No description available.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 113-119). Also available in print.

M.A. (Public Management and Governance) / This study focused on perceptions of the role of teacher unions within the basic education system in secondary schools in Soweto, a township in the south of Johannesburg, South Africa. The main aim of the study was to determine whether the role that teacher unions play contributes negatively to the state of education in secondary schools in Soweto. To make this determination, the study focused on two secondary schools in Soweto. The study discussed the key purpose of teacher unions in education, and provides the legislated guidelines as well as perceptions of stakeholders in education in secondary schools in Soweto with regard to the extent of the influence of South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) in two secondary schools in Soweto. As the biggest teacher union in the country with a large following of educators in secondary schools in Soweto, SADTU has significant power which can be directed to either enhance teaching and learning or inhibit teaching and learning in secondary schools in Soweto. If existing accountability processes are not implemented to ensure that teacher unions carry out their mandate in compliance with legislation, the state of education in secondary schools in Soweto may be at risk. The study utilized a qualitative research design, to analyze data gathered from existing literary knowledge on the subject, while qualitative interviews were conducted with respondents to establish their perceptions on the positive or negative contributions of SADTU in secondary schools in Soweto. The findings were that SADTU is perceived to be inhibiting the culture of teaching and learning in some secondary schools in Soweto. However, the study established that SADTU cannot be isolated as the only cause for a poor culture of teaching and learning in secondary schools in Soweto. The cumulative effect of the curriculum changes; lack of training of educators; pressure placed on the teaching and learning through strikes and dissent; and intimidation of some SADTU members are factors that have contributed negatively to the culture of teaching and learning in secondary schools in Soweto.

This study answers the critical question: How do women leaders experience gender equality in the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU)? It focuses on five women leaders in the union, illuminating their experiences and evolving gender consciousness. This qualitative study addresses a gap in research on gender in teacher unions, to understand and reveal how women who have accessed previously male-dominated spaces experience gender equality. The women leaders’ experiences are a prism through which to understand the “depth” of the substantive experience of gender equality in the union. It examines how the union through its organisational bureaucracy, culture and politics shapes their experiences. Through a historical analysis of the gender and liberation struggle, I demonstrate the trajectory of achievements, challenges and visions for gender equity in South Africa within the trade union movement, noting the achievements and highlighting lost opportunities to advance gender struggles of its members. The study theorises different conceptions of feminisms and imagings of organisations to understand the women’s experiences in relation to the union and to broader society, within the culture, politics and bureaucracy of the organisation. I extended this lens by exploring differing conceptions of feminisms to understand the gendered experiences of the women leaders as they traverse life from childhood to adulthood. Conceived with the broader realm of feminist methodology, I use elements of life history research, notably in-depth interviews to produce narratives in the form of “harmonised poems” to illuminate the public and private experiences of the research participants, providing deep insights into their evolving gender consciousness. The analysis is multi-dimensional, traversing the influence of the family, school, and the historical and political contexts that shaped the women’s gender consciousness. The findings indicate that teachers’ contradictory class location, history of patriarchy and acceptance of sexual division of labour contribute to the women leaders’ experiences of gender inequality in the union. These experiences of inequality were magnified by apartheid’s1 structural and ideological roots, which shaped gender roles while simultaneously catalysing the development of gender consciousness and advancing political activism. In this regard, the family served as a crucial site of gender socialisation, while the school formally reproduced a hierarchical gendered society. At the organisational level, hierarchically bureaucratic structures maintained and reinforced particular patterns of control and power through the formal system of trade union governance in which gender oppression is institutionalised and legitimised under its banner of emancipatory politics. However, women in the organisation are by no means innocent victims of hostile patriarchal forces, but are active participants in their own oppression as they strategically comply with institutional norms. Significantly, the findings indicate that equality of opportunity for women leaders in the union does not translate into equality of outcome. This thesis contributes to the theoretical debates on evolving gendered consciousness by advancing an extended conceptual lens to interrogate women’s gendered experiences in predominantly patriarchal spaces. It identifies four domains of evolving consciousness. Starting with the divided self in the domain of home, girl children imbibe the dominant hierarchical social structures, and fixed gender roles are inscribed here. However, the family domain provides the catalyst for a developing consciousness among the women as children. The socialised self emerging in the domain of the school emphasises the gender socialisation, both overt and covert, that occurs in schools. It illuminates their evolving gender consciousness by resisting such subjugation initially as students and later as radical teachers. Progressing to the domain of the union, the women embody a strategic self in response to gender inequality in SADTU, which often takes an organisational form that contradicts its espoused policy and public pronouncements. Armed with the maturity to transcend their individualised gender consciousness, the women leaders emerge with a collective consciousness determined to break down the barriers to equality at the structural level. Finally, in the emerging collective self, the women simultaneously embody elements that constrain their individual emancipatory impulses while trajecting them to potentially higher levels of consciousness as change agents. Their willingness to embrace a shared consciousness and their call for activism indicate a shift towards heightened collective consciousness. As they move from their individual subjugated selves to their heightened collective, transformed consciousness, they express a compelling desire for collective agency to challenge structural drivers of inequality and enact change at the systemic level. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Thesis (Ph.D.(Education Policy))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-09-27T12:30:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 daniellemariavieiraalvesraposo.pdf: 1957016 bytes, checksum: 26219811474978361bc1fbf90e7f79e6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-10-04T15:54:52Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 daniellemariavieiraalvesraposo.pdf: 1957016 bytes, checksum: 26219811474978361bc1fbf90e7f79e6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-10-04T15:55:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 daniellemariavieiraalvesraposo.pdf: 1957016 bytes, checksum: 26219811474978361bc1fbf90e7f79e6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-04T15:55:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 daniellemariavieiraalvesraposo.pdf: 1957016 bytes, checksum: 26219811474978361bc1fbf90e7f79e6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-30 / O estudo que desenvolvemos teve como objetivo verificar se a participação em sindicato docente tem oportunizado a criação ou o fortalecimento da identidade profissional entre os professores sindicalizados. O período considerado nesta análise compreende os anos de 2004 a 2010. Para tanto abordamos como panorama geral as influências da perspectiva neoliberal na educação e na própria delimitação das ações dos sindicatos no país, com maior destaque para a trajetória dos sindicatos docentes. A interlocução teórica nesta pesquisa se dá com autores tais como Dalila Andrade Oliveira, Antonio Nóvoa, Maria da Glória Gohn e Armando Boito Jr. cujas discussões podem contribuir para a compreensão dos temas elencados neste estudo, sendo estes: formação do professor e identidade profissional docente; participação política e sindicalismo. Como instrumentos metodológicos contamos com análise documental e a realização de entrevista com professores sindicalizados e diretores da entidade sindical. O estudo demonstrou que, para a maior parte dos educadores entrevistados, esta participação não é a principal referência na formação da identidade profissional do professor. Questões como histórias de vida, influência familiar e a própria prática são citadas por quase todos, como estando na base da formação e da docência. Na perspectiva dos diretores entrevistados, além dos fatores enunciados, a participação sindical possui papel de destaque na conscientização do grupo e na criação da identidade profissional, havendo a necessidade de que esta ideia seja melhor trabalhada entre os professores mais jovens que passaram a compor o quadro sindical docente nos últimos anos. Neste estudo, de um modo geral, a justificativa para a participação sindical surge associada a garantia de direitos e condições trabalhistas. / In this study, we analyzed whether the participation of teachers in the Teachers’ Union have provided opportunities for either the creation or the strengthening of their professional identities at public district schools. It was considered the period between 2004 and 2010. For this, we approached the influences of the neoliberal perspective on education and on the delimitation of unions’ actions across the country, emphasizing the paths taken by teachers’ unions. Our theoretical basis is grounded in Dalila Andrade Oliveira, Antonio Nóvoa, Maria da Glória Gohn and Armando Boito Jr., whose discussions contribute to the comprehension of themes selected: teachers’ education and professional identity; political participation and unionism. As for methodological tools, we used document analysis and interviews with teachers adhered and directors of this institution. This study demonstrated that, for most teachers interviewed, union participation is not the main reference in the professionals’ identity formation. Topics like life stories, family influence and teachers’ own practices are mentioned by nearly all as being in the basis of education and teaching. As far as the perspectives of directors interviewed are concerned – besides the aforementioned reasons – union participation plays an imperative role in raising members’ political awareness and in creating a professional identity. Then, it is necessary to make this idea more discussed amongst younger teachers who have taken part in the city’s district union for the last years. In this research, in general, the reasons for adhering are related to warranty of rights and labor conditions.

This study investigates the role played by the Namibia National Teachers’ Union (NANTU) in school management. It examines the challenges faced by school principals in managing schools as a result of the presence of unions. In order to understand the behaviour and impact of union representatives in schools the study makes use of literature on teacher unionism, democratic, political and ambiguity management and leadership theories. Working in the interpretive orientation the study used semi-structured interviews, document analysis and focus group discussions. The research was conducted in the form of a case study involving three schools in the Kavango region of Namibia, and the data collected were dealt with according to case study principles. The study reveals that the presence of the union has several benefits for the school: for example, it advances the democratic participation of stakeholders, provides feedback to the school principal on how staff members experience his or her leadership, and offers advice on labour-related matters. It was also discovered that NANTU representatives act as mediators in conflict situations, which means that teachers can become better at managing and resolving conflict through their experience of serving on the union structures. However it was also discovered that the presence of NANTU in schools has several negative effects on schooling. For example, NANTU activities can disrupt school programmes; moreover, in some schools, neither NANTU representatives nor school principals understand their own or each other’s roles, and consequently they are always in conflict. The absence of a policy regulating the representation of NANTU in decision-making structures in schools causes the conflict to escalate. It emerged that the role of NANTU in schools is mainly determined by the leadership style of the school principal and the effectiveness of the NANTU representatives in that particular school. For example, an autocratic leadership style on the part of the school principal tends to exacerbate the conflict situation, while NANTU has been known to mobilize learners to demand the removal of school principals through class boycotts. NANTU is more concerned with defending the rights and interests of its members than any other matter affecting education. This research is likely to benefit school managers, policy makers and implementers, and NANTU structures, as it provides clarity on what both NANTU and school principals expect from one another. The study also demonstrates that school principals need to acknowledge and consider the divergent nature of the various interest groups in schools.

This thesis postulates that the inability of the post-apartheid government to deal decisively with the “legacies of apartheid education” is linked to the macro-educational policy trajectory endorsed by the African National Congress government in the early 1990s. It notes that post-apartheid education policymaking shows similarities with the National Party reforms initiated towards the end of the 1980s in education. In the late 1980s the apartheid government implemented a broad educational framework consonant with the rise of neo-liberal restructuring emerging internationally. It is argued that the teacher unions, and the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) in particular, were active role-players in shaping the new educational trajectory and discourse and that it was particularly because of the acquiescence of the unions that the government was able to embark on the road of neo-liberal restructuring with very little organised opposition. SADTU’s weak opposition to the rising influence of neo-liberal educational restructuring greatly facilitated the creation of a two-tier education system that South Africa is grappling with today, one for the rich and one for the poor. / Thesis (PhD (Education Policy Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / unrestricted

This study sets out to investigate how the roll of the teacher is constructed in the Swedish Teachers’ Unions trade publication. Based on the theory of social constructionism we have used the method of critical discourse analysis to establish dominant trends and patterns in how the roll of teacher is constructed in editorials in Swedish Lärarnas Tidning. We have established that the conflict between a modernist school tradition and a postmodern society has resulted in a dominant, traditional teacher discourse which is being simultaneously challenged by both a market-orientated discourse and a professionalization discourse. Furthermore, we attempt to highlight how these ‘ideal’ constructions can create problems in terms of identity construction for teachers. Aside from a process of professionalization, teaching has also undergone an intensification in terms of workload in a period of incessant education reform, with new tasks being handed down without any of the older tasks disappearing. According to the Swedish Teachers’ Union this has rendered teaching something of a “mission impossible”.

No description available.