Under neoliberal inspired educational decentralisation, the government of Zimbabwe
transferred powers previously vested in the higher tiers of the education system to
individual schools and local communities through school development committees.
The study was therefore undertaken in order to investigate factors that influence the
implementation of educational decentralisation by school development committees. A
qualitative research approach that focused on purposively sampled participants was
chosen for this study. The study was carried out in the interpretivist research paradigm
which facilitated access to semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions
from two different cases whose contexts varied substantially. One is an affluent school
(Oxford) and the other is a poor school (Havana)1
. Data obtained from the foregoing
methods were triangulated with review of documents. Data analysis was qualitative
using a thematic approach to elucidate emerging patterns.
Findings suggest that shifting power and authority to schools increased roles and
responsibilities for school heads, teachers and school development committee
members in both schools. One of the findings is that the professional expertise and
socio-economic status of parents and school development committee members of
Oxford Primary School curtailed any autocratic tendencies by the school head. The
study also found that the introduction of neoliberal market orientation into the school
sector created new roles, such as that of entrepreneurial manager for school heads.
Another compelling finding is that the neoliberal-induced withdrawal of government
education grants affected the financial position of Havana Primary School more
negatively than that of Oxford Primary School. This has led to a highly differentiated
structure of schooling between the two schools which institutionalised educational
inequality and widened disparities.
The findings are particularly relevant for policy makers as they provide insights into
educational decentralisation. The research’s original contribution is that it has to some
extent, through practice-based findings at the micro-level, focused on the specific
factors related to the implementation of educational decentralisation according to the
lived experiences of various education practitioners; thus providing an in-depth
1 Havana and Oxford Primary Schools are pseudonyms.understanding of processes. Even though the prescripts from which educational
decentralisation is crafted are the same, its implementation differed across two public
schools by virtue of their unique contexts. The research has shown that educational
decentralisation as a government policy has not fostered equality and the protection
of vulnerable children from discrimination.
The research highlights the seriousness of implementing educational decentralisation
in order to increase participation in decision-making by stakeholders in the education
enterprise. Specifically, this research could be taken forward through a series of new
projects that would consider educational decentralisation and its effects on the
professional roles of district school inspectors, school heads, and teachers / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / Unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/80916 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Dhliwayo, James Stephen |
| Contributors | Weber, Everard, jsdhliwayo@yahoo.com |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | © 2019 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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