A full dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Education Presented to the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences 2015 / This research project was conducted in 2010 and 2011 as a strategy to determine the effectiveness of a home-school partnership programme (HSPP) in a Grade R class. This study was an investigation into the empowerment of parents of Grade R learners in assisting the learning of literacy at home. Parents of Grade R learners attended a seven-week programme on ways of assisting their children. By attending the HSPP, parents and teachers were encouraged to form a link between home and school. The present study is grounded in Paulo Freire’s theoretical model of knowledge and acquisition as well as Bronfennbrener’s bio-ecological system. Reference is made to Costa’s sixteen Habits of Mind, which indicates how parents have grown in terms of their way of thinking. A qualitative approach was used. Focus group interviews, semi-structured questionnaires and footage from the local broadcasting studio were used to collect data. The sample size consisted of five participants who were interviewed during 2010 and five participants who were interviewed during 2011. These parents agreed to be part of the research programme. The key question of this study was answered: How can the HSPP assist parents with the learning of literacy at home? The results confirmed the positive impact that the programme had upon the parents. They wanted to assist their children at home but did not previously have the skills to do that. By gaining these skills, they became confident to use everyday objects to help their young children become literate. In conclusion, from the current research, it can be seen that if the home, the school and the community collaborate in a meaningful and sustained way, the future of our children’s education, especially in poverty-stricken areas where unemployment is rife, can be improved significantly in a constructive and long-term manner.

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.

D.Ed. / South African Education has been in a crisis, especially in the secondary schools where the majority of learners are blacks and where the academic performance of the grade 12 learners is poor. It is a challenge for all educational stakeholders to determine what contributed to the high failure rate in secondary schools where the majority of learners are blacks especially in grade 12. When learners fail grade 12 they experience many problems such as they may become negative about life and experience feelings of hopelessness, demotivation and guilt. It often seems as if nobody cares about these learners. However, educators, parents, learners, educational officials as well as the South African Government all blame each other for factors which contributed to the high failure rate of learners in grade 12. The main aim of this research was to develop, implement and evaluate a psycho-educational programme to assist the parents and educators of the learners who failed grade 12. This was done so that parents and educators would be able to assist those learners who failed in order to accomplish the goal of becoming educationally well trained persons. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, evaluative contextual study was done to develop a programme. Four steps were utilised to develop, implement and evaluate a psycho-educational programme to assist parents and educators of the learners who failed grade 12. The first step dealt with situation analysis. Phenomenological individual interviews were conducted with the learners who failed grade 12 and their parents and educators. The interviews were conducted in order to explore and describe the phenomenon. A literature control was utilised in order to support the findings that were obtained from the interviews. The second step involved the development of the psycho-educational programme. The results from the interviews and the survey list of Dickoff, James and Wiedenbach (1968:423) were utilised in order to develop a conceptual framework of the psycho-educational programme to assist parents and educators of the learners who failed grade 12. The third step involved the implementation of the psycho-educational programme to assist parents and educators. The fourth step involved a single case study to evaluate the psycho-educational programme to assist parents and educators of the learners who failed grade 12. Through this programme parents and educators are empowered with the necessary knowledge, which will assist them to help learners who failed grade 12 change their behaviour, and to assist them to be positive about life and to accomplish their goal.

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

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Meaningful education in schools can only take place if their is a close relationship between school and home. The parent must protect his rightful share in the education of his child by active involvement in the school. The school is not an independent or isolated entity but it operates in a social context within a community. Parents are compelled to make use of specialised assistance to extend their educative endeavours, and that is the task of the school. Every principal needs to develop a good understanding and competency in bUilding and maintaining effective school-parent-relationships. The principal is both leader and manager of a school. As principal he strives towards set goals, aided by his staff, pupils and parents. The effectiveness of parental involvement will depend primarily on the principal's managerial skill. The principal needs to create a certain school climate by means of his managerial style, in which parents will feel the need to participate. School-parent relationships and communication are important tasks for the school principal. The goal of the school principal in performing these tasks, should not be to manipulate parent-opinion, but to develop understanding, perspective and commitment with the parents of the school. The principal should endeavour to develop the ideal leadership style, in order to establish a climate which will be conductive to parental involvement. Partnership implies relationships, duties and responsibilities. The clear understanding of partnership and how it will effect the teacher and the parent, is crucially important in education today. In the partnership between the teacher and the parent, the teacher may be regarded as a cornerstone of the partnership. The partnership between teacher and parent forms the basis and the only real hope for a superior school programme at all levels. Parents should be more involved in the affairs of the school and the major responsibility for further parent involvement and partnership between teacher and parent rests with the school and indeed mostly with the school principal.

In Chapter One, a systematic literature review was conducted to analyze intervention studies that measured student- teacher relationships (STR). STR are important for all students (Burchinal, Peisner-Feinberg, Pianta, & Howes, 2002; Hughes, Luo, Kwok, & Loyd, 2008; Pianta & Stuhlman, 2004). Students who have positive relationships that include high levels of closeness with their teachers have better academic, behavioral, and social emotional outcomes (Mihalas, Morse, Allsopp, & McHatton, 2009; Roorda, Koomen, Spilt & Oort, 2011). In addition, students who have relationships with their teacher that are high in conflict are more likely to demonstrate negative behavior, social skills and academic achievement (Murray & Greenberg, 2001; Pianta & Stuhlman, 2004). Fourteen intervention studies were synthesized in this systematic literature review to identify strategies that can be used in the classroom to improve STR. Ten strategies were represented in two or more studies that had a positive impact on STR: (a) specific praise and positive feedback, (b) direct student intervention, (c) de-escalation by ignoring or redirecting, (d) increased one-to-one time, (e) helping students change their representational models, (f) adjusting the teachers representational models, (g) tangible reinforcement, (I) parent involvement, and (j) morning meetings. One intervention in Chapter One that improved STR was dialogue journaling (DJ). DJ is an ongoing, personal, and interactive written conversation between the teacher and student. Previous research suggests that DJ has the potential to help students and teachers improve their relationships as they develop a personal connection that is mutually respectful. DJ also has the potential to reduce students’ disruptive behavior, improve their interactions with the teacher, and enhance their writing skills. In Chapter Two, a multiple baseline across participants single-case design study was conducted to examine the relationship between DJ and disruptive behavior, teacher praise, writing length, writing quality, and STR with four middle school students with emotional and behavior disorders in a therapeutic school. Students responded to journal prompts or wrote to a topic of their choosing during baseline and maintenance. During intervention, students and teachers corresponded in writing through the dialogue journals. A functional relation was found between DJ and disruptive behavior, but not between DJ and teacher praise, STR or writing skills. However, there was an effect demonstrated between DJ and writing length for two students. In addition, three of the four students reported an increased perception of teacher-student relationships. Students and teachers expressed satisfaction with the intervention. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Magister Educationis - MEd / The study is in response to the recently enacted South African Schools Act No. 84 of 1996 (SASA), which sees the legislated inclusion of parents in school governing bodies. The Act promotes four distinct representative participants or stakeholders. These include parents, who constitute the majority, educators, learners and non-teaching staff. There is an indication that the SASA has tensions, ambiguities and contradictions which could allow either "consumer market" or "citizen equity" visions to prevail in practical terms. However, I argue that the SASA in practice is becoming dominated by the consumer vision that has a danger of creating unfair competition amongst schools and perpetuating the already existing inequalities in our society. In this mini-thesis, I attempt to investigate the nature of parental involvement in school governance in practice. I focus on their responsibilities in relation to policy matters as enshrined in the SASA, their commitment to executing their functions. The aim is to determine their capacity to fulfil their responsibilities with respect to their powers and functions. / South Africa

The learning of mathematics is a worldwide concern. International studies over the last decade place South African learners amongst the lowest achievers. Although various initiatives have been tried there does not seem to be any improvement. In the USA and UK initiatives include the involvement of parents and these have been implemented with great success. One of the parent involvement programmes from the USA, the Family Maths Programme has been in South Africa since 1996. This programme has been successful in South Africa but is confined to parents of grades 4-7 children. However, there is no programme for parents of high school learners. As grade 8 is usually the first high school year in South Africa, this study focuses on parents of grade 8 children and their involvement in their children’s mathematics learning. It consists of an initial survey of grade 8 parents’ (from an urban school) mathematical backgrounds and experiences and their involvement in their children’s education. Using key points from the survey and elements from the literature review and other sources, the researcher designed a parent assistance programme for mathematics which was conducted with three groups of parents of grade 8 children from the same high school. Each group of parents was exclusive and the same set of procedures was applied to each group, making this study a qualitative multiple case study, within the interpretive research paradigm. The parent-assistance programme consists of a parents’ workshop and completion of journals over a 7-week period. Parents documented their interactions with their children in structured journals, a process known as participant journaling. After this journaling period, parents and children were surveyed on this interaction by means of follow-up questionnaires. This was followed later in interviews with the parents and mathematics teachers, separately. After the completion of all three case studies parents and children participated in focus group discussions to discuss and share experiences of the programme. The interrogation of the data, on two levels, suggests parents’ and children’s perceptions of mathematics were likely to be positively influenced. The data also suggest that children were likely to become more confident and to improve in mathematics.

In school library research programs involving enquiry-based learning, a challenge for students doing research emerges when they take their projects home and turn to their parents for assistance. Often parents do not have sufficient knowledge of the research program and critical thinking to be able to effectively help their children. Many of them are unfamiliar with an inquiry-based research process and this inevitably leads to anxiety for both parents and children. A literature review revealed that parents do want to help their children at home with schoolwork, but are confused about the amount and kind of assistance they should provide. Moreover, research on parent involvement in school library research programs is virtually nonexistent, which stimulated the researcher to conduct this study. The purpose of this study was to investigate a parent/teacher-librarian (PTL) collaboration process intended to assist parents wanting to help their children more effectively with research homework. Before the implementation of this study, a school library research program was well-established (1988-1999), but it included no formal integration of parent involvement. The study investigated (a) parent, student, and teacher-librarian concerns that arose during collaboration, (b) resolutions of those concerns, (c) techniques that facilitated collaboration and parent assistance, and (d) the benefits and disadvantages of the collaboration process. One questionnaire was mailed at the beginning of the study to the parents of all 72 grade seven students in one Lower Mainland elementary school and, as a final evaluation, a second questionnaire was mailed to the parents of 28 grade seven students who had committed time to be in the study. Between the two questionnaires, a subset of eight parents and their corresponding children became primary subjects and were interviewed after they had worked with their children on research question formulation at home. Previous to working with their children, these eight parents had received a detailed overview of the student research program, two training sessions with the teacher-librarian and a variety of options for communicating directly with her at any time during the study. A major objective of the study was to collaboratively solve the major concerns that emerged during the study and a procedure was developed for that purpose. The parents and teacher-librarian together created guidelines for future parent involvement where resolutions of the concerns were stated. The greatest concern for all parties was the dilemma of balancing the student desire for independence and ownership of the projects with the parents' offer of help. The guidelines helped clarify the right kind of assistance for parents to give, while the overview and two training sessions increased parents' research knowledge base and allowed them to suggest improvements to strengthen the collaboration process and the library program. Because the PTL collaboration process provided all participants with more benefits than disadvantages, both the parents and teacher-librarian unanimously agreed that the PTL collaboration process merited continuance. With the supporting structure of a parent/ teacher collaboration process attached to learning activities at home, parent confidence about guiding children can be increased, the students can see positive results in learning, and a school library research program can thereby be strengthened. The teacher-librarian, the researcher in this study, felt her practice was improved with the addition of the PTL collaboration process. Moreover, its continuance could contribute ultimately to the development of students whose convictions are based on more reflective enquiry and thoughtful research. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study is to explore the implementation of an IST in a rural primary school of Northern KZN. The ISTs within an inclusive education context have not existed in the said area, due in part to the way the district support structure was implemented. Previously, the main focus had been on psycho-educational assessment, which was done in a more traditional way, with no specific interventions after assessment. This, however, was not in accordance with the ex-KwaZulu Department of Education modus operandi. Although the Education Support Services (ESS) of the past era provided some support for learners with barriers to learning in Northern KZN, it was not enough. The research site is nestled in a valley amidst rocky land in Northern Zululand, with sparsely populated communities around the school. Acculturation, that is the absorption of other cultures, prevails among the local people, with influences noticeable in some community houses being built in the semi-urban style of neighbouring Swaziland and Mozambique. However, the majority of the community continue to live in traditional houses and the area still operates as a subsistence economy. This is evident along the roadsides, where there are a number of informal small business sites from which the local community sell their wild fruits, arts, crafts and/or firewood to passers-by, including tourists. Many learners assist their parents with these sales after school, over weekends and on public holidays. Some have large fields for growing vegetables, mealies and other crops. It is significant that the majority of the community is illiterate, with this becoming a challenge to the school because the same parents are expected to support their children with their schoolwork, as well as participating in the school activities. The cooperation between the home and the school should be improved, as many learners are not staying with their natural parents but with members of the extended family, including their grandparents. For much of the time these guardians (grandparents and care-givers) have their own personal commitments. The School Governing Body (SGB), including parent representatives, is instrumental in improving educator-parent relationships. / Mrs. O.R. Pettipher