterparts. Changes in teacher education in the late 1990s and early 2000s may explain the differences in the performance of younger teachers relative to their older counterparts. However, further investigation is required to fully understand these differences. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In Hoofstuk 1 word die lone van onderwysers in die Suid-Afrikaanse arbeidsmark ondersoek om vas te stel of onderwys ʼn finansieel aantreklike beroep is en hoe waarskynlik dit is dat mense met sterk vermoëns na die onderwys gelok sal word. Met gebruik van arbeidsmagopnamedata van 2000 tot 2007 en van 2010 word die loonopbrengs op jare onderwys en ervaring vir onderwysers, nie-onderwysers en beroepslui buite die onderwys gemeet. Die opbrengste vir hoër vlakke van opvoeding is beduidend laer vir onderwysers as vir nie-onderwysers en nie-onderwys beroepslui. Netso is die ouderdom-loonprofiel van onderwysers beduidend platter as vir nie-onderwysers, wat dui op weinig looninsentief om langer as ongeveer 12 jaar in die onderwysveld te bly. Dit is dus onwaarskynlik dat hierdie beroep baie bekwame mense sal lok wat elders in die arbeidsmark goed sou kon verdien. In Hoofstuk 2 word na eksplisiete insentiewe in die onderwys gekyk. Die hoofstuk verskaf ʼn tegniese analise van die multi-taak-model van Holstrom en Milgrom (1991) en van Kandel en Lazear (1992) se model van portuur-druk as aansporingskrag, met klem op die aspekte van hierdie modelle wat in Suid-Afrikaanse omstandighede van nut mag wees. Vooruitsigte vir die instelling van insentiewe in Suid-Afrika word bespreek, met die slotsom dat die stelsels wat tans in plek is nie bevorderlik vir die instelling van onderwysersinsentiewe is nie. Daar is egter modelle in byvoorbeeld Chili en Brasilië wat effektief in Suid-Afrikaanse omstandighede sou kon funksioneer, gegewe hulle eksplisiete klem op ongelykheid binne die onderwys. In Hoofstuk 3 word hiërargiese liniêre programmering gebruik om te ondersoek watter eienskappe van onderwysers ʼn belangrike invloed op studenteprestasie uitoefen. Met gebruik van data van die SACMEQ III studie van 2007 is ʼn interessante bevinding dat jonger onderwysers beter in staat is om die gemiddelde wiskunde prestasie van hulle student te verbeter. Verder vertoon sulke jonger onderwysers self ook beter in die vaktoetse in Wiskunde en taal as hulle ouer kollegas. Veranderings in onderwysopleiding in die laat negentigerjare en vroeë jare van hierdie eeu kan dalk die verskille in die vertonings van jonger onderwysers relatief tot hulle ouer eweknieë verklaar. Verdere ondersoek is egter nodig om hierdie verskille beter te verstaan.

This research project investigates the influence of, and interplay between, contextual and biographical factors on an educator's ability to respond to the work context. In particular, this study explores what factors a small number of educators believe were important, before, during and after their participation on one or other specific professional development programme in enabling them to develop (design and/or adapt) and implement a course curriculum in their work environments. Within the context of this research, the professional development programmes of interest are designed with/for environmental educators from the Southern African region. Although past educational research has often focused on the importance that programme participants give to the interactions between themselves and tutors , the materials used, the assignments tackled, etc. this research project did not set out to draw the research subjects' attention to programme-related factors. Rather, it was designed to broaden the focus to include factors before and after a programme as well. Within this enquiry, three research subjects were engaged in numerous, open-ended conversations throughout the course of the year during which the study unfolded. The above participants were also involved in semi-structured interviews where, again, relatively open-ended questions were asked. A small number of documents, such as the materials of the above professional development programmes, were also analysed. This research has provided a number of insights into the wide range of factors that might enable educators to respond effectively to their work environments. Specifically, it has indicated the importance of four broad families of factors perceived by the subjects of this research to have enabled them to develop and implement a meaningful course curriculum. The personal variables are highlighted in particular. Importantly, this study raises questions and challenges both for those involved in similar research as well as for those involved in the design and implementation of professional development programmes, particularly for educators. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

During this explorative journey, I investigated what keeps teachers motivated to learn and develop in their professional practice. I employed Bell and Gilbert’s (1994) model which encapsulates and examines the personal, professional and social aspects of teachers’ development. Within this interpretive paradigm, I offered an understanding of what the impetus for change entailed - from their personal and professional self on their practice and what sustains teachers to continue to negotiate the changes in their daily work. Employing participatory methodology as my methodological research approach, I portray and interpret data that was generated from the teachers’ stories. The methods used to produce the data included life story interviews, photographs and drawings. By composing and reconstructing my participants’ stories, I show how the personal and professional aspects of teacher learning are interactive and interdependent. By retelling stories we can foreground crucial processes in teachers’ development and show what motivates them to learn and develop in their professional practice. Through the reconstructed stories, these particular teachers in this study were able to, through particular social relations and practice, create new meanings and definitions to their professional identity and responsibilities as teachers in a changing schooling context. The findings of the study indicate that within their school context there were many challenges with which teachers were confronted. However, the teachers in this study chose to uplift, inspire and motivate themselves. Although they followed prescribed policies and curriculum, they engaged in certain relationships and enacted certain practices that went beyond their teaching responsibility. The teachers’ initial frustration and restlessness had led to a personal change in their attitudes, values and beliefs. There was an inner desire to bring about change in the personal meanings and definitions of teacher self. Through particular practices and relationships, new thinking, new ideas, new interests and new meanings about the teacher self were invoked. It was through the creative use of these social spaces that teachers cultivated new ideas and new meanings of the kind of teacher they wanted to be for a South African classroom. The teachers engaged in innovative ways in terms of their professional development to bring about change. The teachers indicated that their identity as a teacher was linked to being a learner iii and a researcher. In addition, the relationships of love and care towards learners brought new meaning to their teacher self. It translated into what they were doing in their relationships with learners and the subject/s they taught - this, became a deeply rewarding engagement between the teacher and their work. In response to my main research question, what keeps teachers motivated? These particular teachers were not blind to complexities they faced on a regular basis but against all odds worked within the complexity. Imbued with renewed vigour, hope and love they forge ahead. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2011.

Research asserts that learner performance in South African schools is in a state of crisis. While many more learners’ post-1994 in South Africa have physical access to education, very few have epistemological access. The quality of the education learners receive is polarised along socio economic lines. This crisis has its roots in the legacy of colonialism and apartheid, and as such, there is a need to transform the education system to ensure equal opportunity for all learners, and ultimately economic growth and security for the country. One of the explanations offered for the crisis in learner performance is the poor teacher education system. However, there is a paucity of research in teacher education generally in South Africa, and specifically in relation to pre-service teachers. Furthermore, little attention has been given to how initial teacher education could contribute to the promotion of a social justice agenda with the intention of transforming the South African schooling system. This research seeks to understand how the expectations, scaffolding and assessment of preservice teachers’ teaching practices can be utilised to promote social justice during the Teaching Practice (TP) component of initial teacher education. In answering the research question, I analyse data and literature to identify a set of key valued functionings of quality praxis that preservice teachers ought to be provided the capability to realise, at the level of achieved functioning. This is a qualitative case study located in the interpretive paradigm. The case under study is: quality teaching practices of pre-service teachers. This case is bound by context (initial teacher education in South Africa) and setting (the pre-service teacher in the classroom). Two South African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were selected through purposive sampling and their respective Teaching Practice (TP) documentation was analysed. Focus group interviews were conducted with five lecturers involved in TP at one of the HEIs. The theoretical framework of the study used to guide the analysis of the data was underpinned by a social justice perspective on quality education. Given that a social justice perspective does not have analytic tools, I view quality pre-service teachers’ teaching practices as praxis and utilise the capability approach as a mechanism for identification and description of valued functionings and capabilities that contribute to quality praxis. There are four significant findings in my research. Firstly, there is consistency with regards to the valued functionings and capabilities across the TP documentation of the two participating HEIs. In other words, the conceptions of a capable pre-service teacher are similar. Secondly, if social justice goals are to be realised, greater clarity of the valued functionings needs to be evident in the TP documentation. Thirdly, the valued functionings can be categorised into those that are foundational and those that promote a social justice agenda. Finally, in promoting a social justice agenda, there are functionings that ought to be valued by the HEIs that are seemingly not currently valued.

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / This investigation is part of a group project that was conducted by a research team of the Department of Educational Sciences of the Rand Afrikaans University. The focus of this study is classroom teaching duties and educator commitment. Teaching is only successful if it leads to effective learning. In order to be successful in their teaching teachers need skills, knowledge and techniques that can be used simultaneously so that they can achieve predetermined aims and objectives. There can be no doubt that teaching is a complex task, and in order to accomplish this demanding task successfully, teacher's need to focus on different aspects in the learning teaching situation, like classroom management, classroom discipline, preparation of their lessons and the others. The research was based on assumption that for prospective and serving teachers to teach effectively and be committed to the teaching profession. In order to understand this problem in its total context, a study of the literature on classroom teaching duties and educator commitment was done.