The Best PhD Thesis in the Faculties of Architecture, Arts, Business & Economics, Education, Law and Social Sciences (University of Hong Kong), Li Ka Shing Prize, 2008-2009. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-298). Also available in print.

This dissertation explores why, even after nine years of studying the English language, graduates in the Punjab emerge with very deficient English. An examination of the currently prescribed syllabuses for the Secondary, Intermediate and Degree stages reveals that they are based on out-dated concepts of language teaching. They not only provide impoverished language content but fail to take into consideration the learners' actual needs. They are exclusively based on translation and 'dead language' techniques. Moreover, the examinations allow memorized answers to set questions which are repeated year after year. This dissertation examines the theoretical bases for a specification of a new syllabus. It considers the background of psychology, psycholinguistics, ELT theories and methodologies, and syllabus design, and attempts to develop a pragmatic approach toward the teaching of English in the Punjab. New syllabuses need to be proposed for all three stages of English language study. In this dissertation a proposed specification for the Intermediate stage is outlined, which, if adopted would function as a model for other stages. The specification is for a multi-dimensional syllabus, combining the benefits of both communicative and structuralist approaches, and taking full account of the needs of the particular learners involved and of the local context of education.

The pivotal role of empowering principals in school finance to acquire skills to make more effective use of the scarce financial resources cannot be doubted in the current education system. This study reflected on the training needs of the Leribe and Butha- Buthe PPS principals in managing school finances, the results of which were utilised to formulate guidelines for a training framework. It was evident from the results of the investigation that principals sometimes experienced difficulties when executing activities such as strategic planning and budgeting, as well as controlling and monitoring finances â all very crucial areas of financial management. Therefore, managers urgently need training to acquire the skills and knowledge to overcome difficulties which could hamper the achievement of goals. The training would probably assist managers to ensure that through empowering other stakeholders, the school finances will be managed in a manner that will respond to the needs of the learners. It is therefore anticipated that better financial management in the schools will mean better education for the present and future Basotho generations.

Inclusive Education is an ideal currently being sought after and being realised in different ways in different countries across the globe. The Constitution of South Africa (RSA 1996a) paved the way for democracy and the accommodation of diversity. These principles also formed the foundation for the formulation of a distinctive policy for South Africa regarding inclusive education that was accepted in 2001. Inclusive education is, therefore , a reality that school managers must progressively deal with on a daily base. The predicament, however for the majority of the current school managers, is that they were trained for, and until now predominantly functioned in, a mainly exclusive education environment and thus have little or no knowledge regarding inclusivity. This implies that they are probably not sufficiently empowered to implement inclusive education. Against this background, the investigation was undertaken in order to describe the role of school management in the implementation of inclusive education in schools. A comprehensive literature study was undertaken to encompass relevant international and national policies. Available literature on the experiences of educators and school managers across the world were also scrutinised to obtain relevant information. This was followed by a quantitative investigation amongst school managers of non-inclusive schools in the Motheo district the Free State aiming at collecting data on the compatibility of inclusive education with the current status in schools. Finally a qualitative investigation was undertaken in the Bojanala-West region (in the locality of Rustenburg) where the inclusive eduation policy has been implemented, to obtain managerial perspectives from school managers of inclusive schools. The findings of the investigation were used to make certain recommendations regarding the role of school managers in the implementation of inclusive education at South African schools. If these broad directives are followed, any management team, in conjunction with all other role-players, should be able to facilitate the creation of an inclusive school environment fit for the unique nature and establishment of their school community to the advantage of all learners.

Many new developments are taking place in the field of schooling. Some of these developments are school based management, Outcomes-Based Education, the National Curriculum Statement, and the devolution of power of control to the school level, especially in Section 21 schools. Many educational leaders are struggling with these changes in their leadership of secondary schools. These developments created the need to conduct a needs analysis for the empowerment of managers of secondary schools in transformational leadership in the Eastern Cape. The specific objectives of this study were as follows: - To investigate the basic principles and various dimensions of effective leadership in general and transformational leadership in particular. - To provide an exposition of how managers of secondary schools should execute their leadership tasks in a transformational way. - To determine the transformational leadership abilities of managers of secondary schools in the Eastern Cape Province. - To establish the transformational leadership empowerment needs of managers of secondary schools in the Eastern Cape Province. - To indicate guidelines for a series of empowering activities for training managers of secondary schools to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills for effective leadership in times of transformation. A literature study of transformational leadership was conducted to investigate the grounding perspective of transformational leadership. For school managers as educational leaders to be forces for change and improvement within their schools, they should have a vision of where to lead their schools, a series of values and assumptions about their work and insight into the context in which they are working. Therefore, school managers should become leaders inspiring creativity and higher levels of achievement. Thus, school managers should actively seek to motivate and develop educators by creating opportunities for them to grow and to learn from each other. Despite the fact that many researchers see transformational leadership as a comparatively better model of leadership, some authors argue that it has weaknesses and criticize some of its activities as unethical and immoral. Therefore, a critical reflection of transformational leadership was done. From the foregoing discussion, it was deduced that the quality of any transformation process depends on the caliber of leadership. Leadership gives direction and effectiveness to transformation because it forms the basis for transformation. In essence, managers of secondary schools as transformational leaders should concern themselves with the motivation, betterment and empowerment of followers. With meaningful development and empowerment in place, transformational leadership provides an appropriate solution to the challenges prevalent in schools today because it always seeks to confront change as an opportunity rather than a threat. To gather data, both quantitative and qualitative investigations were undertaken. A preliminary survey was conducted on a sample (n = 43) from the same population as the primary study, using the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) to check on the need for this study. The results of this survey indicated that managers of secondary schools performed leadership practices to a moderate degree. The study was then considered to be necessary on the basis of the need for maximum possible leadership practices during times of change. The primary data collection instrument was a researcherdesigned questionnaire (RDQ) that was used to collect data from managers of secondary schools in the Eastern Cape. Data were collected from a sample of 191 managers of secondary schools. Categories and units of analysis were used for data analysis and for scoring data. After data capturing, data were computed using STATA 8.2 and Excel. Data were then presented, interpreted and discussed. The results indicated that managers of secondary schools have merely fair abilities in transformational leadership and that they need empowerment in transformational leadership to a great extent. It was necessary to get more clarity and further information on the abilities of and empowerment needs of managers of secondary schools directly from participants (n = 9) that formed part of the population studied. Thus, qualitative data was collected using interviews. Emergent themes and categories were discussed in the data report on the findings of the qualitative investigation. Participants indicated various leadership skills, abilities, actions and behaviours that are important for school managers to portray and perform to lead their schools to effectiveness. It was evident from participants that school managers were not adequately empowered in transformational leadership. Participants indicated that school managers need continuous empowerment and induction/orientation on leadership knowledge and skills to be able to perform their transformational leadership role effectively. On the basis of the findings from both the quantitative and qualitative research, a synthesis of the main findings was made. Based on these findings, recommendations and conclusions were made. Possible areas for further research were identified. Guidelines for a series of short courses for the empowerment of managers of secondary schools in transformational leadership were given.

Since 1994, the South African education system has been characterised by the implementation of new legislation steering the restructuring of management systems and the decentralisation of powers to schools, as also set out in the preamble of the South African Schools Act No 84 of 1996. This includes the delegation of decision-making powers regarding the management of school funds to School Governing Bodies of Section 21 public schools, as well as to the principals as the financial managers of these schools. Consequently public school principals need to have the skills, knowledge and appropriate attitudes that are required in order to ensure that public funds are spent wisely. In the light of his own experience as a public school principal, and having had to manage school funds over a period of seven years, as well as being influenced by reports of financial malpractices amongst departmental employees of the Free State Department of Education (FSDoE) since 2003, the researcher opted to do an investigation into the need for and the nature of a possible extended and/or improved programme to better facilitate principalsâ financial management of public schools in the province. In order to do the investigation, the researcher firstly employed an extensive literature review regarding the major roles and responsibilities of school principals as financial managers of schools, as well as possible programmes to develop school principals as financial managers in South Africa. The research design and methodology employed involved an embedded mixed methods approach consisting of two empirical research phases. During phase one the researcher firstly undertook a situation analysis by means of a quantitative checklist survey amongst public school principals in the Motheo Education District of the FSDoE. In order to validate the findings of the checklist survey, he subsequently employed an embedded, qualitative, interactive and one-on-one interview survey amongst non-respondents to the checklist survey, as well as an embedded, noninteractive, qualitative interview survey amongst office-based education officials (nominated for this purpose by two provincial education departments). In short, the research findings from this first phase of the investigation may be summarised as follows: · Despite any existing attempts or programmes to facilitate principalsâ financial management of public schools, it was clearly reported that school principals in the Free State Province still experienced problems with the execution of their financial management roles and responsibilities at the time of the surveys. · Some of the school principals taking part in the surveys were not conversant with and/or did not adhere to all the regulations and guidelines regarding their financial management responsibilities. · In general, the participants involved in the mentioned surveys were in favour of an extended and/or improved programme to better facilitate principalsâ financial management of public schools. These findings were considered to be an adequate answer to the basic question: WHY should an extended/improved developmental financial management programme be established? During phase two of the empirical investigation the researcher was eventually able to formulate a semi-final plan for an extended and/or improved support, training and development programme consisting of 67 salient features, inductively derived from the findings of the literature study and the preceding surveys, and which relate to the remaining five basic and guiding questions: HOW?; WHAT?; WHO?; WHEN?, and WHERE?. The semi-final plan was then evaluated by a panel of purposefully selected office-based education officials and public school principals who were considered to be experts regarding public school principalsâ financial management problems. The results of this quantitative questionnaire evaluation survey confirmed the validity of at least 62 of the 67 features. In his final plan for a programme to facilitate principalsâ financial management of public schools, the researcher subsequently replaced five of the 67 features proposed in the semi-final plan with improved features and recommended the addition of three more important features. It is hoped that the FSDoE, as well as other provincial education departments in South Africa, will be able to use the proposed plan in the development of customised support, training and development programmes for school principals as financial managers of public schools.

This thesis examined the discourse of the perceptions and experiences school leaders have on cultural representativity in a changing environment and how such situations should be managed. The ideology behind social representation was justified with the notion that it has the task to level the playing field, so that all South Africans can share democracy, liberty and equality. In South Africa social representation is implemented as a permanent measure to achieve a truly representative society across all spheres in South Africa, which forces diverse groups of society to conform to the goal of a homogeneous society. This affects all cultures and social classes in society and consequently also the school principal in all aspects of school management. The study drew on a comprehensive literature study exploring the philosophical foundations, the principles that underpin social representation, racial, cultural and gender divides, as well as its impact on organisations and suggestions on how to manage diversity in the school. The data that emerged from the literature review was used as point of departure for the empirical investigations. In this investigation a mixed-method approach was followed, using interviews with eight school leaders in the Free State Province and a researcher developed questionnaire that was distributed to 280 school leaders at schools with diverse cultures situated in urban as well as rural communities in the Free State Province. The above investigations revealed how social representation is experienced and perceived, the problems encountered during implementation, what school leaders regard as basic elements to ensure effectively run diverse schools, as well as the training that they would like to undergo in order to become more efficient in running a socially represented school in the present South African context. The researcher came to the conclusion that, in spite of heightened racial sensitivity, school leaders have rather positive feelings about social representation and that the school and the community benefit from it. The study is concluded by a synthesis of the findings resulting in guidelines for the effective management of socially diverse schools. It was finally envisaged that this study will serve as a starting point for training and for the further dissemination of the research findings to the benefit of school management and staff performance in South Africa.

77% learners in South African schools experience their schools as unsafe. This shocking fact, coupled with various media reports about incidents of violence in schools, necessitates that this problem be addressed. The Department of Education, teachers, parents and learners, expressed their shock and concern about this situation. From this background, the influence of school culture and school climate as a possible solution to the problem of violence in schools is studied. In Chapter 2 the concepts school culture and school climate are described according to the literature. In this study, school culture is regarded as a reflection of shared ideas, suppositions and convictions which determine each schoolâs own identity and standard of behavioural outcomes. School climate is regarded as the quality and character of school life. According to that, school climate is based on learnersâ experiences of school life and it reflects the norms, objectives, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching en learning practices, and organisational structures. An overview of the concept school culture is firstly provided by taking a look at the elements of school culture, the importance of school culture, the effect of school culture upon school life, and the correlation between school culture and violence at a school. The concept school climate is studied from a broad perspective by describing and analysing the core dimensions. Finally, the relation between the two concepts school culture and school climate are discussed. This is done by studying the similarities, differences and related characteristics of school culture and school climate. In Chapter 3 the concept violence at schools is described according to the literature. This study has been undertaken against the background of general violence in the South African context and the possible effect of this violence upon South African schools. After a general discussion of the concept violence, violence as schools in the South African environment and the possible causes thereof are investigated. In Chapter 4 the research design and the methodology of this study are described. An exposition is given of the explanatory design model, which is indicative thereof that both the quantitative and qualitative research methods have been utilised. In this chapter, the data collection techniques of both the quantitative and the qualitative research are set forth and discussed. Finally, the compilation of the random sample, the role of the researcher in the data collection process and the ethical considerations are set forth. The focus in Chapter 5 falls on the presentation, analysis and interpretation of the quantitative data. The quantitative data were collected with the California School Climate and Safety Survey â Short Form (CSCSS-SFI), whereafter the data were analysed and interpreted statistically in order to determine the influence of school culture and school climate upon violence at schools. With the analysis of the data it has been determined that the more positive the school culture and school climate are experienced, the lower the levels of violence. The opposite, namely, the worse the school culture and climate are experienced, the higher the levels of violence, is also true. In Chapter 5, the qualitative approach to the research is explained. In this chapter, all the individual aspects of school culture and school climate, as well as the aspects of violence at schools are investigated and described by means of semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured interviews were done with learners from high-risk schools as well as learners from low-risk schools. This method renders itself thereto that learners could convey their personal experiences pertaining to school culture, school climate and violence at their respective schools. By applying the quantitative and qualitative research methods, the triangulation of data ensures the validity and reliability of the study. In the last chapter, a summary is provided of the findings in the different chapters. Findings regarding the problem questions, namely what school culture, school climate en violence at schools entail, as well as what the influence of school culture, school climate and violence at schools in the Eastern Cape Province are, coupled with the experiences of learners pertaining to school culture, school climate and violence at schools, are set forth. It has come to light that there are deficiencies in the school culture and school climate and that these correspond with the occurrence of incidents of violence at schools. However, the most important finding is that school culture and climate play an important role in the prevention of violence at schools. These findings pertaining to school culture and school climate are of importance for education, particularly with regard to the future planning and management of programmes to prevent violence at schools. Finally, findings emanating from the research have been formulated in order to reduce or prevent violence at schools.

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