Everyone in South Africa is keenly aware of and concerned about the massive educational changes. There is little doubt about the dominant role that change has played in our organizations and this is nowhere more evident than on the educational front. A wide variety of changes are bombarding schoolss in South Africa at present. In order to remain competitive and even survive, schools as organizations must meet the tremendous challenges presented by all the areas of change. In South Africa, up to 1997, the balance of power was overtly skewed in favour of management and unions relied largely on illegal practices and spoiling tactics to make headway. Despite the fact that over the past decade, greater equalization in substantive rights and dispute resolution mechanisms which treat all parties as equal, has been reached, perceptions and past practices are still deeply entrenched and manifested in an ‘us’ and ‘them’ approach. The aim of this study was to investigate the establishment of effective partnerships between principals and union representatives. The specific aim of this research project was to: • Describe the criteria for successful and effective participation and consultation between schools and unions • Identify and analyze the barriers (challenges) that compromise the educational management relationship between principals and union representatives • Investigate the perceptions of educators, principals and school governing bodies about the current school- union relations • Establish a framework that will surface challenges and remedies to mitigate educational partnership challenges. The results and recommendations of this study can be used to empower school managers and union representatives with effective partnership skills, which in turn will help solve problems in schools This study serves as an indication of the value of partnerships in improving quality in education. Summarily the research has proved to be of high significance to educators, school managers, stakeholders and policy makers. / Prof. C.F. Loock