Perceptions of the principal’s role in democratic school governance in South Africa

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.     

Exploring Teachers’ Meta-Cognitive Skills in Mathematics Classes in Selected Rural Primary Schools in Eastern Cape,South Africa

Undoubtedly the acquisition of mathematical skills for problem solving is critically important in today’s sophisticated technological world. There is growing evidence that meta-cognition application is an important component of academic success in general and impacts on mathematical achievement in particular. Teachers’ application of meta-cognition therefore directs and reflects their teaching-practice behaviour which influences their learners’ learning with understanding in problem-solving. The purpose of the study reported on in this article was to explore teachers’ available meta-cognitive skills in class with the intention of supporting learners’ development of mathematics in problem-solving in some selected rural primary schools in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The participants were three teachers purposefully selected from three primary schools. Interviews were conducted with the three teachers and three lessons were observed. The interviews, as an extension of observation, focused on the teachers’ knowledge or understanding of available meta-cognitive skills and how they used these skills in helping their learners’ development of mathematics problem-solving. The findings included a detailed exploration of the teachers’ acquisition and use of specific metacognitive skills, either consciously or unconsciously, during teaching and learning processes in order to develop their mathematics learners’ meta-cognitive skills as well as in solving mathematical problems. The results of the observation showed that there was evidence of teachers applying meta-cognitive skills unconsciously in assisting their learners in problemsolving in class. The interviews confirmed this evidence of available meta-cognitive skills which the teachers usually applied in assisting their learners in problem-solving in class. Recommendations have been made regarding teachers’ methods of teaching to improve the development of such skills in the lives of their mathematics learners through problemsolving.     

The ‘Affective Place-Making’ Practices of Girls at a High School in Cape Town,South Africa

This article focuses on the affective place-making practices of girls at a private high school on the outskirts of Cape Town. The article responds to the question: How do high school girls' affects and social bodies contribute to their place-making practices and to the type of place they make of their school? Our focus is on understanding the affective, emotional, and interactional dimensions that constitute 5 girls' strategic interactions in the out-of-classroom spaces of their school. Drawing on theories of affect, the article is based on a 6-month ethnographic research study at Mount Valley High (pseudonym). We present 3 specific incidents from our data to illustrate each of the key dimensions that we believe relate to the girls' affective place-making practices. We develop the idea that spaces such as schools become places as a result of the interaction between the expressive institutional culture of the school, on the one hand, and the vigorous interaction of the students' engagement with each other in the various spaces of school, on the other. We present the 3 critical incidents to advance a conceptual argument about the link between affect and place-making in the light of the school's expressive culture. We argue that the girls in our study interpret the culture of their school and act in response to its discourses. They go on to make place in highly specific ways by recreating the school as a place through a combination of individual, group and strategic place-making practices, turning the school into a particular place.     

The key factors affecting students’ individual interest in school science lessons

Individual interest in school science lessons can be defined as a relatively stable and enduring personal emotion comprising affective and behavioural reactions to events in the regular science lessons at school. Little research has compared the importance of different factors affecting students’ individual interest in school science lessons. The present study aimed to address this gap, using a mixed methods design. Qualitative interview data were collected from 60 Hong Kong junior secondary school students, who were asked to describe the nature of their interest in science lessons and the factors to which they attribute this. Teacher interviews, parent interviews, and classroom observations were conducted to triangulate student interview data. Five factors affecting students’ individual interest in school science lessons were identified: situational influences in science lessons, individual interest in science, science self-concept, grade level, and gender. Quantitative data were then collected from 591 students using a questionnaire. Structural equation modelling was applied to test a hypothesised model, which provided an acceptable fit to the student data. The strongest factor affecting students’ individual interest in school science lessons was science self-concept, followed by individual interest in science and situational influences in science lessons. Grade level and gender were found to be nonsignificant factors. These findings suggest that teachers should pay special attention to the association between academic self-concept and interest if they want to motivate students to learn science at school.     

The school leader’s role in school-based development

ABSTRACT

Background: While the school leader’s role is undoubtedly instrumental in school effectiveness, the specific influence of formal leadership on pupil learning is indirect and can be difficult to determine. Research findings suggest that school leaders can influence school organisation and pupil learning by acting catalytically, thus unlocking their schools’ existing potential. In school-based development, school leaders and their staff undergo a workplace development process, using school resources to contribute to it.

Purpose: This article explores the concept of leadership in school-based development, focusing on leading teacher learning processes in relation to pupil learning. The research problem is formulated in the following question: How is the school leader’s role enacted and experienced when enhancing teachers’ learning in school-based development? The intent of the study was to further the understanding of leadership in school-based development.

Sources of information and method: A qualitative interview study was conducted with teachers and leaders from three lower secondary schools, roughly 2 years after the schools participated in a formal school-based development project which was initiated by the Norwegian education authority. To present the findings based on the collected data, narrative texts were constructed.

Findings: The findings draw attention to the importance of leaders’ participation in the teacher learning processes of school-based development. The study highlights the importance of leaders building trust in their schools: development processes must be collegium-rooted with common goals for the whole school. The interplay of culture, structure and content is found to be necessary for successful school-based development. Furthermore, school leaders need to balance internal and external accountability, moving school practices towards local goals, which are constructed within national overall aims.

Conclusions: The study suggests that leaders require an overview of developmental processes to manage to support and progress development; leadership needs to be distributed. Further research on leaders’ learning in relation to school-based development can generate knowledge that serves as a thinking tool, thereby informing leaders’ actions in support of school-based development.     

Shape-shifting Davydov’s ideas for early number learning in South Africa

In this paper, we share details of a South African early grades’ number intervention informed by aspects of Davydov’s writing on early number teaching and learning. A key part of Davydov’s approach to early number teaching involves starting with attention to relationships between quantities rather than with counting. The Structuring Number Starters (SNS) intervention focused—over a nine-year period—on supporting early grades’ students to move beyond the calculating-by-counting approaches that are prevalent in South Africa. In attending to this focus, the intervention shifted increasingly towards an emphasis on relationships between quantities, though not in the same format or task sequence as advocated by Davydov. The contextual and cultural features that led to our adaptations—or shape-shifting—are highlighted in this paper. We interrogate key aspects of Davydov’s approaches to early number teaching in relation to key features typical of South African classroom mathematics teaching in order to understand the evolution of the SNS initiative. Quasi-longitudinal interview-based assessment data available from a cross-attainment sample of students in 2011, 2014 and 2018 indicate shifts over time from calculating-by-counting to calculating-by-structuring. These outcomes point to successes with moves into increasingly structured ways of working with early number, but suggest also that these successes may be contingent on some fluency with forward and backward number word sequences. The outcomes suggest that it is feasible to explore interventions directing attention to early number structure from the outset in larger scale studies.

     

A Learner’s Voyage: My Moon Exploration in 2009

My childhood experience in school was fragmented from my out of school experience where I lived in rural China. School subject matters were reduced to bits and pieces. I excelled in this artificial symbolic world. Progressing from preschool to graduate school, I trained to teach in that world, and gained the opportunity to study at Harvard. My first course there was with Eleanor Duckworth. To put students in close contact with subject matter, and to listen to learners explain what they think, Duckworth's course creates space where learners develop direct relationship with subject matter. Throughout the semester, we record the moon as we observe it, share observations, and discuss questions. In contrast with my prior schooling, we learners are responsible for following our emerging curiosities. Narrating from my moon study in that course, I chronicle how I came to grasp what it means to learn through truly experiencing exploratory learning. Reentering my moon study in researching for this paper became a search for what previous years of my schooling had taken away from me: confidence and dignity as a learner.     

The Role of Formulaic Speech in SLA Learner’s Spoken Language Performance

A controversial issue in the field of Second Language spoken English acquisition is which one plays a more important role, the formulaic speech or the creative rules? And researchers have long kept different opinions about the definition of formulaic speech. The present paper discusses the definition of formulaic speech, describes relevant empirical studies and summarizes some roles of formulaic speech from our own experiments, hoping to provide some insights for second language spoken English teaching and learning.     

The Chinese high school student’s stress in the school and academic achievement

In a sample of 466 Chinese high school students, we examined the relationships between Chinese high school students’ stress in the school and their academic achievements. Regression mixture modelling identified two different classes of the effects of Chinese high school students’ stress on their academic achievements. One class contained 87% of the students. In this class, the students’ stress negatively predicted their academic achievements. For the other 13% of the students, their stress did not predict their academic achievements. Furthermore, we found that gender did not moderate the relationships between Chinese high school students’ stress in the school and their academic achievements.     

Priority-setting in the roll out of South Africa’s National Integrated ECD Policy

The South African National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy was approved by the South African Cabinet in 2015. Given capacity and financial constraints, all services outlined cannot be implemented in a single step. Priorities must be set. We examine the budget implications (total cost and cost per child) and benefits of the four largest components of the Policy: interventions to improve pregnancy outcomes; home visits for at-risk mothers of children under 2 years of age; community-based playgroups for mothers and children, and center-based early childhood development services. Further, we identify which services are based on the strongest evidence, the value-based trade-offs that characterise the prioritising decisions, and which logistical factors favour alternative orderings of services. The interventions to improve pregnancy outcomes are low cost, based on sound evidence and would make use of the established healthcare infrastructure. Home visits for at-risk mothers are associated with improved development for targeted children and consequential benefits for caregivers and broader society. Playgroups are a promising low-cost intervention, but further evidence is required to determine their effectiveness. Centre-based services are expensive and generate smaller developmental returns, but provide childcare. The results highlight the value judgements required to determine the appropriate sequencing of interventions.     

Funding and the attainment of transformation goals in South Africa’s higher education

The link between the funding of higher education and the attainment of higher education transformation goals in South Africa, especially access by students from previously under‐represented communities, is the main focus of this paper. Specifically, the paper examines three questions: (a) How does public funding of higher education encourage (or discourage) the attainment of higher education transformation goals in South Africa? (b) What challenges do frequent tuition fee increases pose to the attainment of higher education transformation goals? (c) How can South Africa’s higher education be made affordable for indigent (mostly black) students? The paper concludes that although South Africa’s higher education funding formula is generally geared towards attaining the goals of transformation, several of its aspects are inimical to the achievement of these goals. Further, declining public funding of higher education and frequent tuition fee increases by public universities vis‐à‐vis higher education’s natural inclination to reproduce, and even to exacerbate, existing social disparities and inequalities do not bode well for the attainment of transformation in South Africa’s higher education. This is aggravated by existing high levels of poverty and inequality mostly affecting the majority of the communities that were marginalised during apartheid.     

“Let’s not leave this problem”: exploring inclusive education in rural South Africa

Inclusive education represents a new agenda for educational reform that spans a wide range of socio-political, cultural, ethical, personal and interpersonal dimensions. Working towards educational inclusion demands commitments, responsibilities and initiatives on the part of all parties to take into consideration the meanings and purpose of education and social justice, to engage and take collective actions in their struggle to combat the diverse forms of educational and social exclusion. This paper presents an educational initiative to implement inclusive education in rural KwaZulu-Natal, an area of South Africa that is most seriously affected by the pandemic of HIV and AIDS. Through the implementation of participatory video-making projects in two schools, the authors seek to empower the voices and actions of teachers in an effort to cope with the problems of poverty and marginalization facing many children. The outcomes of this type of participatory work with teachers have implications for the policy-making process, which in turn, could change the ways educational policy research is structured and implemented.

The reflexive adaptations of school principals in a ‘local’ South African space

This paper is an analysis of the work of three principals in an impoverished black township in post‐apartheid South Africa. Based on qualitative approaches, it discusses the principals’ entry into the township, and their navigation of their schools’ surrounding social dynamics. It combines the lenses of ‘space’ and ‘performance’ to analyse the reflexive basis on which they establish their principal roles. The paper suggests that their identities as principals were established in light of a range of engaged pedagogical performances. It is argued that these were enacted based on nuanced readings of their discursive environment and the enactment of strategic practices that provided them an authoritative platform for their principal roles.     

The Democratization of Schools and the Politics of Teachers’ Work in South Africa

As the South African state begins to democratize, so questions are raised about how this process might be mediated by schools and teachers or how schools’ and teachers’ practices might inform the wider process of social change. This paper explores these issues through an examination of how teachers sought to alter relations of authority and the nature of their work within schools, and how these have interacted with new managerial and state initiatives. It examines the conditions of teachers’ work under apartheid, the challenge to these by the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union and the struggles in schools over changing relations of authority and teachers’ work in the crucial transition years of 1990‐1997. It argues that alternative conceptions and practices were developed and institutionalized. This paper uses the results of both a 3 year longitudinal study and research conducted on teacher appraisal with the teachers’ union.     

Factors affecting students’ satisfaction in engineering disciplines: traditional vs. blended approaches

In this paper a two-year field study was carried out to analyse how satisfaction differs across the traditional and blended learning methods. Altogether, 21 courses for graduate and postgraduate engineering students were evaluated. Several variables and their relationship with student satisfaction in the first year, with all courses delivered in traditional mode, were compared with student satisfaction in the second year, which had the same courses delivered in blended mode. Results suggest that student satisfaction is greater in blended courses than in face-to-face courses. This can be explained because the levels of class attendance, motivation and collaboration with classmates were higher in blended learning than in classroom instruction. In addition, class attendance, access to teachers, collaboration with classmates and motivation were found to be leading predictors of student satisfaction in blended environments.     

The state and the liberal universities in South Africa: 1948–1990

Only the liberal (or open) universities in South Africa publicly opposed the National Government and itsapartheid policies, but for the most part only over issues of university and, later, academic freedom. The history of the period is not simply one of conflict between state and universities, however. It is also one of co-operation in, for example, a programme of state-financed university expansion (from which all races benefited). This article explores the bases for both conflict and co-operation. These include a degree of government respect for higher education and, on the other hand, the availability to the universities of certain political resources. The universities came under considerable pressure from a repressive government, but the story is not a simple one of good against evil or freedom against totalitarianism. It is both more complex and (in my view) more interesting.     

The Construction of General Principles about the Exemplification in the Electronic Learner’s Dictionary

Dictionary has many functions, in which the function of definition is of very importance because the main purpose of dictionary is providing the entry’s meaning information for the readers so that the readers can understand and use the entry-word and the realization of the purpose completely depends on lexicographical definition. However, the function of definition is limited, which need the exemplification to assist it. Therefore, the exemplification becomes very important, too. Good exemplification can assist definition, provide grammatical information, and supplement the information usage and so on. Many researches studied the exemplification of dictionary, its principles and so on. Dictionary changed much with the development of technology and many kinds of electronic dictionaries appeared. Few studies are involved with the new-type dictionary. Based on the general principles of the exemplification in a learner’s printed dictionary, it is necessary to construct the general principles about the exemplification in the electronic learner’s dictionary.