M.Ed. / South African education is emerging from one phase of history, the phase of a segregated education system, into another phase where the nature is still to be defined. This emergence will bring along with it transformations unknown over the previous phase of educational history which lie mainly on the level of humanity, that is to say changes affecting the beliefs, attitudes, norms and values of the individuals and the community they belong to. The whole concept of man-in-the-world as the establishment of the world, the environment of the educator as well as the educand in this total situation, leads us to conceive of education as an interhuman phenomenon. The establishment of relationships in the world is a continuous effort to give completeness to man's existence by appropriating and adopting the historical development of the cultural situation. The interaction and the close relationship of culture and education in general is indisputable. For education to succeed, man comes to the fore while his culture forms the background. The opening up of "white schools" to all the population groups in South Africa did not bring about a greater understanding of the complexity and pluralistic nature of the South Africa society. The cultural factors in education play an important role in the application of universal educational and cultural principles in the provision of education. The cultural position of the black learner in Model C or multicultural schools has been eroded and is being marginalised by socio-political and educational issues quite beyond his area of competence as a learner. As a result, the expectations the teacher has of the black pupils are too great and are daunting for the pupil. Both the teacher and the learner are not competent enough, they are being dis-empowered. It is at this point that problems in the teaching-learning situation manifest themselves. The transformation process currently taking place in most multicultural schools has many problems relating to this. There are definite areas of concern which need to be looked into, solutions to be found and implemented in order to assist the black pupil. and his teachers to find their feet in the new education dispensation. Essentially a ground motive in every community is a motive of that particular community, the driving force behind all activities, including educational activities - the spiritual root of a particular community, so to speak. The cultural aspects in education will probably remain one of the most critical areas determining whether South Africa can in fact achieve the same education through one and the same department, one and the same curriculum, one and the same examination format. This study will attempt to research the cultural aspects of education concentrating on Model C schools and will put forward some recommendations for the implementation of solutions to the problems the black learner is confronted with.

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Bibliography: pages 136-142. / This dissertation is a report of my work in schools in the Eastern Cape while assisting the Primary Education project (PREP) to develop a resource pack for in-service education. In-service education has received much attention in recent years in South Africa. Both the state sector and non-government organisations have provided various in-service interventions in an attempt to improve both the qualifications of teachers and the results of pupils in schools. However, the dismal state of education in ex-DET schools bears witness to the fact that such interventions have by and large been ineffectual. This study shows how one project developed and trialled parts of a distance learning in-service course in conjunction with junior primary farm school teachers. The need for innovative and creative models of distance education is explored and our understanding of the nature of distance learning is detailed. The study goes on to include an analysis of the political economy of farm schools. It also details the constraints acting upon teachers in such schools and shows how these impacted on the study. The research procedures and methods of data collection are outlined and a framework for analysing the data is developed and justified. The actual data generated during the study is then measured against this framework in order to gauge its effectiveness as an in-service intervention. Finally, I draw conclusions and make certain recommendations based on the evidence presented. Whilst these recommendations are tentative, they may have relevance in terms of future in-service education policies and procedures.

Humanity is facing problems on a scale never before encountered. This dissertation traces the roots of modern culture's destructive relationship to the planet with its habits of over-consumption and exceeding the limits of the planet's ecological systems. Educational institutions are embedded in and replicate an unsustainable culture. As educational leaders, we need to challenge a system that is morally and ecologically bankrupt while providing a path toward sustainability at the center of teaching and learning. Using a narrative scholarship approach and theoretical frameworks drawn from ecological thinking and place-based learning, this dissertation provides models for transforming secondary education. While critiquing the current model of high school, this dissertation argues that education for sustainability needs to be not only about curriculum change, but a change in the way we think about schooling, the buildings in which we educate, the food we provide and the relationships between schools and the communities in which they exist. It directly addresses social studies curriculum and offers a way of examining career pathways through the lens of education for sustainability.

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Though America's public schools have become increasingly diverse, the teaching staff remains relatively homogeneous. This gap is more apparent in California schools that serve large numbers of students of color, being taught by teachers who are predominately White and female. Because the population of kindergarten-through-12th grade teachers is predominately white and middle class, theorists recommend the self-discovery process of striving for cultural proficiency as a solution. Teacher cultural proficiency is a series of characteristics that are learned, honed, and constantly evolving to create a classroom that is culturally aware and culturally sensitive for all students. Although there is ample literature regarding multicultural education, there is limited research discussing teachers' perceptions and experiences with cultural proficiency, especially white women, who represent the largest population of teachers in California. The purpose of this study was to further investigate teacher stories along their journey on the cultural proficiency continuum. This study includes interviews with three teachers who have reputations for being culturally proficient and who work in elementary schools in a California Central Valley district serving large populations of students of color. The purpose of the interviews was to further explore the teachers' experiences striving for cultural proficiency and implementing culturally aware practices in their classrooms. The results of this study suggest that the continued journey to cultural proficiency mirrors cultural proficiency theory but lacks one key component: self-reflection in regard to whiteness. The interviewed teachers struggled with the theoretical foundations of critical whiteness theory and cultural proficiency, but they believed that the goal of cultural proficiency was one in which they would constantly be striving. The findings of this study address some of the culturally proficient themes of self-discovery, curiosity, experience, and travel that contribute to these teachers' culturally proficient reputations, and they add to scholarship by suggesting an additional tenet to cultural proficiency, that of being intimately aware of one's own whiteness and privilege.

Despite site-based decison making (SBDM) educational mandates, research determined the virtual exclusion of parents, family, and/or home as co-authoritative voice in Texas public school district mission statements. Qualitative analysis determined six parent roles within 155 inclusive mission statements through rhetorical deconstruction, a text-based grammatical evaluation procedure; quantitative analysis determined no significance between inclusive and exclusive districts in factors of size, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. The implications of this study add further support to the growing parental insistence for greater educational decision-making options: ie., home schooling, voucher system, and charter schools.

In response to the recent political decision in Sweden in 2023 to reduce the allocation of hours for visual art education in Swedish Schools Högstadiet (grade 7-9), this study is motivated by a commitment to substantiate our stance against this policy through scientific rationale. This paper undertakes a literature review to explore the significance of visual arts within the evolving landscape of educational curricula. Focusing on the domain of teaching and education, our main objective is to investigate the positive impact visual art education provides. The approach employed involves an analysis of existing studies and research findings related to art and art education. The findings of this study highlight the multifaceted benefits of visual art education in schools. By thoughtfully combining various scholarly insights, this investigation asserts that art education bestows a range of favorable outcomes upon students, equipping them with essential tools to navigate the expanding visual environment in both current and future societal contexts.

This research was a case study focusing on one particular setting in an attempt to provide insights into and clarifications of the factors that influenced the decision of a faculty to initiate or not to initiate a proposed innovation. The case study approach was chosen because it was felt that this approach would impose as few constraints as possible on either potential data or antecedent variables. Data for the study were gathered using direct observations of people, events, and documents; informal conversations with faculty members; surveys of the entire faculty; and formal interviews with selected faculty members. In addition to using multiple methods of collecting data, internal validation was increased by using comparisons of data from three groups of respondents identified as high-networkers in the faculty, outliers in the faculty, and nonfaculty personnel in the school. The findings of the study indicated that (a) how the proposed innovation affected the difficulty of the job faculty members were expected to perform, and (b) the influences of subgroups within the faculty had strong perceived effects on the faculty's decision to be in favor of adopting or not adopting the proposal. Factors originating outside the faculty were perceived by the faculty as having very little effect on the faculty with the exception of the influence exerted by the school principal. The perceived effects of the organizational climate of the school and of the faculty's philosophical compatibility with the proposed innovation were determined to be inconclusive. The effect of various personal characteristics of faculty members on the decision-making process of the faculty was found to vary from very little (for the age of the faculty member), to moderate (for gender and years of experience), to inconclusive (for the subject taught by the faculty member). / Ed. D.