Research: Education Management in SA (3)
Dec. 8th, 2008 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mahnmutManaging teaching and learning
There is limited material on the management of teaching and learning but there is a developing awareness of its significance for South African schools. Christie (2005), for example, asserts that learning is the central purpose of schooling and notes that it has four dimensions: student learning; teacher learning; organisational learning; and the principal as the ‘lead learner’. She concludes that “leading learning is very complex and challenging”.
Recent theoretical work on ‘learning schools’ has emphasised the importance of understanding that different definitions, models, and theories underpinning organisational learning exist and that none is widely accepted (Coetsee, 2003:6; Mitki, Shani & Meiri; 1997; Easterby-Smith, 1990; Fenwik, 1996; Garvin, 1999; Bierema & Berdish, 1996). The following three perspectives on ‘learning schools’ are of particular interest in the South African context.
The normative perspective, suggests that organisational learning only takes place under certain conditions (Coetsee, 2003:6). Work from Senge (1990) and Watkins and Marsick (1993) serve as examples in this regard. The developmental perspective views the learning organisation as representing a late stage of organisational development (Argyris & Schon, 1978). The capability perspective proposes that all organisations have the inherent ability to learn and that there are different ways an organisation can learn (Yeung, Ulrich, Nason & Von Glonow, 1999).
Furthermore, Kim (1998) and Schein (1997) see the learning school as increasing an organisation’s capability to take effective action, while Dixon (1999) focuses on the intentional use of learning processes at the individual, group and system levels to ensure continuous transformation in the organisation so as to satisfy its stakeholders by turning knowledge into real value (McKenzie & Winkelen, 2004). Relatedly, Senge et al. (1996:3) observe that a learning organisation is a place where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together. Pedler, Burgoyne and Boydell (1991) and Watkins and Marsick (1993) place emphasis on the facilitation of learning by all the members with the view to continuous transformation, while Garvin (1994) emphasises skill at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge and at modifying behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insights. Schein (1997) suggests a continuous strategic process and direction that is integrated with work and which results in changes in knowledge, beliefs, and behaviours.
Although the theories and models presented above provide angles on how to construct learning organisations, in the context of South Africa, achieving the status of a learning school is difficult and complex, given the nature of the differing experiences of school leaders, teachers and learners. Jansen (2002: 121) argues that these experiences are mediated by the way teachers and learners understand and act on their value commitments, personal backgrounds, and professional interests in the context of change.
‘Cross-boundary’ leadership
Soudien (2002:274) asserts that people’s histories condition the narratives they construct because of the complexity of working with the historical baggage of apartheid and its racialising effects. He claims that in his study of teacher professionalism there were: several moments when racial realities were naturalised into people’s explanations, where people rendered their stories as if they were living in worlds which were structured naturally, as opposed to deliberately and in racial terms.
The author’s study of ‘cross-boundary’ leaders, working across the divisive statutory frameworks mandated by the apartheid regime, shows many problems arising from what are essentially different cultural perspectives (Bush & Moloi, 2006). Adams and Waghid (2003:19), for example, point out that the failure of ‘cross-boundary’ black leaders to function effectively ‘as perceived’ by their white colleagues could be a result of the ‘social, and, in particular, economic conditions they come from’, that are inextricably linked to realising the individual’s purpose.
Booysen (2003:5) asserts that, because of the country’s history, South African schools tend to shy away from emphasising cultural differences and tend to focus on assimilation and similarities. She argues that the first step in managing cultural diversity is to recognise and to value diversity. Only then can we learn how to deal with these differences and to build on the similarities and utilise the sameness. The exclusion, or marginalisation, of black leaders in the former Model C (white) schools in South Africa often surfaces in the form of conflict, condescension, superiority, disrespect, misunderstandings, prejudices, stereotyping, and inflexibility (Booysen, 2003:5). In line with this argument, Allard (2002) asserts that culture envelopes us so completely that we often do not realise that there are different ways of dealing with the world, that others may have a different outlook on life, a different logic, a different way of responding to people and situations.
To be continued...
There is limited material on the management of teaching and learning but there is a developing awareness of its significance for South African schools. Christie (2005), for example, asserts that learning is the central purpose of schooling and notes that it has four dimensions: student learning; teacher learning; organisational learning; and the principal as the ‘lead learner’. She concludes that “leading learning is very complex and challenging”.
Recent theoretical work on ‘learning schools’ has emphasised the importance of understanding that different definitions, models, and theories underpinning organisational learning exist and that none is widely accepted (Coetsee, 2003:6; Mitki, Shani & Meiri; 1997; Easterby-Smith, 1990; Fenwik, 1996; Garvin, 1999; Bierema & Berdish, 1996). The following three perspectives on ‘learning schools’ are of particular interest in the South African context.
The normative perspective, suggests that organisational learning only takes place under certain conditions (Coetsee, 2003:6). Work from Senge (1990) and Watkins and Marsick (1993) serve as examples in this regard. The developmental perspective views the learning organisation as representing a late stage of organisational development (Argyris & Schon, 1978). The capability perspective proposes that all organisations have the inherent ability to learn and that there are different ways an organisation can learn (Yeung, Ulrich, Nason & Von Glonow, 1999).
Furthermore, Kim (1998) and Schein (1997) see the learning school as increasing an organisation’s capability to take effective action, while Dixon (1999) focuses on the intentional use of learning processes at the individual, group and system levels to ensure continuous transformation in the organisation so as to satisfy its stakeholders by turning knowledge into real value (McKenzie & Winkelen, 2004). Relatedly, Senge et al. (1996:3) observe that a learning organisation is a place where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together. Pedler, Burgoyne and Boydell (1991) and Watkins and Marsick (1993) place emphasis on the facilitation of learning by all the members with the view to continuous transformation, while Garvin (1994) emphasises skill at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge and at modifying behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insights. Schein (1997) suggests a continuous strategic process and direction that is integrated with work and which results in changes in knowledge, beliefs, and behaviours.
Although the theories and models presented above provide angles on how to construct learning organisations, in the context of South Africa, achieving the status of a learning school is difficult and complex, given the nature of the differing experiences of school leaders, teachers and learners. Jansen (2002: 121) argues that these experiences are mediated by the way teachers and learners understand and act on their value commitments, personal backgrounds, and professional interests in the context of change.
‘Cross-boundary’ leadership
Soudien (2002:274) asserts that people’s histories condition the narratives they construct because of the complexity of working with the historical baggage of apartheid and its racialising effects. He claims that in his study of teacher professionalism there were: several moments when racial realities were naturalised into people’s explanations, where people rendered their stories as if they were living in worlds which were structured naturally, as opposed to deliberately and in racial terms.
The author’s study of ‘cross-boundary’ leaders, working across the divisive statutory frameworks mandated by the apartheid regime, shows many problems arising from what are essentially different cultural perspectives (Bush & Moloi, 2006). Adams and Waghid (2003:19), for example, point out that the failure of ‘cross-boundary’ black leaders to function effectively ‘as perceived’ by their white colleagues could be a result of the ‘social, and, in particular, economic conditions they come from’, that are inextricably linked to realising the individual’s purpose.
Booysen (2003:5) asserts that, because of the country’s history, South African schools tend to shy away from emphasising cultural differences and tend to focus on assimilation and similarities. She argues that the first step in managing cultural diversity is to recognise and to value diversity. Only then can we learn how to deal with these differences and to build on the similarities and utilise the sameness. The exclusion, or marginalisation, of black leaders in the former Model C (white) schools in South Africa often surfaces in the form of conflict, condescension, superiority, disrespect, misunderstandings, prejudices, stereotyping, and inflexibility (Booysen, 2003:5). In line with this argument, Allard (2002) asserts that culture envelopes us so completely that we often do not realise that there are different ways of dealing with the world, that others may have a different outlook on life, a different logic, a different way of responding to people and situations.
To be continued...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-07 10:58 pm (UTC)