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The role of South African Democratic Teachers' Union in the implementation of teacher redeployment policy in schools

The purpose of this study was to understand what the role of SADTU (South African
Democratic Teachers’ Union) is in the implementation of the Teacher Redeployment
Policy in schools. The Approach to data collection was that of qualitative research.
The methods used to collect data were interviews and literature review. The study
used the interpretive paradigm. The theory applied is the Interpretive
Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) theory. IPA aims to explore in detail how participants
are making sense of their personal and social world. The approach to data analysis
was that of a qualitative research. Qualitative data were organised and arranged
categorically into themes and patterns emanating from the responses of participants.
The data were analysed using descriptive explanations, based on the frequencies and
similarities of the responses. The approach was primarily exploratory, just as would be
expected of a qualitative research design. A combination of purposive, quota and
snowball sampling was used in this research. The main finding in this research is that
the role of SADTU in the implementation of teacher redeployment is not limited to
observation as the policy prescribes. SADTU members go beyond that role and
assume the role of active participation and decision making in the process. The main
recommendation was that the policy should be amended to allow SADTU to
participate actively in discussions and decision making. This will avert the
unnecessary conflicts and instability in schools caused by the suppression of the
union to participate actively. When the Teacher Redeployment Policy was conceived,
the purpose was to achieve equity in teacher distribution by moving teachers from the
historically advantaged White schools to the historically disadvantaged Black schools.
The implementation of Teacher Redeployment Policy is causing more harm than good
in so far as effective teaching and learning in schools is concerned. For most of the
time, teachers are pre-occupied with worrying about how the process of teacher
redeployment is going to affect them instead of focussing on delivering quality
teaching in schools. Teachers who are most fitting to be the ones identified in excess
in some cases enjoy the benefit of escaping redeployment for the simple reason that
they are members of SADTU. At the same time, candidates who do not qualify to be
placed in specific posts are placed into those posts at the expense of the best suitable
candidates because of the biases. The role of the union is not to implement policy, but
also to make sure that the policy is implemented in the spirit and letter in which it was
formulated. The status of the teacher union in the implementation of policy is that of an
observer who only surfaces when an observation is made whether there is unfairness
and biases in the manner the Teacher Redeployment Policy is implemented. / Educational Management and Leadership / M. Ed. (Educational Leadership and Management)

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/25803
Date01 October 2019
CreatorsDwangu, Agrippa Madoda
ContributorsMahlangu, Vimbi Petrus
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
Format1 online resource (ix, 141 leaves), application/pdf

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