published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Thesis (MEdPsych (Educational Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Teachers have a central role to play in the process of educational transformation. Given their deep contextual understanding of their school it is important to provide a safe space, so that their voices can be heard. Within the context of educational transformation, educational psychologists are challenged to redefine their role and to become more involved in the general process of schooling. The new role envisaged for educational psychologist suggests an enlargement of their scope of practice to include both individual work as well as work within the different systems. The role as organizational consultants suggests that the educational psychologist must assist with professional teacher development and organizational development in order to equip schools to become more effective in their purpose and goals. The study attempts to explore the directive use of sandtray as a non-verbal and projective technique, within the framework of school development planning, to facilitate school development. It is envisaged that the outcomes of the research can contribute towards the range of skills and interventions that educational psychologists can use to effect school reform and development. A qualitative case study within the interpretive paradigm was chosen as research design. The case was a high school in the Namaqua District of the Northern Cape Province. The sample for this study consists of 6 teachers that were representative of the staff. The data was collected through 6 individual sandtray sessions, semi-structured interviews and 1 focus group discussion. Photographs of the subjects sand worlds were also taken. The review of literature and the findings of this research, suggest that sandtray, as a projective technique, when used in an ethical and responsible way, during the auditing phase of school development, can give the educational psychologist access to the underlying personal and structural dynamics that hinders the process of development and renewal within a school. Secondly, it helps to develop an understanding of the individual perspectives, point of views and emotional reactions of teachers towards the existing context of the school. Since school development is also concerned with personal and professional development of teachers, it is important to provide psychosocial support for teachers to deal with personal issues that emerge out of the sandtray process as well as the challenges within the context of their school. To develop a composite picture of the school it seems important to involve all role-players in the initial phases of school development planning.

Since 1994, South Africa has experienced a focus on transformation. The National Department of Education has refocused the vision and direction of the South African education system through a series of policy initiatives. As a result of new legislation in South Africa, considerably more authority and responsibility for decision-making has been devolved to the school level than was the previously the case (Lumby, Middlewood&Kaabwe, 2003). This study investigates teacher involvement in decision-making in finance and curriculum matters in 16 selected rural schools in Maphumulo circuit. . The study sought to investigate the extent to which teachers’ actual and desired involvement in decision-making in Finance matters and Curriculum. Through the interpretive paradigm of the situation quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to provide rich and picture. The study utilized a questionnaire and focus group interviews to investigate the finance area in eight issues: budgeting, purchasing, record keeping, financial reporting, fundraising, monitoring, auditing and accounting. The second area was curriculum with seven issues: selection of books, year plans, work schedules and lesson plans, assessment (tests and projects) time tabling, language policy and instructional methods. Findings show that in both decision-making areas teachers tend to experience less decisional involvement than they desire. However, teachers do not necessarily desire to be involved in every aspect of the selected areas. I therefore conclude that school leaders need to invest in understanding what teachers desire to be involved in and what they do not. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2011.

Post 1994, the vision of the South African education policy terrain is to transform schools into more effective places of teaching and learning. To achieve this vision, policy suggests a shift in management practices from traditional autocratic headship to more participatory leadership practices, including the leadership of teachers. Theorizing from a distributed leadership perspective, the aim of this study was to explore the concept of teacher leadership and the challenges that are faced by post level one teachers as they operate as leaders in their schools in the South African context. The study sought to investigate how the concept of teacher leadership was understood, how post level one teachers lead in their schools and what challenges to teacher leadership are in schools. The study was conducted in one rural and one semi-urban primary school and it was qualitative in nature. A case study methodology was suitable for this study since it was aimed at gaining teachers understanding and perceptions of teacher leadership. Different methods of collecting data were used and these included interviews, questionnaires, and document analysis. Data were analyzed thematically using Grant’s (2008) model of teacher leadership. The findings indicated that teacher leadership as a concept was still new to certain teachers, even though research on the topic in the South African context is increasing. Some teachers did not think of the roles they played in a school as teacher leadership. The findings further indicated that teacher leadership was experienced differently across the two schools with teacher leadership in the rural school being more restricted than the teacher leadership in the semi-urban school, where it was more emergent. In the rural school, leadership could, at best, be described as authorized distributed leadership while in the semi-urban school, leadership could be described as dispersed distributed leadership. In addition, the findings showed that the major barrier to teacher leadership in the rural school was resistance from the School Management Team while in the semi-urban school the major barrier to teacher leadership was a lack of time. A further barrier to teacher leadership in both schools was teachers themselves who were lazy and did not want to take on additional leadership tasks. The study also found that the major enhancing factor to teacher leadership, particularly in the semi-urban school, was a collaborative school culture where teachers trusted each other and worked together in professional learning communities. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wyoming, 2005. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Oct. 16, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-243).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1996. / Title from title page screen, viewed May 31, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Robert Arnold (chair), Paul Baker, Kenneth Strand, Norman Durflinger. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-74) and abstract. Also available in print.

The management of Nigeria high schools are noted for administrative practices in the management of their schools; hence the term administration is commonly used in their daily operations. This fact on ‘administration’ was emphasised by the Nigerian government in the National Policy on Education (Nigeria, 1981, p. 21). Therefor as a researcher from Nigeria, my rationale for embarking on this research study was to find out to what extent a public high school in Nigeria was still operating in a hierarchical, individualistic, authoritarian style of leadership or whether it has started embracing contemporary approaches such as distributed leadership. The main goal of this study was to explore leadership practices in the case study school with the main focus on how different people relate to each other in the various leadership practices of the school, such as staff and briefing meetings of the school. In addition, my research questions aimed at exploring the respondents’ perceptions of leadership and factors enabling or constraining the distribution of leadership in the school. The study is located within the interpretive paradigm. As a researcher in a wheelchair studying in South Africa I needed to find alternative ways of accessing the research site and gathering data. I was able to use electronic communication for the collection of my data. I used four different tools of data collection methods namely document analysis, observation, questionnaire and stimulated recall interviews. Findings from the study indicated that there was limited evidence of contemporary leadership approaches in the case study school. The school was still operating traditional leadership, while school activities were dominated by a hierarchical chain of command. What emerged from the leadership practices of the school could be termed authorised distributed leadership which was under the command of the school principal. Data also indicated that there were some forms of restricted teacher leadership in the management and administration of the school. In addition, findings revealed that the case study school was very good at the management and administrative functions. The school was very effective and efficient in the controlling and management of both human and material resources. Lastly, findings from the case study school indicated some enabling factors to the distribution of leadership in the case study school which include a culture of respect and cordial relations among the SMT and the teachers, Prominent among constraining factors to the distribution of leadership in the case study school were: cultural orientation of the people where the case school was located, exclusionary religious practices by the principal of the school and the inhibiting role played by the Ministry of Education. Finally, based on these findings, recommendations were made both for practice and for future research.

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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Submitted in partial fulfilment of a Masters Degree in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration at the University of Zululand, 2005. / Educational policy reform such as South African Schools Act, No. 84 of 1996 and the National Education Poiicy Act, No. 27 of 1996 require all educators to participate actively in the governance and management of their schools with the view to providing better teaching and learning environments. Educators must participate in the management processes of their schools to bring about deliberate, meaningful and effective management. This study provides both a literature review and an empirical study of strategies that principals may adopt to facilitate participative management among educators. The following key findings emanated from the study: • There is a lack of educator involvement in the management process. • Principals do arrange formal meetings with educators frequently enough but do not structure meetings tightly enough. • There is a general lack of communication between the school management team and educators. • Educators are not involved in the implementation of educational policies. The following recommendations were extrapolated from the above findings: • Principals should encourage networking between schools so as to promote interschool communication, resource sharing, staff and learner collaboration and information exchange. • Principals should conduct staff training programmes and should promote teamwork among educators in their schools. • Effective management strategies should be made explicit in training workshops and policy documents such as the South African Schools Act, No. 84 of 1996, should be discussed in educator forums. It is the fervent hope of the researcher that this study will alert principals to pitfalls of authoritarian management styles and equip principals with practical strategies and techniques to effectively facilitate participative management in their respective schools.