This study looks at School Governing Bodies and its role and their effectiveness in school management. In terms of the South African Schools Act, all schools are now required to have School Government Bodies to compliment the formal school administrative structures. The research looks at how these bodies have functioned in a rural context. The empirical evidence, supported by other research evidence show that even though these bodies are sometimes dutifully constituted in schools, their functionality and effectiveness remains limited due to a number of reasons. This research study has shown that the ineffectiveness of SGBs in a rural context is attributed to that following key issues- firstly, there is limited knowledge of the functions of SGB, which can be traced to the lack of training on the body member; secondly, there is a inadequate framework in many public schools to engage with the SGBs; and finally there is a lack of school resources to make effective use of these bodies.

Magister Educationis - MEd / This study was designed to investigate the current policies and practices of secondary school governance in Eritrea. There is a basic need to investigate the nature of parental involvement in school governance, particularly in relation to policies enshrined in the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) guidelines. The study examined the parents' commitment to execute their school governance role properly and to determine their capacity to fulfil their responsibilities with respect to the powers and functions vested in them. Education was merely the domain of the school and parents were discouraged from interfering in matters of school governance, therefore parental participation has been very limited. Thus, the focus of the study was to investigate the prevailing problems that curtail parental involvement and identify appropriate strategies for improving and strengthening school governance. / South Africa

This study sought to investigate the involvement of parents in the development of their children’s literacy. The study was conducted in a rural school in the Omaheke region of Namibia, a school selected for reasons of representativeness and convenience. The research took the form of an interpretive case study focussing on a study sample of nine parents, their children, and one teacher in the Ngeama community. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and then subjected to comprehensive descriptive analysis. The findings of the study indicate that parents in the Ngeama rural community have not been effectively involved in their children’s acquisition of literacy, for a number of reasons. These include the parents’ not feeling appropriately empowered to influence the development of their children’s literacy, the absence of environmental literacy programmes within the community, and the shortage of literacy materials such as newspapers and magazines. Perhaps the most important factor is that there is no public or school library in the Ngeama community. In view of these findings, the study recognizes a need for parental empowerment in terms of knowledge, skills, understanding and resources allocation regarding the education of their children. It recommends that a relationship of trust and understanding be built between the school and the community to ensure the sound development of literacy skills. The study further recommends the establishment of a library in order to enhance the literacy levels of teachers, parents and children alike.

South African School Governing Bodies play a crucial role in the governing of schools. One of the key challenges facing the School Governing Bodies is to contribute towards the creation of an atmosphere which is conducive for effective learning and teaching. This, among other ways, could be done by formulating a code of conduct for learners. The purpose of this study was to find out the role of the School Governing Body in formulating the code of conduct for learners. The subjects of the study were the parent and teacher components of the School Governing Bodies. Data collection for this study included questionnaires which were completed by parents and teachers who are members of the School Governing Bodies. Such data has been used to analyze and interpret the role played by the School Governing Bodies in formulating the code of conduct for learners. Among others, the study found that some members of the School Governing Bodies were not aware about their respective roles in the formulation of codes of conduct for learners and the policy relating to the code of conduct for learners. However, some School Governing Bodies have adopted the Provincial guidelines on the code of conduct as the code of conduct for their schools. The study recommends that the members of the School Governing Bodies should be empowered through, among others, continuous training courses relating to their respective roles in school governance.

This research focuses on aspects of parental involvement in homework and the differing power relations which homework uncovered within the family. It is concerned with the deeper implications of homework through exploring the attitudes, behaviours and beliefs of teachers and/or parents and/or pupils and to consider who really is in control of the homework process, the perceived and actual roles of the participants, the resistances to homework and the possible changing social factors which impinge on homework. This thesis offers a unique contribution to the homework discourses as it uses a qualitative approach, drawing on an extended version of the French and Raven (1959) conceptualisation of power as a means of interrogating the data, by labelling certain attitudes, behaviours and beliefs, to seek explanations of the patterns of power. These patterns of power are exposed through the family’s story of their engagement, or not, in the homework process. The notion of engaging pupils in the learning process is at the heart of many of the recent educational initiatives, arising from the National debate on Education (2002). At the heart of these new initiatives is the notion of learners being actively involved in the learning process, in and out of the classroom to encourage them to take responsibility for their learning. A number of implications for pupils, parents, teachers and the government are considered. These particularly relate to the effective practices of teachers and parents as a means of preventing the pupils from controlling the homework process and to the government to consider appropriate and effective means of ensuring that all concerned are engaged in conducting homework which is interesting, stimulating and motivating.

Research indicates that the limited communication between English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers and parents is a serious problem confronting educators. However, no serious study has been done to date on ESL parent-teacher communication that adequately recognizes the problematic nature of such communication and that approaches the discourse data from a functional linguistic perspective. This study investigates the communication processes between ESL teachers and Chinese immigrant parents (chiefly from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China) through a focal communication event, ESL Parents' Night, when they discuss their views of an ESL program in particular and the education of immigrant adolescent students in general. The study falls within the theoretical perspectives of learning organization, negotiation of intercultural conflict in a multilingual situation, language socialization, and sociocultural views of activity. Data were collected by multiple methods: 1) observations of twelve ESL department planning meetings and three annual Parents' Nights, 2) individual interviews of teachers and bilingual assistants who acted as intermediaries between teachers and parents, and 3) a focus group discussion. Specifically, the methodology combines qualitative research approaches and discourse analysis. Results indicate that teachers viewed the ESL program positively whereas many parents perceived it negatively. Teachers and parents were deeply divided both by what and how they were discussing at Parents' Night. This 'double difference' creates a major difficulty for intercultural negotiation of conflict, and preconditions aiding dialogue and negotiation become vitally important. Noting variation in interaction in different parts of Parents' Night, the study discusses various conditions that may have promoted or hindered the intercultural negotiation of these conflicts. The researcher's analysis of the difficulties of communication between Chinese parents and Canadian teachers at Parents' Night demonstrates less a solution to intercultural conflict than a need for continuous negotiation between the two cultural groups. Implications of this research include the need to expand the boundaries of language socialization theory to give a greater role to reflective processes, and learning organization theory to include multilingual and multicultural issues. It also provides practical suggestions for improving intercultural communication between parents and teachers in the interest of adolescent ESL learners frequently caught between conflicting sets of attitudes and expectations. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

Parental involvement in schools has been contested for decades. Although it is clear that parents have a responsibility to care for and nurture their children, the legislated role of schools to educate children leaves somewhat ambiguous the role of parents. Using Hannah Arendt's notions of public and private and the emergence of a social sphere this conceptual research examines the complex relationship of parents to schools. Using the British Columbia Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils (BCCPAC) Parent Advocacy Project as one model, this study illustrates how parents can play an important role in the public school education of their children. Parental involvement and legislated governance of schools have emerged as major educational issues in Canada. The struggle for control in education has its roots in the history of public education, legislation, the emergence of unions and the postindustrial global production/consumption market place economy. These issues reveal the emergence of a "social" sphere blurring the public/private distinctions, dominated by bureaucracy and alienating citizens from their political responsibilities to determine a good life. The emerging role of parents as advocates for their children in the schools may restore some balance to the public/private relationship, however, it may also reveal some of the problems of power and control within the system. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Despite the widespread recommendation that schools "collaborate" with parents, little is found in the literature to elaborate on what this term or the common synonym "partnership" means, and further, how schools can invite diverse parental contributions to the table of educational discourse. The current study looks to contribute to the literature by analyzing the parent participation discourse in one community elementary school, utilizing critical discourse analysis and ethnographic observations. The findings reveal both school and parents' conceptions of the parents' partnership role as ancillary to that of the school's and the subsequent lack of true collaboration so advocated by the literature. Implications arise from this analysis which calls into question the examples of "collaboration" found in the literature, given the lack of theorizing regarding what collaboration inside of parent participation means. Contributions may shed light on the unintentional inequality of diverse parents in an effort toward true collaboration utilizing both the European American, middle class contributions of the educational institution alongside those of non-mainstream parents in creating an authentic educational atmosphere for diverse students.

Caregivers of children with autism will likely meet with many school professionals once their children become school-aged. These meetings can be intimidating for caregivers who are unfamiliar with special education terminology and protocol, and caregivers may feel ineffective when communicating with school personnel. The purpose of this study is to describe a training curriculum to teach caregivers ways in which to communicate during meetings with school professionals, including the kinds of questions to ask/statements to make and when to ask or make them. A detailed overview of the training procedures, the participants, and the outcomes are described here. Preliminary data suggest the training produced increases in communication skills and that caregivers found the training effective and useful.

The full text of this thesis/dissertation is not available online. Please <a href="mailto:upetd@up.ac.za">contact us</a> if you need access. Read the abstract in the section 00front of this document. / Thesis (PhD (Nie-formele Onderwys))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Orthopaedic Surgery / unrestricted