published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Education (Management), Durban Institute of Technology, 2004. / The role of the principal is critical in ensuring that schools run efficiently and effectively. It is for this reason that an incumbent for the post of principal obtains the necessary experience in all aspects of management to fulfill this role. Prior to 1994, applicants were promoted strictly according to hierarchical ranking, that is, a Level One educator was promoted first to head of department, then to deputy principal and thereafter to the position of a principal. This ensured that by the time educators became principals they had acquired, through experience, the necessary management skills to run their schools. / M

The purpose of this study was to explore how women academics’ view their professional advancement at a higher education institution. From a South African perspective with its limited studies on this topic, revealed that women within higher education institutions felt isolated, alienated, and their ideas unheard. The challenge for South Africa remains the full empowerment of all women in higher education institutions ensuring gender equity, because it is within these walls that the solutions to our major challenges will be formulated. This empowerment must be about us, as women doing it for ourselves. However there are a number of barriers to women’s advancement in the academy, which resulted in women not being able to break through the “glass ceiling” and reach the pinnacle of their careers. Cultural restrictions placed on women often further aggravate these experiences. Undoubtedly, we have made great strides in attaining middle- management positions, but higher education institutions seems like a closed shop for women (Luke 1999) and lead to the description of the feeling of being outsiders in academia. My research essay was grounded within an interpretive paradigm and I employed qualitative methods for inquiry to demonstrate how women academics’ view their professional advancement at a higher education institution. Data for this study were collected via- semi-structured, in-depth interviews with twelve women from a South African higher education institution. I used the constant comparative method of data analysis to search for recurring themes and patterns. / Mrs. N.F. Petersen

Enhancing the cultural diversity of faculty has emerged as a prominent issue in the 1990's. While Black, Hispanic, and American Indians have made incremental gains in terms of their representation in majority institutions, they remain clustered in the lower ranks of the faculty and generally take longer to achieve tenure. Efforts to increase the representation of minority faculty have focused on intensified recruitment, with less attention paid to further career development once a minority individual has achieved faculty status. The research presented herein explores the evaluation, promotion and tenure process of a Research I university to determine the structural and ideological barriers to minority faculty advancement. The research focuses on concepts of merit, excellence, and quality that form the cornerstones to evaluation standards, and the values, attitudes and behavioral expectations that underlie those standards. Using critical theory as the conceptual framework that drives the inquiry, the findings indicate that the pervasive ideology of merit, being universalistic in nature, does not easily accommodate diversity and trivializes racial, class, and gender issues while perpetuating a system of structured inequality.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Education (Management), Technikon Natal, 2000. / This research focused on an investigation into the problems female heads of department experienced with reference to the primary schools in the Isipingo area. For a successful and a balanced education on a global basis, women must be seen to be equally capable of becoming leaders of educational institutions. The purpose of this research was to ascertain how educators react to the leadership of female heads of department in primary schools. More specifically, the objective of this research was to investigate the problems that heads of department experience, mainly because they were women. A literature survey of the functions of the head of department enabled the researcher to focus on the areas that the head of department had to give her attention to in order to develop an effective team. Focus was on organizational, administrative and professional matters determining the level of similarities between the English, American and South African education systems. Research was conducted by means of a questionnaire applied to a representative sample of educators from all levels of the hierarchy of educators. The qualitative method provided a systematic investigation of the topic. The research sought to understand behaviour from the 'action' point of view where the objective was to discover the specific experiences of the respondents. / M

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study aimed at exploring the level of job satisfaction among academic staff members in Ethiopian public universities. For this purpose, a conceptual framework incorporating group of constructs, namely university policies and support, working conditions, student achievement, and demographic factors was developed based on the literature reviewed in the study. A descriptive survey research design was employed in the study to collect and analyse quantitative data obtained from participants. Clustered and systematic random sampling techniques were used in the study to choose 400 academic staff members from eight public universities. A questionnaire comprising closed- and open-ended questions, and Likert scale items was adapted in order to gather data from the participants. Descriptive and inferential statistical procedures were used to analyse the relationships between all the study constructs with the help of IBM SPSS, version 25. The study revealed that there were significant differences among different demographic groups, and positive relationships between job satisfaction and its defining constructs. The study also found that most of the academic staff members were dissatisfied with their jobs. Female academic staff members were more significantly dissatisfied with students‟ discipline policy, university governance and support, their salary, workload, communication, and students‟ achievement than male academic staff members. Male academic staff members were, however, more significantly satisfied with the promotion policy and more significantly dissatisfied with reward than the female academic staff members. The study revealed that academic staff members significantly differed in the level of job satisfaction corresponding to their age and qualification. The study also indicated that academic staff members significantly differed in the level of job satisfaction corresponding to their work experience and academic rank. Significant correlations between the eight constructs and job satisfaction of academic staff members were also found in the study. Finally, the study recommended directions for policy amendment and implications for practice and future research relevant to the issue under study. / Educational Studies / D. Phil. (Education)