The issue of student participation in school governance is not a new concept in Namibian schools. Student involvement dates back to the 1970's when the country's administration was under the South African apartheid regime. Back then the involvement of students in school affairs was seen by the regime as a political act and attempts by student leaders to involve themselves in educational issues were often quashed. When the country became independent student representation continued as Student Representative Councils (SRC's), later renamed Learners Representative Councils (LRCs). This study attempted to investigate the perceptions of LRCs and other stakeholders - narnely the school principals and the school board members - of the role of students in school governance. The study was conducted in three Senior Secondary Schools in the Kavango region in Namibia. The research respondents were school principals, chairpersons of the LRCs and one chairperson of a school board. The study was conducted in the interpretive paradigm employing the following three qualitative research methods interviews, observation and document analysis to collect data. Through triangulation it was possible to formulate a rich response to the research question. The study found that, although the notion of student participation in school governance was widely accepted, a number of challenges exist that hamper the effectiveness of LRCs in the schools. It was revealed that there was no national policy docunlent that outlined the roles and function of the LRCs. As a result schools had little direction about the LRCs and subsequently they were given little or no attention by the school authorities. This resulted in misunderstandings and in some cases conflict between learners and the school management. The most significant consequence of these problems was the fact that LRCs were not regarded as true role players in school governance. The study thus recommends that a national policy document that legitimates the role of students in school governance be drafted to provide direction and that schools embark on meaningful training programmes for LRC members. The study also calls for further research to address the gap in literature on this phenomenon, particularly in Namibia.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:rhodes/vital:1923 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Shekupakela-Nelulu, Rauna |
| Publisher | Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Education |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MEd |
| Format | 99 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Shekupakela-Nelulu, Rauna |
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