The South Africa Schools Act (Act No. 84 of 1996), which came into effect on I
January 1996, and the National Education Policy Act (Act No. 21 of 1996), introduced
a new approach to the South African Education system. These acts, and many policy
documents produced by the National Department of Education, provide for the active
participation of parents, and other members of the community, in the governance of
schools. Whilst policy mandates stakeholder participation, this study revealed that in
practice parent participation is problematic. The aim of this study was to explore principals’ perceptions and experiences of
school governing bodies in three selected rural primary schools in the Nkomazi area,
Mpumalanga. A qualitative research approach within the parameters of the
interpretivist paradigm was applied. The study utilised a multi-site case study
research design focusing on three primary schools in different localities. Document
analysis and structured interviews were employed to collect data at the three sites
that were purposefully sampled.
It was found that principals experienced some parent members of the school
governing bodies as having low levels of education and not being able to cope with
their roles as stipulated by SASA. Principals revealed that the ignorance and
incompetence of parents regarding their roles causes conflict, that they provide
insufficient support and do not attend meetings regularly. Principals dominate their
parent school governing body (SGB) members, initiate innovations and make
decisions without consulting the parents. Parents’ incompetence, insufficient
cooperation and poor contribution towards the operation of the school increases the
principals' workload and results in principals’ frustration. Principals revealed that they
experience difficulties in trusting the parents with confidential matters discussed at
SGB meetings. The study found that principals experience less conflict and better cooperation with
parent SGB members who are educated. Parents who are able to read the policies have understanding of their roles, support the principals in their respective roles,
optimise the operation of the school governing body and alleviate the workload of the
principals. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Early Childhood Education / unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/40442 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Dladla, Themba Alexious |
| Contributors | Hartell, Cycil George, tadladla67@gmail.com, Dippenaar, A.J.F. (Hanlie) |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Rights | © 2013 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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