Membership of school governing bodies is a new experience for many communities in South Africa, because the election system for school governing bodies was only introduced during 1997 for the purpose of a decentralised management and governing system for schools in the country. The new dispensation of democracy brought about some unique challenges, for example, how to deal with diversity effectively. In this sense, the successful management of diversity in education is viewed as one ·of the toughest challenges in the South African education system. The aforementioned challenge led to the rationale for this research, which focused on the influence of diversity on the functionality of school governing bodies and how to manage diversity in the school governing bodies from the Laingsburg education region. The strategy for the research was based on a qualitative research approach that took the form of an interactive investigation of the views and experiences of the participants in relation to the research topic. The research was further undertaken from an interpretative approach which is appropriate, because the social experiences of the participants were central to this research. Some of the most important findings were that prejudices and stereotyping with regard to diversity posed a stumbling block for the effective functioning of school governing bodies. To the contrary, it was also found that the perspective of diversity as variety, is an advantage due to the multiplicity of available talents and competencies which can be utilised to the benefit of education. Policy frameworks for the management of diversity and I appropriate communication were also part of the findings that have an influence on the functionality of school governing bodies. The recommendations included amongst other that all role players should be represented in the school governing body; training is regarded as a priority; members should be willing to accept the role of servant leadership and finally the roles of the principal and school governing body should be clarified to avoid friction and possible conflict. The value of the research is in the first place a contribution to a better understanding of the concept of diversity and it also supports the management of diversity in school governing bodies of rural areas. / MEd (Education Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Membership of school governing bodies is a new experience for many communities in South Africa, because the election system for school governing bodies was only introduced during 1997 for the purpose of a decentralised management and governing system for schools in the country. The new dispensation of democracy brought about some unique challenges, for example, how to deal with diversity effectively. In this sense, the successful management of diversity in education is viewed as one ·of the toughest challenges in the South African education system. The aforementioned challenge led to the rationale for this research, which focused on the influence of diversity on the functionality of school governing bodies and how to manage diversity in the school governing bodies from the Laingsburg education region. The strategy for the research was based on a qualitative research approach that took the form of an interactive investigation of the views and experiences of the participants in relation to the research topic. The research was further undertaken from an interpretative approach which is appropriate, because the social experiences of the participants were central to this research. Some of the most important findings were that prejudices and stereotyping with regard to diversity posed a stumbling block for the effective functioning of school governing bodies. To the contrary, it was also found that the perspective of diversity as variety, is an advantage due to the multiplicity of available talents and competencies which can be utilised to the benefit of education. Policy frameworks for the management of diversity and I appropriate communication were also part of the findings that have an influence on the functionality of school governing bodies. The recommendations included amongst other that all role players should be represented in the school governing body; training is regarded as a priority; members should be willing to accept the role of servant leadership and finally the roles of the principal and school governing body should be clarified to avoid friction and possible conflict. The value of the research is in the first place a contribution to a better understanding of the concept of diversity and it also supports the management of diversity in school governing bodies of rural areas. / MEd (Education Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

A research report submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education by combination of coursework and research. Johannesburg 2013 / This study investigates and addresses the issue of bullying of teachers by learners, which is also referred to as teacher-targeted bullying (TTB). The purpose of this study is to obtain data relating to the nature and extent of teacher-targeted bullying in a High School in Gauteng West. The setting is a former Model C, co-educational school, consisting of 1 354 learners (Grade 8 to Grade 12). The ethnicity of the School is predominantly Black, with 60% Black learners to 40% Caucasian, and the gender ratio of learners in the school is 706 girls to 648 boys. The current teacher population consists of a staff quotient of seventy-five teachers (75), twenty (20) male and fifty-five (55) female teachers, who are employed at the school, which will also be known as “the workplace” for the purposes of this research. The procedure for this research entailed using a teacher group of seventy (70) teachers, of whom fifty four (54) volunteered to complete the questionnaire, allowing an in-depth response by establishing factors contributing to the difficulties of learner bullying experienced by teachers; the effect on teacher performance, morale and student learning; and the support needed from education management for teachers experiencing bullying by their learners. From these questionnaires, the process was extended to a semi-structured interview, in order to follow up on the questionnaire. This allowed an understanding of the teacher’s life experiences or situations as experienced in their own words, for the twelve (12) volunteer teachers who had experienced bullying by learners. In this mixed method design, quantitative results enhanced generalizability, and qualitative results helped to explain how teachers experienced teacher-targeted bullying by learners in this Gauteng West High School. The research findings indicated that, prominent in this study, is the stress reported by teachers relating to the disciplining of learners. The level of reported learner-on-teacher-bullying was more evident in the classroom. It was also reported that all Grades were problematic for teachers, but the level of reported stress was more evident with Grade 9 male learners in same-gender classes. Furthermore, difficulties within this school environment, as well as the effect on teachers’ performance, morale and support from school management were established. In an effort to respond to the epidemic of learners who target and bully teachers, a reconceptualisation of the learner-on-teacher-bullying construct in the School under review, as well as other schools in South Africa, is needed. Thus bullying of teachers by learners must be tackled as a whole-school issue, with the focus on positive learner behaviour, good support structures, and active leadership, ensuring that staff are not only supported, but are also seen to be supported, by the various role players.

Decentralisation remains a preferred instrument of education reform policies throughout the world. In theory, decentralisation shifts power and authority from the state at national level to the school community at local level. In South Africa, a decentralising initiative in education was the promulgation of the South African Schools Act, No 84 of 1996, which provided parents with an opportunity to share in the governance of a public school by being elected to serve on its school governing body. In this context, it appears that members of school governing bodies hold unique sets of expectations when serving on a school governing body. Expectations may influence the nature and type of education to which a particular school community aspires and may consequently influence the workloads of the educators at that school. A primary search of national and international literature on governing bodies provides numerous descriptions of governmental intentions with respect to governing bodies but the expectations that governing body members have of educators, appears to be a neglected field of empirical enquiry. This study therefore examines public primary school governing body functions in the light of prevailing education labour law and other relevant law. The findings emerging from open-ended questionnaires completed by members of school governing bodies, time-use diaries recorded by educators and interviews with principals together with an analysis of prevailing education labour law and other relevant law consistently show that the workloads of educators who teach at public primary schools situated in middle-class contexts have intensified. There appears to be a variety of factors, which singularly and collectively contribute to the intensification of educators’ workloads. Among these are the increasing expectations of parents, differences in the conceptual understanding of professionalism, marketisation and managerialism arising from decentralisation and the principal’s leadership style. The findings point to sport and professional development as the core duties, which demand a great deal of educators’ time and appear to militate most on educators’ private lives. Moreover, this research has provided conclusive evidence that despite the fact that school governing bodies’ expectations of educators are aligned with prevailing education labour law and other relevant law, the open-ended nature of such law, together with omissions and silences, allows legal space for individual and contextual interpretation and implementation. It is therefore, the most prominent factor contributing to the intensification of educators’ workloads. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

The South Africa Schools Act (Act No. 84 of 1996), which came into effect on I January 1996, and the National Education Policy Act (Act No. 21 of 1996), introduced a new approach to the South African Education system. These acts, and many policy documents produced by the National Department of Education, provide for the active participation of parents, and other members of the community, in the governance of schools. Whilst policy mandates stakeholder participation, this study revealed that in practice parent participation is problematic. The aim of this study was to explore principals’ perceptions and experiences of school governing bodies in three selected rural primary schools in the Nkomazi area, Mpumalanga. A qualitative research approach within the parameters of the interpretivist paradigm was applied. The study utilised a multi-site case study research design focusing on three primary schools in different localities. Document analysis and structured interviews were employed to collect data at the three sites that were purposefully sampled. It was found that principals experienced some parent members of the school governing bodies as having low levels of education and not being able to cope with their roles as stipulated by SASA. Principals revealed that the ignorance and incompetence of parents regarding their roles causes conflict, that they provide insufficient support and do not attend meetings regularly. Principals dominate their parent school governing body (SGB) members, initiate innovations and make decisions without consulting the parents. Parents’ incompetence, insufficient cooperation and poor contribution towards the operation of the school increases the principals' workload and results in principals’ frustration. Principals revealed that they experience difficulties in trusting the parents with confidential matters discussed at SGB meetings. The study found that principals experience less conflict and better cooperation with parent SGB members who are educated. Parents who are able to read the policies have understanding of their roles, support the principals in their respective roles, optimise the operation of the school governing body and alleviate the workload of the principals. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Early Childhood Education / unrestricted

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2005 / Refer to the document

This research was aimed at investigating the management of teacher attrition in Sekgosese East Circuit. Teacher attrition is an on-going problem experienced by various countries, including South Africa. Although teacher attrition was always part of the departmental policy of age retirement, schools suffer as a result of it. In this study, ‘attrition’ refers to the number of teachers leaving the profession due to resignation, retirement, death, medical incapacity and retrenchment for operational reasons. Teacher attrition is regarded as a voluntary, involuntary and a continuous phenomenon. The current study focused on answering questions based on the nature of teacher attrition, the causes of attrition, the effects of attrition on learners, staying teachers and management, how attrition was managed by principals as well as the statutory bodies that may be involved in retaining teachers. The study used the qualitative method to investigate the management of teacher attrition in schools. The qualitative method was selected because it deals with participants in their natural setting, which was exactly what was done in this study. Both convenient and snowball sampling were used to sample six principals in the area under study. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from the participants in their natural setting. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed, analysed and categorised into themes. The findings revealed that teacher attrition in Sekgosese East Circuit occurs in the form of death, retirement and resignation. Teachers resign due to a number of reasons. It was found that resignation occurred as a result of the low salaries they are paid, loans which accumulated into more debts and because teachers seek greener pastures. The findings revealed that attrition was detrimental to learners’ performance. In schools that were affected by teacher attrition, learners spent three to four months without a teacher due to the slow pace of the Department of Education in replacing teachers. Principals revealed that they liaise with the Department of Education for replacement of teachers. Principals also revealed that attrition is not good for them as school managers. They rely on sourcing teachers from elsewhere and overloading remaining teachers who even have to teach those subjects in which they did not specialise. The recommendation was that the Department of Education speed up the replacement of teachers by introducing on-line application for resignation or retirement so that the two processes may run concurrently. / Educational Management and Leadership / M. Ed. (Education Management)

The rights and responsibilities of parents are viewed very seriously in South Africa in that they are emphasised by the Act of Parliament. The South African Schools Act, No 84 of 1996, places the governance of every school in the hands of parents. The parents are in this way required to perform their roles within the orbit of this Act of parliament. This study is therefore directed at analysing the Schools Act and those sections of the law are discussed which have a direct bearing on the responsibilities and the rights of parents when involved with the school. A comparison is drawn between the national determinants of yesteryears regulating parental involvement as well as the new paradigm statutes regulating parental involvement in the school system. The findings of the literature study led to the empirical study. A questionnaire on this study comprising 46 items was developed. The subjects of this study were made up of 150 parents in the Lichtenburg District of the Department of Education in the North-West Province. The results of 137 respondents were statistically analysed. The study revealed that parents lack knowledge on the statutes relating to their involvement in the schools. Also, there are no measures taken by the schools to capacitate the parents to understand and apply the laws correctly. Finally, parents are not performing their roles adequately as is expected by the law. The findings of this study led to the recommendations on how parents could be helped to do what the law requires. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

The rights and responsibilities of parents are viewed very seriously in South Africa in that they are emphasised by the Act of Parliament. The South African Schools Act, No 84 of 1996, places the governance of every school in the hands of parents. The parents are in this way required to perform their roles within the orbit of this Act of parliament. This study is therefore directed at analysing the Schools Act and those sections of the law are discussed which have a direct bearing on the responsibilities and the rights of parents when involved with the school. A comparison is drawn between the national determinants of yesteryears regulating parental involvement as well as the new paradigm statutes regulating parental involvement in the school system. The findings of the literature study led to the empirical study. A questionnaire on this study comprising 46 items was developed. The subjects of this study were made up of 150 parents in the Lichtenburg District of the Department of Education in the North-West Province. The results of 137 respondents were statistically analysed. The study revealed that parents lack knowledge on the statutes relating to their involvement in the schools. Also, there are no measures taken by the schools to capacitate the parents to understand and apply the laws correctly. Finally, parents are not performing their roles adequately as is expected by the law. The findings of this study led to the recommendations on how parents could be helped to do what the law requires. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

Magister Educationis - MEd