This research is directed at the investigation of teacher education and the professional status of the teacher in the Northern Province. The literature study examined the essential characteristics of a profession and these were rephrased as criteria to evaluate to what. extent education . meets these criteria. Education is a profession although it does not fully meet the criteria of such traditional professions as law and medicine. A qualitative investigation was undertaken to determine how successfully teacher education is realised in the Northern Province. It was revealed that teacher education is not founded on a pedagogically justifiable theory. The status of the teacher is low. To redress this situation, continuous research and in-service education are recommended whereby the teachers' status and the standard of teacher education may be enhanced Culture needs recognition in the curricula that need to be changed to meet the demands of a changing society. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

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The widening of access to Higher Education (HE) with a concomitant call for more accountability in the HE sector locally and globally, has altered the former elitist status of the university and impacted the professional standing, autonomy, and working conditions of lecturers negatively. Lecturers are increasingly held to account for providing quality teaching and delivering employable graduates. Yet their work environment has been characterised by poor support, dwindling resources, lack of recognition and reward for teaching efforts and excellence, and absence of legal protection when failing to fulfil the undefined yet high accountability expectations in their teaching-related work. This state of affairs has had an inevitable influence on lecturers’ perceived security in their labour environment. The overarching purpose of this study was therefore to generate guidelines to improve the existing juridical foundation for accountability of South African (SA) HE lecturers with a view to enhance their security in their employment context. In order to assist in the fulfilment of this central purpose, the study aimed to develop understanding of how lecturers perceive their accountability and security in light of diverse teaching-related responsibilities and vagueness in terms of expected conduct; and the protection (or lack of protection) of their rights and professional status. An international perspective on these issues was imperative to shed some light on how regulation elsewhere could improve practices in the SA context. While SA lecturers are equally entitled to all the rights stipulated in the Bill of Rights, they are also subject to and accountable for upholding the provisions of the SA Constitution and derived labour legislation relevant within the HE environment. The founding values of the Constitution, namely equality, human dignity and the protection of human rights and related freedoms, form not only the basic standard for measuring lecturer conduct, but also the legal basis for challenging policy, system or conduct that might threaten constitutional or labour rights. Yet, despite the existing juridical foundation for the regulation of accountability and rights protection of SA lecturers, comprising the SA Constitution, general labour and HE legislation, there is an absence of HE-specific teaching-related accountability regulation, resulting in lecturer insecurity regarding expected conduct, professional recognition and support, and accountability expectations in their teaching-related work. In comparison, a number of Australian legal imperatives, including the Commonwealth of Australia Learning and Teaching Council’s standard for quality teaching with corresponding quality indicators, provide for more clearly defined teaching-related accountability regulation. In addition, the Mission Based Compacts, the Threshold Standards, and the national Modern Award for the Higher Education Industry, afford Australian lecturers the protection of HE-specific rights relevant to enhance security in their unique work environment. These legal imperatives proved to be significant for informing the improved juridical foundation for lecturer teaching-related accountability in the SA context to enhance the security of the SA lecturer. With a focus on the development of in-depth understanding of the phenomena of lecturer accountability and security via the perspectives and interpretations of lecturers themselves, the empirical study was grounded in an inductive qualitative methodology from an interpretive-phenomenological perspective. To ensure richness of descriptive data, lecturers actively involved in undergraduate teaching at three different local, and one Australian university, were purposively selected to participate in semi-structured individual and focus group interviews. The analysis and interpretation of the interview data included a comparative component to explore perceptions of lecturer accountability regulation and security protection in an Australian context with a view to identify inadequate legal provisioning for these phenomena in the SA HE environment. From the data analysis and interpretation, seven meaningful themes were identified, associated with either lecturer accountability or lecturer security. The findings offered not only a clear delineation of internal and external lecturer teaching-related accountability, but also a comprehensive definition of lecturer professional security that was found wanting in all legal sources and other literature studied for this thesis. Moreover, in realisation of the primary aim of this study, twelve significant guidelines are presented to establish an improved juridical foundation for lecturer accountability that will enhance lecturer security in the SA Higher Education context. Amongst these are: the development of a clear delineation of teaching-related roles and responsibilities articulated for different academic post levels; the establishment of a professional HE teaching-oriented career path affording professional recognition via a professional body for lecturers, and requiring continuous professional teaching development; and the development of minimum conditions of employment unique to the work of the HE lecturer. / PhD (Education Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The widening of access to Higher Education (HE) with a concomitant call for more accountability in the HE sector locally and globally, has altered the former elitist status of the university and impacted the professional standing, autonomy, and working conditions of lecturers negatively. Lecturers are increasingly held to account for providing quality teaching and delivering employable graduates. Yet their work environment has been characterised by poor support, dwindling resources, lack of recognition and reward for teaching efforts and excellence, and absence of legal protection when failing to fulfil the undefined yet high accountability expectations in their teaching-related work. This state of affairs has had an inevitable influence on lecturers’ perceived security in their labour environment. The overarching purpose of this study was therefore to generate guidelines to improve the existing juridical foundation for accountability of South African (SA) HE lecturers with a view to enhance their security in their employment context. In order to assist in the fulfilment of this central purpose, the study aimed to develop understanding of how lecturers perceive their accountability and security in light of diverse teaching-related responsibilities and vagueness in terms of expected conduct; and the protection (or lack of protection) of their rights and professional status. An international perspective on these issues was imperative to shed some light on how regulation elsewhere could improve practices in the SA context. While SA lecturers are equally entitled to all the rights stipulated in the Bill of Rights, they are also subject to and accountable for upholding the provisions of the SA Constitution and derived labour legislation relevant within the HE environment. The founding values of the Constitution, namely equality, human dignity and the protection of human rights and related freedoms, form not only the basic standard for measuring lecturer conduct, but also the legal basis for challenging policy, system or conduct that might threaten constitutional or labour rights. Yet, despite the existing juridical foundation for the regulation of accountability and rights protection of SA lecturers, comprising the SA Constitution, general labour and HE legislation, there is an absence of HE-specific teaching-related accountability regulation, resulting in lecturer insecurity regarding expected conduct, professional recognition and support, and accountability expectations in their teaching-related work. In comparison, a number of Australian legal imperatives, including the Commonwealth of Australia Learning and Teaching Council’s standard for quality teaching with corresponding quality indicators, provide for more clearly defined teaching-related accountability regulation. In addition, the Mission Based Compacts, the Threshold Standards, and the national Modern Award for the Higher Education Industry, afford Australian lecturers the protection of HE-specific rights relevant to enhance security in their unique work environment. These legal imperatives proved to be significant for informing the improved juridical foundation for lecturer teaching-related accountability in the SA context to enhance the security of the SA lecturer. With a focus on the development of in-depth understanding of the phenomena of lecturer accountability and security via the perspectives and interpretations of lecturers themselves, the empirical study was grounded in an inductive qualitative methodology from an interpretive-phenomenological perspective. To ensure richness of descriptive data, lecturers actively involved in undergraduate teaching at three different local, and one Australian university, were purposively selected to participate in semi-structured individual and focus group interviews. The analysis and interpretation of the interview data included a comparative component to explore perceptions of lecturer accountability regulation and security protection in an Australian context with a view to identify inadequate legal provisioning for these phenomena in the SA HE environment. From the data analysis and interpretation, seven meaningful themes were identified, associated with either lecturer accountability or lecturer security. The findings offered not only a clear delineation of internal and external lecturer teaching-related accountability, but also a comprehensive definition of lecturer professional security that was found wanting in all legal sources and other literature studied for this thesis. Moreover, in realisation of the primary aim of this study, twelve significant guidelines are presented to establish an improved juridical foundation for lecturer accountability that will enhance lecturer security in the SA Higher Education context. Amongst these are: the development of a clear delineation of teaching-related roles and responsibilities articulated for different academic post levels; the establishment of a professional HE teaching-oriented career path affording professional recognition via a professional body for lecturers, and requiring continuous professional teaching development; and the development of minimum conditions of employment unique to the work of the HE lecturer. / PhD (Education Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Summary in Afrikaans and English / Hierdie verhandeling omvat 'n beskrywing van die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van die onderwysersvereniging wat vanaf 1893 onder meer as die Vereeniging vir Onderwijzers en Onderwijzeressen in de Z.A.R. (VVOOZA), die Vereeniging van Onderwijzers en Onderwijzeressen in Zuid-Afrika (VVOOZA) vanaf 1903 en sedert 1923 as die Transvaalse Onderwysersvereniging (TO) bekend gestaan het. Die klem val op uitsprake van TO-voorsitters en aktiwiteite wat deur die TO van stapel gestuur is ter bevordering van die professionaliteit en professionele status van onderwysers en onderwyseresse. Die verhandeling sluit ook 'n ontleding van en kritiese besinning oor die kenmerke van professionaliteit in. In die verband word gefokus op die verhouding van die TO met enkele onderwysbelanghebbendes, die bevordering van die professionele beeId van onderwysers/onderwysersesse en die beginsels wat die TO tydens salarisonderhandelinge gehandhaaf het. 'n Belangrike gevolgtrekking waartoe gekom word, is dat die TO vir meer as 100 jaar nie net professionaliteit in onderwysverband bevorder het nie, maar dat sy uitsprake en aktiwiteite op sigself getuig van 'n professionele ingesteldheid. / This thesis comprises an account of the origin and development of the teachers' association known from 1893 as the Vereeniging vir Onderwijzers en Onderwijzeressen in de Z.A.R. (VVOOZA), as the Vereeniging van Onderwijzers en Onderwijzeressen in Zuid-Afrika (VVOOZA) from 1903, and since 1923 as the Transvaalse Onderwysersvereniging (TO). The accent is on pronouncements of TO chairpersons and activities initiated by the TO to promote professional qualities among teachers and to secure professional status for them. The thesis also includes an analysis and critical consideration of the criteria of professionalism, with special reference to the relationship between the TO and roleplayers with an interest in education, the promotion of the professional image of teachers, and the principles upheld by the TO in salary negotiations. An important conclusion drawn is that for more than 100 years of its existence, the TO not only promoted professional qualities in the educational context, but epitomises professionalism in its pronouncements and activities. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Historiese Opvoedkunde)

Summary in Afrikaans and English / Hierdie verhandeling omvat 'n beskrywing van die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van die onderwysersvereniging wat vanaf 1893 onder meer as die Vereeniging vir Onderwijzers en Onderwijzeressen in de Z.A.R. (VVOOZA), die Vereeniging van Onderwijzers en Onderwijzeressen in Zuid-Afrika (VVOOZA) vanaf 1903 en sedert 1923 as die Transvaalse Onderwysersvereniging (TO) bekend gestaan het. Die klem val op uitsprake van TO-voorsitters en aktiwiteite wat deur die TO van stapel gestuur is ter bevordering van die professionaliteit en professionele status van onderwysers en onderwyseresse. Die verhandeling sluit ook 'n ontleding van en kritiese besinning oor die kenmerke van professionaliteit in. In die verband word gefokus op die verhouding van die TO met enkele onderwysbelanghebbendes, die bevordering van die professionele beeId van onderwysers/onderwysersesse en die beginsels wat die TO tydens salarisonderhandelinge gehandhaaf het. 'n Belangrike gevolgtrekking waartoe gekom word, is dat die TO vir meer as 100 jaar nie net professionaliteit in onderwysverband bevorder het nie, maar dat sy uitsprake en aktiwiteite op sigself getuig van 'n professionele ingesteldheid. / This thesis comprises an account of the origin and development of the teachers' association known from 1893 as the Vereeniging vir Onderwijzers en Onderwijzeressen in de Z.A.R. (VVOOZA), as the Vereeniging van Onderwijzers en Onderwijzeressen in Zuid-Afrika (VVOOZA) from 1903, and since 1923 as the Transvaalse Onderwysersvereniging (TO). The accent is on pronouncements of TO chairpersons and activities initiated by the TO to promote professional qualities among teachers and to secure professional status for them. The thesis also includes an analysis and critical consideration of the criteria of professionalism, with special reference to the relationship between the TO and roleplayers with an interest in education, the promotion of the professional image of teachers, and the principles upheld by the TO in salary negotiations. An important conclusion drawn is that for more than 100 years of its existence, the TO not only promoted professional qualities in the educational context, but epitomises professionalism in its pronouncements and activities. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Historiese Opvoedkunde)