This study centred on factors contributing to the perceived organizational effectiveness within an educational service provider. The guiding assumption of this research was that the general public supports effective organizations because they are perceived as rendering an effective and efficient service. This results in a reciprocal relationship between the organization and its clients. The Kip McGrath Education Centres was studied since it is an organization that has been rendering educational service in South Africa since 1996. There are to date thirty-five centres operating in the country. However, while there has been phenomenal growth in terms of geographical expansion, no studies have been done to establish what has contributed towards this organization's perceived effectiveness. Literature sources informed this study of the indicators that characterize effective organizations. Some of these indicators of effectiveness were used in this research to determine whether the organization under study can be viewed as one such effective organization. The theoretical underpinning of this study is that there are inherent contradictions within models of effective organizations. As such, effectiveness should be determined according to a given model and relevant indicators. This study surveyed perceptions of the major stakeholders on matters pertaining to the organizational effectiveness of the Kip McGrath Education Centres at Newholmes. Both the qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used. That is, questionnaires were used to obtain information from large samples of educational stakeholders and interviews schedules and check-lists were used to collect qualitative data from small samples and observations of facilities and activities at the centre. The findings revealed that the organization under study was rendering an effective service that clients seem to have valued. This consequently led to their support of the organization which led to its growth in size, judged by student numbers. The conclusions derived from these findings were that an effective organization is one that is able to develop because it possesses salient features necessary for delivering an effective and efficient service to its clients, thus ensuring their continued support. A major finding was that parents were willing to pay for the services offered by the Newholmes KMEC because they felt they got their money's worth. This leads to the conclusion that when the public has confidence in an education provider, the public is willing and able to pay for the services. A recommendation arising out of this would be to determine the extent to which perceived effectiveness translates into genuine effectiveness judged by the quality of programmes offered by a number of private education providers. This would offer evidence and support for the role of the private sector in educational provision which can guide government policy and practice. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

The prevalence of gender-based violence in South African schools has been identified by the research and the Department of Education has acknowledged its existence. However, little has been done to alleviate the problem. Female learners are continually victimized by male learners at school. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that explain gender-based violence amongst learners from three secondary schools in the Inanda area. Inanda is a predominantly informal settlement area on the outskirts of Durban, in South Africa. This study has largely focussed on female learners as victims of gender-based violence perpetrated by male learners. Both quantitative and qualitative methods had been adopted through which data was collected. School records were reviewed and one perpetrator and the victim were chosen from each school. The two participants were then, interviewed in order to get both perspectives. The data collected revealed that there are other kinds of gender-based violence besides those that were identified from the records review. The findings from the interviews outlined the factors that explain gender-based violence in schools. In conclusion, some recommendations were made in the light of the findings. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

Over the past fifteen years the integration of students with impairments from "special schools" into regular schools has been common practice in most western countries. Here in South Africa, the policy of integration is only just beginning to be formally legislated and implemented. One such integration project is currently underway in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The initiative, organised between Clare Estate School and Dr. A. D. Lazarus Secondary, began in 1992. This study investigates the experiences of nine students with physical impairments. They form a part of a group of fourteen students presently integrated into Dr. A. D. Lazarus Secondary. The experiences of the students are examined from the perspectives of the students themselves, their teachers and their parents. All the differing viewpoints were gathered through semi-structured interviews and observation. As a framework within which to analyse the findings, a social model of disability was explored. The social model advocates that people have impairments and not disabilities. A disability arises when environmental factors exacerbate the existence of an impairment. The factors which could exacerbate impairment within the school setting range from physical inaccessibility to overdependency in an environment designed solely for able-bodied people. An environmental obstacle that hinders a person with an impairment is referred to as a 'disabling barrier.' The study revealed that unpreparedness for integration can result in many 'disabling-barriers' within the school context. These obstacles create hindrances not just for the students with impairments but for all students, teachers and parents. The researcher identified the disabling-barriers in order to highlight the many challenges that face the school. It was hoped that by gathering information, predominantly from the perspective of students with physical impairments, one is able to evaluate the experiences from their own personal perspectives. Furthermore, both the schools involved in the project are challenged into turning the identified "disabling-barriers" into more enabling environments for students with physical impairments. Finally, looking beyond integration towards an inclusive system of education is the ultimate challenge recommended for this particular context. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Durban, 1996.

This study seeks to throw light on the language background of fifty-nine primary school children in schools for Indian South Africans in the Durban area of Natal. The schools were all under the control of the Department of Internal Affairs. At some time before February 1982, each child had been referred to the remedial teacher employed at his school, and had subsequently received help in language, specifically reading, for at least the period from February 1982 - November 1983. Even after that time, the children were not considered able to achieve satisfactorily in the "normal" class without further help. Data were initially collected by remedial teachers who interviewed the adult considered most significant in the child's life, using scheduled interviews. In addition they collected information from the child and the school and filled in personal questionnaires. After the first school term of 1984, Diploma in Specialise Education (Remedial Education) students at the University of Durban-Westville visited the homes of twenty children in the study and tape-recorded unstructured interviews with the adults. Three of these tapes are used in this text. The data collected is used to show that despite the poverty many families experience, the reason for the child's language difficulties is caused less by lack of material possessions than by parental ignorance of how best they can encourage language development and help close the gap between the spoken language of home and both the spoken and written language the children meet in school. The inefficiency of questionnaires as research tools became increasingly apparent as the project progressed, and that there is a real need for a thorough qualitative investigation into the language background of pupils-in-need is clear. / Thesis (M.Ed) - University of Durban-Westville, 1984.

In 2005, the Lesotho Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy introduction prescribed that all educational institutions for formal learning must play a major role in the improvement of teaching and learning mechanisms that develop a society that is ICT literate and capable of producing ICT products and services. This policy is part of the motivation for this study. The study's focus is to explore the extent to which ICT has been integrated in teaching and learning in one of the Lesotho higher education institutions. Its fundamental aim is to understand the ways in which the Lesotho College of Education (LCE) integrates ICT in teaching and learning environments. My study adopted the mixed method approach which based fact on an interpretive paradigm, with lecturer's interpretations regarding ICT integration in the college collected through structured questionnaires which were hand-distributed to purposefully selected lecturers as study participants. These questionnaires served as the basis and guide for face-to-face individual interviews of lecturers from the Computer studies and Agricultural/Environmental studies departments who were interviewed at their respective offices. Two sessions of sixty minutes, non-participatory observation of thirty computer studies students were also conducted. This study was guided by the activity theory/model based on the construction of real social change for pedagogy in a college. The concepts of the theory/model have been used to analyse the findings of this research. The findings of this study indicate that ICT integration creates opportunities in teaching and learning, where learning is focused on learners, and educators are only facilitators. Despite the opportunities that ICT has in learning, obstacles such as lecturers' lack of skills and incompetence in ICT literacy, limited resources and the infrastructure were found to be major factors hindering ICT integration in the college of education in Lesotho. The recommendations are that staff development and financial support should be considered a priority in ICT integration in this context. Also that ICT integration should include internal and external partners who can donate funds that will help in the implementation of ICT in teaching and learning at Lesotho's institutions of higher education. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This dissertation reports on the self-study in which I, as a practicing educator, reflect on my attempts at integrating sexuality education across three learning areas in grade 6 class over a period of one semester. Through the anonymous questionnaire, my grade 6 learners identified issues around sexuality that they would have liked to be taught. From this exercise, I then conceptualized a curriculum unit integrating the issues they identified. The dissertation documents and reflects on the process of my self-study of the process we went through during the curriculum unit, particularly in relation to integration of the controversial and complex issues around sexuality. It is from this reflection that I offer lessons learned from the process regarding, for example, dealing with emotions of self-study, the importance of teacher lives, and the capabilities that learners have in being effective partners in the learning process. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

Social discourses and gender equality policies in South Africa has enabled the entry of significant numbers of women into predominantly male domains of educational leadership. In this study, the lived experiences, of four women heads of department in four historically race classified schools in the Durban Metropolitan area, are explored. This study probes the gendered experiences, in which, race and class are inextricably interwoven, as heads of department in commerce and questions the extent to which their leadership positions are a reflection of gender equality. Based on semi-structured interviews with the research participants (black, coloured, Indian and white), this study argues that despite occupying the status of head of department the research participants still assume gender subjective roles. Although, some evidence exists of changing patterns of these women's lives at different stages, the study reveals that the public and private spheres of work and family are not separate entities; they intersect and impinge, with particular implications for the position of women within the sphere of education leadership. The study reveals that despite an overarching discourse of gender equality, discourses of leadership are primarily about gender, race and class structure in the lived experiences of the participants. The gendered experiences overall was such that they inhibited these women from applying for further promotion. In effect, the study shows that these women, irrespective of being educated and occupying positions of leadership, are still in a state of subjugation and male domination. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Durban-Westville, 2002.

This study investigated the nature and extent of implementation of music education in Lesotho primary schools in Maseru district. A case study conducted focused on Mohokare LEC Primary School and Hoohlo ACL Primary School. The findings from the study suggest that teachers at both schools had a relatively positive attitude towards music education and that they think the subject area should be taught in their schools. However, they suggest that effective implementation of the subject is hampered by several structural, contextual and curricular factors in the education system and the schools themselves. For example, preparations for implementation of music education were not sufficient (e.g., human and other resources were not in place). Teachers were not adequately trained in the subject itself as well as in its pedagogy. This has implications for the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) to strengthen pre-service and in-service music education. In addition, a clear music education policy should be drawn up to guide schools and district offices in the implementation of music education. This should be followed by a provision of adequate and appropriate resources needed for the process. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

This research focuses on how Road Safety Education can be incorporated into the Revised National Curriculum Statement in the Further Education and Training Band. Education is based on theories about how learners learn, what influences that learning and what is effective practice. Such theories are based on research. Educational research may be seen as a systematic attempt to gain a better understanding of the educational process, generally with a view to improving its efficiency. Varied view points are obtained when qualified individuals with common or divergent backgrounds are brought together to explore a problem, to provide information or to valuate the merits of a proposition. I chose to interview the Heads of Department of the existing learning areas in order to explore their attitudes and opinions towards the incorporation of Road Safety Education in the Revised National Curriculum Statement. The interview focused on their understanding of this curriculum, implementing it, Road Safety Education and how it can be incorporated into this curriculum. Questionnaires and interviews are a way of getting data about people by asking them rather than by observing and sampling their behaviour. For this study the 50 grade 11 learners were presented with carefully selected and ordered questions in a combination of closed and open form. This enabled the learners to answer freely and fully in their own words and their own frame of reference concerning the incorporation of Road Safety Education in the Revised National Curriculum Statement. This research was prompted by the high fatality rate in the country as a result of road accidents. An in-depth analysis of documents, provided by the KZN Department of Transport, were undertaken. This researcher found that documents provided information about aspects of road safety, proper road usage, and other factors that contribute to the high fatality rates on our roads, aspects that could not be observed because they had taken place before this investigative study had occurred. Each year, publication of the figures for road accidents bring fresh disappointments especially for those who have striven so hard for an improvement. The time has now come for us to recognise that the conventional road safety programmes of the past years are incapable, no matter how delicately applied, of yielding anything but marginal improvements. What is surely needed is some new approach with a potential for huge improvements. Road safety should be about education and not about prosecution. Educational programmes must be undertaken to overcome existing areas of ignorance and to initiate a process of change concerning road safety. It is therefore imperative that the Revised National Curriculum Statement incorporates a comprehensive, compulsory Road Safety Education Programme. / Theses (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu Natal, 2004.

This study aims to explore and describe the effects of teenage pregnancy on the school life of teenage mothers who are learners at The High School. It also seeks to generate guidelines which could be useful for educators, programme planners, and other stakeholders involved in designing intervention programmes to help teenage girls avoid unintended pregnancies and those who have fallen into this trap, to be resilient. The sample consists of thirteen learners who were either pregnant or teenage mothers already. The participants were purposively chosen from grades 8-12, two from each grade and five from grade 12. This study uses a qualitative, contextual, descriptive design to investigate the effects the teenage pregnancy has on the lives of girls who fall pregnant while at school. It employs a case study methodology and the data collection instruments included face-to-face interviews and document analysis such as mark schedules and attendance registers. The findings revealed that teenage pregnancy causes tension in the girls' families; the physical changes and experience of pregnancy impacts on their school life; pregnancy causes emotional instability in the teenage girls' lives and their education is indeed disadvantaged. A positive aspect is that there is a chance to make up for the lost time if educational opportunities and support exist. The researcher recommends that there should be support for pregnant girls and teenage mothers within the school system. For this study to have more impact as well as influence policy makers and senior Departmental officials to act upon these recommendations, it is advisable that further research be conducted in other schools to explore the impact of teenage pregnancies on their school life in particular, and schools in general. / Theses (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.