Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-68).

Bibliography: leaves 162-171. / Change, whether organisational or societal, presents a fertile environment for the development of conflict. The probability of organisational conflict occurring in schools in South Africa is heightened by the fact that the country is in the throes of national political change. The main force influencing political events in the country, democratisation, maintains its prominence when one looks at the causes of organisational conflict in schools in the disadvantaged sectors of the South African society. Rocklands Secondary School, the area of the research, epitomises the South African situation With regard to the occurrence of organisational conflict in the context of the wider conflict taking place at all levels of society in the country. Although the traditional views of organisational conflict - as an occurrence that is evil and needs to be avoided - are evident at the school, a large percentage of the staff regard conflict as necessary but feel that it needs to be resolved.

Bibliography: leaves 87-93. / The South African Schools Act (SASA), 1996 (Act No. 84 of 1996) seeks parents educators, learners and the broader community to become more actively involved in the school as an organisation in two ways: 1.) by serving on the school governing body (SGB); and, 2.) by providing the SGB with support through participation in the everyday activities of the school. The focus of this study is an examination of the extent to which the SASA (1996) has bee realized in two schools in the Athlone area, with particular respect to parental participation. This is done through an analysis of the two schools studied, using Ball (1994) as its main text. The form of comparison used in this study is essentially that of comparing the performance of the two schools across common activities relating to parental participation in school governance. The theoretical framework provided by Ball (1994) argues that there is non-linearity in the process of policy-making and that the three contexts of policy-making are the context of influence; the context of policy text production; and, the context of practice. This study centers around the latter as it researchers policy implementation, the practice of policy and the micro-politics involved in its recontextualization.

The School Cluster System (SCS) reform was introduced in Namibia from 1996 under the auspices of the Basic Education Project. The SCS entails the organising of schools into groups for educational, management and administrative purposes. In the framework of the SCS policy schools are grouped according to their geographical proximity and the curriculum they offer in order to work together as a collective network, one school in the group being selected as the core school, or Cluster Centre. There are varying goals for the promotion of the SCS policy depending on context, but close examination of the international literature reveals that the most widespread arguments for this policy are based on assumptions that a SCS seeks to enhance education quality through localised decision-making, interschool cooperation and community participation in education. One of the key assumptions of the SCS reform is that it seeks to achieve cost-effectiveness by allowing schools to pool educational resources. The focus on the SCS policy in the last two decades, in particular in the developing countries, appears to be closely linked to the ongoing efforts of achieving the internationally set goals of the 1990 World Declaration on Education for All (EFA) within a context of financial austerity. In this study, the purpose was to investigate how educational professionals perceive and understand the goals and the implementation of the SCS policy in the Caprivi region of Namibia. The study aimed to explore the views and experiences of the case study participants regarding the effectiveness of the SCS in relation to the goals of decentralized management and local support for rural schools. The study examines the views and experiences of implementers of the SCS in a rural context, including the challenges faced by the implementers in the process of implementation.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-91).

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-87). / This study compares the association between leadership and management practices and teacher practices in two secondary schools. The schools are similar with regard to socioeconomic background but different with regard to learner achievement in grade twelve science examination results. I identify the extent to which leadership and management practices nurture the development of a Professional Learning Community (PLC). The data comprised transcripts of semi structured interviews, notes from observation of interactions between staff and documents pertaining to meetings. I chose a double case study approach in order to analyse and compare the practices in the two schools.

Includes bibliography. / This study looks at teachers' perceptions of Curriculum 2005, in order (i) to understand how a group of Grade One teachers, in the Cape Town region, are reacting to the introduction of an outcomes-based-system, and (ii) to make sense of where their understandings might come from. The study holds significance because it helps to shed light on the reality of policy implementation, and the importance of the teacher in the process of policy-making and policy implementation. The study explores the patterns of teachers' thoughts within a variety of diverse school contexts. This diversity is assessed through the use of a detailed questionnaire, in-depth interviews and site visits. Forty-one Grade One teacher's perceptions of Curriculum 2005 were studied. This process involved the use of Grounded Theory principles, which guided the data collection process and analysis procedure. The outcome of this approach led to the formulation of a model, which outlines the process of understanding the personal (internal) and social (external) factors, which affect the development of teachers' perceptions towards change. The study suggests that there are three main categories of perceptions of Curriculum 2005 that teachers fall into, although each category is dynamic. Within each category both internal and external factors affect the development of teachers' perceptions of educational change. The analysis shows that within and between each category the factors of age and experience play a role in the way teachers come by their teacher knowledge and develop their teaching practice. The study also reveals the dynamic nature of teachers' understanding, consciousness and perceptions of Curriculum 2005, and seeks to show how dependent these are on a variety of internal and external factors. The development of perceptions is both a process and a product within the minds of individuals. The findings of the research suggest that both personal and -social dynamics play a major role in the development of teacher knowledge and teaching practice. The study seeks to emphasise that there is need to recognise and promote the professional development of teachers, and to achieve this there is a need to understand teachers in the process of educational change. It is suggested that each school context generates different dynamics, and in order to address the question of change it is also necessary to address the specific position of teachers within the school. At the same time the study emphasises the need to bridge the gaps between policy-making and policy implementation.

Includes bibliographical references.

Includes bibliographical references. / The apartheid system of government in South Africa created undemocratic governing structures, inequity and inequality in the country's education system, as were evident in the pattern of school organisation, governance and funding (Hunter Commission Report, 1995: 1). This situation led to the emergence of a series of policy documents following the election of a democratic government in 1994, leading to the birth of the South African Schools Act (the SASA) (No. 84 of 1996), in November 1996.

Includes bibliographical references. / The aim of this study was to research top-management, teachers' and students' perceptions of success and reasons for the success of their school in two senior secondary schools identified as successful in Botswana. Interviews of these participants correlate across students, teachers, school heads and deputy heads in respect of their perceptions of the reasons for their schools' success. Important are the pedagogical and social climate of the school and how they are expressed in the daily work of the school. These factors are: the school head's leadership and expectations, teacher involvement in school policy; forms and content of teacher co-operation; teacher expectations on, and attitudes to student capacity; teaching organisation and content; press for academic success; community involvement and social relations in the school. Governments and schools need knowledge and skills about school improvement and this research attempts to contribute research-based information to help them cope with innovation and improve teaching and learning. School improvement is seen as a combination of school effectiveness and management of change research. Factors that seem to be related to effective schools are listed and knowledge about the change process is used to consider how a school could be improved. It is argued that generic school improvement characteristics and processes take on different meanings in practice, and these meanings are shaped by a school's response to the particular circumstances and challenges of its environment. In turn, this response has implications for the way school improvement programmes are developed and for the role and contribution of the stakeholders to educational change. The study concludes with an outline of possible school effectiveness factors common to those identified in the international literature, those factors specific to Botswana context, and offers further research and policy recommendations.