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.

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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

This descriptive survey investigated the extent of teacher absenteeism in public schools for 1980-81. The perceptions of public school administrators about teacher absenteeism being a problem were analyzed. The implementation status of twenty selected teacher absence control policies was compared; each policy was further examined for its evaluation status. The Questionnaire on Teacher Absence Policies and Techniques, designed by the researcher, solicited data for the study from 244 public school districts in the United States. Data were analyzed by district size, estimated daily teacher absenteeism rates and the number of sick leave days earned annually by teachers. SPSS subprograms provided frequencies, cross tabulations and discriminant analysis. The major findings are that the estimated daily teacher absenteeism rate of 4.8 percent for 1980-81 represents an increase from other absenteeism studies. Public school administrators tended to respond that they have no evidences of significant absence from teachers to suspect that teacher absenteeism is a problem, yet they also were more likely to express dissatisfaction with the daily teacher absenteeism rates in their districts. District size, estimated daily teacher absence rates and the policy of the number of sick leave days earned annually were found to be significantly related to the responses of implementation and evaluation status of specific teacher· absence control policies and techniques. / Ed. D.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Education (Management), Technikon Natal, 2002. / This study explores the role of senior management in improving educators' morale in public, secondary schools in the Durban Central Area. The reasons for a decline in educators' morale and effectiveness are senior management's lack of incentives and rewards, violence in schools, poorly disciplined learners, conflict, nepotism and public condemnation of educators. Other factors include: 'right-sizing', rationalisation and redeployment, lack of transparency during the promotion process and the negative attitude to the appraisal policy. Motivating educators will lead to improved school performance and promote enthusiasm and confidence amongst educators. The researcher will provide support on the topic from observations and a study ofliterature. The qualitative method of research was undertaken. The representative sample included principals, deputy principals, heads of department and educators from public secondary schools in the Durban Central Area. Evidence from questionnaires suggested that educators in the Durban Central Area are demoralised and therefore there is an urgent need to address their morale. The researcher examined the causes and symptoms of educators' demoralisation and senior management's role in improving their morale. This investigation focuses on problems which lead to the demoralisation of educators; the causes and symptoms of demoralisation and how educators can contribute to a healthy and professional culture in schools. It is suggested that senior management should motivate individual educators. Some measures proposed to improve and / M