Research: Education Management in SA (1)
Dec. 5th, 2008 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mahnmutI'll put it in parts because it's a bit lengthy. I presented this last month at my university. It caused lots of discussions.
An overview of education management in South Africa
I examine three main issues, wh ich are d irectly linked to school management developments in South A frica since 1994: school leadership and management; professionalisation of principalship through the South African Standard for School Leadership (SASSL); and leading and managing the learning school. In exploring these issues I draw mainly on a systematic and comprehensive literature review of school leadership, management, and governance, commissioned by the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance (MGSLG). The
aim of the desk research was to establish ‘what is known’ and ‘what still needs to be known’ about education al leadership, managem en t, and gove rnance in South Africa. I also draw upon the work of the Education Managem ent Task Team (EMTT), commissioned by the Directorate of Education Management and Governance Development in the Na tional Dep artment of Education. The ir work drew upon the South A frican Schools Act (SASA) and, specifically, the recommendations of the Ministerial Task Team on Educational Management. The
EMTT brief was to develop a policy framework for school leadership and management development, training and implementation, and to devise a South African Standard for School Leadership which would inform professional educational leadership programmes, leading to a National Professional Qualification for Principalship (SANPQP). The SASSL would provide a clear role description for principals, set out what is required of principals, and identify key areas of p rincipalship.
Keywords: learning schools; principalship; professionalisation, school leadership
History and context
In South Africa, history has itself always been a site of political struggle, an effect multiplied by the fact that the country has often seemed like a vast social science experiment, a theatre in which much of the rest of the world finds echoes of its struggles (Johnson, 2004:preface).
The struggle facing the newly democratic South Africa was to overcome the legacy of the pre–apartheid and apartheid eras, segregationist social and education policies, which over many decades had manifested themselves in discriminatory laws and practices. Most of today’s black teachers and school leaders began their teaching careers under the apartheid regime where they were required to practise in racially prescribed settings (Mattson & Harley, 2002:285). Also, while many white minorities were able to choose to live in particular communities, black, Indian and ‘coloured’ South Africans were required to live and work in areas prescribed by the Government under the Native Land Act of 1913, the Native Affairs Act of 1920, and the Native (Urban Areas) Act of 1923 (Johnson, 2004:119). According to Johnson, these three
Acts were the cornerstones of white supremacy and therefore black marginalisation in South Africa and they have had lasting effects on both educational and social infrastructure. These effects include ineffective leadership and management practices in many of our public schools, especially those in historically black areas.
In the new South Africa many daunting challenges are emerging and these raise questions about how the education of the young is best managed. For example, the sense of ‘identity’ between black and white South Africans has two powerful aspects, the historical in terms of the ‘roots’ of the individual, and the geographical, in terms of the concentration of people of similar groups within an area (Johnson, 2004:119). The sense of ‘identity’ of black and minority groups strongly influences their attitudes to teaching and leadership within schools (Soudien, 2002:275-277). At the level of the functioning of a school and the role and identity of the individual teacher, Tayeb (1998) alludes to a set of values that underline attitudes and actions of members of social groupings. Bhatt et al. (1988:150) argue that, “at all levels it is the white construction and interpretation of black reality that prevails” and this results in an alienating ethos where rules are not related to culture and where the use of diagnostic tools favours the English cultural heritage. In concert with this view, Mattson and Harley (2002:284) state that schools function primarily as signals of modernity on the African landscape. They display [w]estern symbols and advance modern expectations and promises because ‘looking modern’ brings affection from larger [w]estern states and spurs the arrival of foreign capital. And by signalling the coming of economic growth, real or illusionary, the fragile state strengthens its own domestic position.
They argue that this ideal is applied to South African education policy in transition; that entrenched western ideals (meant to ensure South Africa’s competitiveness in a global information economy) are integrated with local ideals of social justice and democracy, on the assumption that, ‘you can’t have one without the other’. They also argue that policy in South African education tends to fall into the trap of social meliorism, where commitment to a vision of what should be clouds the ability to consider seriously what is, so that the good intentions of social reconstruction have more influence on the policy agenda than social and school realities.
Therefore, the education environment in South Africa points to diverse layers of complexity and paradoxes that have attracted the attention and interest of teachers, teacher trainers, scholars, and researchers world-wide. It is interesting to note the views of Carl Schmidst, a Grade 7 teacher at St James Primary, Cape Town, who, in an article entitled: ‘Teaching is not for the faint-hearted’ says:
Our school draws most of its learners from the local communities and, more particularly, from the nearby overcrowded informal settlement. Many learners come from single-parent families are looked after by their grandManagement in South Africa 465 parents. Unemployment is high while others are employed as labourers or as domestic workers. Poverty levels are high. Evidence of this is seen in schools with the high number of learners being fed daily.
Schmidst points to numerous other problems facing schools in South Africa, including:
• Parents struggling to maintain sufficient contact with their children
• The high levels of HIV infection rates among learners in the schools
• Children who fail to complete homework or spend insufficient time studying for their tasks or tests
• Children able to afford only cheap foods especially chips (crisps) — saturated with salt and food colourants
• Problems of communication due to language barriers between the teachers and their learners.
These, and many other, factors in South Africa today, help to demonstrate the complexity of addressing the educational legacy of the past, including ineffective education systems, attitudes towards school principals and, specifically, education management practices. But the Department of Education, in its recent initiatives to address these problems, states clearly that, effective management and leadership, articulated with well-conceived, structured and planned needs-driven management and leadership development, is the key to transformation in South African education (DoE, 2004).
To be continued...
An overview of education management in South Africa
I examine three main issues, wh ich are d irectly linked to school management developments in South A frica since 1994: school leadership and management; professionalisation of principalship through the South African Standard for School Leadership (SASSL); and leading and managing the learning school. In exploring these issues I draw mainly on a systematic and comprehensive literature review of school leadership, management, and governance, commissioned by the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance (MGSLG). The
aim of the desk research was to establish ‘what is known’ and ‘what still needs to be known’ about education al leadership, managem en t, and gove rnance in South Africa. I also draw upon the work of the Education Managem ent Task Team (EMTT), commissioned by the Directorate of Education Management and Governance Development in the Na tional Dep artment of Education. The ir work drew upon the South A frican Schools Act (SASA) and, specifically, the recommendations of the Ministerial Task Team on Educational Management. The
EMTT brief was to develop a policy framework for school leadership and management development, training and implementation, and to devise a South African Standard for School Leadership which would inform professional educational leadership programmes, leading to a National Professional Qualification for Principalship (SANPQP). The SASSL would provide a clear role description for principals, set out what is required of principals, and identify key areas of p rincipalship.
Keywords: learning schools; principalship; professionalisation, school leadership
History and context
In South Africa, history has itself always been a site of political struggle, an effect multiplied by the fact that the country has often seemed like a vast social science experiment, a theatre in which much of the rest of the world finds echoes of its struggles (Johnson, 2004:preface).
The struggle facing the newly democratic South Africa was to overcome the legacy of the pre–apartheid and apartheid eras, segregationist social and education policies, which over many decades had manifested themselves in discriminatory laws and practices. Most of today’s black teachers and school leaders began their teaching careers under the apartheid regime where they were required to practise in racially prescribed settings (Mattson & Harley, 2002:285). Also, while many white minorities were able to choose to live in particular communities, black, Indian and ‘coloured’ South Africans were required to live and work in areas prescribed by the Government under the Native Land Act of 1913, the Native Affairs Act of 1920, and the Native (Urban Areas) Act of 1923 (Johnson, 2004:119). According to Johnson, these three
Acts were the cornerstones of white supremacy and therefore black marginalisation in South Africa and they have had lasting effects on both educational and social infrastructure. These effects include ineffective leadership and management practices in many of our public schools, especially those in historically black areas.
In the new South Africa many daunting challenges are emerging and these raise questions about how the education of the young is best managed. For example, the sense of ‘identity’ between black and white South Africans has two powerful aspects, the historical in terms of the ‘roots’ of the individual, and the geographical, in terms of the concentration of people of similar groups within an area (Johnson, 2004:119). The sense of ‘identity’ of black and minority groups strongly influences their attitudes to teaching and leadership within schools (Soudien, 2002:275-277). At the level of the functioning of a school and the role and identity of the individual teacher, Tayeb (1998) alludes to a set of values that underline attitudes and actions of members of social groupings. Bhatt et al. (1988:150) argue that, “at all levels it is the white construction and interpretation of black reality that prevails” and this results in an alienating ethos where rules are not related to culture and where the use of diagnostic tools favours the English cultural heritage. In concert with this view, Mattson and Harley (2002:284) state that schools function primarily as signals of modernity on the African landscape. They display [w]estern symbols and advance modern expectations and promises because ‘looking modern’ brings affection from larger [w]estern states and spurs the arrival of foreign capital. And by signalling the coming of economic growth, real or illusionary, the fragile state strengthens its own domestic position.
They argue that this ideal is applied to South African education policy in transition; that entrenched western ideals (meant to ensure South Africa’s competitiveness in a global information economy) are integrated with local ideals of social justice and democracy, on the assumption that, ‘you can’t have one without the other’. They also argue that policy in South African education tends to fall into the trap of social meliorism, where commitment to a vision of what should be clouds the ability to consider seriously what is, so that the good intentions of social reconstruction have more influence on the policy agenda than social and school realities.
Therefore, the education environment in South Africa points to diverse layers of complexity and paradoxes that have attracted the attention and interest of teachers, teacher trainers, scholars, and researchers world-wide. It is interesting to note the views of Carl Schmidst, a Grade 7 teacher at St James Primary, Cape Town, who, in an article entitled: ‘Teaching is not for the faint-hearted’ says:
Our school draws most of its learners from the local communities and, more particularly, from the nearby overcrowded informal settlement. Many learners come from single-parent families are looked after by their grandManagement in South Africa 465 parents. Unemployment is high while others are employed as labourers or as domestic workers. Poverty levels are high. Evidence of this is seen in schools with the high number of learners being fed daily.
Schmidst points to numerous other problems facing schools in South Africa, including:
• Parents struggling to maintain sufficient contact with their children
• The high levels of HIV infection rates among learners in the schools
• Children who fail to complete homework or spend insufficient time studying for their tasks or tests
• Children able to afford only cheap foods especially chips (crisps) — saturated with salt and food colourants
• Problems of communication due to language barriers between the teachers and their learners.
These, and many other, factors in South Africa today, help to demonstrate the complexity of addressing the educational legacy of the past, including ineffective education systems, attitudes towards school principals and, specifically, education management practices. But the Department of Education, in its recent initiatives to address these problems, states clearly that, effective management and leadership, articulated with well-conceived, structured and planned needs-driven management and leadership development, is the key to transformation in South African education (DoE, 2004).
To be continued...
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