The study examines how the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) is currently being implemented in South African schools. It focuses on the contradictory discourses found within the IQMS, i.e. accountability and professional development. I argue that these two discourses are in a problematic relationship to one another. They can therefore only be implemented simultaneously with great difficulty. Emphasis is also placed on the importance of context when implementing policy, also referred to as policy 'enactment' (Ball, Maguire & Braun 2011). It is argued that policy is interpreted and made sense of differently, depending on the context. Context matters on two levels. First, because the IQMS contains both international and national ideas. The former deals with the neoliberal and global trends encompassed within accountability, while the latter is a discourse aimed at addressing uniquely localised education issues in South Africa. Second, context matters insofar as the IQMS is implemented in different school and classroom contexts in South Africa. In an effort to understand teachers and school management team members' perceptions of accountability and professional development in the IQMS, a qualitative, multiple case study design was used. Teachers and school management team members were interviewed at two distinct schools, one former model C school and one township school in order to determine different contexts' effects on the enactment of the IQMS. By conducting qualitative case studies, the perceptions and experiences of teachers in real life settings are depicted. What emerged was criticism of the IQMS across contexts, in that it neither effectively holds teachers accountable nor professionally develops them. Although context did not influence teachers' views and perceptions of the IQMS, it did influence the extent to which they met certain IQMS requirements. Other noteworthy findings include South African teachers' acceptance of high-stakes accountability and, contrary to the literature, teachers stating that they prefer more, albeit revised, ways to evaluate their work. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Early Childhood Education / MEd / Unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to examine school counselors experiences of meeting and working with adolescents with gender nonconforming identites. The study was based on two research questions which were stated as following: What do school counselors at upper secondary schools believe is essential when working with students with gender nonconforming identites? And is there access to regulatory documents or general material for school counselors to use when meeting students with gender nonconforming identites? And what are the school counselor's opinions on that being implemented? We decided to do a qualitative study and conducted six interviews with school counselors operating in six different upper secondary schools in Sweden. In addition to the interviews we decided to further our research to provide us with a global perspective using previous research as well as theories related to the purpose of the study. The results showed that school counselors found trust, continuity, confidentiality, situation based treatment, equality and gender inclusive language as most relevant to ensure students with gender nonconforming identites feel safe and accepted botn at school and as well as the counselors office. We also found there to be little to no regulatory documents or general material for school counselors to use when meeting students with gender nonconforming identites and the opinions among the informants were scattered where some had a positive take on it and others were critical.

The thesis analyzes an expert in social (institutional) relations that constitute the organizational and institutional background of Forensic Expertise as part of forensic engineering. The work explains the terminology and definitions used, with the greatest attention is paid to the analysis of the conditions for the exercise of expert activities from different perspectives (in particular legal and economic). Is discussed in detail in particular the status of expert institutes, and in all contexts: both in terms of expertise and its guarantee, as well as in terms of responsibility processors appraisal institute. Further describes the work of existing associations and experts estimated their future development. An important part of the work is a comparison of the conditions for the exercise of expert activities (advantages and disadvantages) in selected European countries: Slovak Republic, England and Austria. Based on the findings in the final section are designed and justified by changes in the conditions and rules for the performance of expert activities and other related aspects.

The primary purpose of the study was to investigate the factors that cause most Lesotho secondary schools to perform poorly in the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate examinations. The findings of the study show that the problems that contribute to the ineffectiveness of most secondary schools are multiple and interrelated. These problems can be identified at the macro or policy-making level at the Ministry of Education, and at the micro or the individual school level. At macro level, there appears to be a lack of adequate capacity among the senior management staff to perform the management and governance functions effectively, so that substantive improvement could be realised in the day-to-day operations, and academic results of schools. An upshot of this is that the professional support that the Ministry of Education provides to secondary schools is inadequate. Furthermore, despite the deepening poverty in Lesotho, the state does not provide textbooks to learners in secondary schools. Consequently, many learners do not have all the textbooks, and this affects their learning negatively. At micro level, the problems that contribute to the ineffectiveness of most secondary schools include teacher tardiness, teacher absenteeism and a lack of learner determination. It is contended that these factors indicate that the management of the school principals is weak. Moreover, because of poverty, many parents fail to pay school fees for their children on time. As a result, many learners are frequently sent back home by the principals to fetch money, and this reduces their academic learning time. The study also revealed that prior academic achievement of learners in primary schools is, to a large extent, a major predictor of their achievement in secondary schools. In this regard, the highly effective schools, which have selective admission policies and accept mainly Form A applicants, tend to consistently outperform the average and less effective schools, which have open admission policies. In order to improve the academic performance of secondary schools, it is recommended that the Ministry of Education officials, principals, teachers and learners should work more diligently and refocus their efforts on the core business of schools, namely, teaching and learning. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Education Management)

<p>The study takes its point of departure in the notions of life story, narrativity and context. It is based on extensive life story interviews with well-educated professionals in Poland – academics, teachers, managers, physicians, artists – during the period of transformation (or transition) from ”real socialism” to democracy and a market economy. The aim is to analyse the multilayered process of constructing a personal identity, as the narrators interweave stories about their lives with images of history and society. The central approach is narrative analysis, focusing on the interview interaction as well as the wider cultural, societal and political context in which the self-presentation takes place, and which it simultaneously creates. Concepts of cultural and paradigmatic narratives are combined with a gender perspective and selected terms from Pierre Bourdieus theory of practice. The narrators’ life experiences are shaped and evaluated in an implicit dialogue with cultural narratives of ideal biographies, professional careers, gender roles and family models in Poland during socialism and the transformation. In family background stories, the ancestors’ gendered biographies are depicted in relation to the underlying paradigm of the romantic-patriotic tradition. In childhood stories, the evaluation models used are psychological, social and based on political correctedness. The interviewees often shape their nostalgic, bitter and ambivalent memories against a background of the power relations between the family and the state, using nostalgia, dark rhetorics and a well-established genre of coping strategies during the socialism. In narratives about formal school-education during the socialist period, two paradigms are seen as highly incongruous: the intellectual-elitistic tradition and the socialistic citizen-schooling. Also stories of being a part of both formal and oppositional organisations and networks are told. In narratives about careers and working life, the pride in doing a good work is prevalent, but the narrators also depict complications in the professional paradigm due to the proliferation of politicised and informal power relations; en influence still lasting during the transformation period. The troubled issues of legitimacy, status and economy are discussed. In stories about close relationships, there is an underlying paradigm of love, marrital happiness and being a good parent, even though the stories follow a variety of plots. The evaluations become complex and sometimes contradictory. By presenting their life-experience in a proud, ambivalent, defensive or ironic way, the narrators reproduce, deconstruct and challenge the dominant cultural narratives, shaping their unique personal paradigms.</p>

The study takes its point of departure in the notions of life story, narrativity and context. It is based on extensive life story interviews with well-educated professionals in Poland – academics, teachers, managers, physicians, artists – during the period of transformation (or transition) from ”real socialism” to democracy and a market economy. The aim is to analyse the multilayered process of constructing a personal identity, as the narrators interweave stories about their lives with images of history and society. The central approach is narrative analysis, focusing on the interview interaction as well as the wider cultural, societal and political context in which the self-presentation takes place, and which it simultaneously creates. Concepts of cultural and paradigmatic narratives are combined with a gender perspective and selected terms from Pierre Bourdieus theory of practice. The narrators’ life experiences are shaped and evaluated in an implicit dialogue with cultural narratives of ideal biographies, professional careers, gender roles and family models in Poland during socialism and the transformation. In family background stories, the ancestors’ gendered biographies are depicted in relation to the underlying paradigm of the romantic-patriotic tradition. In childhood stories, the evaluation models used are psychological, social and based on political correctedness. The interviewees often shape their nostalgic, bitter and ambivalent memories against a background of the power relations between the family and the state, using nostalgia, dark rhetorics and a well-established genre of coping strategies during the socialism. In narratives about formal school-education during the socialist period, two paradigms are seen as highly incongruous: the intellectual-elitistic tradition and the socialistic citizen-schooling. Also stories of being a part of both formal and oppositional organisations and networks are told. In narratives about careers and working life, the pride in doing a good work is prevalent, but the narrators also depict complications in the professional paradigm due to the proliferation of politicised and informal power relations; en influence still lasting during the transformation period. The troubled issues of legitimacy, status and economy are discussed. In stories about close relationships, there is an underlying paradigm of love, marrital happiness and being a good parent, even though the stories follow a variety of plots. The evaluations become complex and sometimes contradictory. By presenting their life-experience in a proud, ambivalent, defensive or ironic way, the narrators reproduce, deconstruct and challenge the dominant cultural narratives, shaping their unique personal paradigms.

The primary purpose of the study was to investigate the factors that cause most Lesotho secondary schools to perform poorly in the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate examinations. The findings of the study show that the problems that contribute to the ineffectiveness of most secondary schools are multiple and interrelated. These problems can be identified at the macro or policy-making level at the Ministry of Education, and at the micro or the individual school level. At macro level, there appears to be a lack of adequate capacity among the senior management staff to perform the management and governance functions effectively, so that substantive improvement could be realised in the day-to-day operations, and academic results of schools. An upshot of this is that the professional support that the Ministry of Education provides to secondary schools is inadequate. Furthermore, despite the deepening poverty in Lesotho, the state does not provide textbooks to learners in secondary schools. Consequently, many learners do not have all the textbooks, and this affects their learning negatively. At micro level, the problems that contribute to the ineffectiveness of most secondary schools include teacher tardiness, teacher absenteeism and a lack of learner determination. It is contended that these factors indicate that the management of the school principals is weak. Moreover, because of poverty, many parents fail to pay school fees for their children on time. As a result, many learners are frequently sent back home by the principals to fetch money, and this reduces their academic learning time. The study also revealed that prior academic achievement of learners in primary schools is, to a large extent, a major predictor of their achievement in secondary schools. In this regard, the highly effective schools, which have selective admission policies and accept mainly Form A applicants, tend to consistently outperform the average and less effective schools, which have open admission policies. In order to improve the academic performance of secondary schools, it is recommended that the Ministry of Education officials, principals, teachers and learners should work more diligently and refocus their efforts on the core business of schools, namely, teaching and learning. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Education Management)