The combined potential of two crucial factors in 1993, which afforded the promotion of socially just and ecologically sustainable ways of living, led to the instigation of this research project. The first was the imminence og our first democratic election; the second was the possible introduction of environmental education into formal education. In the light of these momentous shifts, it became apparent to me that teachers would have to radically transform their practices in order to play their part in transforming society from the dark days of apartheid into one of equity and harmony. The implications of these factors precipitated the falling into place of the rationale for my research: teachers had to look for professional development experiences which could facilitate the creation of alternative ways of thinking and doing. As a result, I approached a group of biology and geography teachers on the Cape Flats and, after protracted discussions, we decided to examine the potential of the urban environment for the teaching of ecology from the perspective of socially just and environmentally sustainable living. Out of this decision was born this study, which aimed at examining whether this process could, as a means to professional development, be a 'moment' in our journey to becoming transformative intellectuals. From this aim, the central research question emerged: Can emancipatory action research play a role in empowering teachers to become transformative intellectuals? The study consisted of five stages: - exploring the problem by reviewing the literature on the research problem; - the semi-structured interviews; - five workshops; - the 'sensing the urban environment' fieldtrip; and, - the various evaluation sessions. What we achieved during this research project, firstly, was a better understanding of our practices, which led us to seeing our roles as teachers differently and altered our pedagogical approaches. Secondly, this process developed the belief within ourselves that we, as teachers, can and should make a difference to the educational world in which we live. Lastly, this process laid the foundation for continued collaborative action by the participants. This process taught us that educational transformation is difficult and painful, and that present educational structures are not conducive to change. Nonetheless, in the historical context of this research, emancipatory action research was successful in giving us a consciousness-raising experience and closed the rhetoric-reality gap as we engaged in praxis (the practitioners developing and implementing their own curriculum). If we, as transformative intellectuals, are to engage in intellectual labour in the future, we are not only going to need to change our way of thinking and doing but will have to create an enabling infrastructure to realise this as well. We will, in addition, have to change the structures of the institutions in which we work in order to practise as transformative intellectuals.

Thesis (MEd (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / This is a qualitative study that explores social cohesion in terms of how it is understood by, teacher educators and pre-service teachers, and how it is incorporated, taught, and experienced in an initial teacher education (ITE) programme that is located within one university in the Western Cape, South Africa. It uses semi-structured interviews, observations, and a focus group interview to understand how teacher educators think about and teach social cohesion. Moreover, it focuses on how fourth year pre-service teachers experience the programme in relation to debates on social cohesion. Findings suggest that teacher educators’ understandings and pre-service teachers’ backgrounds influence their experiences of an ITE programme. It further suggests that pre-service teachers do develop attitudes and pedagogies for social cohesion, all be it unevenly so. This study contributes to better understandings of social cohesion as a priority of South African government, and how it is experienced by pre-service teachers in an ITE programme. In so doing, it contributes to how social cohesion may be realised in post-apartheid South Africa.

D.Ed.

M.Ed. / Change is inevitable. All aspects of life are all undergoing the process of change. Educational institutions are no exception to this phenomenon. The South African new found democracy has brought with it new educational policies through the South African Schools Act, which is in line with the international ways of management in schools. These new legislative policies compel schools to adopt new strategies that are prerequisite for changed and changing school climate. This study intends to find and recommend the success of schools applying the new paradigms of management styles where transformative strategies are enshrined within the leadership density and to give recommendations to the unsuccessful schools that are still logged in the old paradigms of top-down management styles. Through qualitative research, the researcher seeks to uncover the effect of these strategies in the management of schools. Research findings from this study suggest that: In schools where stakeholders sit in think tanks, opportunities are collaborated, there is culture where one mind polishes the other, there is guarantee that novel paradigms can emerge. This is a by-product of liberative management styles.

With the demise of apartheid the higher education landscape of South Africa (SA) had to change as well. As a guiding document, the Restructuring of the Higher Education Act 101 of 1997 (RSA 1997) sets out the programme for the envisioned new higher education system. Among some of the changes envisaged by this Act was that higher education needed to be responsive to the broader process of SA’s socio-economic and political transition. Of note is that, by virtue of the history of the higher educational landscape in SA, the changes were experienced in two phases. The first phase just after 1994 was characterised by debates on the restructuring centred on the changed political environment. This was a period where issues such as equal access to higher education institutions and opportunities for staff and students across race and gender lines, unequal funding, appropriateness of curriculum, shortages of graduates in the fields of science, and inefficiency and ineffectiveness of university management were attempted to be addressed. The second (current) phase is the “globalisation of education” – market principles are introduced into education, with a resultant rise in study fees; academic training is being steered more by market forces than by government; and incorporations and mergers of higher education institutions are being enforced to ensure efficiency, amongst other things. My intention to undertake a study on the restructuring of higher education was because the subject has raised different views and different reactions from different stakeholders. There are authors who are against the manner in which the restructuring of higher education is being formulated and implemented, especially in this second phase, i.e. the globalisation of higher education. Such authors include Komane (2002:7), Goedegebuure, Kaiser, Maassen and De Weert (1994:3), Berstelsen (1998:130), Kgaphola (1999:19) and Clark (1998:5). / Ms. Carina van Rooyen

The study presented in this thesis is a case study analysis of decentralization and quality assurance in a decentralized set up of the Ugandan Primary Schooling. The research looked at how the monitoring and evaluation informed the policy formulation process to regulate quality assurance in a decentralized governance of primary education. The Study was positioned in the critical realist paradigm, interpretive in orientation and used both coding and thematic techniques to understand the teachers’, SMC members’, and officers’ (at district and ministry levels) experiences and perceptions of quality assurance in a decentralized set up. Data was gathered using interviews, document analysis and observation methods. The findings indicated that the study was affected by eleven themes: Management System and Leadership, Human Resource Management, Finance Administration and Management, Parenting and Nutrition, Politics, Motivation, Social Structures and Patterns, Legislative Process and Policies, Infrastructure Development and Management, Community Involvement in Education and Curriculum and Professionalism. The monitoring and evaluation system had a framework in which it operates, though there was no quality assurance policy to guide the provision of quality education. The study finally indicated that there are more threats in a decentralized set up that put Quality in danger. Secondly, there was absence of supervision/inspection in schools as there was no evidence to prove this due to absence of reports. However, document analysis indicated visits of officers to schools. Records management was a problem to schools. Decentralization was adopted at different levels by different countries to address specific problems identified in view of service delivery. Finally, though monitoring and evaluation results informed the policy and decision makers, there was no quality assurance policy to guide the provision of quality education in institutions.

Ph.D. (Education and Curriculum Studies) / This study is about teachers’ identity shifts during the first waves of educational reform in South Africa in the post-apartheid renewal and restructuring of the education system. I studied the everyday life of four teachers in a “township” school in Gauteng Province, the industrial heartland of the country. I set out to find, over a three of years, how teachers saw themselves as professionals in this changing landscape, which included a three of new policies, including a new curriculum policy and a school governance policy. The study started with the knowledge claim that the researcher would find a shift in teacher identity, working from theories of self, specifically symbolic interactionism. I argued that in the establishment of a “post 1994” identity, as citizens and as educational practitioners, teachers have been the object of multiple social interventions. The least of these is not their adapted teaching modes and their performance as “OBE practitioners”, but as educators who took on the identity of the curriculum and its ideological intent. This was to shift teachers’ focus to learning outcomes more than content input and to see themselves as “guides by the side”, facilitators of learning, creating learning conditions that would optimise the potential of children and youth. For many teachers, the move away from being the giver or instructor to being the guide may be disturbing, I argued at the outset. I was interested to see how they engaged with a new life in a new system, or rather, a system “under repair” and one which may ask of them not only to adopt the “seven new roles of educators” as per the first policy change, but with that, also their sense of who they were, their sense of self as practitioners ...

M.Ed. / The South African education system has undergone radical changes since the democratic elections in 1994. This phenomenon (democratic elections) brought along its own challenges to educational leaders and managers. The vital principles underpinning the new approach focus mainly on transforming the education system, which is presently characterized by hierarchical and authoritarian structures and culture, into a more participatory system. This is therefore the critical time for School Management Teams (SMTs) in Ivory Park primary school to effect and manage changes in such a way that quality education will be the eventual outcome. This study has highlighted the following: • The SMTs in Ivory Park primary schools view vision as one of the most prominent aspects in the larger picture of transformational leadership. They realize that the vision will only be a reality when it has been shared with staff members. • Decentralization of power plays a vital role: this means that the line between the SMTs and educators is not tightly drawn, and roles are shared by leaders with stakeholders. • Some aspects of the centralization of power – such as lack of open communication and transparency – lead to dissatisfaction and frustration among educators. • The principal practice the principles of power investment by understanding that the staff members need to be empowered through workshops so that they (the staff) can function to the best of their abilities. • The SMTs realize that teams are an essential part of effective schools; therefore, in order for them to excel in both effectiveness and efficiency they have to build and integrate teams with complementary skills which are committed to a common purpose. • The major concern voiced by the respondents was the autocratic management approach applied by principles. / Mr. T.S. Hlongwane

D.Ed. / The transformation of the education system in South Africa is unavoidable due to social transformation in a newly democratised state. The newly established Gauteng Department of Education had to face challenges since 1994 to promote quality education, ownership and stability due to the fragmentation and diversity in communities and schools. In order to restore the culture of service delivering and to promote teaching and learning in schools, it is vital for schools to be provided with resources and conditions that are conducive to quality education. Trained educators and effective management of schools are equally important to ensure that learners receive the best quality education. Total quality school management provides the key to the solution, because the spiral of development, which includes constant monitoring and evaluation throughout the planning, leading and implementation cycles. Total quality school management is an integral part of delivering effective and efficient service. Total quality school management refers to the action, processes and structures necessary to ensure the delivery of highest quality of service to the clients. Total quality school management cultivates the appropriate partnerships and networks in service of the clients. In South Africa the indicators of these frameworks are invariably slanted toward issues of equity, efficiency and redress, but should largely be structured toward the improvement of service and education.

M.Comm. / The South African education and training system has for many years been fragmented and unfair towards underprivileged population groups. Since 1994, many changes have been initiated via legislation to ensure a unified and equal national system of education and training. Higher education has not been excluded from this and is undergoing major changes. These changes are mainly driven by current higher education legislation together with the regulations of the South African Qualifications Authority towards establishing a National Qualifications Framework (NQF). Higher education transformation is built around three central features, namely increased participation, greater responsiveness, and increased cooperation and partnerships. One of the ways in which participation and responsiveness can be achieved is through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). Formal RPL has not yet been implemented in higher education institutions, although informal forms of RPL have taken place. In an attempt to understand RPL, the approaches to prior learning recognition in various countries are analysed. Aspects such as the forms of RPL, sources, objectives and uses, benefits and advantages are extrapolated from current sources. A table with a summary per country is provided as a future reference guide. A Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) process model is synthesised after analysis of prior learning recognition process models in different countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada and Australia. This model serves as suggested process model for Recognition of Prior Learning in higher education institutions in South Africa. The model consists of ten stages, namely pre-entry, initial contact, learning identification, preparation for assessment, assessment, verification, accreditation and certification, appeals, recording and post-RPL counselling. Research is based on an analytical and descriptive literature study. The process model requires further empirical testing.