3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Teachers’ perceptions of school-based support teams in the Johannesburg East School District(2015) Schneiderman, FarrynThe aim of this research study was to explore how teachers in a sample of primary schools in the Johannesburg East school district of Gauteng perceive the school-based support teams (SBST) at their schools. These support teams are supposed to be existing structures within public schools in South Africa according to the policy outlined in Education White Paper 6 (Department of Education, 2001). Teachers in South African government schools often face considerable challenges in the implementation of inclusive education. These include catering to the individual needs of all learners within classrooms that contain a large number of learners. A mixed-method exploratory descriptive design was used to carry out the exploration of this study. Five government primary schools in the Johannesburg East school district participated in this study and there were fifty-four educators that voluntarily completed a questionnaire that consisted of both open- and closed-ended questions. Data from the questionnaires were analysed by using frequency and descriptive analysis, as well as thematic content analysis. Results from this questionnaire indicated that the majority of the respondents have a positive outlook on the school-based support team approach and would like this approach to continue within their school. They do however require additional support from the district support team and would need assistance from both the district and school-based support teams in order to constructively deal with specific barriers to learning. This will improve the collaborative support and emotional well-being of the educators, thereby improving the quality of education provided to the learners.Item Exploring ethical leadership of school principals and teachers at two secondary schools in Johannesburg East District: a case study(2020) Nyabeni, NomsaThis purpose of this study was to explore the conceptualisation and experiences of ethical leadership among school principals and teachers in two secondary schools located in Johannesburg East District in the province of Gauteng. This study was underpinned by the interpretive paradigm and guided by a qualitative methodology within a case study design. The two schools were purposively sampled because of convenience, with two principals and six teachers serving as research participants. This study utilised Shapiro and Stefkovich’s (2011) Multiple Ethical Paradigm and Khoza’s (2012) Attuned Leadership–African Humanism as theoretical frameworks. All trustworthiness considerations and ethical issues were observed before the data was generated through semi-structured interviews and documents reviews. The findings pointed to school principals and teachers having a good understanding of ethical leadership. However, the findings revealed that most ethical leadership challenges experienced by teachers emerged from parents, the school management team and learners in the researched schools, whilst the principals’ challenges originated from teachers and school board members. There were various recommendations suggested that could be applied by the Provincial Department of Education, the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa and schools internally to reduce unethical conduct in the researched schools. Some of the recommendations were that school principals and teachers’ unethical behaviours can be reduced through professional development and reinforcement of educational legislation that underpin professional ethical behaviour. The findings also suggested that there was a consensus between teachers and school principals regarding ethical leadership as an effective approach in promoting a positive school culture and conduct in the researched schools. This study recommends the Department of Education and the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa should provide workshops and training on ethical leadership, this will assist in reducing the unethical conduct of school principals and teachers within schools.Item Exploring ethical leadership in four Zimbabwean schools amid socio-political and economic turbulence :a multiple case study(2019) Chingwanangwana, BernardThere is a need and cry for ethical leadership in the schools today more than ever before, as school heads and teachers are being more and more called to accountability and integrity world over. Unethical conduct in the schools’ manifests in many ways, such as improper association, drunkenness at work, absenteeism from work, corporal punishment, embezzlement of funds and so on. There are however challenges and dilemmas associated with the discharge of ethical leadership in the schools, one such challenge is the socio-political and economic turbulence in a country. These turbulences trigger ethical leadership dilemmas and push factors upon the school heads and teachers, making ethical leadership practices difficult to practice in the schools. Basing on the current environment in Zimbabwe, this study explores the current socio-political and economic turbulences to establish its effects on ethical leadership in four schools in Marondera District. The study sought to explore the causes of ethical leadership lapses among school heads, head of departments and teachers and to find out whether the current socio-political and economic turbulence in Zimbabwe has an effect on ethical leadership in the four schools under the study. The research questions that guided this study were; What are the ethical leadership issues affecting school heads, heads of departments and teachers in four researched schools in Marondera District in Zimbabwe? Do the participants’ experience the current socio-political and economic turbulence in Zimbabwe having an effect on ethical leadership in the four schools under our study in Marondera district? Lastly, what do the participants say should be done to deal with the perceived ethical leadership challenges, if any, in the four schools in Marondera district in Zimbabwe? Using the Turbulence Theory, Virtue and Ubuntu leadership theories and employing the qualitative methodology approach, this case study explored ethical leadership in four Zimbabwean schools amid socio-political and economic turbulence. The Turbulence Theory was used to mainly elaborate on the contextual environment prevailing within the four schools in the study, while the Virtue and Ubuntu leadership theories dealt with the principle and practices expected in an ethical setting. The study was a qualitative, interpretivist multiple-case study, focusing on ethical leadership in the context of socio-political and economic turbulence in four schools in Marondera District of Zimbabwe. The data were generated through semi-structured interviews, focus There is a need and cry for ethical leadership in the schools today more than ever before, as school heads and teachers are being more and more called to accountability and integrity world over. Unethical conduct in the schools’ manifests in many ways, such as improper association, drunkenness at work, absenteeism from work, corporal punishment, embezzlement of funds and so on. There are however challenges and dilemmas associated with the discharge of ethical leadership in the schools, one such challenge is the socio-political and economic turbulence in a country. These turbulences trigger ethical leadership dilemmas and push factors upon the school heads and teachers, making ethical leadership practices difficult to practice in the schools. Basing on the current environment in Zimbabwe, this study explores the current socio-political and economic turbulences to establish its effects on ethical leadership in four schools in Marondera District. The study sought to explore the causes of ethical leadership lapses among school heads, head of departments and teachers and to find out whether the current socio-political and economic turbulence in Zimbabwe has an effect on ethical leadership in the four schools under the study. The research questions that guided this study were; What are the ethical leadership issues affecting school heads, heads of departments and teachers in four researched schools in Marondera District in Zimbabwe? Do the participants’ experience the current socio-political and economic turbulence in Zimbabwe having an effect on ethical leadership in the four schools under our study in Marondera district? Lastly, what do the participants say should be done to deal with the perceived ethical leadership challenges, if any, in the four schools in Marondera district in Zimbabwe? Using the Turbulence Theory, Virtue and Ubuntu leadership theories and employing the qualitative methodology approach, this case study explored ethical leadership in four Zimbabwean schools amid socio-political and economic turbulence. The Turbulence Theory was used to mainly elaborate on the contextual environment prevailing within the four schools in the study, while the Virtue and Ubuntu leadership theories dealt with the principle and practices expected in an ethical setting. The study was a qualitative, interpretivist multiple-case study, focusing on ethical leadership in the context of socio-political and economic turbulence in four schools in Marondera District of Zimbabwe. The data were generated through semi-structured interviews, focus There is a need and cry for ethical leadership in the schools today more than ever before, as school heads and teachers are being more and more called to accountability and integrity world over. Unethical conduct in the schools’ manifests in many ways, such as improper association, drunkenness at work, absenteeism from work, corporal punishment, embezzlement of funds and so on. There are however challenges and dilemmas associated with the discharge of ethical leadership in the schools, one such challenge is the socio-political and economic turbulence in a country. These turbulences trigger ethical leadership dilemmas and push factors upon the school heads and teachers, making ethical leadership practices difficult to practice in the schools. Basing on the current environment in Zimbabwe, this study explores the current socio-political and economic turbulences to establish its effects on ethical leadership in four schools in Marondera District. The study sought to explore the causes of ethical leadership lapses among school heads, head of departments and teachers and to find out whether the current socio-political and economic turbulence in Zimbabwe has an effect on ethical leadership in the four schools under the study. The research questions that guided this study were; What are the ethical leadership issues affecting school heads, heads of departments and teachers in four researched schools in Marondera District in Zimbabwe? Do the participants’ experience the current socio-political and economic turbulence in Zimbabwe having an effect on ethical leadership in the four schools under our study in Marondera district? Lastly, what do the participants say should be done to deal with the perceived ethical leadership challenges, if any, in the four schools in Marondera district in Zimbabwe? Using the Turbulence Theory, Virtue and Ubuntu leadership theories and employing the qualitative methodology approach, this case study explored ethical leadership in four Zimbabwean schools amid socio-political and economic turbulence. The Turbulence Theory was used to mainly elaborate on the contextual environment prevailing within the four schools in the study, while the Virtue and Ubuntu leadership theories dealt with the principle and practices expected in an ethical setting. The study was a qualitative, interpretivist multiple-case study, focusing on ethical leadership in the context of socio-political and economic turbulence in four schools in Marondera District of Zimbabwe. The data were generated through semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, questionnaires and documents analysis. The study adhered to all ethical issues in research before and during data generation. To ensure trustworthiness of the findings, the study employed multiple data generation instruments, such as; semi structured interviews, focus group interviews, questionnaires and documents review. Content analysis was applied to analyse the data. The conclusions arrived at indicate that the current socio-political and economic turbulence prevailing in Zimbabwe has adverse effect on the exercise of ethical leadership in schools in Marondera District. The major effects being on the poor teacher remuneration, lack of resources in the schools, political violence on teachers, rampant absenteeism by both teachers and learners and improper associations. Based on the findings, the study recommends an all stake holder approach to address the issues of socio-political and economic turbulences to enable school personnel to have an environment conducive of discharging ethical leadership in the schools. It further recommends the restoration of funding structures in these schools and competitive remuneration for school personnel. A Turbulence Intervention Model was developed, which could help deal with these ethical leadership challenges in the schools:Item An African conception of servant leadership: a consensus-based approach(2019) Zondi, Nombuyiselo Caroline‘Servant leadership’ is a burgeoning research area and a novel approach to leadership, which links the issue of leadership with questions of morality and virtues. Robert Greenleaf, the originator of the theory, describes servant leadership as a theory that ‘begins with a natural feeling that one wants to serve, to first serve, and then lead as a servant’. Scholarship on servant leadership has increased in recent years, with a growing trend for it to be practised in private and non-profit organisations. However, there is still a lack of research on the topic. Some studies have found servant leadership to be a relevant and effective leadership style, and have therefore suggested that educational leadership programmes adopt the principles and apply the practices associated with it. Part of what is intriguing about servant leadership theory is the application of this unique leadership approach in organisations. But to contextualise and apply this approach correctly, we need to understand its Western character and origin. My objective in this project is to understand what servant leadership would mean in an African context, and to evaluate its plausibility in South African school organisations. In other words, my aim is to translate the concept of servant leadership to fit the South African paradigm.Item Leading and Managing Safe Secondary Schools in Gauteng(2018) Morris, RenaldSchool-based violence in South Africa has reached unacceptably high levels in most public schools; to the extent that it has become a barrier to education. Despite various combined and individual efforts by government, civil society groups and practitioners over the past two decades, the situation shows no sign of abating. As a result, schools are finding it harder to deliver on education outcomes and this, in turn, leads to a situation where government can be seen to be failing in its constitutional mandate to provide physical infrastructure (schools, teachers and teaching materials) and to ensure teaching and learning happens in a safe and secure environment. The purpose of this research study was to create a better understanding of safe schools and school safety, and to identify and present leadership strategies that were found to contribute to creating safe teaching and learning environments. This was accomplished using a qualitative research approach. The results of the study prove that in the context of South Africa, a social justice approach to school safety is necessary and relevant because it provides an all-encompassing view of factors that impact on school safety. A general finding that emerged from the study further shows that there is a significant difference between the definition of “school safety” provided by the majority of School Governing Bodies (SGBs) and the definition provided by the majority of principals. SGBs defined school safety quite narrowly, focusing mainly on technical aspects of school safety, while principals took more of a broad social justice approach, which included both technical and psychological aspects of school safety. The study concluded that these differences point to one of the reasons why school violence persists and why principals find it hard to lead and manage safe schools.Item Leadership practices in two successful primary schools in Soweto, South Africa educating learners afflicted by multiple deprivation(2019) Hoosier, BrianettaThe study investigated the ways in which principals and other school leaders navigated issues of multiple deprivation to achieve high academic performance. The study was grounded in the theoretical framework of the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (Bryk, Sebring, Allensworth, Easton, & Luppescu, 2010), which proposes five essential supports (5 Essentials) for successful schools. The framework was the lens used to understand whether or not successful school leaders implemented these five essentials supports in response to their learners’ battle with multiple deprivation. The main research question of the study is: what can we learn about school improvement from the leadership practices of successful school leaders in primary schools educating learners afflicted by multiple deprivation in Soweto? Interviews were conducted with two principals, three School Management Team (SMT) members, and three educators. Using thematic content analysis, recurrent themes emerged including stakeholders involvement, policy, academic support, progress monitoring, collaborative teachers, teacher quality, team building, parental involvement, and distributed leadership. In the South African context, this study expands the 5 Essentials framework through a contribution toward the emergence of a model of leadership practices of successful school leaders educating learners afflicted by multiple deprivation in primary township schools. In this model, the four core leadership practice with related themes, explain the leadership practices that underpin learner achievement. The core leadership practices and themes includes: (1) safety practices: stakeholder involvement and policy; (2) instructional practices: collaborative teachers; 3 (3) teacher quality and team building academic practices: academic support and progress monitoring; and (4) family engagement practices: parental Involvement (Biological or Proxy)Item Ethical leadership and teaching at two schools in Bauchi State, Nigeria: Voices of headmasters and teachers.(2018) Mayaki, Hauwa MuhammadMultiple reports have surfaced in the electronic and print media on numerous unethical conduct in education and the Nigerian education system has not been spared either. Conclusively, learners, teachers, headmasters, union activists and the Department of Education officials have all remained allies in the perpetuation of unethical conducts at Nigerian schools. The rise in this menace has prompted many researches to conduct research on ethical leadership to ascertain the root causes of unethical behaviour at schools and/or in the Departments of Education. This study explored the conceptions and perceptions of teachers and headmasters on ethical leadership in Nigerian schools especially, primary schools. It was the intention of this research to clearly demonstrate the role of ethics in education as put forward by teachers and headmasters; whether or not, it is sufficient a tool to curb the unethical conducts persisting in the educational system. Hence, views from both teachers and headmasters were sought about the causes of unethical conduct in schools and what possible ways to follow to reduce its recurrence. In this research, an interpretive paradigm and a qualitative methodology were utilised. Convenience and purposive sampling was utilised to select the two participating primary schools and research participants for the study. Data generated was analysed thematically. The conclusions of this study seem to suggest that: participants have a good grasp and assimilation of ethics and ethical leadership in their schools; the persisting unethical conduct by teachers and headmasters in schools emanates from both within and outside the school organisation. Hence, from the assertions of all research participants, they unanimously agreed that ethical leadership has the potential to reducing the unethical behaviour in schools. In this vein, this study adopts various recommendations to reduce unethical conducts in the schools.Item Experiences of principalship: a case study of two female leaders of suburban high schools in Gauteng(2016-07-25) Chiramba, Otilia FortunateThis study explores the experiences of two women principals in leading suburban co-educational high schools in Gauteng province, South Africa. It sought to explore and understand the experiences of two women principals and their leadership roles through the consideration of their challenges, their successes and their leadership styles as demonstrated in their school contexts. Gender and leadership is an area which remains under-researched in both the South African and the national and international educational leadership fields (Faulkner, 2015; Moorosi, 2010 & 2012). Also in South Africa there is very little knowledge of the experiences of women leading suburban co-educational high schools formerly known as Model C schools (Lumby & Heystek, 2011). This context is particularly interesting and important considering the dramatic change in demography of these schools after 1994, which impacts upon how women principals, in particular, experience and lead these diverse schools and their very diverse communities. As the schools now have heterogeneous ethnic and cultural populations, principals face many different challenges in leadership. In a very patriarchal and traditional culture, which typifies South Africa, it was considered an important aspect of the research to understand the experiences of women specific to these under-researched school contexts. The research methodology chosen as the most appropriate is a qualitative, interpretivist approach which uses a case study. The two high schools in the case study were purposefully sampled because they were led by women and they were former Model C schools in Gauteng, to the west and north, which under the apartheid regime served only white learners and communities in former affluent white suburban areas. The participants in this study were the two women principals of the two suburban schools. The research instruments chosen were a semi structured questionnaire, loosely based on Coleman’s questionnaire from her study of UK head teachers (2001), and follow-up probing interviews to gain more in depth responses to key areas of interest. The research was underpinned by a theoretical framework that contends that context plays a significant role in the two women’s experiences and how this might impact upon challenges to their leadership as women, (Christie & Lingard, 2001). Cubillo and Brown (2011) posited in their research that context is critical to women’s experiences of leadership, even more than is the case for male leaders. Evidence from the data collected and analysed in addressing the research questions shows that the two women principals were negatively affected by entrenched patriarchal attitudes within the communities they served. Contexts of former Model C schools played a pivotal role in the two women’s experiences as they employed the leadership styles they considered as the ones that best fitted the situations imposed by diverse ethnic and cultural communities. The misconception about former Model C schools, as still being sites of affluence and privilege, also contributed to their challenges, given the demographic changes that contradict this assumption. Despite these challenges, the two women remained strong with the determination to lead successfully ‘against the odds’ (Coleman, 2001). Family support, work experience, qualifications, confidence and their leadership styles also contributed to their success. This study recommended the need for further research through a longitudinal and wide ranging study of women’s experiences of leadership and specifically on the nature of leadership in these under-researched co-educational former Model C high schools. Keywords Gender and leadership, Principalship, South African High Schools, Discrimination, Patriarchy, Glass Ceilings and Walls,Item An investigation into staff perceptions of the role and effectiveness of middle management in two public secondary schools in Gauteng(2016-03-07) De Witt, KarenSchool leadership teams often consist of staff with a range of leadership and management skills or responsibilities. There are however, discrepancies regarding the role and purpose of these managers and leaders. The aim of this study was to focus on the perception of staff regarding the role and effectiveness of middle managers within their leadership structure of the school. Two public secondary schools were selected from different geographic locations in Gauteng. The reason for this selection was to see if staff perception regarding middle management changes when schools are dealing with different challenges and external factors such as finance, shortage of staff and the effect addition staff paid by the SGB had on the management team.Item Educational leadership and the management of change in higher education : implication of module-based teaching and learning at National University of Rwanda.(2012-02-10) Nkurikiyumukiza, PhocasOn the assumption that leadership involves individuals with distinct qualities who take much ingenuity, energy and skills to trigger greater capacity in the organization for moving people towards organizational vision and goal achievement, the aim of this study is to identify and describe the leadership shown by managers and lecturers for the successful implementation of academic programme change at National University of Rwanda. That includes investigating the improvement of academic practice in the higher education institution while implementing change, i.e. introduction of the Module-Based Teaching and Learning (MBTL) methodology which is a new approach to schooling, as well as defining an appropriate leadership style needed for the management of this implementation. The research was carried out at National University of Rwanda as a case study and supported by the aid of interviews with faculty managers and lecturers as they are the main developers and users of teaching and learning programmes. Next, data collected were complemented by means of textual analysis. The findings revealed that the MBTL introduced at NUR as an innovation in academic practice was a top-down decision made by the policy makers without consultation with academic staffs and implemented without adequate preparation whereas they are the main actors in the implementation. Coupled with the change in the language of instruction from French to English and the lack of educational material required by the MBTL approach, the situation had an unenthusiastic impact on the engagement of NUR academics for accurate successful implementation. The overall conclusion is that inadequate management of the introduction of an educational change programme leads to misadoption and reluctance at best and resistance by the implementers at worst.