M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. / Over the years, and even now, the Department of Education is busy trying to find a better method of managing and empowering educators with the aim of attaining whole school development. By proposing educator developmental appraisal systems the department was intending to develop educator instructional performance. This study concentrates on educator's instructional development inside the classroom through clinical supervision and its contribution to whole school development. The literature indicated that educators are negative to the style of supervision currently in use. Information obtained from different books clearly states that clinical supervision is a process that directly involves both the educator and supervisor. It stresses mutual understanding and co-supervision between educator and the supervisor. This research used a structured questionnaire to collect data on the opinions of the respondents in seven of the nine provinces in South Africa. The questionnaire contained 79 items and ten of these items were relevant to clinical supervision. The structured questionnaires were distributed to a convenient stratified sample in seven of the nine provinces. Based on the information from the questionnaire, each item relevant to this particular research study was analyzed and discussed. After the factor analysis, the significance of the difference between the factor mean scores of various groups for each of the factors that make up whole school development were analysed and explained. The data obtained indicates that a pleasant classroom climate is an important need of each learning situation. An atmosphere of collegial relationships among staff and the principal is a pre-requisite for whole school development. It appears as if the instructional development of educators can be better achieved through the implementation of the process of clinical supervision.

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / The present crisis in Black education in South Africa centres largely around the problem of educating and re-educating principals. Major deficiencies in the teaching of Mathematics and Physical Science exacerbate the acute shortage of adequately qualified teachers. During the past two decades there have been even greater uncertainties, fears and instabilities in the field of professional development. The problem of upgrading Black principals also seems to have received limited and sporadic attention. Central to this problem is the quality of the professional development of educational leaders. Hartshorne (1990:4) argues that" ...although it is crucial to highlight the fact that while there has been a marked improvement in the professional qualifications of Black teachers, there has been a disturbing and remarkable increase in the number of professionally under-qualified teachers in Black schools". Comments such as these highlight the severity of the education crisis, the need for skilled principals and the demand for effective professional development to improve their management skills. They also outline the context and rationale of this investigation. The three major resources in meeting the challenge of the provision of education are teachers, classroom facilities and effective managers or educational leaders. This investigation will suggest that innovative methods and strategies will have to be found in both pre-service and in-service education and professional development to increase the quality of principals available to the present system of schooling, without resorting to "quickfix" and 'cheap solutions. The first step could be the removal of the past educational inequalities: size of classes, teacher qualifications, funding disparities, educational facilities and equipment (Hartshorne, 1990:85). The recipe knowledge approach to professional development in the initial training programmes is becoming increasingly difficult to justify or sustain...

The purpose of this study was to identify and investigate the specific superintendent leadership type and underlying factors that support significant student achievement gains in communities where misalignment with the McCarty-Ramsey model exists. Utilizing a mixedmethod research strategy, contributing school districts were identified through a survey developed by McCarty and Ramsey. This survey indicated that districts could show positive student achievement gains while exhibiting misalignment among these factors. While all four types of superintendent leadership style were revealed in the survey, a prevalent superintendent leadership types was associated with the misaligned districts showing significant academic growth. This study indicated the professional advisor or the professional advisor/decision maker superintendent had the greatest achievement results in misaligned districts. The second investigation phase involved school districts that met two criteria: misalignment with the McCarty-Ramsey model, and three years of significant student achievement gains, as measured by the California Academic Performance Indicator. Interviews were conducted with identified school board presidents and superintendents to reveal practices or initiatives promoting these results. The interview protocol consisted of a series of open-ended questions regarding effective leadership and programs. The second finding revealed the effective superintendent focuses efforts on five specific district leadership actions identified by researchers such as Waters and Marzano. More specifically, this study revealed two practices were present in top performing school districts. First, a narrow focus on non-negotiable instructional practices across the district, and frequent monitoring by the superintendent, site and district leadership teams including follow - up debriefings regarding implementation of district expectations. These findings have significance in districts dealing with challenges among the community power structures, board types or superintendent leadership. This research shows that regardless of the political challenges, budgetary issues, or relationship chaos that might exist in the district and community, the professional advisor superintendent who has established clear district wide instructional expectations and, who consistently ―inspects the instructional program has a significant, positive impact on student achievement.

<p>Students need to be in attendance at school in order to learn. One concern for schools is when students refuse to attend school on a regular basis. School refusal behavior encompasses all subsets of problematic absenteeism, such as truancy, school phobia, and anxiety. Students dealing with school refusal is a behavior that is multi-faceted. Often times, these students are experiencing psychological matters that are presenting as the symptom of school refusal. The purpose of this study was to survey general education and special education secondary teachers on their perceptions of student absences and to ascertain how they motivate students to attend their classes. The study was centered on two research questions: (1) ‘What are the perceptions of secondary teachers on student absences?’and (2) ‘Are students who exhibit school refusal behavior more likely to be identified as students with special education needs?’ The sample size for this study was 78 certified teachers at an urban high school in the Midwest. The high school had 1,834 students enrolled for the 2020/2021 school year in 9th through 12th grade, with 238 students designated as having special education services. An online survey was created using Google Forms. The survey was designed to not collect respondents’ email addresses to ensure anonymity and was limited to one response per unique email address. The survey did not ask any identifying information such as number of years teaching, subjects taught, etc. Twenty-six completed surveys were returned, for a return rate of 33%.</p>

The school counseling field has evolved over the years and increasingly clarified school counselors' job roles and activities (Burnham & Jackson, 2000; Cervoni & DeLucia-Waack, 2011; Shillingford & Lambie, 2010; Trolley, 2011); however, school counselors\' job roles and activities remain inconsistently understood and practiced (Burnham & Jackson; Cervoni & DeLucia-Waack; Gysbers & Henderson, 2012; Hatch & Chen-Hayes, 2008; Herr & Erford, 2011; Lambie & Williamson, 2004; Perera-Diltz & Mason, 2008; Rayle & Adams, 2008; Scarborough & Culbreth, 2008; Shillingford & Lambie; Studer, Diambra, Breckner & Heidel, 2011; Trolley).  School counselors are highly trained in academic preparation programs to perform school counseling job activities in schools (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2008).  At the same time, the job expectations taught in academic preparation programs can differ from the actual school counseling job (Allen et al., 2002; Bodenhorn, 2006; Brott & Myers, 1999; Chambers, Zyromski, Asner-Self, and Kimemia, 2010; Culbreth, Scarborough, Banks-Johnson, & Solomon, 2005; Holcomb-McCoy, 2001; Kolodinsky, Draves, Schroder, Lindsey, & Zlatev, 2009; Milsom, 2002; Mustaine, Pappalardo & Wyrick, 1996; National Office for School Counselor Advocacy [NOSCA], 2011, 2012a; Pérusse & Goodnough, 2005; Sisson & Bullis, 1992; Steen, Bauman, & Smith, 2008; Trolley). As a result, several researchers recommended collecting data on school counselors' perceptions of the effectiveness of academic preparation to perform work related practices (Kolodinsky et al.; Pérusse & Goodnough; Pérusse, Goodnough, & Noël, 2001; Sisson & Bullis; Trolley).   In this dissertation study the author gathered information on and examined discrepancies between school counselors\' reported academic preparation and actual job activities.  The author will describe an overview of the problem in Chapter One, an in-depth literature review will be conducted in Chapter Two, the methodology will be described in Chapter Three, the results of the study will be outlined in Chapter Four, and lastly, Chapter Five will include a discussion of the results of the study, including implications and recommendations. / Ph. D.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies at the University Of Zululand, South Africa, 2016 / Violence in schools is one of the most challenging issues facing educators, policy makers, learners, parents and the community in South Africa at large. Sometimes it occurs without educators and parents being aware of it and in most cases, learners specifically girls are reluctant to report their experiences of violence. Because the entire community is continually searching for ways to address this problem in schools, it is hoped that this study may offer some valuable insights. This study focuses on school violence in the Umbumbulu circuit affecting the safety and learning of learners. Educators are also affected to a great extent. Many factors were considered when investigating the problem of school violence. The problem was traced from the theorist’s perspectives and the factors related to the family, school and the community. An extensive literature review shows that the above-mentioned factors contributed to school violence. In order to support or reject the findings of the literature study, qualitative research was conducted. Empirical data from four high schools in the Umbumbulu circuit in Durban in the South region of KwaZulu Natal were collected by means of individual interviews. Thirty two educators were interviewed including principals and senior educators in order to determine whether violence is increasing or decreasing. The study was aimed at investigating the common types of violence and the nature thereof. The causes of violence including the triggers, all form an integral part of this investigation. The teacher experiences and responses to the interviews as part of the qualitative research revealed that a culture of violence existed in these schools, and that corporal punishment was still practised. Educators’ perceptions on school violence at their schools revealed that bullying persisted, especially when there was no teacher supervision. Deep anger from learners, tribal disputes and drugs were some of the factors that triggered violence in the Umbumbulu circuit. Based on these findings recommendations for the implementation of prevention programmes were made.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Psychology of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand. = Proefskrff voorgele ter vervulJing van die vereistes vir die graad DOCTOR EDUCATIONIS, in die Fakulteit Opvoedkunde (Departement Opvoedkundige Sielkunde) aan die UNIVERSITEIT VAN ZOELOELAND, 1995. / The aim of this investigation was to determine the influence of violence on the black principal's role and task as well as on his life-world. An introductory historical review was provided of the origin and occurance of violence in schools in the Republic of South Africa. From the literature study it became clear that the provision of separate education for blacks and whites was the main cause of violence in schools. Resistance to the policy of separate development influenced the education system and led to the crisis in black education. Black education became the battlefield of political ideologies. The crisis culminated in the Soweto riots of 1976. Both pupils and teachers resorted to unacceptable behaviour such as stay-aways, strikes and boycotts in order to achieve political goals. Management and leadership style of principals determine the performance of their duties. It was established that violence in schools disturbed the black school principal's professional, organisational and administrative duties. Violence influenced the school climate in a negative way and black school principals found it difficult to motivate their staff, pupils and parents. This negative school climate often disturbed black school principals' tasks to solve interpersonal, individual-institutional and school-community conflicts sufficiently. These unresolved conflicts often resulted in violence in schools. The black school principal's life-world was investigated. Violence disturbed the black school principal's significance attribution, involvement, lived-experience, self-actualisation and the formation of a self-concept. His relationship with himself, his staff, the pupils, the parents, the inspectors, the education department and teachers' organisations as well as his relationship with objects/ideas and God were disturbed by the occurance of violence in schools. For the purpose of the empirical investigation, self-structured questionnaires were used. The questionnaires were completed by principals in the Umbumbuiu school circuit where violence occurred. An analysis was done of eighty completed questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to process the data. In conclusion the findings emanating from the literature study and the descriptive and inferential statistics were presented. Based on these findings, the following recommendations were made: * Education should be depoliticised. Legislation to prohibit political propaganda campaigns and party political mass meetings during school time on school premises should be promulgated. In the service contract with the Department of Education teachers should undertake not to propagate party politics in schools. * The composition of school governing bodies should reflect the diversity of the communities which they serve. Goverment intervention in school management should be minimized. The power of school governing bodies should be increased. * By means of information seminars, workshops and in-service courses black school principals should be equipped to handle conflict situations and violence in their schools. Every school principal should develop and implement an emergency plan in their schools.

This study aimed to discover the possibilities of using the board as an agent because of the position of the board numbers in relation to the school and the community. The study provided summary of findings.

This case study takes an in-depth look at what type of students transition from elementary to middle school 21st Century Community Learning Center programs. Using binary logistic regressions, I identify key characteristics that predict whether or not a student will continue to attend the program after they transition to a new school and then discuss how to improve the attendance of after-school programs. Moreover, this case study also identifies how different school program environments serve different types of students in two cohorts starting in fifth grade. Middle school context moderates the effects of other variables that are predictive of participation in after-school programs during middle school. Thus, I demonstrate how understanding who makes successful transitions in the after-school program can help improve the sustainability and effectiveness of these programs.