M.Ed. / External relations is a product of the twentieth century and at school it should also be regarded as a worthy management concern, apart from other management functions. The term external relations (public relations) needs to be closely defined. It refers to relations between an organisation (a school, in this instance) and all persons and institutions outside the organisation. The organisation's attitude towards instances outside itself, is of the utmost importance. In this respect the school's task is important as it has to establish and maintain relations with the community. The community's image of a school is either positive or negative depending on its experiences with the school. The contribution of participants to the external relations programme, i.e. principal, teacher, pupil and the community (especially the parent), is of cardinal importance. The principal is the key communicator and through effective management activities he has to establish the necessary communications network, to ensure community trust in the school. It is of utmost importance to inform all those concerned of school activities which concern them. Dialogue strengthens public trust and promotes public participation. Due to this the school has to identify its most important relations (both internal and external), as it is necessary to maintain positive relations with certain persons and institutions. Oral and written communications procedures should be thoroughly utilised by the school to convey information concerning the school to parents and the community. A few guidelines for effective feed back, without which the school's external relations programme certainly won't succeed, are introduced. Effective management is any organisation's key to success. The principal's influence in the inisiation, planning, implementing and execution of the external relations programme is of cardinal importance. An open climate should be created and the school should be characterised as being healthy. Therefore moving out, pupil participation in community projects and, above all, the principal's contact with community leaders are important. The principal should continuously remind teachers and pupils of the importance of external relations. The relationships between principal and teacher and teacher and pupil cannot be disregarded as they definitely influence the image portrayed by the school and the promotion of external relations. Basic guidelines for successful communication with the community have to be set and each principal should evaluate these according to his school's specific situation. Suggestions on how to promote awareness of the importance of external relations at school and in the community, are submitted. The principal and teacher must be equipped with the necessary knowledge of communication with the external community. The principal should realise the importance of external relations. It is a time consuming process which has to be maintained

To make education a profitable enterprise and contributor to social development requires that schools infuse values into schooling as part of the ethical construction of learners and citizenship building. This research used Kampala district as the case study to conduct a qualitative inquiry with grounded theory to examine the integration of values into the management of learners’ discipline in Ugandan schools. Using a sample of 60 participants, the researcher gathered data using personal interviews, focus group interviews, and documentary analysis. Through the analysis of this data, the researcher established that the School Governing Body (SGB), government, educators, missionaries and the community are stakeholders highly involved in directing the process of values integration into learners’ discipline. He also discerned that different schools impart moral, spiritual, academic, aesthetic, social and universal values into the learners. However with the 1963 Castle Report on Education that led to the nationalization and secularization of schools, denominational schools strongly felt that government robbed them of their powers to control and manage schools through the “principle of subsidiarity”. This seems to have led to the gradual erosion of values and breakdown of discipline in the denominational schools as well as the others. The central argument of this thesis is that integrating values into school discipline in Uganda would result into an inclusive education system that supports both theist and atheist attitudes towards formal schooling. Some respondents argued that values should be directly integrated into learners’ discipline while others opposed values integration. Those who supported values integration into school discipline pointed out that it is an integral part of life-education. On the other hand, those who oppose integrating values argued that values integration might be misused to impose secular influences on the learners. The existing avenues of optimal integration of values into school discipline include use of physical punishment and restorative justice, although custodial methods are widely condemned by human rights activists for being too harsh, punitive and retaliatory. Restorative justice methods used include the use of religious and social clubs as well as counseling and guidance. Collective stakeholder participation in school management is also widely used where school management, government, parents and the community take on a collaborative role in empowering and creating an environment for positive discipline. Finally, missionary educators play a significant role in learners’ behavioural modification. The challenges of values integration into school discipline, on the other hand, are policy-related; including poor school administrative styles, failure to define which values to emphasize in disciplinary management, lack of staff motivation and educators’ unethical behaviour. The classroom-related challenges were an over emphasis on academic values that, consequently, turn education into a theoretical rather than a practical exercise. This is compounded by the poor teaching methodologies used like rote-learning due to the problem of dealing with large classes especially in UPE and USE schools and the strict emphasis on an examination-centered syllabus. The social-related challenge observed was the negative influence of the media on young people’s life styles, consequently, leading to permissiveness, aggressive, violent and militant behaviours now common in schools. The study underscored the need to emphasise stakeholder responsibility in school disciplinary management, and the necessity to offer visionary and collegial leadership, identify a common set of values critical to the promotion of life-long learning, promotion of life-education to ensure formation of morally upright learners, and encourage inclusive education (UBUNTUISM). Government should draft a national education philosophy to guide schools in integration of values education, emphasizing secular, moral and religious values, as well as the need for restorative justice, and employing more pragmatic teaching methodologies. There is also the need to create role-models and staff motivation. All these are cardinal remedies in ensuring constructive school discipline. Finally, the central theory that explains the integration is an Integrated Values Framework (IVF) for Positive Discipline (PD). It advocates that discipline is a process of nurturing learners through the provision of inclusive education, life-long learning and citizenship building.

The problem of the study was to determine if differences exist, and if so to what extent, in the perceptions of school board presidents in selected Texas school districts with and without community education programs with respect to six basic components of community education programs commonly identified by experts in the field.

The problem with which this dissertation is concerned is to determine whether the semester unit plan offers seventh grade students greater academic gain in the basic subject areas than does the quarter unit plan. Texas offers school districts a choice of the two plans. This study is unique in that the district of this study has both plans in operation at the secondary level.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining success of selection of classes and satisfaction or dissatisfaction with self-scheduling as opposed to computer scheduling. A survey is made of 468 randomly selected high school students from four high schools in a large metropolitan school district.

Die Inrigting ontwikkelings en ondersteuningsbeampte ( IOOB) in die departement van onderwys vervul ‘n belangrike rol om te verseker dat onderwys transformeer en dat die skool se bestuurspan georiënteer word om ‘n kultuur van onderwys en onderrig te bewerkstellig. Onlangse konsepte van onderwysleierskap demonsteer ‘n beweging weg van tradisioneel-outoritêre modelle, na ‘n meer demokratiese en deelnemende wyse. Die doel van die navorsing was om die persepsies van die skool se bestuurspan ten opsigte van die rol van die Inrigting ontwikkelings en ondersteuningsbeampte (IOOB) in the Ekurhuleni-Oos Distrik 5, te ondersoek. Die IOOB’s moet die skole se bestuurspanne toerus en ontwikkel, sodat die gehalte van onderwys en onderrig kan verbeter. ‘n Gestruktureerde vraelys wat bestaan uit 32 items is aan distrik 5 se skole se bestuurspanne uitgedeel, sodat hulle persepsies van die IOOB’s vasgestel kon word. Vrae is geformuleer in verband met aspekte van onderwysbestuur en onderrig. Die voltooide vraelyste is aan STATKON by the Universiteit van Johannesburg oorhandig, waar die data verwerk is. Die ontleding en interpretasie van die empiriese data is bespreek. Die konstrukgeldigheid van die navorsingsinstrument is deur middel van twee opeenvolgende faktoranalitiese prosedures ondersoek en sodoende is die 32 items tot twee faktore gereduseer, naamlik: • Die doeltreffende leierskap en bestuur van die IOOB, bestaande uit 14 items met ‘n betroubaarheidskoëffisiënt van 0,967; • Die ingrypingstrategie en ondersteuning van die IOOB, bestaande uit 18 items met ‘n betroubaarheidskoëffisiënt van 0,964.Die statistiese ontleiding van die navorsing is beperk tot ‘n vergelyking van een voorbeeld van twee onafhanklike groepe en een voorbeeld van drie of meer onafhanklike groepe. Hipoteses is gestel en meervoudige statistiese tegnieke is gebruik om die data te ontleed en te interpreter. Na hierdie oorsigtelike opsomming van die aspekte wat in die huidige navorsing aangeraak is, word belangrike bevindings wat uit die navorsing voorspruit gemaak. / Prof. B.R. Grobler

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

M.Ed. / The introduction of School Based Management (SBM) in South African Schools ushered in School Management Teams (SMTs) whose responsibilities include, among others; planning, organizing, leading and control. These fundamental day-to-day duties also relate to school branding which is a new concept in South African Schools. School branding is a new concept that warrants empirical research so that school management teams can thoroughly understand and implement it professionally. Branding a school cannot be left to the ad hoc devices of the layman. School Management Teams need to be factually conversant and knowledgeable about cultivating a knowledge substrate of school branding for application by school management teams. Understanding and implementing the concept school branding stands to benefit schools in this era where learner mobility is determined by school choice. School choice in turn is a crucial aspect of the supply and demand of learners. These two market forces have a direct impact on the survival and existence of a school. Schools in this day and age are compelled to market and transform themselves into winning, compelling and powerful brands. In the past schools enjoyed the geographic and racial monopoly over parents and learner choice of a school. With the advent of the democratic dispensation the survival of a school needs a scientific and commercial praxis of concepts like branding. Branding itself holds a host of benefits for all the stakeholders in a school.

This investigation aims at determining the contributions of school guidance and multi-modal counselling service for the South African secondary school students' acquisition of life competencies and skills. The empirical research consisted of: <ul> *** A nomothetic investigation which indicated that many of the sample group students fall far short of almost all of the thirty subfields of the life skills questionnaire, and that they can be helped to acquire both multi-modal counselling and life skills. *** An idiographic research involving nine counsellees also confirmed these results. / Die doel met die onderhawige ondersoek is om aan te dui wat die bydrae van skoolvoorligting en 'n multi-modale benadering is. Sekondere skoolleerlinge is by 'n empiriese ondersoek betrek. Aan die hand van 'n vraelys is vasgestel wat hierdie leerlinge se besondere lewensbehoeftes is. Leerlinge wat uitvalle ten aansien van bepaalde lewenskundighede en -vaardighede toon, is by 'n multi-modale hulpverleningsprogram betrek. Die uitkomste van die hulpverlening toon duidelik aan dat 'n multi-modale benadering in sinsamehang met die beginsels van skoolvoorligting, 'n bydrae kan lewer om sekondere skoolleerlinge toe te rus om alledaagse probleme die hoof te kan bied. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

This study set out to examine the relative influence of personal and school-based characteristics and parental involvement on mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of public school performance. A national and representative sample of parents of school-aged children (N= 2008) were asked to award a grade (A, B, C, D or F) to their community school. There is a significant lack of empirical study of the factors influencing parents’ perceptions of school performance. The present study controlled for the socioeconomic status of parents and the community school being graded. Parental involvement in schools and assisting with homework are elements of parents’ relations with schools and were controlled for in the multivariate analysis. It was found that mothers and fathers are differentially influenced by personal and school-based characteristics; and, of import, there is a negative and significant association between participation in school-based activities and a father’s perception of school performance. The opposite association with participation in school-based activities was observed for mothers. Further, perceptions of “Failing” schools are influenced to a greater extent by the socioeconomic status of the parent and of the school. The results are interpreted by gendering the relations between parents and schools, and drawing from feminist standpoint theory. Particular focus is brought to the discordant association of parental involvement and the grades awarded to schools by mothers and fathers. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate