Suchergebnisse

After the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, changes have taken place to eliminate the previous racially discriminating practices in the education system. These changes, among others, included the desegregation of schools, the establishment of the South African Schools Act (SASA), the introduction of no-fee schools, and feeding schemes. Despite these measures to counteract the detrimental circumstances of previously disadvantaged schools, some of the impoverished schools are still not performing according to expectations. A quantitative method with a post positive view was used. The purpose of the research reported in this article was to determine whether such schools demonstrated a resistance to the change initiatives in education introduced in South Africa. An investigation into the underperformance of impoverished schools revealed that impoverished schools that underperformed might have suffered from some form of resistance to change.

This article investigates the relationship between effective organizational culture and student discipline in a boys' boarding house at an urban South African school. Ethnographical methods (observation and interviews) were employed. The study reports on the results pertaining to organizational culture, namely, tangible manifestations of the organizational culture, that is, traditions, ceremonies, symbols, and the external and internal appearance of the boarding house. It also reports on the intangible manifestations, that is, students' and teachers' beliefs and the mission, vision, values, and norms of the boarding house itself. In conclusion, an explanation is tendered for the positive relationship that can be shown to exist between the organizational culture and learner discipline.

Social justice, defined as an impetus towards a socially just educational world, is based on the assumption that all people, irrespective of belief or societal position, are entitled to be treated according to the values of human rights, human dignity and equality. Diverging from the classical positivist approach in social science research that takes injustice as its impetus, the researchers departed from a socio-rationalist approach into exploring sustainable management strategies for effective social justice praxis. This approach has enabled the construction of a conceptual-theoretical framework and an iterative qualitative inquiry, which has as its central principal the sustainable management strategies for effective social justice praxis. Four key findings affirmed the belief that good praxis was to be found in Gemeinschaft relationships, in the influence exerted by government and education systems and structures, where government and principals were found to be co-responsible in ensuring that the best interest of the child was served. This responsibility included practices found in collaborative efforts, where communities became the guardians of their schools due to a disciplined school that followed constitutional values. Lastly, these practitioners aligned their management strategies with human rights values, as well as human dignity and equality, and their strategies found pride of place in extant ubuntu principles.

Changes are taken place in the South African society, especially in education, to address the previous discriminatory practices in favor of a free and democratic dispensation. Literature shows that change always goes hand in hand with resistance to it. However, literature pertaining to the perceptions of principals and teachers about resistance to change in education is limited, hence the rationale for this research. The purpose of this article is to report on the differences and the extent of the differences between teachers' and principals' perceptions regarding resistance to change in impoverished schools of a South African province. A quantitative approach is followed. The d-values and t-tests indicate significant differences between the perceptions of principals and teachers about resistance to change in their respective schools. Teachers' reactions to change in schools are generally overloaded with resisting forces while principals' experiences of change are more optimistic with fewer resisting forces.

A number of factors have been identified that affect academic achievement of learners. Among these factors, organizational culture seems to be a key factor. This is a complex factor characterized by many variables. To classify the variables included in organizational culture, a theoretical model was constructed. Two sets of variables were identified from the model: the tangible and intangible variables. The findings in this research indicate that a healthy and positive organizational culture exists in high-achieving schools whereas the same cannot be said for lowachieving schools. A positive organizational culture seems to exercise an exceptionally positive influence on members of a school and is instrumental in directing their behavior in achieving the stated goals of the school. It is recommended that management strategies should be developed and put in place to improve the organizational culture of low-achieving schools with the aim of improving their academic achievement.