M.Ed. / The aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which effective human resource management serves as a powerful strategy for improving schools’ productivity. Since the riots of June 1976 in Soweto the culture of teaching and learning has deteriorated. Learners and educators were demotivated. The abrupt introduction of Outcomes-Based-Education in 1997 caused most qualified and experienced educators to resign from the teaching profession. It has also become difficult for the educators to discipline learners since the abolition of corporal punishment. The learners now have more rights and the South African Schools Act protects them. In this study, qualitative descriptive research design approaches were utilized. The researcher bracketed her own views of life and ideologies to avoid being subjective. She had to be objective in order to be able to know more about the philosophy which the school principals follow to improve the culture of teaching and learning. The researcher selected the sample randomly. Raw data was collected by observation, document check as well as interviewing the principals as managers, leaders and overseers of the Soweto Secondary Schools. Interviews which involved face-to-face interaction were conducted at natural setting that is at schools where the principals serve as managers and leaders. In this study an inductive process for data analysis was applied. The researcher used a highly heuristic qualitative approach which is characterized by the following five phrases: o The researcher read the transcript and filled them. o The responses of each topic were reviewed and the reaction of various respondents was compared with each other. o The transcripts were coded and reread (to eliminate preconceived ideas). This was done to gain a holistic perspective of the collected data. Important words and phrases were marked and underlined in order to identify information that is relevant for the study. o Categories were formulated through compilation of analytic memos. These categories were then clustered together to identify themes. o Finally creative synthesis, which enabled the researcher to bring together the interviewees’ stories as a whole was done. The main purpose was to describe, explore and analyze the experiences of the individual participant’s life. This was done through the condensation of extensive and varied data into a brief summary and through the establishment of a clearly defined relationship between the research problem, aims and other findings derived from raw data and literature survey. Findings from this study and from literature review suggest that if human resource is effectively managed, then, teaching and learning outcomes will also be discernibly maximized. The researcher found that at schools the principals are the initiators of a positive culture and climate. Their effectiveness improved the culture of teaching and learning through their collegiality, educative and transformative leadership. There is complete educative teaching and learning. The principals are collaborative leaders whoinvolve educators and other stakeholders to participate in decision-making. They attended School Management Team Skills workshops. They are empowered to manage and make constructive decisions for their schools. Teams are built and encouraged to support one another, share knowledge and skills and also to avoid individuals from isolating themselves. Educators attend workshops and have also established school subject teaching clusters with the surrounding schools where they can share their problems and come up with solutions. The negative attitudes, which prevailed, have absolutely disappeared. The researcher recommended that principals’ leadership style should be transformed to that of a democratic, participatory and collegial approach. Leaders should also facilitate change in the schools. She also highlighted that communities around the schools and parental involvement play significant roles in the smooth running of schools. / Prof. J.R. Debeila

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

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Education in South Africa is currently facing a lot of changes. This study was prompted by one of these changes, the introduction of a School Governing Body (SGB), constituted in terms of the 1996 Schools Act (South Africa 1996), and replacing the previous Parent-Teacher-StudentAssociation (PTSA). The study investigates how the members of a School Governing Body perceive and experience their roles, in an attempt to make a contribution to understanding the nature and implications of education governance policy in South Africa. Central to this exercise is the attempt to understand how the execution of their duties, their practice of both democracy and accountability, and their resolving of tensions and/or differences among parents, teachers and students, impacts upon their school generally and relates both to the Department of Education and other organs of society. The methodology employed in this study includes a review of relevant literature, international and national, followed by a historical overview of education governance in South Africa. The core of the thesis is an interpretive case study of the SGB of one junior secondary school under the auspices of the Department of Education, Culture and Sport, in the South Eastern region of the Eastern Cape Province. The single most important data gathering instrument used was a series of in-depth interviews. The interviewees were the Executive members of the SGB of the school. The major findings of the study were that the SGB was powerful and effective in its area of operation in school governance, despite its lack of skills in the execution of its duties. Many of the difficulties it has encountered can be ascribed to a lack of guidance from the Department of Education. The study thus concludes that whereas the SGB studied represents an important step towards the full democratization of education in general and in this school in particular, its role in school governance can not be described as an unqualified success. However, despite the problems faced by the SGB, its role has made history in the governance of the school. Programmes which the SGB has implemented, such as measures to foster a culture of teaching and learning, have had an important impact on the progress of the school. Finally, the findings of the study indicate that the most important issues to be addressed in respect of the SGB researched are capacity building, communication, cultural understanding and the level of SGB understanding of the Schools Act. The study makes certain recommendations for the attention of SGBs and the Department of Education. These include a well co-ordinated capacity building prograrn to be developed and implemented, that will provide SGBs with access to knowledge of the relevant material and other resources necessary to sustain school governance functions. Because of the limited nature of the study in terms of methodology and constraints of time, the conclusions arrived at cannot and should not be generalized beyond the confines of the study.

Whistler Blackcomb Resort experiences the highest skier visits of any resort in North America and consequently demand at the ski school is high. Due to various factors, the daily number of lesson participants is highly variable and the best number of instructors to staff each day is correspondingly difficult to estimate. The consequences of scheduling incorrectly could lead to either overstaffing or understaffing. Overstaffing results in unnecessary costs; understaffing results in lost sales and customer dissatisfaction. A scheduling tool that can assist the Ski School in staffing decisions, therefore, is developed to minimize excess costs. Daily demand predictions are made using a forecasting model and a staffing policy is applied to it to obtain a recommended staffing level. The demand forecasting model is a regression model that takes into account pre-bookings, day of the week, holidays, and yesterday's demand. The staffing rules are determined through a Newsvendor-type model derived from a marginal cost analysis of the trade-off between overstaffing and understaffing applied to the daily demand forecasts. The project is intended to formalize a systematic approach to staffing for certain lesson types (pods) one day in advance. It will assist the Whistler Blackcomb Ski and Snowboard School, as a decision support tool, in the development of daily instructor schedules that rninimize any unnecessary costs. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

M.Ed. (Education Management) / Taking up the first principalship is a demanding career transition involving emergency professional development, not only for the new principal to move from the role of teacher and administrator, but for him to successfully diagnose a new culture. The degree of success that a new principal -has in discovering, understanding, developing further and managing a new school culture within the first year of his appointment, will determine his overall effectiveness in managing the new school. Against this background, the focus of this research paper will be to identify and define school culture. Included here will be a discussion of what constitutes culture, the process of acculturation, the influence of sub-cultures and the impediment of culture on both management and change. The role of the new principal in managing and where necessary changing existing culture in a school is described in this paper. The problem areas likely to be encountered and the solutions to these problems are also discussed. A strategy is proposed to assist future new principals with the problem of managing existing culture in the school. Divided into three parts, the strategy assist the new principal to read the existing culture of the school. Secondly, it proposes that the new principal follows a collaborative process for the review of and transformation of existing school culture. The final part of the strategy is to revise and establish innovative communication networks to ensure the strategy's overall success.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of D.Litt in Communication Science, University of Zululand, 2004. / Human Resource Management has become one of the most discussed approaches to the practice and analysis of employment relationship in our modern society. In this thesis I present my recommendations that organisations will function more effectively and efficiently if the people who work in them are encouraged to develop professionally and to use that approach to undertake organisational tasks. Increasingly human resource management is being recognised as crucial, not only to the individual but also to the promotion of effective and efficient organisations. In this thesis I will focus on educational management in two ways — from the perspective of the individual and from the perspective of the organisation. Educational management is a diverse and complex range of activities calling on the exercise of considerable knowledge, skill and judgement by individuals, but its practice is dependent on the culture of particular organisational settings. I focus on this constant interplay between individual capability and organisational requirements, which make human resource management for educational managers both challenging and exciting. In this thesis I will examine how the concepts, skills and insights gained through professional development can be applied by educational managers to specific organisational tasks and systems. At best this thesis encourages school managers to ask questions about their own organisations and to develop their own solutions appropriate to their organisations. My research involves a mixture of theory and practical examples, which it is envisaged will spur students of learning and educational managers to apply and refine in the future. In the final phase of my research I reveal how the concepts, skills and insights gained through professional development can be applied bv educational managers to specific organisational tasks and systems in the effective use of human resources.

Studien belyser den komplexa problematik som omsluter anmälningsplikten för skolpersonal vid misstanke eller kännedom om att ett barn far illa. Tidigare forskning pekar på att underrapportering är ett problem i de svenska skolorna, men samtidigt menar forskare på att anmälningsfrekvensen inte är intressant att undersöka om man inte också undersöker den problematik som lagstiftningen genererar. Studiens frågeställningar är därav utformade för att ta reda på hur skolpersonal upplever anmälningsplikten till Socialtjänsten enligt 14 kapitlet 1 § SoL, och hur deras syn på anmälningsplikten påverkas av att de inte kan anmäla sin oro anonymt. Studien söker även svar på hur grundskolors rutiner kring anmälningsförfarandet ser ut, och om skolpersonalen anser att något saknas i lagstiftningen eller från Socialtjänsten. För att få svar på frågeställningarna gjordes tre semistrukturerade intervjuer med totalt sju informanter som arbetar inom grundskolan i Malmö och Vellinge. Analysen bygger på utvecklingsekologi samt teorin om street-level bureaucracy, eller gräsrotsbyråkrati. De slutsatser som kunde dras efter studiens genomförande var att skolpersonalen upplever att den lagstadgade anmälningsplikten är något bra, och att deras anmälningsbenägenhet inte påverkas av det faktum att de inte kan anmäla anonymt. De upplever trots allt att anmälningsplikten genererar en viss utsatthet för dem som skolpersonal i kontakt med föräldrar. Samtliga skolor använde sig av konsultation med Socialtjänsten innan dess att en anmälan gjordes, och det fanns möjlighet till råd och stöd från elevhälsan både före och efter en anmälan. Det skolpersonalen saknade från lagstiftningen och Socialtjänsten var tydligare rutiner för Socialtjänsten när det kommer till att återkoppla till anmälaren. / The study highlights the complex issue surrounding school personnel’s duty to report to Social Services if they suspect or if it comes to knowledge that a child may be in physical, social or psychological danger. Previous research shows a lack of these reports in swedish schools, but at the same time researchers say that the frequency of reports is not relevant to study if one does not also study the problems that generates from the legislation itself. Therefore, this study’s questions at issue are designed to find out how the school personnel experience the duty to report concern for a child to Social Services, and in which way their experience is affected by the fact that they can not report anonymously. The study also investigates the schools’ routines for making these reports, and if the school personnel feel that something is missing from the legislation or the Social Services regarding the duty to report concern for a child. In order to answer these questions, three semi-structured interviews with a total of seven informants from three different schools in Malmö and Vellinge were conducted. The analysis is based ecological systems theory and the theory of street-level bureaucracy. The final conclusions were that the school personnel has a positive attitude towards the duty to report, and that their tendency to report is not affected by the fact that they can not report anonymously. They do however experience an exposure generated from the duty to report, when it comes to the parents’ reactions. All schools used the opportunity to consult with Social Services before making a report, and they all had the opportunity to get help and support from the student health before and after making a report. What they felt were missing in the legislation was a more clear demands for Social Services to give feedback to the reporter.

No description available.

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2009 / The mini-dissertation takes off by studying the phenomenon of the management of performance of human resources in the Department of Education in Limpopo Province by specifically looking at practice of educators and managers in Waterberg District and how they implement the management of performance of educators in that District. Chapter one introduced the reader to the central concerns and issues raised in the mini-dissertation. For many years the Department of Education had attempted to implement a performance management system without success and without knowing what were the factors that made such an implementation not succeed and if it succeeded in some ways why it did not succeed to the desired extend. This chapter revealed that the aim of the study was to investigate factors that inhibited the implementation of management of performance of educators and that the research aimed at making recommendations for the successful implementation of the management of performance. Chapter two was aggressive in bringing a league of distinguished scholars who brought as many angles to the phenomenon as they understood and studied it. It brought together relevant and useful literature to the topic under study. Chapter three outlined to the reader the design of the research as well as the methodology that was used to bring about the realities of the implementation of the management of performance of educators. In order to increase the reliability of the findings a number of methodologies were triangulated. Chapter four was instrumental in analyzing the data and arriving at a scientific truth about what are the factors that affected the implementation of the management of performance of educators in the Department of Education in Limpopo Province. It is remarkable to note from the analysis of this data the high percentage of educators who are in the Department and are disillusioned by the prospects of a successful implementation of the management of performance of educators. Chapter five made far reaching conclusions and recommendations about what needs to be done in order to have the management of performance of educators successfully implemented. / University of Limpopo