The introduction of evolution in the ‘new’ Grade 12 life sciences curriculum in 2008 has created many challenges for life sciences teachers. The curriculum requires teachers to integrate evolution in all aspects of their teachings. The literature reveals that many life sciences teachers teach the concept of evolution in isolation and fail to integrate the topic as the underlying principle of Biology. Various studies conclude that teachers’ understandings and beliefs about the NOS no doubt influence their classroom instruction. This study explores life sciences teachers’ understanding of the NOS when teaching the theory of evolution. The NOS is used as the framing concept of the study. My research is a case study of three experienced life sciences teachers. Data was obtained from questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews with the teachers. This data provided valuable insight into the teachers’ understanding of the NOS as well as the way in which this understanding influences their pedagogical practices. Furthermore I was able to develop some understanding of why teachers teach evolution in the way that they do. The instruments were analysed qualitatively. The findings were reported as narratives and reveal that the teachers have different levels of understanding of the NOS. These different understandings have a profound influence on their understanding of evolution, however their understanding of the NOS did not have the same effect on the manner in which they taught evolution. While all three teachers had some misunderstandings, two teachers were able to teach evolution without demonstrating these misconceptions, while one teacher was not. Furthermore, there are also a number of additional factors such as exam-driven approaches, teacher identity, controversy surrounding the theory of evolution, and finally, lack of resources that impact negatively on the way evolution is taught. In conclusion I offer strategies to improve life sciences teachers’ understanding of the NOS and evolution and highlights areas for further research. / M. Ed. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.

There is an assumption that effective styles of leadership lead to effective schooling which is evidenced by, among other things, high pass rate. This study explored principals’ leadership styles in two secondary schools in Imati ward in Maphumulo Circuit. The study was conducted in two neighbouring secondary schools situated within a rural context. The two secondary schools were purposefully selected because of the disparities of learner achievement in the two schools. One school had produced very good Grade 12 results in the last five years and the other school had not performed as good, yet both schools are from the same area experiencing relatively similar challenges. Without relegating the influence of many other contextual factors, the study seeks to explore leadership styles practised in these schools. The study recognises that leadership is a process and does not dwell in an individual (Gunter, 2001; Nothouse, 2001; Halinger & Heck, 2003). The study adopted a qualitative approach and was located within an interpretivist research paradigm. This approach was deemed appropriate for this study whose objectives were to provide an understanding of the multi-realities from principals, HODs and teachers. Data in this study was generated using mainly semi-structured interviews and document analysis. These interviews were conducted with principals, HOD and teachers (one per school). Every possible effort was made to ensure that ethical issues pertinent to the study were considered at all times. The trustworthiness of the study was also considered in terms of credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability asserted in Rule and John (2011). The study findings suggested that there was evidence of leadership being distributed to teachers at the better performing school. It was further found that the principal of the school did not stick There is an assumption that effective styles of leadership lead to effective schooling which is evidenced by, among other things, high pass rate. This study explored principals’ leadership styles in two secondary schools in Imati ward in Maphumulo Circuit. The study was conducted in two neighbouring secondary schools situated within a rural context. The two secondary schools were purposefully selected because of the disparities of learner achievement in the two schools. One school had produced very good Grade 12 results in the last five years and the other school had not performed as good, yet both schools are from the same area experiencing relatively similar challenges. Without relegating the influence of many other contextual factors, the study seeks to explore leadership styles practised in these schools. The study recognises that leadership is a process and does not dwell in an individual (Gunter, 2001; Nothouse, 2001; Halinger & Heck, 2003). The study adopted a qualitative approach and was located within an interpretivist research paradigm. This approach was deemed appropriate for this study whose objectives were to provide an understanding of the multi-realities from principals, HODs and teachers. Data in this study was generated using mainly semi-structured interviews and document analysis. These interviews were conducted with principals, HOD and teachers (one per school). Every possible effort was made to ensure that ethical issues pertinent to the study were considered at all times. The trustworthiness of the study was also considered in terms of credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability asserted in Rule and John (2011). The study findings suggested that there was evidence of leadership being distributed to teachers at the better performing school. It was further found that the principal of the school did not sticThere is an assumption that effective styles of leadership lead to effective schooling which is evidenced by, among other things, high pass rate. This study explored principals’ leadership styles in two secondary schools in Imati ward in Maphumulo Circuit. The study was conducted in two neighbouring secondary schools situated within a rural context. The two secondary schools were purposefully selected because of the disparities of learner achievement in the two schools. One school had produced very good Grade 12 results in the last five years and the other school had not performed as good, yet both schools are from the same area experiencing relatively similar challenges. Without relegating the influence of many other contextual factors, the study seeks to explore leadership styles practised in these schools. The study recognises that leadership is a process and does not dwell in an individual (Gunter, 2001; Nothouse, 2001; Halinger & Heck, 2003). The study adopted a qualitative approach and was located within an interpretivist research paradigm. This approach was deemed appropriate for this study whose objectives were to provide an understanding of the multi-realities from principals, HODs and teachers. Data in this study was generated using mainly semi-structured interviews and document analysis. These interviews were conducted with principals, HOD and teachers (one per school). Every possible effort was made to ensure that ethical issues pertinent to the study were considered at all times. The trustworthiness of the study was also considered in terms of credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability asserted in Rule and John (2011). The study findings suggested that there was evidence of leadership being distributed to teachers at the better performing school. It was further found that the principal of the school did not stick to a particular leadership style, but considered the demands of the situation. / M.Ed. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2012.

The role of the subject advisors as instructional leaders in South Africa has not been a field which has been given much focus. Few studies have been conducted on the role of the subject advisors even though the international literature shows that in developed countries much research has been done on the role of subject advisors. This study aimed at understanding the role of subject advisors in the South African context using one Education District in KwaZulu-Natal. In 2011 the Department of Basic Education introduced the Guidelines on The Roles and Responsibilities of Education Districts with the aim of addressing the functioning of the education districts. So it is also important to know how the subject advisors understand their roles. This research utilised a qualitative, case study approach. Data was generated through semi-structured interviews. Three subject advisors were the participants of this study. Data was analysed utilising Hallinger and Murphy‘s model of an instructional leader. The findings suggest that the subject advisors understand their roles of enhancing instructional leadership in schools. Through the findings it emerged that subject advisors understand their roles to be supporting educators through the implementation of the curriculum which includes conducting workshops, providing educators with the educator support materials and class visits. Class visits enable the subject advisor to understand what is actually happening in class so that he/she would be able to understand the nature of support that might be needed. There were challenges that the subject advisors experienced as they performed their duties. It emerged through the findings that the subject advisors involved other people in supporting teaching and learning in schools because of different reasons, which included the shortage of subject advisors in certain discipline and also the subjects which were introduced in schools when these subject advisors were already employed. Other challenges which emerged from the findings included the shortage of computers for the subject advisors which forced them to use one computer and also educator support materials like duplicating papers which were used for workshops and the materials that were to be used in the classroom. Recommendations to address these challenges include organising more workshops for subject advisors so that they would have the necessary skills, employing more subject advisors, partnerships with local private sector to address the shortage of educator support materials. / M.Ed. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.

The advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994 led to new areas of research interest, not least in the field of educational leadership and management (ELM). However, besides the Project on Postgraduate Education Research (PPER), not much research has been conducted to investigate the trends in research conducted by postgraduate students in South African universities. This study therefore aimed to contribute by investigating the trends in postgraduate research in ELM at a selected institution in the decade 1995-2004. Working in the interpretivist paradigm, the study employed an institutional case-study approach to conduct a study of 53 M.Ed. dissertations in the PPER database from the selected institution. The dissertations dealt with ELM topics. Statistical analysis on this dataset and content analyses of three selected dissertations were used to identify trends in education research at the selected institution. Robin Usher’s four concepts of con-text, pre-text, sub-text and inter-text were employed as a framework within which to interpret the findings. From the analysis it is evident that the first ten years of the democratic era in South Africa witnessed a change in the demographic profile of postgraduate research. The trends are that Black students completed more dissertations followed by Indian, White and Coloured students; there are more dissertations from males than females, although by the end of the decade the number of woman writing dissertations had increased significantly; research of ELM is mostly qualitative in approach and of small-scale studies; dissertation topics cover a range of five ELM areas of interest, with few authors exploring the con-text of ELM within the broader socio-political context of the decade under consideration. / M.Ed. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2012.

The focus and purpose of the study is to investigate how Life Orientation lecturers construct learning outcomes using teaching/learning resources for their lessons at a Further Education and Training (FET) College in KwaZulu Natal. After 1994, in the new South Africa, outcomes-based education became the National policy for teaching and learning, with the National Curriculum Vocational (NCV) Programme implemented in the Further FET sector in 2007. The study allows for clarity of misconceptions and misunderstandings that still exist amongst those lecturers who teach Life Orientation around the concept ‘learning outcomes’ in view of OBE and in relation to aims and objectives. The researcher has observed over the past five years as a senior lecturer of Life Orientation that lecturers use the outcomes as prescribed in the Department subject assessment guidelines in their lesson plans without giving much thought around how these outcomes are going to be observed and measured in their lessons. Further observations revealed that when Life Orientation lecturers are engaged in the construction of the learning outcomes for their lessons they fail to evaluate the learning outcomes against the different levels of taxonomies of learning so as to ensure that the learning outcomes are observable and measurable at the end of a lesson. The research is situated in an interpretivist paradigm with its emphasis on construction of learning outcomes. Since this study requires gaining an in-depth knowledge and greater understanding of outcomes it will be conducted within the qualitative framework (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003). Therefore the study will ensure that the relevant data is generated around learning outcomes within the theoretical framework of Bloom’s taxonomy of thinking behaviors using the activity theory to explain the data. The purposive selection method was used whereby the participants for the study included four lecturers who teach Life Orientation at a FET college in KwaZulu Natal. Triangulation of three instruments namely reflection questions, interviews and document analysis was used for data generation. The study found that Life Orientation lecturers construction of learning outcomes are a regurgitation of the subject assessment guidelines with no further evidence of their lesson outcomes. As a result students are being deemed ‘competent’ in Life Orientation but are ‘incompetent’ in many areas after having progressed from the previous NCV level. In view of this it can be suggested that lecturers should organize themselves into Life Orientation teams where they can brainstorm suggestions, ideas and practical measures for their lesson plans by covering all the learning outcomes so as to ensure that their students are able to achieve these learning outcomes. / M. Ed. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.

The study sought to explore six women from Ilembe District who are managing in different levels within their organisations. The study focused on Principals, Deputy Principals and HOD‟s from different schools. The aim of the study was to find out whether Professional self-advancement has embraced women in Education Leadership with skills that would help them withstand the challenges mostly faced by women leaders that are imposed by the patriarchal gendered background. This qualitative study was set in the interpretive paradigm. It used semi structured interviews and documents analysis, as its method of data collection. The findings revealed that women were reluctant at some point to improve themselves professionally because there is lesser advancement of women into leadership positions, as compared to their male counterparts. It transpired that some women believed that the employment of feminine characteristics of managing embraced women with a sense of worth and responsibility in their organisations. On the other hand some women were pre-conditioned that in order to be recognised as a good leader one had to employ masculine character traits to be acceptable. To most participants professional self-advancement has empowered them to be confident, knowledgeable and be resilient to withstand all negative misconceptions towards them as women leaders. In large majority, women believed that their exposure to management courses has helped them deal with conflicts and improve inter-relations within their organisations. They see themselves as approachable, nurturing, supportive and relational to all their subordinates and this bring meaning to them as women that they have a major role to play to help shape our education. Grogan (2010) hinted that studies pursued by Shakeshaft and Grogan on US women leaders have noted five different characteristics portrayed by women managers which are; leadership for learning, leadership for social justice, relational leadership, spiritual leadership and balance leadership. The study recommends that both the victims and perpetrators of gendered situations should work collaboratively to re-socialise both women and men so as to help women find their self worth within the education system. This could be done by assisting women improve themselves through engaging with institutions of higher learning, attending seminars, motivational talks, enhance networking, have mentors and attend departmental programmes that focus on enhancement of leadership skills. Lastly, for outstanding performance, women should be accepted as they are, to regain their self confidence and exhaust all their capabilities, but not to disregard their mothering flair. Lumby and Azaola (2013) in their study on women principals in South Africa said that, their „mothering identity‟ develops skills even in areas where they report there is considerable doubt about their competence, for example in disciplining boys. In their study they picked that as mothers, they are better able than men to discipline boys. Through exposure to management studies, some participants have found that they use both feminine and masculine style of leadership. Coleman (1996) as cited in Pace and Pace (2005) found that female head teachers exhibit both feminine and masculine qualities, and hence could be identified as androgynous leaders. It is therefore, important that women are exposed to skills development workshops; nurture their studies, engage in networking, and advance their knowledge in every way possible to become better leaders in education. / M. Ed. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.

HIV and AIDS is still a major problem especially in Sub Saharan Africa. The levels of new infections are still relatively high which implies that the numerous national and international efforts to curb the transmission of HIV are not having the desired effect. Furthermore, the accelerated rate of teenage pregnancy is also indicative of the failure of these efforts. The high teenage pregnancy rate suggests that many teenagers do not practise safe sex. This could be attributed to the many pressures teenagers experience regarding sex and sexuality. Teenage mothers are likely to experience the same or double, the pressure and I was curious to understand their stance on unsafe sex practises especially after having a baby. This research study elicits an understanding of how these young mothers construct, present and negotiate their sexuality within the context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Issues of sex and sexuality in relation to gender roles, gender identities, constructions of sexuality and teenage motherhood were investigated. The findings reveal two key points: regret inspires determination to succeed and that love and romance are dominant discourses in the construction of sexual risk among teenage mothers within the context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. All the teenage mothers in this research study indicated that completion of their studies should have taken priority to motherhood. Even though most of the participants in this study acknowledge that love and romance are essential, they are now more cautious and either abstains from sex or practise safe sex. This research study has found that the hardship and responsibilities associated with motherhood have served to motivate these participants to change their risky sexual behaviour and verifies Burr’s (2003) social constructionist perspective by showing how identity is fluid and context dependent, relying on social interactions and experiences. / Theses (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

This study is partly responding to an uproar from the public generally and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education (KZNDoE), in particular, that in most schools within the province, there is a lack of parental involvement whilst serious problems in many schools persist Many schools in KwaZulu-Natal province are experiencing problems which have eventually resulted in poor quality education. This study explored how principals promoted parental involvement in secondary schools. The promotion of parental involvement in the affairs of the school is one of the responsibilities of the school principal. In view of this expectation by the government and the Department of Education, this study therefore, was underpinned by an assumption that principals are promoting parental involvement in schools. The study sought to get an insight into what principals did in order to promote parental involvement. It also attempted to find out what principals regarded as the benefits of promoting parental involvement in schools, and what they consider as barriers. The studied schools were drawn from three different South African social contexts of semi-urban and rural areas. This study adopted an interpretivist qualitative case study approach comprising three secondary schools. I chose interpretive research paradigm because it allowed me to interact closely with participants to gain insight and form clear understanding. The findings showed that participating schools were, to a large degree, successful in promoting parental involvement in the affairs of the school, despite some obstacles which persisted. The findings revealed that socio-economic issues such as unemployment, poverty, HIV/AIDS pandemic, poor communication between the schools and parents, educators who seem to be unwelcoming to parental involvement, low level of education of parents, reluctance of some parents to involve themselves in school affairs, were the main barriers to effective parental involvement. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

This study answers the critical question: How do women leaders experience gender equality in the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU)? It focuses on five women leaders in the union, illuminating their experiences and evolving gender consciousness. This qualitative study addresses a gap in research on gender in teacher unions, to understand and reveal how women who have accessed previously male-dominated spaces experience gender equality. The women leaders’ experiences are a prism through which to understand the “depth” of the substantive experience of gender equality in the union. It examines how the union through its organisational bureaucracy, culture and politics shapes their experiences. Through a historical analysis of the gender and liberation struggle, I demonstrate the trajectory of achievements, challenges and visions for gender equity in South Africa within the trade union movement, noting the achievements and highlighting lost opportunities to advance gender struggles of its members. The study theorises different conceptions of feminisms and imagings of organisations to understand the women’s experiences in relation to the union and to broader society, within the culture, politics and bureaucracy of the organisation. I extended this lens by exploring differing conceptions of feminisms to understand the gendered experiences of the women leaders as they traverse life from childhood to adulthood. Conceived with the broader realm of feminist methodology, I use elements of life history research, notably in-depth interviews to produce narratives in the form of “harmonised poems” to illuminate the public and private experiences of the research participants, providing deep insights into their evolving gender consciousness. The analysis is multi-dimensional, traversing the influence of the family, school, and the historical and political contexts that shaped the women’s gender consciousness. The findings indicate that teachers’ contradictory class location, history of patriarchy and acceptance of sexual division of labour contribute to the women leaders’ experiences of gender inequality in the union. These experiences of inequality were magnified by apartheid’s1 structural and ideological roots, which shaped gender roles while simultaneously catalysing the development of gender consciousness and advancing political activism. In this regard, the family served as a crucial site of gender socialisation, while the school formally reproduced a hierarchical gendered society. At the organisational level, hierarchically bureaucratic structures maintained and reinforced particular patterns of control and power through the formal system of trade union governance in which gender oppression is institutionalised and legitimised under its banner of emancipatory politics. However, women in the organisation are by no means innocent victims of hostile patriarchal forces, but are active participants in their own oppression as they strategically comply with institutional norms. Significantly, the findings indicate that equality of opportunity for women leaders in the union does not translate into equality of outcome. This thesis contributes to the theoretical debates on evolving gendered consciousness by advancing an extended conceptual lens to interrogate women’s gendered experiences in predominantly patriarchal spaces. It identifies four domains of evolving consciousness. Starting with the divided self in the domain of home, girl children imbibe the dominant hierarchical social structures, and fixed gender roles are inscribed here. However, the family domain provides the catalyst for a developing consciousness among the women as children. The socialised self emerging in the domain of the school emphasises the gender socialisation, both overt and covert, that occurs in schools. It illuminates their evolving gender consciousness by resisting such subjugation initially as students and later as radical teachers. Progressing to the domain of the union, the women embody a strategic self in response to gender inequality in SADTU, which often takes an organisational form that contradicts its espoused policy and public pronouncements. Armed with the maturity to transcend their individualised gender consciousness, the women leaders emerge with a collective consciousness determined to break down the barriers to equality at the structural level. Finally, in the emerging collective self, the women simultaneously embody elements that constrain their individual emancipatory impulses while trajecting them to potentially higher levels of consciousness as change agents. Their willingness to embrace a shared consciousness and their call for activism indicate a shift towards heightened collective consciousness. As they move from their individual subjugated selves to their heightened collective, transformed consciousness, they express a compelling desire for collective agency to challenge structural drivers of inequality and enact change at the systemic level. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

This thesis explores the origins of occupational therapy in South Africa and how its birth, at the end of the Second World War, in a post-colonial era, with an emerging apartheid government, gave rise to an epistemology that was flawed from the start. It was flawed by virtue of its origins within a Eurocentric, paternalistic and male dominated health milieu which itself was strongly under the influence of the reductionistic and prescriptive medical model. It was flawed by virtue of the unnatural and oppressive nature of the country’s governance at the time in which everything, including health care, was designed primarily to benefit those of European descent and disadvantage those of any form of brown skin descent. It was flawed in that it did not collaborate in the design of curricula and research with the very people it served, namely, people with disabilities and black South Africans. Using historical and other relevant documentation, own life experiences, focus groups and the narratives of people with disabilities as data, this thesis attempts to expose the flawed layers described above and exactly how this impacted upon the epistemology of occupational therapy in South Africa. It also explores the changing face of occupational therapy globally and locally as a changing interface between what was then, what is becoming and what has to become in the future. The thesis ends with a flexible model that has multi-dimensional properties that provide multi-dimensional possibilities both in portraying the historical influences upon professional development and in plotting identity and curricula changes. It suggests some inherent principles essential for restructuring the occupational therapy identity and curriculum to meet this identity. It draws sustenance from the resilience that the developing South African occupational therapy profession has displayed, despite all these odds, and attempts to reconcile the errors of the past with the fast-changing face of modern day occupational therapy as it relates to professional practice, theory, contexts, policy and research in South Africa today. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.