After democracy was achieved in South Africa, the South African Schools Act no 84 of 1996 required all public secondary schools to have two learners elected to the school governing body. The question of learner involvement and participation is still a thorny issue in some schools. The study investigated the experiences and perceptions of educators, parents and learners, regarding learner participation in school governance .The study was conducted in four schools in Mpumalanga ward of Hammarsdale circuit. A total of sixteen participants, four from each school comprising of four of each of principals, educators, parents and learners were interviewed. The study adopted the qualitative research design. Qualitative research design was most suitable to this study because it looked at views of different stakeholders entailed talking to people with the purpose of getting in depth information. Semi structured interviews were conducted with all participants. The main finding was that learner participation in school governance is still a problematic issue .The findings reveled that there are huge stumbling blocks that make learners fail to participate effectively in school governance. Democracy has not been achieved as expected, as it is evidenced by silent voices of learners. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

Inclusion is not only about philosophy but more importantly about the practical changes that must be brought about in order to help all learners in our school system to excel and unfold their potential. Inclusive education can be seen as an approach that aims to transform our education system in order to respond to the diversity of learners. It aims to enable both teachers and learners to feel comfortable with diversity and to see it as a challenge and enrichment in the learning environment. Good teaching is good for all learners, irrespective of their differences and improved teacher training and on-going professional teacher support may be one of the most important strategies to create quality education for all. This research seeks to understand how a remedial teacher negotiated her role to that of a support teacher and to explore her experiences in providing support to a greater number of learners and teachers. This study was conducted at a primary school in Pinetown. A qualitative approach was used in conducting this research. Data for this study was gathered from the support teacher in an unstructured interview as well as participant observation during the support programme and from some learners in a focus group interview. Willing learners, currently in the grade four support programme were used in the focus group interview. The recorded interviews were then transcribed and analysed. The findings of this research indicate that negotiating her role from a remedial teacher to a support teacher afforded her the opportunity to utilize her expertise, specialist knowledge and experience effectively and cost-efficiently in an ordinary primary school to extend the support to a greater number of learners with computer-aided assistance and to provide support to teachers to manage all learners in a mainstream classroom. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Kwazulu-Natal, 2007.

The education reform of the South African democratically elected government ushered in the further education and training (FET) curriculum policy guided by strategic principles and values. This study identified and analysed the principles and values guiding the FET curriculum policy in relation to the factors leading to their selection and the effect of such choices on the FET curriculum design. A tri-dimensional method of Critical Discourse Analysis as developed by Fairclough (1995) was employed and supplemented with a method of curriculum analysis as developed by Jansen and Reddy (1994) for the analysis of the principles and values. Investigation into the National Curriculum Statement for FET (General) (2003) revealed that the principles and values fall into two categories: Economic based and social-related principles, both aiming to achieve social transformation. This dissertation positions education and training curriculum design within an emancipatory praxis approach as developed by Grundy (1987), and argued that since the gain in learning principles and values is that which leads to the development and refinement of the individual, the social-related principles and values should be taught holistically as a subject. I contend that the ‘discrete’ integration and application of socialrelated principles and values in subject statements will not provide an effective way of assessing the competences of such learning. This is because ‘discrete’ means subtle and subtle is elusive – ungraspable. I therefore argue that if the leaders of tomorrow who are the learners of today are expected to project and defend the principles values that the South African society is built on, it is imperative that these learners learn them holistically. Finally, an individual is assessed by what he /she thinks says, and does and the hands are one of the vehicles that carries out the command of the head, if the hands fail to respond to the ‘will’ of the head, that ‘will’ becomes of no effect. In the light of this argument, I contend that practical work without cognitive knowledge is no knowledge just as cognitive knowledge without practical application is absolutely no knowledge. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This research focuses on the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy implementation at the secondary schools in Lesotho. This is a country where global disparities between technologically well-managed skills and uses of ICT in the education sectors are starkly evident. The researcher explores the educators’ experiences on the use of ICT at their schools to determine how ICT is situated and contextualised in response to the government mission of Vision 2020 that all schools will be computer literate in 2015. A Case study using the mixed mode approach was held at the two schools with the ‘tools’ merged in the Activity Theory to frame the study to construct real social change for the schools. To get to the insight of the schools, Semi-Structured Interviews were held between the Principals, the Deputy Principals (DPs), the Heads of Department (HODs) and the Subject Specialists from the core subjects i.e. English, Sesotho, Maths and Science. The classroom observations were held with ICT Subject Specialists to observe the application of ICT in the teaching and learning of the computer skills for implementation of ICT. Furthermore, documentary sources of the schools were analyzed to assess authenticity, reliability and theorization of the ICT policy implementation. The findings of the study reported that many educators were positive that they would implement ICT policy in the schools but lack skills in ICT literacy. In reference to the ICT policy document as the ‘tool’ for transformation, its parts were too fragmented; ICT services did not fit neatly into the classrooms, implementation had been a top down process, and it needed restructuring. The study concludes that the government laid the foundation for reform. Therefore, training for educators on ICT should be accomplished and the ICT activities should be maintained. Mainly, being the revision of the current ICT policy, the procurement of funds to source the ICT infrastructure and to set a transition on ICT exploitation from Primary Schools to Secondary Schools in Lesotho. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

Research indicates that conceptual knowledge and abstract thinking was deficient in South African learners (TIMMS, 1999, 2003; Gower 2008). The general poor performance of learners in Reading, Mathematics and Science has spurred the Department of Education to conduct a campaign to boost learner performances in these learning areas. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010. / This study explores the reading experiences of grade four children from an affective perspective. The poor state of reading in the present South African climate incites individuals to be concerned about young children who may not acquire reasonable levels of reading proficiency for daily living or tertiary education. The decline of reading in the home, the lack of emphasis on reading in some schools, the decrease in children‟s motivation to read and South Africa‟s poor literacy performance in international studies are all reasons for concern. Literature suggests that reading comprises both a cognitive and an affective component. Reading, in other words is not merely a mental skill, it is also influenced by emotions. Research shows that whether the cognitive aspects of reading are achieved will be determined by a child‟s affective disposition. In South African reading studies, a greater emphasis is placed on the cognitive aspects of reading. Not enough voice has been given to the children to find out about their personal feelings about reading. There are, however, international affective studies, but they cannot be applied fully to the South Africa context. This study, therefore, attempts to fill these gaps by focusing on the affective aspects of children‟s reading by interviewing the children themselves. A qualitative research design was used to explore children‟s feelings about reading. The semistructured interview was used as the main instrument. In addition three techniques, viz. thoughtbubble drawings, storytelling and selection of reading material (four activities, each followed by an informal interview) were employed. Even though each child expressed his/her emotions in a variety of ways, the analysis is presented according to the dominant emotions as exemplified by each child. Some of the emergent findings were that children preferred to read loudly as compared to reading silently, children generally displayed a positive attitude toward reading and children showed an interest in reading material that was based on popular culture. The study concludes with recommendations for teachers and recommendations for further study.

Studies (Alavi, 2000, Conole, 2004, Birch & Burnett, 2009,) reveal that technology has been capable of enhancing teaching and learning in various contexts. It is within such a context that this study investigated the utility of Learning Management System (LMS) in postgraduate teaching and learning at the Faculty of Education in the South African university. My focus was the experiences of both academic staff and postgraduate students in relation to the learning opportunities and challenges accompanying LMS as used as a teaching and learning platform. This study employed a mixed methods approach (a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches), which was implemented in two phases, following a sequential order (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003). In phase one, a quantitative approach was employed. This approach engaged students in completing a questionnaire that comprised of close and open-ended questions. Furthermore, simple random sampling was applied to select the respondents for data production in this phase. In the second phase a qualitative approach, concerned itself with the production of in depth data). The sub-sample of the population from the questionnaire was used in the focus group and individual interviews with educational technology students. All those participants whose responses spoke better to the critical questions were selected. Three academics were selected for individual interviews. Convenience purposive sampling (Henning, 2004) was applied for the selection of the participants in this level. Non-participatory observation was applied for triangulation purposes. In terms of analysis, thematic analysis was used (Aronson 1994), with charts and statistics representing quantitative data and texts representing qualitative data. By means of guided analysis, research findings were interpreted (Hammonds, 1976). In order to discuss all these findings, the principle of construct-connect theory (Gagnon & Collay, 2000: Siemens: 2004) was used. The results revealed that both selected academics and postgraduate students knew the capabilities and challenges of the LMS. The implications of these capabilities and challenges for teaching and learning were discussed. The research concluded with a set of recommendations to ensure, the effective use of Learning Management System to support teaching and learning in the postgraduate sector. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This study sought to understand what training and development the teachers experienced through the cascade model. In asking the question, “Does the cascade model work for teachers?” I produced data through the exploration of the experiences of teachers, whose training for the implementation of the Integrated Quality Management System at schools was through the cascade model. The critical questions posed in the study were, firstly, what are the building blocks that constitute the cascade model? Secondly, how did the School Training Teams experience their training and development on the cascade model, based on the core guiding principles? Thirdly, what are the experiences of teachers at school level, on their training and development by School Training Teams for the implementation of IQMS? Using Zeichner’s paradigms of teacher development (1993) as the theoretical lens through which to understand how training and development was experienced through the cascade model, I read and interpreted the workings of the model in terms of the four paradigmatic positionings – Traditional-craft, behaviorist, personalistic and inquiry oriented perspectives. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, I accessed three high schools in the Port Shepstone District to participate in this study. The data sources used to produce the data included the IQMS Provincial Training Manual (used by the provincial facilitators for the training of School Training Teams); individual semi-structured interviews of the Provincial IQMS facilitators; interviews of the School Training Team members who were responsible for cascading IQMS to teachers at school level, and survey questionnaires to teachers of the schools that participated in this study. The findings of the study show that the process of teacher development through the cascade model has not only resulted in the teachers engaging in ‘strategic simulation’ about change and ‘intensification’ of the work they do, but has to a greater extent, also led to teacher de-professionalization. Although ‘disruption’ was unearthed in the middle tiers of the cascade, by and large, the intent of change at both levels, bureaucratic and school, was tactical and strategically simulated. I conclude that the continued employment of the cascade as the model for teacher development and training perpetuates a technicist approach of what it means to be a teacher and reduces teachers work to a de-intellectualising practice. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

This study is an investigation into the implementation of the staff selection policy in three schools in Umlazi district, south of Durban. The concerns expressed by educators and / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu Natal, 2006.

Teacher Support Teams have recently been established at all schools within the Republic of South Africa. Their success, however, has been mixed and some have ceased to function at all. It has therefore been the purpose of this research project to evaluate the current status of implementation at a sample of schools within one circuit of the Ilembe district within the KwaZulu Natal Department of Education. This study therefore reports on the degree of success experienced by schools in the operation of Teacher Support Teams as they have grappled with the harsh realities of the communities that they serve. Many problems and obstacles serve to impede their progress and it is the intention of this study to learn from these experiences. In so doing, one is in a position to provide added and valued support to such schools. Lastly, the research aims to assess whether there are significant differences between the experiences and the nature of interventions between primary and secondary schools. A survey methodology was conducted that utilised a standardised questionnaire and thereafter, a semi-structured interview. Both quantitative and qualitative data provided an insight into the issues confronting Teacher Support Teams, and thereby allowed for recommendations to follow that could assist in future advocacy programmes. A critique of current theoretical frameworks is provided, followed by a more pragmatic approach that is suggested as an alternative to better suit the context of South African schools. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.