The water authority Umgeni Water, has run an adult basic education (ABE) programme from 1989-1996. During 1989 and 1990 Stephen Camp initiated an ad hoc pilot programme for 42 learners using Operation Upgrade. His successor, Rosemary Ward, co-ordinated a planned in-house pilot during 1991 and 1992 which reached 50 learners. She was followed by Kim Weyer, who launched a company wide initiative with the aid of the ABE consultants, BESA, and implemented an ABE policy, forum and data base. Finally from 1994, Sally Frost consolidated a programme catering for 342 learners and run by five full time ABE facilitators. It was aimed at those of the 578 unskilled workers at Umgeni Water who were illiterate. Materials used were increasingly in-house and learners were entered for the external Independent Examinations Board examinations. Evaluation of the programme in 1996 revealed that learning was occurring, though at a much slower and more individually erratic rate than predicted. Overall the programme was considered successful. From a case study of Umngeni water experience a generic model for ABE programme implementation has been developed, applicable to many workplace environment. In the case of Umgeni Water, implementation vision was grounded in educational/social responsibility, productivity and public relations motives. Company funding enabled implementation. Guiding principles for programme implementation included the acquisition of securely employed, high calibre staff / leadership, a directed, demand driven approach, an ABE policy, and ongoing stakeholder involvement and management support. Umgeni Water's production environment was catered for, learner needs were met, sufficient budget provided, and the programme evaluated. Implementation ingredients interacted with one another and often occurred simultaneously. Independent influences affected smooth programme implementation at Umgeni Water. Positive influences included the existence of a demand for English within the organisation and the perception of external pressure to provide. Negative internal influences centred around production demands. The impact of Umgeni Water's big business environment, and of its interaction with internal ABE stakeholders and the external ABE world, were ambiguous. These contextual dynamics were either accounted for, accommodated or harnessed. One can conclude that given the correct enabling factors, ABE can be successfully implemented within a workplace environment. If certain guiding principles are followed, and independent contextual influences accounted for, programme goals and targets for functional literacy can be achieved. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1996.

This is a qualitative study which investigates the attitudes of school principals towards school guidance in the historically disadvantaged secondary schools in the township of Madadeni. The sample consists of five secondary school principals recruited from Madadeni schools. Structured interviews were used to collect data. A set of questions were drawn up by the researcher and aimed at collecting such information as the opinions of the principals on the importance of school guidance, what school guidance should provide, adherence to school guidance periods, the role of a guidance teacher, and the expected position of school guidance in the Curriculum 2005. The results indicated that although the school principals see the need for school guidance in secondary school, there seem to be problems emanating from lack of resources and insufficient personnel. There were also indications that school guidance will have an important role in the Curriculum 2005 in the form of Life Orientation learning area. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1981.

The purpose of this study was to explore how the National Curriculum Statements (NCS) Policy was interpreted by two provinces -the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal - from the macro to the meso level. The study further ascertains what happened during the training of national, provincial and district trainers and lastly how the educators realized and recognized the new curriculum, as they are the people who will implement the curriculum in their respective learning sites. There was a change of the curriculum from National Report 550 to NCS as per the mandate of the democratic Government of National Unity which promised better education for all in 1994. According to the principles of the NCS, teachers were supposed to make a paradigm shift in education from a teacher-centred approach to a learner-centred approach. The NCS was supposed to be implemented in grade 10 with effect from 2006 and the first product of the NCS .was in 2008. The researcher also tracked the recontextualisation process up to the matriculation results of 2008 in the uMzimkhulu circuit, which was integrated into KZN in 2006, with the result that educators were trained by both provinces. The study followed the interpretivist paradigm with the qualitative research methodology. The researcher sampled two officials from each province, two advisors and two educators as my primary sources and interviewed them using semi-structured interview format. The interviews were tape recorded and transcribed by the researcher. The data obtained was organized into themes. Grounded theory methods were used to collect and analyze data. The study collected data using participant observation, interviews, analysis of relevant documents and field notes.The findings of the study inform the responses given in interviews revealed that there was an urgent need for more in-service training, especially for both beginner and experienced teachers, as there is high teacher turnover due to the rural nature of Sisonke District. The DoE need to consider the issue of employing Subject Advisors as they are key role players to the implementation of the NCS, so as to workshop and do follow up support visits to the schools in order to monitor and support. The DoE has to conduct well-organized workshops on the new curriculum. Another finding was that teachers need to be consulted before the implementation of any new development to avoid negative responses. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

While debates rage over the relevance and worth of school history, history has been one of the five compulsory subjects up to Ordinary Level in Zimbabwe. However, far away from the corridors of power, it is essential that research be conducted on what school history is for and what represents that which the learner of school history acquires through at least eleven years of school history studies in Zimbabwe. Using the concept of historical literacy as its framework, this study is an analysis of three Ordinary Level history textbooks in Zimbabwe to explore how historical literacy manifests itself in Zimbabwean school history textbooks. In a context of increased government concern over what and how school history should be taught, the study explains how the textbooks that were produced more than ten years ago can still be turned into resources for the propagation of patriotic history, which emerged in the last decade. While conceptualisations of historical literacy continue, I argue for multiple historical literacies, that is, historical literacy which actually takes different forms in different times, spaces and contexts. Thus, what is represented as historical literacy in Zimbabwean history textbooks is not necessarily what historical literacy is elsewhere. This research is a qualitative textual analysis which was conducted in an interpretivist paradigm. I employed historical discourse analysis, question analysis and visual analysis as the analysis methods. The analysis was conducted through an instrument created from the benchmarks of the conceptual framework. The study concluded that despite attempt to push for an activitybased curriculum, historical knowledge, especially the nationalist narrative, is still the dominant benchmark of historical literacy in Zimbabwean textbooks. As a result, the current textbooks can be used, not only for a state sanitised version of historical literacy, but also a version of political literacy. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Within the restructuring agenda of post apartheid South Africa was the national educational agenda which included the upgrading and re-skilling of teachers. One of the programmes identified and developed nationally was National professional Diploma in Education (NPDE) to upgrade the teaching qualifications of under- qualified educators and later un-qualified educators. Within this programme, re-skilling of these educators was also targeted to assist the Department of Education to implement its new school curriculum. Many cohorts have graduated from this programme since the inception of the NPDE in 2002. It is now the time to ask the question “Did the NPDE make any impact in the lives of educators?” The study seeks to offer an understanding of an understanding of the programme within the rural context by asking the following questions: 1. Is the NPDE making any difference in the rural areas- what do graduates and schools in these contexts have to say? In this study, a tracer study of graduates in the Singane area (name created for this study) will be presented to teachers’ (NPDE graduates) experiences of the programme and its benefit to their personal and professional development? 2. Is the NPDE meeting the challenges of the systemic intervention- a curriculum analysis? This study also explores how both the curriculum design and context addressed the needs of the teachers in rural context like Singane. Through a curriculum analysis of the NPDE, the design and delivery are put under scrutiny to explore the relationship between the NPDE’s intentions and what actually. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Political changes of the post 1994 general elections witnessed significant innovations within the education sector of the Republic of South Africa. Most significant of these was the rapid transformation of the existing school curriculum into the new curriculum 2005 (C2005). This confirmed the removal of the unnecessary variations in the curricula used by the different departments, created alongside racial groups. This brought about new challenges for teachers as it was to influence their experiences of how teaching was to be conducted in the context of these changes. As a teacher of Economics, I developed an interest in seeking ways in which teachers could be professionally developed to teach Economics in the new curriculum currently implemented in the FET band, acknowledging that the Department of Education supported the new curriculum by a training programme in the form of a cascading model. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Education is one of the fundamental rights of children. Parents have the perennial responsibility to see to it that education, as a basic right for children, is met. However, experience and studies show that most children‘s schooling is under threat. Various factors such as family background, the dangerous neighbourhood and communities from which learners come are central in the disturbance of children‘s schooling. These contextual factors correlate with one another and sometimes result in children forfeiting schooling opportunities. Bronfenbrenner‘s (1989) ecosystem theory, among other perspectives, facilitates our understanding of the fact that a learner does not exist in isolation, but in interdependence with a number of other systems in their environment. This is because the functioning of any learner is dependent on the interaction between the various systems within the contexts they find themselves. If the child‘s immediate environmental system, the family, for instance, is faced with hardships, the child‘s development is most likely to be hampered. Young‘s (1990) theory of oppression maintains that the children‘s immediate environmental systems are said to be oppressed by the situations that are beyond their control. This study examines the vulnerable state of children and explores ways in which these vulnerabilities affect their schooling. The strategies employed to gather data involve the adoption of the research methods that are arts-based and are combined with different types of interviewing techniques. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, 2008.

The aim of the study was to gain an understanding of factors that affect motivation of adolescent learners in the classroom. The pilot and main research study was conducted with 42 adolescent learners in Grades 8 to 12 at Sunflower Secondary School1 in Durban. The theoretical frameworks that underpinned this study were the ecosystemic perspective, the systems theory and the humanistic theory. These frameworks guided my focus on the interactions that learners, peers, and educators and the whole system of education have with each other as well as on the role they play in motivating each other. The study used a qualitative research methodology. This approach allowed the researcher to interview the participants of Sunflower Secondary to ascertain rich data as to what factors motivate adolescent learners in the classroom. A semi structured interview schedule was used. The interviews were tape recorded, transcribed and analysed. Central themes emerged, revealing that educators and peers motivated adolescent learners to learn in the classroom. A list of guidelines was also developed to assist educators in motivating adolescent learners to learn in the classroom. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

This study explored learner experiences of school violence in a secondary school in Qacha’s Nek, Lesotho. The aim of the study was to understand learners’ experiences of violence as it happens in their school. Internationally, violence in schools is one of the most challenging issues facing educators and learners and school communities at large. The research design was a case study. The research method was the qualitative case study method. Data were collected through individual and focus group interviews with learners and document analysis. Fifteen learners participated in the study, 7 girls and 8 boys. The study found that learners are exposed to complex patterns of violence in the school, and these are experienced in multiple forms that affect learners in different ways. Some of the patterns of violence could be seen in enactments such as solving problems with aggression, violence from teachers, the discourse of blame, collective bullying. The study also found that in certain ways schooling itself can be viewed as violence in that the school had an ethos of authoritarianism and control. Violence in the form of corporal punishment, suspension and expulsion emerged as the most tangible symbol of an authoritarian school. The study also found that violence was a gendered phenomenon at the school. The study highlights the need for proactive programmes that are directed at the attaining goal of building school communities that are safe havens. The findings suggest that a key component of such programmes should be critical self-reflection and self-scrutiny by all members of the school community. In such a process teachers and learners would need to examine and challenge existing social attitudes, ideologies, norms, and injustices in school policies and practices. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.