Our South African schools are seventeen years after the advent of democracy still under the grip of predominantly hierarchical management with limited devolution of leadership functions to teachers. Principals and SMT’s are caught between the demands of a policy driven Department of Education, the unions who ‘control’ the teachers and a desire to transform their schools into 21st century centres of learning and teaching excellence. Somewhere into this maelstrom ones needs to factor in the expectation of teachers, parents and even the pupils who are living in a 21st century environment with all the technological trappings and a democratic dispensation which has promised to deliver a better life for all. Given the current negative view of schooling with the poor matric and grade three and six performance levels and the negative view of teachers especially after the teacher strikes of 2007 and 2010 there is an urgent need for intervention to save our education system and children. I am however not advocating a narrow view of policy intervention, which has already proven to be a failure. Such interventions fail to penetrate to the depth of the problem. I am advocating for a much more sustainable longer term intervention that must change our teachers’ views to their job, their commitment to the task and the child. I am advocating for a return to professional values and commitment coupled with a new age distribution of leadership that recognises the contribution and worth of all teachers. This recognises that all teachers have skills and insights to contribute that can change the face of schools. Given this background I attempted using a case study of five teacher leaders in an urban primary school to understand their views on professionalism, their involvement in leadership and whether the link between the two does impact positively on the culture of teaching and learning. I employed a multiple data collection method and used a questionnaire, semistructured individual interviews, a focus group interview and observations. The findings of the study indicated that there was genuine commitment to professionalism. The teacher leaders viewed themselves as professionals. They were further deeply committed to teacher leadership which they demonstrated in various ways. Their professionalism combined with their involvement in leadership spilled over into a culture of learning and teaching. Teacher leadership was present in various spheres but was limited by hierarchical school structures, time constraints and scepticism from other teachers. This relationship between teaching, professionalism and learning and teaching needs to be further researched especially in the context of South African schools in their current change environment, overshadowed by the legacies of the past. Our schools need to succeed now. Our children need it now. If the route to sustainable teacher and learner performance lies in professional leadership development, then we must explore it further without delay. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Kwazulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

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The study was designed to examine the leadership style of principals in two ways: (1) by synthesizing the available research on effective schools and the leadership involved; and (2) by determining the relationship of good management in America's best-run companies with the principals in America's most effective schools. The study described teacher perceptions of leader behavior in nationwide public schools recognized for excellence. Additionally, principals' self-perceptions of leader behavior were examined.A Leadership Behavior Questionnaire was developed to indicate which of the eight basic characteristics of good management, proclaimed by Peters and Waterman's book, In Search of Excellence, effective schools utilized.The population for the study was comprised of schools recognized for excellence by the Secretary of Education or the Kappa Delta Pi society. Eighty-two nationwide public schools participated in the study.One null hypothesis was generated for the study. The multivariate hypothesis was tested using the Hotelling T2 statistical method and a significance level of .001 was reported. The mean average response of teachers in the eight categories differed from the hypothesized vector of scores (3.5) rejecting the null hypothesis. Teacher and principal mean ratings were above 4.0 on all subscales. Each of the eight subscales helped to explain the overall rejection. Therefore, agreement existed between managers of best-run companies and principals of effective schools as to the eight basics of good management.General agreement existed among teachers and principals about leadership style in schools recognized for excellence. Principal leader behavior was one factor that influenced school climate. The high ratings by both teachers and principals in the exemplary schools gave some clues as to what good leadership entails. Teachers perceived principals as highest in SIMULTANEOUS LOOSE-TIGHT PROPERTIES. Principals perceived themselves highest in PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH PEOPLE and CLOSE TO THE CUSTOMER.The Pearson product-moment correlations were substantial and positive between all eight subscales. This information, along with the synthesis of research on effective schools and the relationship to industry, will provide a guide to leaders who are truly trying to make school a better place for kids.

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The major purpose of this study was to examine the implications and potentials of program budgeting for public schools. Several goals and objectives pursuant to the major purpose of the study were developed. They were: (1) to further the usage of program-budgeting concepts and terms as described and defined by Harry J. Hartley, author of Educational Planning-Programming-Budgeting: A Systems Approach; (2) to identify budgeting practices common to both conventional and program-budgeting concepts of public school budgeting; and (3) to determine whether or not selected public school superintendents used specific program budgeting practices and to determine the soundness of the specific program-budgeting practices as judged by the public school superintendents. The procedures used in the study included the following: (1) the selection of the population, (2) the development of the data-gathering instrument, (3) the collection of the data, and (4) the presentation of the data.The population of this study was comprised of seventy selected Indiana public school superintendents who administered school corporations which were of various sizes and which were located in various geographic areas in Indiana. Two criteria were used to select the superintendents: (1) that their school corporation be one of the ten school corporations having the largest average daily attendance as reported by the Indiana State Department of Instruction; or (2) that their school corporation be a member of one of the five public school study councils with headquarters at Ball State University.Data for the study were obtained from the responses to a questionnaire which included a list of statements pertaining to program-budgeting practices. The sixty statements were derived from thirty theses postulated by Hartley as a concise description of program budgeting as it should operate at the public-school level. Definitions from the glossary of Hartley's book were used to clarify the statements.The superintendents were asked to react to the statements by checking a multi-column scale, indicating whether or not they used the budgeting practice in their school' corporation and then judging the soundness of the practice whether or not they used the practice.The data were treated in two major categories. Each statement was treated separately, and the sixty statements were treated as a whole. In both categories the data were presented in raw numbers and percentages to show responses as well as similarities and differences of responses, and narration was used to report general relationships and inferences as perceived by the writer. The findings indicated the following major general conclusions to be appropriate: 1. The majority of the superintendents participating in the study indicated they used many of the program-budgeting practices described and defined in the inquiry instrument. 2. Most of the superintendents participating in this study considered most of the program-budgeting practices described and defined in the inquiry instrument to be sound budgeting practices. 3. Many of the superintendents participating in the study judged specific program-budgeting practices to be sound even though they did not utilize those practices in the operations of their schools. 4. Program-budgeting practices more directly associated with systems-analysis procedures, such as utilizing management-information systems, developing simulation techniques, programming by systematic task-sequence network diagrams and constructing behavioral-theoretical models, were not often used by the school corporations participating in this study. 5. Many budgetary methods, policies, and procedures identified as being characteristic of program budgeting were being practiced in the public schools. There is considerable overlapping of conventional and program-budgeting practices.