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1.
School governance reform in post-apartheid South Africa has been used instrumentally to democratise schooling and to calibrate governance functions to accommodate diverse school contexts. Through an analysis of relevant sections in legislation, the author shows how the reform was structured to allow for representative democracy and partnerships. But, drawing on two recent studies, she contends that the governance reforms failed to include measures that prevent a re-enactment of traditional South African power relations of race, class and gender at schools, and apartheid-era inequalities continue to manifest in schools. The author concludes that in general democratic school governing bodies have fallen short of the transformation vision.  相似文献   

2.
《Africa Education Review》2013,10(1-2):13-29
Abstract

This article reports on an investigation into how admission policies in general and the ‘zoning’ policy in particular are applied by the School Governing Bodies (SGBs) of two particular former Model C secondary schools in a town in the Gauteng Province, Republic of South Africa. It also examines the admission criteria currently in use against the background of allegations that the application of these criteria is a veiled attempt to exclude black learners from schools in order to retain a white learner majority. It also considers what can be termed the ‘channelling’ of learners. Interviews were conducted with a sample of disgruntled parents, a chairperson of the school governing body (SGB) of one of the schools and the principals of two unrelated schools, which were mentioned during the interviews with the disgruntled parents.  相似文献   

3.
Despite the powers that parents are endowed with regarding governance of schools in South Africa, they are not yet given sufficient room and space to deliberate on issues of school governance; instead they are still excluded by some teaching staff who deny them (explicitly or implicitly) from taking part in crucial decisions affecting education of their children. There are still issues excluding parents from participation in school governing bodies, namely: the lack of clear demarcation between the roles of the teaching staff and those of the school governing body (SGB), lack of time, lack of confidence from some parents, transport problems which result in non‐attendance of SGB meetings by some parents, poor communication of information, lack of training which results in lack of knowledge of the Act and roles and responsibilities, the language barrier, and the high turnover rate of governors as parents have to leave the SGB as soon as his/her child leaves the school. The findings of this research partly concur with Karlsson, who also found that SGBs perpetuate rather than prevent the apartheid‐era inequalities of race, gender and social class. Despite these discrepancies, the study found that SGBs operate according to the general intentions of the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 and also help spread democracy in the school and to the wider society of South Africa.  相似文献   

4.
The major restructuring of the entire education system in South Africa has produced considerable policy tensions and contradictions. In the light of recent legislation, this paper examines the consequences of the Education Department's attempting to serve the demands for equity in terms of resource allocation and reprioritisation within and between provinces, while simultaneously on a micro school-based level attempting to insert a particular school culture (governance, funding, curricula, conditions of service and so on) across schools that were previously extremely disparate in terms of the elements referred to above. This attempt at equality in the face of the equity drive has considerable consequences for the delivery and provision of education services. The paper discusses these and analyses the policy-making domain which has produced somewhat contradictory outcomes.  相似文献   

5.
《Africa Education Review》2013,10(3):520-538
Abstract

This theoretical paper looked at the possibility of incorporating the social learning concept of achievement-oriented behaviour in promoting children's public participation in policy-making in the educational system. The paper highlighted how the concepts of public participation and achievement-oriented education could be used in the governance of the educational system in South Africa. The paper explored concepts such as goal-directed behaviour, achievement standards, achievement beliefs, and how the educational system could use the concepts in the promotion of children's public participation. Future studies could focus on the empirical relationship between achievement-oriented behaviour and child involvement in participatory democracy in the governance of the educational system in South Africa.  相似文献   

6.
Managing teaching and learning in South African schools   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  
This paper examines the significance of leadership and management in enhancing classroom practice and improving learner outcomes in two provinces of South Africa. It is increasingly recognised, internationally and in South Africa, that managing teaching and learning is one of the most important activities for principals and other school leaders. Managing teaching and learning is one of the core modules in South Africa's new national qualification for school principals. Drawing on case studies of eight schools, mostly in disadvantaged contexts, the paper shows that managing teaching and learning are often inadequate, and largely fails to compensate for the social and educational problems facing learners and their communities.  相似文献   

7.
This article explores governors’ perceptions of the role played by school principals in the democratic governance of secondary schools in South Africa. The South African Schools Act No. 84 of 1996 has mandated that all public schools in South Africa must have democratically elected school governing bodies, comprised of the principal (in his or her official capacity), educators, non‐teaching staff, parents and learners, but the latter is applicable only in secondary schools. This reform is intended to foster tolerance, rational discussion and collective decision‐making. In the light of this reform an empirical study investigated the role of the principal in the school governing body (SGB), particularly in promoting parent and learner participation in SGBs. The findings highlighted the important functions that principals fulfil with regard to the functioning of the SGB. Principals are viewed by governors as playing a positive role in SGBs. Governors referred to principals as ‘the finger on the pulse of what is happening at school’; they are resource persons for other members of the SGBs and ‘the engines’ of the schools. Governors viewed the principal as in charge of the professional management of the school, ensuring that all duties are carried out adequately, setting the tone in SGB meetings, and responsible for interpreting education policies and ensuring that they are well implemented. Furthermore, principals have the responsibility of ensuring the maximum participation of both parent and learner governors in SGBs meetings. Principals can also contribute greatly to school governance issues, since they are usually at an advantage in terms of their familiarity with official regulations, provincial directives and knowledge of educational reform measures. The findings highlighted persistent power struggles in rural schools that may arise when principals overplay their roles as this creates tension among SGB members. However, principals enabled implementation of democratic values such as tolerance, rational discussion and collective decision‐making in schools through their leadership roles.  相似文献   

8.
Ikuko Suzuki 《Compare》2002,32(2):243-259
Participation, a 'buzzword' in social development in both developed and developing countries, has several different interpretations in terms of purpose, form and implication. For instance, parents are encouraged to participate individually in choosing the school for their own children, and they are expected to participate collectively in school development through the work of school governing bodies. Furthermore, participation in education is often considered to be a means of assuring accountability of decentralised institutions. This paper explores the notion of parental participation in school governance, based on data obtained from field research in Uganda. It argues that parents' perceptions of the accountability of the school affect the way they participate in education. Thus, accountability is one of the crucial factors for realising local democracy through decentralisation.  相似文献   

9.
Yusuf Sayed 《Compare》2002,32(1):35-46
This paper examines the democratisation of education in South Africa within the context of the policy of educational decentralisation with regards to key policy texts, namely, the South African Schools Act (SASA) and the National Norms and Standards for School Funding (NNSSF). It begins by exploring the concept of decentralisation with specific reference to the notions of democratisation and participation. This leads to an examination of these concepts within the South African context. The final section examines the policy impact of participation and democratisation in relation to the powers and functions of School Governing Bodies (SGBs) by considering four illustrative examples, namely, religion, language, admissions and teacher employment. The paper concludes by considering the policy gap between policy rhetoric and practice in relation to attempts to entrench democracy and participation, and enhance participation at the school level.  相似文献   

10.
《Africa Education Review》2013,10(3):431-452
Abstract

This paper examines the collaborative relationship between principals and School Governing Bodies (SGBs), and how this impacts on the management of financial resources in public schools. In South Africa, educational trends such as decentralisation, the shift of responsibility in roles, community involvement, building of partnerships and accountability in schools resulted in changing associations and patterns of interaction amongst participants in schools. Collaboration may be viewed as central to each of these trends. As principals and SGBs grapple with the demands of managing their schools’ financial resources efficiently and effectively, it is important to reflect on the collaborative relationship that society expects of them. Principals are required to cultivate processes of authentic collaboration in order to empower SGBs on school governance. It is thus imperative for schools to initiate and maintain a collaborative relationship between principals and SGBs, through mutual trust, teamwork, collaborative decision-making, open-communication and co-operation. Using a qualitative research paradigm, we determined the perceptions and experiences of school governors on their collaborative efforts in managing the school financial resources. This study revealed, amongst others, that many SGB members were unclear about their roles and functions which resulted in serious conflict situations and accountability implications.  相似文献   

11.
Democracy and governance in the local school system   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  
The Labour government showed no interest in extending local democracy in the school system, in spite of a policy rhetoric of local democratic renewal. The Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government's localism agenda promotes the autonomy of schools from local authorities without proposing alternative forms of local democracy in the school system. The perspective of this paper is derived from a Gramscian Marxist critique of dominant discourses within the field of urban governance. From this vantage point it examines the research evidence regarding participation in governance within local school systems. It ends by offering an alternative approach towards more democratic participative governance in local school systems based on a recognition of conflicting class interests and the need to re-envision the role of local authorities.  相似文献   

12.
This study investigated the perceptions and experiences of rural school principals in South Africa of the role that parents in the school governing bodies (SGBs) play in improving school management and governance. The study reports on a literature review as well as on the empirical investigation, which was based on a qualitative research paradigm. Semi-structured interviews with the principals of three different rural schools were employed to collect data. The literature findings revealed that including parents as part of the SGB is seen as an essential component for the successful functioning of the school. The empirical study also emphasised the importance of including parents. However, the principals were concerned about the fact that many members of the SGB are illiterate and uncertain of the role they play in school governance. The principals emphasised the need for training of the members of SGBs as regards their working knowledge of school governance activities.  相似文献   

13.
In search of embodying values that underpin democracy at school level, the objectives of the article include exploring expectations generated by the constitutional dispensation (Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 108/1996, section 41) and delineating those moulded by the South African Schools Act (84/1996, Preamble). While the latter formally signify a State-education-partnership, the intention for teachers, learners and parents to accept especially governance responsibilities towards school democracy prompted our focused three-way alliance between parent-teacher-learner parties for the purpose of this article. Our conceptual framework is informed by Permuth, Mawdsley and Silver (2015), who contend that the essentially new facet of moving towards integrating qualitative research with doing traditional legal research could expand legal reasoning and even complement it with empirical credibility. Authenticated by Adler (2015), the article therefore combines focusing on cooperative governance as an act to shape schooling in the traditional legal way (by asking what questions) with qualitative research features to inform us by also asking how and why questions. We chose a documentary design with a comparative angle; selected documentary resources; and took an exploratory approach to gain understanding and weigh the investigated documents by comparing and appraising primary and secondary sources. We also regarded whatever was embedded yet not recorded as similarly important to what was recorded and how a specific concept was extended (De Waal and Serfontein 2015). Reviewing relevant case law, we present an overview of cooperative school governance progress; a constitutional challenges-based intervention; continuous acceptance of responsibility and accountability; and successes, frustrations and challenges concerning the future pathway to successful schooling. Given the snowballing set of demands on public schools, the catch is for partners to know each other's strengths and weaknesses so that balanced contributions will cause governance towards quality education. The drastic parental governance and leadership role-change, with higher moral-social responsibility levels, calls for carefully designed conferences to guide parent-partners’ exercising the necessary discretion underpinned by critically considering the significance of serving society.  相似文献   

14.

Britain, South Africa and Russia all have national policies that acknowledge that higher education should play a role in the development of democracy. This paper reports how a group of teaching staff in British, South African and Russian universities view the relationships between their teaching and their understandings of its democratic purposes. There are some common ways in which the relationship between teaching and democracy is understood. These point towards a concern for greater equality between teachers and learners. There is also a widely held view that globalisation may impact in ways which are counter to lecturers' educational and democratic purposes. However, the different cultures and histories of the countries heavily influence such understandings. The study suggests that professional development of university teachers might pay more attention to the democratic purposes of higher education.  相似文献   

15.
Abstract

This article argues that learner-centred education needs to shift from a discussion only on pedagogical activities such as group-work and other cooperative learning strategies. It suggests that the focus of learner-centred education should be on the cultural world of the African child and how this influences the way in which he/she learns Western science. The African child often experiences cognitive dissonance/perturbation when learning Western science. The article draws on insights from the theory of collateral learning which was originally developed by Jegede. It argues that unless policymakers and teachers take into consideration the cultural frameworks of learners, there will not be a sound basis for improving school science and school mathematics in South Africa. Spending more on resources and increasingly testing learners, as is currently done in South Africa, will not improve school science in South Africa. Improving school science in part depends on rethinking leaner-centred education, which means critically looking at the important role that cultural frameworks of learners play in learning Western science.  相似文献   

16.
Since the 1980s, state schools in England have been required to ensure transparency and accountability through the use of indicators and templates derived from the private sector and, more recently, globally circulating discourses of ‘good governance’ (an appeal to professional standards, technical expertise, and performance evaluation as mechanisms for improving public service delivery). The rise of academies and free schools (‘state-funded independent schools’) has increased demand for good governance, notably as a means by which to discipline schools, in particular school governors – those tasked with the legal responsibility of holding senior leadership to account for the financial and educational performance of schools. A condition and effect of school autonomy, therefore, is increased monitoring and surveillance of all school governing bodies. In this paper, I demonstrate how these twin processes combine to produce a new modality of state power and intervention; a dominant or organizing principle by which government steer the performance of governors through disciplinary tools of professionalization and inspection, with the aim of achieving the ‘control of control’. To explain these trends, I explore how various established and emerging school governing bodies are (re)constituting themselves to meet demands for good governance.  相似文献   

17.
《Africa Education Review》2013,10(2):309-330
ABSTRACT

Teacher educators in many countries share similar concerns as they aspire to improve education for learners and stimulate interest in further study and careers. The roles and professional development of school teachers have been researched, but little attention has been given to teacher educators. Using a small-scale, illuminative study in England and South Africa, this paper examines pedagogical implications of progression from classroom teacher to teacher educator-tutor. Systemic issues include attitudes to personal scholarship in moving to high stakes academic environments requiring research. In both countries, there were issues of student teachers’ subject knowledge and their capacity to translate knowledge for learners. South African teacher educators were concerned about student teachers’ lack of appreciation of the integrity of conceptual understanding and sequencing of topic content. Implications for the professional development of teacher educators and their role identities are considered.  相似文献   

18.
This paper examines whether school characteristics moderate the association between grit and reading achievement in a sample of Grade 6 learners in high-poverty contexts. The analysis makes use of data from 2383 learners distributed across 60 township and rural schools in three provinces of South Africa. Indicators of school functionality are used to split the sample of schools into three groups (low, medium, and high functionality) and separate models of reading achievement are estimated for each group. The econometric analysis points to evidence of variation in the association between grit and reading achievement by school functionality, with a stronger association estimated for learners in more functional schools. The major contributions of this paper are as follows: Firstly, this paper is one of only a handful of studies that estimate the relationship between grit and academic achievement in a middle-income country, and the first to estimate this relationship among primary school students in an African context. Second, the results provide empirical evidence in support of the hypothesis that school characteristics interact with non-cognitive skills to produce learning outcomes, a relationship that has received scant attention in the literature to date.  相似文献   

19.
《Africa Education Review》2013,10(2):338-350
Abstract

The debate about declining education standards and quality has been going on for decades. At the centre of this debate has been teacher performance. But the blame for the decline in educational standards and quality of education in South Africa cannot be placed squarely on the shoulders of teachers alone. Society as a whole must accept its share of responsibility too. For the decline or the improvement of the standard and quality of education depends on the roles played by teachers, parents, learners, tertiary institutions, non-governmental organisations and the government. To blame teachers alone misses the core problem, which is at the root of the continuing decline in educational standards and quality in a country which has the biggest economy in Africa. To stem this tide will require a collaborative effort by all these role players. But, more importantly, it will require the restructuring of how teachers are trained, as well as the transformation of school governing bodies, so as to enable them to play the role the South African Schools Act intended them to play. The profession must also be made attractive in order to attract talented matriculants. This will entail improvements in the salary structure and conditions of service of teachers. It will also be necessary to revamp the current teacher in-service training and development system to enable it to play a more meaningful role in assisting teachers to continually refresh and retool their skills in order to cope with the ever-changing teaching and learning environment.  相似文献   

20.
Inclusive education as a global movement emerged over the past 30 years to ensure quality mainstream education for all learners. Since 1994 the newly democratic South Africa also had expectations as well as the political will to change education by adjusting legislation and policies. However, the vision of a truly inclusive education system in South Africa has been difficult to achieve and results regarding the implementation of inclusive education remain questionable. There has been a growing realisation that the advent of democracy was not in itself a sufficient condition for the elimination of historical and structural inequalities in education with as recurring theme the dissonance between the government's socio-political imperative for change and economic realities. This article focuses on the development of policy and guidelines on inclusive education in dynamic interaction with the complexity of realities in South African schools with a special focus on the policy recommendations regarding the development of full-service schools. The constant comparative analysis of the two phased case study of a full-service school in a rural town revealed interesting results illustrating the complexities regarding the implementation of inclusive education and the challenges and opportunities in bridging the gap between the idealism of policies and the realities in schools.  相似文献   

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