Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / Bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The study explores the perceptions of Namibian teachers of democratic school governance and its contribution to school discipline. The research examines the education policy shifts towards democratic school governance from before to after 1990. The study further investigates the views of twelve teachers from four secondary schools in the Oshana education region on how democratic school governance can contribute to lack of discipline among learners. The study exposes how learner representation on the school board and their participation in the discussions during meetings is experienced. The study also discusses how learners who are elected to serve on the school board are accountable to other learners who have elected them. The study shows the link between democratic school governance and school discipline, internationally, nationally and locally. Finally, given the exploratory nature of the study, some issues that warrant further investigation to add to the existing knowledge are highlighted. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie navorsingsverslag ondersoek die persepsies van Namibiese onderwysers met betrekking tot demokratiese skool bestuur en die bestuur bydrae tot skool disipline. Verder word die opvoedkundige riglyne vir demokratiese skoolbestuur voor en na 1990 ondersoek en die indrukke van twaalf onderwysers van vier sekondêre skole in die Oshana Onderwysdistrik met betrekking tot die bydrae van ‘n demokraties verkose skoolbestuur tot ‘n gebrek aan dissipline onder leerlinge word bespreek Hoe leerlingverteenwoordiging op die skoolraad en leerlinge se bydrae tot besprekings gedurende vergaderings ervaar word, sowel as hoe leerlinge wat gekies is om op die skoolraad te dien aan die leerlinge wat hulle verkies het, verslag doen, word ook oorweeg. Die verband tussen ‘n demokratiese skoolbestuur en skooldissipline op internasionale, nasionale en plaaslike vlak word getoon, Weens die ondersoekende aard van die studie word kwessies laastens uitgelig vir verdere ondersoek om sodat meer inligting by die reeds bestaande kennis gevoeg kan word.

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / Bibliography / Internationally, contemporary youth struggle to make sense or meaning of their lives. That is so because they live in a world where they daily witness unsolvable problems of struggling economies, poverty, HIV, and religious and national conflict, and where they are generally treated with ambivalence and a threat to the existing social order. Youth also struggle because within the public imagination they exist on the fringe of society. Giroux (2012: 2) argues that youth are given few spaces where “they can recognise themselves outside of the needs, values, and desires preferred by the marketplace” and are mostly subjected to punitive and zero tolerance approaches when they behave in unacceptable ways. In South Africa presently, it is generally claimed that “discipline problems” amongst youth have become the most endemic problem in South African schools, with policy makers and educators daily complaining about the disciplinary problems within schools that affect how learners engage with learning. Equally, discipline as punitive coercion has been shown to be an unsuccessful educational method in dealing with youth (Porteus & Vally 1999). With the above schooling challenge in mind, this qualitative study explored the views of thirteen young learners at Avondale High School in the Western Cape on school discipline. Via semi-structured interviews, the youth were asked about their understandings of the rules, disciplinary structures, forms of authority and order at the school, how they interpreted the role of discipline, and how they thought this would influence the futures awaiting them. The goal of the study was to provide a multi-dimensional view of what youth regarded as discipline at one school, and to explore whether different learners adopted different meanings of ‘discipline’ according to the context of their individual lives. I show in the study - utilising the views of Emile Durkheim, Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu - that school discipline needs to be thought of as more than punishment or structures of ordering per se if it is to play a productive role in the functioning of schools. Along with Yang (2009: 49) I suggest that only when schools recognise that discipline has multiple meanings and (limited) roles within their daily functioning, will the emancipatory and transformative possibilities of school discipline be unlocked. For that to happen, the voices and views of youth in schools have to be taken account of, and meaningful relationships developed between learners, educators, and school management.

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / Bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Teachers in the South African educational context are being asked to meet an increasing number of professional demands. Teachers are expected not only to produce academic results and develop professionally, but also to play an affective role in the school. The paradigm used in this study is neo-liberalism. This allows the researcher to view the teacher as possessing technical or ‘hard’ skills as well as the less well-defined ‘soft’ or emotive skills. Here soft skills are defined as the interpersonal, human, people or behavioural skills needed to apply technical skills and knowledge in the workplace. A qualitative transcendental phenomenological research approach was selected in order to explore whether ‘excellent’ teachers from three schools in diverse economic settings in the Western Cape employed soft skills when teaching. The results of this study indicate that teachers perceived as ‘excellent’ exhibit intrapersonal behavioural, interpersonal conceptual and interpersonal affective soft skills. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Binne die huidige Suid-Afrikaanse konteks, word daar toenemend professionele eise aan onderwysers gestel. Daar word nie net van onderwysers verwag om akademiese resultate op te lewer en hulself te verbeter nie, maar ook om ‘n emotiewe rol in die skool te speel. Neo-liberalisme skep die paradigma vir die studie. Dit laat die navorser toe om die onderwyser te beskou as iemand wat oor tegniese of ‘harde’ vaardighede in die werkplek beskik, maar ook oor die minder omskryfde ‘sagte’ of mensvaardighede. Sagte vaardighede word gedefinieer as die interpersoonlike, menslike of gedragsvaardighede wat nodig is om tegniese vaardighede en kennis toe te pas in die werkplek. ‘n Kwalitatiewe transendentale fenomenologiese aanslag is ontwerp om te bepaal of onderwysers, wat gesien word as ‘uitstekende’ onderwysers, van drie skole in diverse ekonomiese omgewings in die Wes-Kaap, dieselfde sagte vaardighede gebruik wanneer hulle skoolhou. Die resultate van die studie dui aan dat onderwysers wat gesien word as ‘uitstekende’ onderwysers, intrapersoonlike gedragsvaardighede en interpersoonlike affektiewe sagte vaardighede ten toon stel.

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / The problem of youth has been a key issue in South Africa since 1994, with youth seen as needing extra guidance and leadership if they are to bring about the country that many hope for. The interest in youth is also spurred on by recent studies that claim that once adolescents establish certain behavioural patterns that it becomes difficult to modify these patterns. Little research exists that describes the ordinary sociological experiences of youth, especially on sensitive issues that attract a lot of public attention- such as teenage sex and pregnancies, and what is perceived as the ‘slipping of youth morals’. There is great concern that youth are experimenting with sex at too early an age in their social and political development (Frimpong 2010: 27). In my thesis I focus on the thinking, choices and decisions that learners at one high school in Cape Town seem to make with regard to sex and sexuality, and how their choices seem to be influenced by a variety of discourses attached to the provision of a sex education programme at the school; discourses that organise their everyday thinking and actions in very concrete ways. A key goal of the study was to disarticulate and re-articulate the deficit mentality that shapes discourses of sexuality in South Africa, and to develop ‘sexual’ stories and strategies of story-telling that allow the voices of learners to be heard (Pillow 2004). My focus in this study is mainly to explore how the sex education programme reconstitutes youth’s sexual identity. In my qualitative study I challenge the tendency to view youth participation in teen sex using mainly an abstinence-only discourse, and suggest that sex education programmes ‘contaminate’ and ‘mutilate’ youth understandings of sex and sexuality in quite complex ways.

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The notion of inclusion refers to one of the normative ideals that may be used as a means to promote justice in a democracy. Equally so, the norm of inclusion is capable of exploring the legitimacy of the democratic processes set up for the promotion of equity and redress. The implication thereof is that the notion of inclusion is also an adequate measure for monitoring whether processes practised by polities do embrace the norms of recognition, redistribution, empowerment and justice as we come to understand them within the broader concept of inclusion. Grounded in the theory of inclusion and democracy, this study is set against the backdrop of momentous political changes in South Africa that set the tone for transformation in higher education, amongst other democratic changes. Higher education institutions, alongside all other South African polities, introduced new open policies chock-full of democratic ideals to promote equity so as to ensure that those who previously suffered the injustice of being excluded from gaining entry to higher education are able to access it. Based on this understanding, this study has been conducted from a conceptual point of view to investigate the approach by which two historically advantaged institutions in the Western Cape have conceptualised the inclusion of black students from impoverished schools into their institutions. I have also examined how these institutions articulate their support programmes to keep these students in the higher education system. University policy documents such as admissions policies, financial aid policies, student diversity and equity policies, and student retention and throughput rate provided information for interpretation and data analysis. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die idee van insluiting verwys na een van die normatiewe ideale wat gebruik kan word om geregtigheid in ‟n demokrasie te bevorder. Net so het die norm van insluiting die vermoë om die regmatigheid van die demokratiese prosesse wat ingestel is vir die bevordering van regverdigheid en herstel (redress) te ondersoek. Die implikasie hiervan is dat die idee van insluiting ook ‟n voldoende maatstaf is om te kontroleer of die prosesse wat deur politieke eenhede uitgevoer word, die norme van herkenning, herverdeling, bemagtiging en geregtigheid omhels soos ons hulle binne die breër konsep van insluiting verstaan. Begrond in die teorie van insluiting en demokrasie staan hierdie studie teen die agtergrond van gewigtige politieke verandering in Suid-Afrika wat die toon gestel het vir transformasie in hoër onderwys, onder ander demokratiese veranderinge. Hoëronderwysinstellings, tesame met alle ander Suid-Afrikaanse staatsbestel, het nuwe, oop beleide propvol demokratiese ideale bekend gestel om regverdigheid te bevorder om sodoende te verseker dat die wat voorheen onder die ongeregtigheid van uit hoër onderwys uitgesluit te wees, gelei het, nou toegang daartoe kan kry. Gebaseer op dié verstandhouding is hierdie studie vanuit ‟n konseptuele oogpunt onderneem om ondersoek in te stel na die benadering van twee histories bevoordeelde instellings in die Wes-Kaap tot hulle konseptualisering van die insluiting van swart studente uit arm skole in hulle instellings. Ek het ook ondersoek hoe hierdie instellings hulle ondersteuningsprogramme verwoord om hierdie studente in die hoëronderwysstelsel te behou. Die universiteite se beleidsdokumente, soos toelatingsbeleide, finansiële hulp beleide, studentediversiteits- en regverdigheidsbeleide, en studentebehoud- en deursetkoerse, het inligting verskaf vir die doeleindes van interpretasie en analise.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: School administrative clerks are a category of educational worker that is normally overlooked by those doing research on schools. These workers are also ubiquitously underappreciated in school discourses. There is a lack of research on the identities and practices of administrative clerks which is the specific focus of this thesis. This thesis aims to address this knowledge gap in the literature. Therefore the research questions addressed in this thesis were: (1) how are school administrative clerks’ identities and practices constituted? (2) what are school administrative clerks contributions to the functioning of schools? The research questions were answered by conducting a qualitative study that involved interviewing and observing three purposively chosen school administrative clerks as well as conducting document analysis of policy documents. The analysis of the data was written up in four articles, each employing theoretical frameworks apposite for the analysis that it pursued. The articles variously addressed the way in which school administrative clerks’ identities and practices are negotiated. They provided insight into their professional contributions in their worksites. This is a thesis by articles. It consists of six chapters. The introductory wraparound chapter is followed by four articles, which constitute the four middle chapters of the thesis. These four academic articles have been published in, or submitted for publication to, different journals. Chapter six is the conclusion chapter. The insights gained from the four articles were that the administrative clerks’ identities and practices were constituted by their exercise of agency. They enacted what I regarded as a form of ‘subordinated agency’. The first article suggests that their reflexive agency resulted in spatial practices that made a contribution to their schools’ management and teaching practices. The second article suggests that administrative clerks’ rhetorical agency was established through their careful and tactful negotiation of rhetorical spaces in order to exercise their voice. They accomplished this through their resistance to the rhetorical norms of the school. The third article argues that they enacted an ethical agency which was instantiated through their quest for self-transformation which led to professional practices that had considerable positive consequences for the school. The fourth article posits that their accumulation of information and relational resources translated into a form of participatory capital that laid the foundation for their agency. It is through the deployment of their participatory capital that they exercised their agency to fashion unique professional identities. The conclusion of the thesis is that agency plays a significant role in the way that school administrative clerks’ identities, practices and their contribution to their school spaces are instantiated. School administrative clerks’ identities and practices are constituted by the subordinated agency that they are able to marshal within the professional spaces of their work environments. It is this subordinated agency that propels the administrative clerks’ daily creative boundary crossings between their school management practices on the one hand and their broader educational practices on the other hand. The study thus presents an analysis of their incisive professional contribution in spite of their putative subordinated status. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Skool administratiewe klerke is 'n groep opvoedkundige werkers wat normaalweg oor die hoof gesien word wanneer navorsing in skole gedoen word. Hierdie groep word ook duidelik onder verteenwoordig in diskoerse oor skole. Daar is 'n gebrek aan navorsing oor die identiteite en praktyke van administratiewe klerke. Laasgenoemde is die spesifieke fokus van hierdie tesis. Hierdie tesis poog om hierdie leemte in die literatuur aan te spreek deur die volgende navorsingsvrae aan te spreek: (1) hoe word skool administratiewe klerke se identiteit en praktyke gekonstrueer? (2) wat is die skool administratiewe klerke se bydrae tot die funksionering van skole? ’n Kwalitatiewe studie is gebruik om die navorsingsprobleem aan te spreek. Dit het die vorm van dokumente analise sowel as onderhoude en waarnemings van drie administratiewe klerke aangeneem. Elk van hierdie artikels spreek die skool se administratiewe klerk se identiteit en praktyke aan deur van ’n verskillende teoretiese raamwerk gebruik te maak. Hierdeur is insig verkry in hul professionele bydrae in hul onderskeie werksomgewings. Hierdie is 'n tesis deur artikel publikasie, wat uit ses hoofstukke bestaan. Die inleidende hoofstuk word gevolg deur vier hoofstukke, elk in die vorm van ’n artikel. Hierdie vier akademiese artikels is reeds gepubliseer of voorgelê vir publikasie in verskillende joernale. Die gevolgtrekking word in hoofstuk ses aangebied. Die vier artikels het na vore gebring dat skole se administratiewe klerke se identiteite en praktyke gekonstitueer word deur die uitoefening van hulle agentuur. Daar is bevind dat hulle ’n ondergeskikte agentuur uitoefen. Die eerste artikel benadruk dat hul agentuur die resultaat is van hulle refleksiewe ruimtelike praktyke. Die tweede artikel benadruk dat administratiewe klerke se retoriese agentuur voorgebring word deur hulle retoriese ruimtes, waarin hulle hulself laat geld deur versigtige en taktvolle optrede. Laasgenoemde word vermag deur hul dialektiese weerstand teen ruimtelike norme. Die derde artikel suggereer dat administratiewe klerke 'n etiese agentuur verkry deur hulle soeke na self-transformasie. Ek wil aanvoer dat laasgenoemde aanleiding gee tot professionele praktyke wat ‘n beduidende positiewe uitwerking op die skool het. Die vierde artikel dui daarop dat hul versameling van inligting en beskikbare bronne die grondslag lê vir hul agentskap. Dit is deur middel van die ontplooiing van hul deelnemende kapitaal dat administratiewe klerke by skole hulle agentskap so uitoefen dat dit meewerk in die vorming van hul unieke professionele identiteite. Die gevolgtrekking van hierdie proefskrif is dat agentskap 'n beduidende rol speel in die wyse waarop die identiteite en praktyke van ondergeskiktes soos administratiewe klerke in skoolruimtes gevorm word. Skool administratiewe klerke se identiteit en praktyke word gekonstitueer deur die ondergeskikte agentskap wat hulle in die professionele ruimte van hulle werksomgewing versamel. Dit is hierdie ondergeskikte agentskap wat dit vir die administratiewe klerke moontlik maak om daagliks die grense tussen skool bestuurspraktyke aan die een kant en hulle breër opvoedkundige praktyke aan die ander kant te oorbrug. Hierdie tesis bied 'n analise van die waardevolle professionele bydrae van skool administratiewe klerke, ten spyte van hulle ondergeskikte status.

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The National Department of Basic Education is aware that it is not succeeding in providing quality education for all school children. At present the performance of grade 3 and grade 6 learners, in both international and local assessment, is a matter for great concern. The results suggest that most learners lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. Learners’ performance in the National Senior Certificate Examinations is also far from what it should be. The way in which schools are managed largely determines the quality of education learners receive. As the managers of schools, therefore, principals are held responsible for the poor performance of learners during these annual systemic evaluations. The study aimed to investigate whether the school principals are aware of their powers and whether they perceive themselves as able to use their power to influence school practices positively and thus promote quality education. The study indicates that principals rely on a combination of positional and personal power sources to promote quality education. The study also indicates that principals are aware of their power but have a limited understanding of the concept of power. They also seem to lack the knowledge and understanding to exercise these powers effectively. Although they seem able to exercise considerable power in different situations, principals are reluctant to use their power. It seems that various external and internal factors influence their ability to use their power effectively. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen Afrikaanse opsomming

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The main goal of this thesis was to better understand the role and function of the focus schools project in the Western Cape, to explore the reasons for their emergence in 2006, and to locate the policy initiative within historical and policy developments around vocationalism in the province. The study focused in particular on how one focus school experienced the roll-out of this policy decision, what the impressions of the learners and educators at a case study school were, and also how officials attached to the Western Cape Education Department described the emergence and implementation of the policy. Further goals of the study were to contextualize the policy process that led to this form of provision, and to conceptualise how this fitted in with educational development issues in the province. A brief backdrop of historical developments and its role in the education of communities in the Western Cape, particularly the coloured community, was provided to contextualize the policy initiative. The main contribution of the thesis is its description and analysis of policy documents and the viewpoints of a range of people connected to a new provincial initiative, focus schools, with regard to what a focus school is meant to achieve and how it is experienced. Data was collected by studying a range of unpublished policy documents, and to link these to interviews conducted with departmental and district officials, educators, learners, and one principal in relation to one case study school. The study showed that focus schools were regarded mainly as a form of vocational education provision to accommodate the desire of the Western Cape economy for intermediate skills in the mid-2000s. It illustrated how the focus school band has run its own unique course within educational structures since 2006, and highlighted how they have fulfilled their goal of getting more learners from historically disadvantaged communities into further study or into positions that better serve the needs of the local economy. The thesis suggested that the policy focus of getting learners into higher education seemed misguided and contrary to the goals of vocational education provision. This policy confusion was further highlighted by learners interviewed in the study who noted that they would have preferred to follow a more academically-based path. Few believed they could either get to university (as claimed by policy officials) or into a viable employment poisition by following a vocational route at school. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die hoofdoel van die tesis was om ´n beter begrip van die rol en funksie van die fokusskool-projek in die Wes-Kaap te verkry, die redes vir die ontstaan van hierdie skole in die jaar, 2006 te ondersoek, asook om die beleids-inisiatief binne die historiese en beleidsontwikkeling rondom beroepsonderwys (vocationalism) in die provinsie na te speur. Die navorsing konsentreer hoofsaaklik op hoe een fokusskool die implementering van die beleidsbesluit ervaar, en in hoe ´n mate die leerders en die opvoeders verbonde aan die gevallestudie-skool die onderwysvoorsiening beleef. ´n Gedeelte van die ondersoek gee ook die sieninge van sleutelpersone in die Wes-Kaapse Onderwysdepartement weer. Verdere doelwitte van die ondersoek was om die beleidsproses wat gelei het tot hierdie onderwysvoorsiening te kontekstualiseer, en om dit te konseptualiseer in hoe ´n mate dit inpas in die opvoedkundige ontwikkeling binne die provinsie. ´n Kort agtergrond skets van die historiese ontwikkeling en die rol wat onderwys in die gemeenskappe van die Wes-Kaap, spesifiek die van die bruin (kleurling) gemeenskap was aangebied om die beleids-inisiatief te konseptualiseer. Die belangrikste bydrae van die tesis is die beskrywing en analise van beleidsdokumente en die standpunte van 'n verskeidenheid van mense wat betrokke is by die nuwe provinsiale inisiatief, fokusskole, met betrekking tot wat fokusskole beoog om te bereik en hoe dit beleef word. Inligting was versamel deur die bestudering van 'n reeks van ongepubliseerde beleidsdokumente, en dit verbind met onderhoude wat gevoer was met departementele- en distriks-amptenare. Opvoeders, leerders, en 'n skoolhoof verbonde aan een gevallestudie skool was ook ondervra. Die navorsing het getoon dat fokusskole ´n vorm van beroepsonderwys is om die strewe van die Wes-Kaapse ekonomie vir intermediêre vaardigheidsvlakke te verhoog. Die planne was gedurende die middel 2000´s in werking gestel. Die navorsing het ook getoon dat die fokusskool-projek sy eie unieke verloop binne die onderwys strukture sedert 2006 gehad het. Die ondersoek het ook getoon dat die strewe om meer leerders uit die historiese benadeelde gemeenskappe sover te kry om verder te gaan studeer of posisies te vervul om die plaaslike ekonomie te bedien, nie so suksesvol is soos die beleid dit vooruitstel nie. Die tesis stel voor dat die beleidsfokus om leerders na hoër onderwys te lei, misleidend is en teenstrydig is met die doelwitte van beroepsonderwys. Die verwarring wat deur die beleid veroorsaak was, was verder belig deur die leerders wat onderhoude mee gevoer was. Die leerders se mening is dat hulle liefs verkies om die meer akademiese-gebaseerde weg te volg. Min van hulle het geglo dat hul weg oop is na hoër onderwys soos wat amptenare van die Wes-Kaapse Onderwysdepartement beweer of dat beroepsmoontlikhede daar is nadat hy beroepsonderwys in fokusskole gevolg het.

Thesis (MEd (Education Policy Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / During his presidency, Mr Nelson Mandela could not emphasise enough the rights of children and the conditions of children and youth in detention. In his first opening speech of Parliament in 1994 he made it quite clear that the rights of children had to be prioritised. In May 1995, a year after the Government of National Unity came into power, Mr Mandela recommended that an Inter-Ministerial Committee for Youth at Risk should be appointed to draft an improved system for Child and Youth Care. With regard to children who are guilty of lawlessness, drug abuse, gangsterism and juvenile delinquency, Places of Safety occupy an important position in the South African education system. In this research I conclude that the biggest stumbling block for the effective application of moral education in Places of Safety could be attributed to the fact that children admitted to these places are hardened street children. They form a sub-culture on their own, who could easily be influenced by the group of whom they are part. The multi-disciplinary teams who are responsible for the moral education of these learners are not always adequately trained to handle their tasks effectively, and do not always realise the necessity thereof. The limited time that these learners/children spend at Places of Safety also has an influence on the effective application of their moral education. The programmes at Places of Safety are specifically designed to support the regeneration of morality for children who stray from accepted social norms and values of society. The National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders (NICRO) has support structures in the community in places which support children and youth, who are guilty of unacceptable social behaviour, such as violent crimes, house burglary and rape. One may refer to support structures as diversion programmes, and they are managed by NICRO to support institutions that are currently working with persons in conflict with the law.

The thesis explores the potential of African higher education institutions in assisting the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in its quest to affectively achieve its goals. My contention is that higher education institutions need to be favourably positioned in terms of institutional autonomy and academic freedom to assist the achievement of the NEPAD goals. Moreover, there is a need for deliberative democracy, if the NEPAD goals are to be achieved affectively, especially from the perspective of higher education institutions.