The research interest is in the area of leadership and gender, with specific reference to promotion prospects of female educators in predominantly black schools. I seek to establish internal and external factors that contribute to women educators being marginalised. The investigation is carried out in the uMgungundlovu region of the KwaZulu-Natal's Department of Education. This region covers the rural areas of Vulindlela and the urban and peri-urban circuits of Pietermaritzburg. I made use of qualitative methodology to obtain data from a random sample of twenty one out of twenty five deputy principals from the two circuits. This was followed by a detailed interview of seven of the twenty one who formed the purposive sample The central thesis of this study is that constitutional laws which outlaw unfair discrimination and academic qualifications play a subsidiary role in the upward mobility of women. The study will seek to confirm or refute this claim. A major finding in this study indicates that hindrances to promotion among married women include family responsibilities of being mother and wife; disruption of career advancement as a result of husband relocating. Low self-esteem among some women also acts as a hindrance to promotion. However, the more intractable hindrances turned out to be external. Cultural conditioning and tradition both combine to relegate women to domestic responsibilities. There is the issue of unequal power relations between men and women in the work place and, in some instances, the failure to apply anti-discriminatory legislation during interview processes. It therefore made little or difference whether the research was carried out in an urban area like Pietermaritzburg or a rural environment like Vulindlela. Hindrances to female promotion were very similar. This study concludes by suggesting that women should form lobby groups to challenge unfair labour practices. They should also increase their visibility by placing their curriculum vitae in the hands of people of influence. A further suggestion is that they take an active part in professional bodies and publish academic articles. At the school level, they should resist all attempts at being treated in a condescending manner. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

Apartheid education in South Africa created and maintained deliberate inequalities between schools serving the Indian, Coloured and African communities on one hand and the White population on the other hand. The advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994 addressed a range of issues, one of which was school governance. The South African Schools Act of 1996 was a bold attempt by the government to address issues like school governance. This act created a new school-governance landscape based on a partnership between the state, schools, learners, parents, school staff and the local communities. The aim of this study was to establish reasons why parental involvement is muted in some public schools but more active in other public schools. The participants in the study were parents, school principals and the chairpersons of the school governing bodies of the two schools. The purpose of the study was to listen to differing perspectives on why parents were involved, or not involved, in school governance. The research used both quantitative and qualitative methodology to gather data, and it assumed the form of a comparative case study of the two schools. A survey questionnaire and semi-structured interview were used as data collection techniques. Findings of the study revealed that those parents who were involved in school governance did so because they wanted to be of assistance to both their children, as well as the schools their children attended. In addition, parents who were not involved in school governance cited different reasons for their noninvolvement, ranging from a lack of time, a lack of knowledge and skills, as well as institutional difficulties at the schools their children attend. There was evidence of a conflict between policy and practice in respect of parental involvement in school governance. Policy expected parents to be involved in school governance, and assumed that all parents were familiar with the roles of school governors. Parents, on the other hand, seemed to lack a clear understanding of what school governance entailed, and what the school governance policy expected from them. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This research was undertaken from an ecosystemic perspective and aimed to explore how male adolescents from diverse racial and cultural groups experienced violence in an urban, private, secondary school in KwaZulu-Natal. The first part of the dissertation consists of a brief introductory overview of the study incorporating background and aim of the research, problem statement, clarification of terminology, research methodology and course of study. A comprehensive literature review, encompassing detailed explanations of the ecosystemic perspective, incorporates a study of violence and its multiple facets, components and interacting contributory systems. Furthermore, a specific rationalization of South African violence and male adolescent violence in South African secondary schools is analytically unpacked. In line with the researcher's epistemology, the methodology utilised was qualitative in nature and the phenomenological interview technique was employed to explore the experiences of male adolescents between the ages of 13 and 19 years. The responses of the participants were subjected to a thematic analysis. The imperative themes that emerged from the data analysis procedure are outlined in the results chapter and it is apparent from the responses of the participants that issues of masculinity, gender-role socialisation, male identity formation and peer pressure are significant contributory factors influencing the prevalence of violence in South African secondary schools. The results are therefore discussed with reference to the literature review and expressly associated with the South African context. Finally a conclusion is offered together with reflections of the researcher and recommendations for educators. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

This study investigates the experiences of children of divorced parents in a primary school, located in the suburb of Durban, Kwazulu Natal. The participants in this study were senior primary school children from divorce backgrounds. This study is located in the qualitative paradigm with case study method employed. Data gathering methods used include Individual interviews and observations to investigate children experiences and the relationship of these experiences to their scholastic performance, social relationship and emotional well-being. The results revealed that children experiences of parental divorce vary from one individual child to another, with some children reacting negatively, and some not so negatively while others were indifferent. In general participants reported experiences of sadness, loneliness, abandonment, self-blame, shock and anger. The participants acknowledged the connections between their experiences of divorce by their parents and their academic performance, social relationship and their general well-being. Participants reported experiencing difficulty with their academic work as the divorce of their parents made them confused and frustrated thus affecting their concentration. The loss of a parent through divorce also created economic difficulty, lack of support, role model and motivation for good academic performance. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

South African schools during the era of apartheid were characterized by hierarchical and bureaucratic management structures that, for the most part, stifled the leadership potential of all those within the organization. With the onset of democracy in South Africa in 1994, there has been a radical shift in education policy and legislation which propagates making schools democratic organizations in which distributed leadership practices and collaboration is the norm. Within the distributed leadership framework, leadership is not synonymous with the work of those in formal management positions but rather the work of leadership involves multiple individuals. As such there is now a platform for the definitive engagement in the promotion of teacher leadership in South African schools. However, despite this enabling policy framework, teacher leadership practices are not embedded in the culture of many South African schools. This could be attributed to teacher leadership being its infancy stage in South Africa and the notion of teacher leadership not being valued. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

The traditional view in education leadership separates school leaders from teachers. However, traditional views has been challenged by recent research which calls for distributed forms of leadership where all teachers are viewed as having the capacity to lead and where power is distributed across the organization. Therefore, leadership must be understood as a shared process which involves working with all stakeholders in a collegial and creative way to seek out the untapped leadership potential of people and develop this potential in a supportive environment for the betterment of the school. In other words, it is within these professional learning communities that power in the school is redistributed and where teachers can operate as leaders as they strive towards a more equitable society. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

This research focuses on establishing the gendered nature of sport participation at J.C. Primary. In an attempt to establish the gendered nature of sport participation in a Durban Primary School, based on existing, theoretical, comparative and historical literature, the data revealed that boys generally participated more actively in sport. However, the data also revealed that girls benefited from the school's sport policy, which encouraged boys and girls to participate. In particular, Indian girls played more sport than Indian boys. My findings, based on the use of qualitative and quantitative data received from the participants in terms of their questionnaires, revealed that Indian boys/girls dominate in terms of participation while African boys and girls are very sports active and tend to make more use of the school's sport policy than the majority of Indian girls. Unsurprisingly, many more boys than girls were opposed to girls playing soccer. About 25% of boys in each race groups were opposed to girls playing soccer. Predictably the vast majority of girls across race groups favoured soccer being played by girls. My semi-structured interview with the Principal revealed that he was 'sports mad' as he enthusiastically promoted sport at the school, regardless of gender and race. My focus was on the efforts that were consciously made to create sport as an arena of gender and racial mixing, In so doing, the following key questions were focused on: What is the rate of participation at J.C. Primary in terms of race and gender? In terms of participation rates, which sport is the most popular amongst boys and girls? Are there any differences in the ways boys and girls view sport participation at J.C. Primary? What does the school currently do to promote or encourage sport participation at school, particularly insofar as gender-equal participation is concerned? I had observed that although there was a trend for boys to be given preferential treatment in sport than girls, at J.C. Primary the school's sporting policy impacted in a positive way to even out differences and inequalities in sport participation between boys and girls. Although schools and other agencies are implicated in the manner in which sport is played, whereby gender inequality is practiced, boys and girls at J.C. Primary were given equal opportunities in sport, which encouraged their participation in sport. This study has, in fact, shown that J.C. Primary promotes sport in a very active way as it provides facilities and organizational energy and it goes to great lengths to ensure widespread participation. It has also shown that the school's policy has been successful in promoting equal gender participation even though, historically, most sporting cultures have been predominantly male. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Teacher leadership is a relatively new concept in the South African educational research context. It is in line with the expectation of the Department of Education which envisage that schools be managed effectively, professionally and democratically. The issues of democracy and the empowerment of ordinary teachers with leadership skills are postulated in the South African Schools’ Act of (1996) and the Task Team Report on Education Management and Development, 1996. The purpose of the study is to explore how teacher leadership is enacted in a rural secondary school in the deep rural area of Msinga in the Umzinyathi District in KwaZulu-Natal and to find out the enhancing factors and the barriers to this enactment. The research design followed a qualitative approach. A case study methodology was adopted with the case being a school and three teacher leaders as the units of analysis. Data were collected through questionnaires, focus group interviews, school and participant observation as well as a self-reflective journaling process. The research was informed by distributed leadership theory. The findings revealed that in the case study school even though there are challenges like the lack of parental support, the school is conducive to the enactment of teacher leadership. All teacher leaders were found to be free to pursue their respective leadership initiatives. They were involved in leadership in the classroom and beyond (Grant, 2008) which involve zone 1, zone 2, zone 3 and zone 4. TL 1’s activities were centered around organizing academic and non-academic events in the school, which indicated the teacher operating in the zone of the school (z 3). TL 2’s leadership roles were found to be mainly within the classroom as well as in the zone of a teacher’s activities involving continuing to teach and improve one’s own teaching (z 1). TL 3’s main area of operation was found to be in extra-mural activities, wherein his activities were found to be involving the children in the zone of the teacher’s dealing with the children (z 2). The enactment of teacher leadership in a case study school was helped mainly by the School Management Team’s willingness to offer a space for each and every individual teacher to exhibit his / her capabilities. Moreover, there was a sufficient space for all teachers to be part of a decision-making process. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the knowledge structures in Grade 6 History textbooks have altered since 1994 and how learners in History may be inducted differently into the discipline of History. The transformation from a ‘content-heavy’ to a ‘skills-based’ History curriculum, and the teaching of History as a ‘mode of enquiry’ has resulted in an altered form, shape and character of History, as it exists in the learning area of the Social Sciences in the National Curriculum Statement. Bernstein’s concepts of curricula types and discourses as well as Bertram’s ‘historical gaze’ have been used to frame the study. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy has been used to identify knowledge types and the cognitive demand of the textbooks. This study is located within the interpretive paradigm using the methodology of content analysis. It utilises the mixed-mode approach, combining both qualitative and quantitative methods. The sampling of the four textbooks (data sources) was purposive due to their popularity, accessibility, publication and prestige. Similar content in the chapter on the “History of Medical Science” was analysed across all four textbooks. Whilst the expectation of the NCS is one of high skill and high knowledge, the findings show that there seems to be a lack of congruence between curriculum requirements and textbook representations. An analysis of the two new textbooks indicate that both content of History (substantive knowledge) and historical procedures (procedural knowledge) are in danger as everyday knowledge is prioritised in its integration with substantive History knowledge in Grade 6 History textbooks. The content analysis also reveals an undeveloped sense of chronology; space and time which has implications for History learners and their appropriate induction into the discipline of History. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

HIV/AIDS remains overpoweringly an illness of the marginalized and stigmatized in / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.