The study investigates a systematic organisation and management of whole school inclusive processes in two mainstream secondary schools in Cameroon. These schools are implementing the official action plan of Education for all (EFA) and inclusion of 1998 alongside other inclusive legal and policy frameworks in response to the needs of student diversity with focus on those with Special Educational Needs/Disabilities, Difficulties in learning, Disadvantages in background (SEN/DDD) and special abilities. Using a diverse range of participants namely a pedagogic inspector, head teachers, teachers, students and parents (N=23) with a multi-method approach to data collection through semi-structured interviews, document review, observation and analysis, the qualitative research enquiry has a number of findings. On the one hand, it discovered that whole school inclusion is complex and incorporates a wide range of curricular (academic/linguistic) and extracurricular (social/intercultural) support services and benefits through grouped/individualised, in-/out-class and on/ off school ground activities (technology of inclusion) designed to equalise educational opportunities and to enhance the participation of all in learning. The results further indicated that whole school inclusion widens learning horizons and maximises possibilities for developing diverse potentials of student diversity. It also revealed that, in a subtractive bilingual education system with official/foreign language as media of instruction, the inclusion of students with SEN/DDD is more effective through bilingual special education services. This incorporates intercultural participation, curriculum/foreign language learning support and/or mother tongue-based mediated education to facilitate leaning, development and attainment. On the other hand, its results indicated that the bulk of barriers to whole school inclusion arise from the gap between the officially centralised policy / planning and practical inclusive schooling. The barriers include: centralised and prescriptive nature of educational services; partial or non-implementation of legal and policy frameworks; insufficient provision and management of human resources including staff pre-/ in-service training programmes, didactic materials and financial resources; lack of effective coordination, professionalism and accountability in service delivery that underlie the inadequate organisation and management of whole school inclusion development. Thus, support services are more charity driven (integration) than human rights-oriented (inclusion). The work suggested that in order to adequately accommodate students with SEN/DDD, the schools’ organisational and management strategies need to be systematically reconceptualised, through a review of key issues: the macro system level support services; decentralisation of services; more autonomy with active cooperation between the schools and their stakeholders; restructuring of contextual factors like staff training programmes, curriculum and environment accessibility among others to improve all forms of support activities. The study also contributes to the understanding of inclusion in a global context through its combination of special educational needs, disability, bilingual and intercultural dimensions. In this way, conceptualisation of inclusion in countries of the North which is frequently limited to the provision for children with disabilities/special educational needs and the issue of location are insufficient in their application to certain countries of the South, especially in postcolonial societies where the linguistic and cultural dimensions are emphasised.

With the advent of democracy in 1994 and the repeated calls by the South African public for the renewal and reconstruction of the education system there has been a radical shift on school supervision from inspection to whole school evaluation. The new system of school supervision is carried out under the auspices and in terms of the National Policy on Whole School Evaluation. The application of the said policy however has not been without its own problems. Teacher unions have in some circles resisted its application in their schools. Trained departmental officials had to be chased away from some of the schools that were targeted for evaluation and this incident generated heated national debates in the public domain and within educational forum (Natal Mercury 28 May 2002). This study takes a cue from these widespread debates about the implementation of the Whole School Evaluation Policy within the school context. It explores in details the implementation strategies of the WSE policy, how the policy is conceived and perceived by those to whom it is applied. The study looks at the reception of this policy and the experiences gained by those educators who were evaluated with a view to suggest areas for development and reinforcement of good educational practices. These experiences were captured through the use of interviews, policy analysis and questionnaires. Responses were then analysed and interpreted with a view to make recommendations on how best the policy could be applied at school level. The study found that Deputy Principals are neglected in terms of training. This affects policy implementation at school level where their involvement in school management is substantial. The study also found that there is a serious lack of a shared basis of cooperation between schools and their district offices in respect of implementing WSE. The study further indicated a serious lack of co-ordinated effort on all levels of the system in the application of the WSE policy. The application of WSE has no visible support from major role players especially at district level. The absence of key structures and personnel such as district support teams and WSE coordinators as suggested by policy, impacts negatively on the implementation of the policy at the school level. Having considered all available options and the contextual factors within which the policy is applied in our schools this study advances a variety of recommendations that could be applied to improve implementation of the WSE Policy in schools in KwaZulu-Natal. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2004.

Published Article / Studies show that although evaluation policies regarding educator development and whole-school improvement have been put in place and even though schools express willingness to participate in such evaluation actions, they remain deeply suspicious of, and even subvert the original goals of these policies. This study explores the involvement of educators in School Self Evaluation, an internal evaluation which is a pre-requisite in the process of Whole School Evaluation (WSE) and their views on School Self-Evaluation (SSE) in relation to their professional development. WSE is the official evaluation system in South Africa. Schools undergo both external and internal evaluation. Results thereof are used by schools together with the District Support System to draw up School Improvement Plans (SIP's). In this study, a mixed mode approach was used. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. Data were gathered from 125 educators in sixteen randomly sampled evaluated schools. The research findings suggest that educators are neither sufficiently trained nor are they aware of the significance of their role in the process, as well as the impact of school self-evaluation on their professional learning. Educator's learning appears to be influenced by the learning environment nurtured by the school and the way the school implements SSE. The study also provides an insight to how stakeholders involved in the implementation of School Self-evaluation would foster the educator's professional development as well. Supportive school administration, adequate school leadership and collaborative educator culture would contribute a lot to constructive learning environment.

The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation experiences of school leaders and teachers in a public, all-female, single-sex campus that experienced successful student outcomes. This research examined the participants' views of the factors that influence successful implementation of this model. Three research questions guided the study: (1) What are stakeholder perceptions of the factors that influenced the successful implementation of an all-female, single-sex, whole-school reform? (2) What are stakeholder perceptions of the successes experienced during the successful implementation of an all-female, single-sex, whole-school reform? (3) What are stakeholder perceptions of the challenges to the successful implementation of an all-female, single-sex, whole-school reform? This qualitative study used a grounded theory approach and a case study design to examine the implementation of whole-school, single-sex reform on a campus that experienced successful student outcomes, as evidenced by receiving the highest rating from the state accountability system in 2010-2011. Participants for this study were selected through purposive, theoretical sampling using a referral technique to generate the participant pool. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, an open-ended questionnaire, and a review of documents. To produce a substantive theory, data analysis followed the open, axial, and selective coding processes outlined by Strauss and Corbin (1990). The participant perceptions and major findings were analyzed to determine the relationships between causal conditions in order to develop theoretical explanations about the factors that influenced the implementation. The major factors influencing the implementation of the all-female, single-sex campus in this study were: (1) Community, (2) External factors, (3) District-level factors, and (4) School-level factors. The data and findings from this research were used to generate a substantive theory regarding the factors that influence successful implementation of this model so that leaders in public school districts may have a greater knowledge base with which to augment the decision-making process when considering the implementation of all-female, single-sex campuses as a whole-school reform model. Also, districts planning to implement this model may use the findings as a guide when considering the factors in their own districts that may influence implementation. / text

Numeracy is a cross-curricular priority, an intersystemic priority and, of late, a federal government priority. Yet as a priority "numeracy" is inadequately defined and the term is used to describe a wide-range of notions. Many educators are unsure of what constitutes numeracy, unaware of how it differs from mathematics, and uncertain as to how its demands may be met in their planning and teaching. Secondary schools have few models upon which to develop a whole-school numeracy plan. This study describes the journey of a secondary school staff as they developed a shared understanding of numeracy, identified the numeracy demands throughout the curriculum and planned for a whole-school approach to address these demands.

Yes / National and international guidance recommends whole-school approaches to physical activity, but there are few studies assessing their effectiveness, especially at an organisational level. This study assesses the impact of the Creating Active School's (CAS) programme on organisational changes to physical activity provision. In-school CAS leads completed a 77-item questionnaire assessing school-level organisational change. The questionnaire comprised 19 domains aligned with the CAS framework and COM-B model of behaviour change. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests assessed the pre-to-nine-month change. >70% of schools (n = 53) pre-CAS had inadequate whole-school physical activity provision. After nine months (n = 32), CAS had a significant positive effect on organisational physical activity. The positive change was observed for: whole-school culture and ethos, teachers and wider school staff, academic lessons, physical education (PE) lessons, commute to/from school and stakeholder behaviour. This study provides preliminary evidence that CAS is a viable model to facilitate system-level change for physical activity in schools located within deprived areas of a multi-ethnic city. To confirm the results, future studies are required which adopt controlled designs combined with a holistic understanding of implementation determinants and underlying mechanisms. / Z.E.H is funded via match funded PhD by the University of Bradford and Sport England Local Delivery Pilot Bradford. Authors, A.D-S and D.D.B. were supported by Sport England’s Local Delivery Pilot—Bradford. A.D-S and D.D.B were (also) supported by the Welcome Trust, a joint grant from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and UK Economic and Social Science Research Council a British Heart Foundation Clinical Study grant [CS/16/4/32482] the National Institute for Health Research under its Applied Research Collaboration Yorkshire and Humber [NIHR200166]; ActEarly UK Prevention Research Partnership Consortium [MR/S037527/1]; NIHR Clinical Research Network through research delivery support for this study.

<p>A mixed methods approach was employed and included a document study, questionnaires and a focus group interview. Participants included post level one teachers, and non-teaching staff and members of the school management team at one school in the Western Cape. Research findings indicated that the school management team only implemented IQMS to comply with departmental requirements and to ensure that teachers received pay progressions. It also emerged that planning was only done for compliance resulting in no real school development taking place at the school due to a number of constraints. It is recommended that the school management team employs a more balanced approach to school evaluation with a strong focus on both Developmental Appraisal (DA) and Performance Management (PM) as they employ whole school v development. It is further recommended that the school management team plans for school development with the intention to implement these in order to improve the conditions in the school. A final recommendation is that the Department of Education establish a directorate of school development in order to fund and assist schools with translating evaluation into school development.</p>

<p>A mixed methods approach was employed and included a document study, questionnaires and a focus group interview. Participants included post level one teachers, and non-teaching staff and members of the school management team at one school in the Western Cape. Research findings indicated that the school management team only implemented IQMS to comply with departmental requirements and to ensure that teachers received pay progressions. It also emerged that planning was only done for compliance resulting in no real school development taking place at the school due to a number of constraints. It is recommended that the school management team employs a more balanced approach to school evaluation with a strong focus on both Developmental Appraisal (DA) and Performance Management (PM) as they employ whole school v development. It is further recommended that the school management team plans for school development with the intention to implement these in order to improve the conditions in the school. A final recommendation is that the Department of Education establish a directorate of school development in order to fund and assist schools with translating evaluation into school development.</p>

Magister Educationis - MEd / A mixed methods approach was employed and included a document study, questionnaires and a focus group interview. Participants included post level one teachers, and non-teaching staff and members of the school management team at one school in the Western Cape. Research findings indicated that the school management team only implemented IQMS to comply with departmental requirements and to ensure that teachers received pay progressions. It also emerged that planning was only done for compliance resulting in no real school development taking place at the school due to a number of constraints. It is recommended that the school management team employs a more balanced approach to school evaluation with a strong focus on both Developmental Appraisal (DA) and Performance Management (PM) as they employ whole school v development. It is further recommended that the school management team plans for school development with the intention to implement these in order to improve the conditions in the school. A final recommendation is that the Department of Education establish a directorate of school development in order to fund and assist schools with translating evaluation into school development. / South Africa

According to the literature school refusal is a complex disorder. Whilst the condition only occurs in 2% of the general school population, more interestingly the problem accounts for about 8% of clinically referred children (Burke & Silverman, 1987). This study focuses on the school refusal of a young adolescent male. This thesis has examined the degree to which school refusal can be minimised through employing a whole school approach underpinned by effective pastoral care (WSNPC intervention program). The research questions were as follows: To investigate the effects the WSNPC intervention program has on the: minimisation of school refusal; replacement of the motherlfigurehead in the mother-child relationship relative to separation anxiety; and = improved emotional, social and intellectual wellbeing of the school refuser. The methodology adopted for the study of school refusal regarding a young adolescent male was based on a grounded theory approach and also included a combination of action research and case study methods. Qualitative paradigms measured the degree of the participant's school refusal. A variety of instruments were employed to measure the participant's perceptions of school refusal. The implementation of multiple strategies were based upon data collected and evaluated, both as a result of intentional efforts, or as an unintentional by-product of the study with the expressed aim of maximising the participant's school attendance. The evidence presented in this study indicates the strategies employed via the WSA/PC intervention program were helpful in improving the participant's attendance at school. The results give an insight into the level of comprehension for the sample of school refusal and its response in terms of understanding the reasons for such thinking. The limitations of single case methodology are acknowledged in the study and suggestions for further research discussed.