This thesis examined the discourse of the perceptions and experiences school
leaders have on cultural representativity in a changing environment and how such
situations should be managed. The ideology behind social representation was
justified with the notion that it has the task to level the playing field, so that all South
Africans can share democracy, liberty and equality. In South Africa social
representation is implemented as a permanent measure to achieve a truly
representative society across all spheres in South Africa, which forces diverse groups
of society to conform to the goal of a homogeneous society. This affects all cultures
and social classes in society and consequently also the school principal in all aspects
of school management.
The study drew on a comprehensive literature study exploring the philosophical
foundations, the principles that underpin social representation, racial, cultural and
gender divides, as well as its impact on organisations and suggestions on how to
manage diversity in the school.
The data that emerged from the literature review was used as point of departure for
the empirical investigations. In this investigation a mixed-method approach was
followed, using interviews with eight school leaders in the Free State Province and a
researcher developed questionnaire that was distributed to 280 school leaders at
schools with diverse cultures situated in urban as well as rural communities in the
Free State Province.
The above investigations revealed how social representation is experienced and
perceived, the problems encountered during implementation, what school leaders
regard as basic elements to ensure effectively run diverse schools, as well as the
training that they would like to undergo in order to become more efficient in running a
socially represented school in the present South African context.
The researcher came to the conclusion that, in spite of heightened racial sensitivity,
school leaders have rather positive feelings about social representation and that the school and the community benefit from it. The study is concluded by a synthesis of
the findings resulting in guidelines for the effective management of socially diverse
schools.
It was finally envisaged that this study will serve as a starting point for training and for
the further dissemination of the research findings to the benefit of school
management and staff performance in South Africa.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-05282010-112218 |
| Date | 28 May 2010 |
| Creators | Bowes, John Hamilton |
| Contributors | Prof SM Niemmann |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-05282010-112218/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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