An Education System’s Perspective on Turning Around South Africa’s Dysfunctional Schools

Pretorius, S. G.

doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n15p348

Cited by 13 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…South Africa has failed to roll out the Minimum Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure across provinces-learners continue to be taught in dilapidated structures and that emboldens their levels of dysfunctionality. Evidence from research confirms that "Township" schools lost their shine because majority are dysfunctional and learners opted to enrol at urban-based schools (Department of Education, 2001;SACMEQ, 2011;Pretorius, 2014).…”

Section: Investing In Dysfunctional Schools-an Affirmation Narrativementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regrettably, the presidential declaration and "order" turned to a mere soundbite devoid of robust activism-the culture of teaching and learning did not fundamentally change. Incidences of teachers failing to "be in class, on time, teaching" as per the presidential order are well documented (Bloch, 2006;Monyooe et al, 2014;Monyooe, 2005;Pretorius, 2012Pretorius, & 2014SACMEQ, 2011). A lacklustre approach to educational challenges has led to an exponential increase in the number of dysfunctional schools across the nine provinces of South Africa.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He writes that Finland's success is anchored on "Well-pre-pared teachers, pedagogically designed schools, good school principals". Regrettably, South Africa has been found wanting in these categories (Bloch, 2009;Monyooe et al, 2014;Monyooe, 2005;SACMEQ, 2011;Pretorius, 2014).…”

Section: Investing In Dysfunctional Schools-an Affirmation Narrativementioning

confidence: 99%

“…School principals, teachers were implored to be more professional and learners were to display utmost commitment to learning and education in general. Regrettably, teachers" professionalism and commitment to the craft was found wanting (Bloch, 2006;Monyooe et al, 2014;Pretorius, 2012;Pretorius, 2014;SACMEQ, 2011) forms an integral part of the teaching profession. It "reflects doing the right thing rather than doing things right".…”

Section: "Phantom" School Leadershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reclassifying Township Schools—South Africa’s Educational Tinkering Expedition!

Monyooe¹

2017

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This article critiques a proposed policy by the Gauteng Department of Education to reclassify province's "Township" schools. In 2016, Gauteng MEC for Education Panyasa Lesufi announced that province's schools will be reclassified to obliterate the "Township" School Tag commonly associated with the past regime. The reclassification is based on a three-pronged school performance category in a) Matric pass rates, b) Maths and Science passes and c) Bachelor passes. The new classification is arbitrarily divided into the following categories: 1) Poor schools with 0% to 40% performance; 2) Fair schools with 41% to 60% performance; 3) Good schools with 61% to 80% performance and; 4) Great schools with 81% to 100% performance. It is argued that the three tier classification criteria lack theoretical rigour and explication to justify policy's credence and implementability. It further argues that "Township schools" exist in real geo-spaces, and changing name tag shall not obliterate their geographic presence. It concludes by cautioning that classifying schools based on performance might have unintended consequences, for instance, schools tagged as "poor" might naturally disappear as parents would not want to enrol their children in schools state deem dysfunctional. Failure by both "Poor" and "Fair" schools to enrol adequate learners puts more pressure on rest of schools to accommodate additional learners. When learners' en-masse moves to urban schooling environments, it creates an operational conundrum and has potential to destabilize the educational provisioning processes and system in general. In a nutshell, the proposed reclassification of schools by the Gauteng Department of Education is flawed and unsustainable because it: a) waters down systemic challenges to simple act of rearranging of schools based on sectorial learner performance rather than holistic and research based form of rationality; b) fails to interrogate a suite of intertwined factors that underpin educational provisioning in its entirety; c) is sectorial in outlook and fails articulate modus operandi to institutionalize teacher efficacy and organizational effectiveness; d) obfuscates tenets for robust engagement on creative whole school improvement trajectories firmly anchored on solid research; e) will not enhance learner performance and quality education; and f) is an inconclusive political tinkering expedition devoid of sustainable beneficiation.

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Section: Investing In Dysfunctional Schools-an Affirmation Narrativementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Investing In Dysfunctional Schools-an Affirmation Narrativementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: "Phantom" School Leadershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reclassifying Township Schools—South Africa’s Educational Tinkering Expedition!

Monyooe¹

2017

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“…(ibid) On the other hand, Mausethagen (2013, 18) argues that, often during processes of educational reform, "conditions of trust, discretion, and competence, which are regarded as necessary for professional practice, are, to a greater extent, being challenged and regulated by new governance and control systems". Added to these tensions are South African teachers' long history of conflict and resistance to educational authorities (Chisholm and Chilisa 2012), and the tendency for research to emphasise the poor knowledge and skills of management and teachers (see, for example, Bush, Jobert, Kiggundu and van Rooyen 2010;Pretorius 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing educational traditions with the change laboratory

Botha¹

2017

Educ. as change

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This paper outlines the use of a form of research intervention known as the Change laboratory to illustrate how the processes of organisational change initiated at a secondary school can be applied to develop tools and practices to analyse and potentially re-make educational traditions in a bottom-up manner. In this regard it is shown how a culturalhistorical activity theory (CHAT) perspective can be combined with a relational approach to generate the theoretical and practical tools for managing change at a school. referring to an ongoing research project at a school, the paper describes how teachers and management there, with the aid of the researcher, attempt to re-configure their educational praxis by drawing on past, present and future scenarios from their schooling activity. These are correlated with similarly historically evolving theoretical models and recorded empirical data using the Vygotskyian method of double stimulation employed by the Change laboratory. A relational conceptualisation of the school's epistemological, pedagogical and organisational traditions is used to map out the connections between various actors, resources, roles and divisions of labour at the school. In this way the research intervention proposes a model of educational change that graphically represents it as a network of mediated relationships so that its artefacts, practices and traditions can be clearly understood and effectively manipulated according to the shared objectives of the teachers and school management. Such a relationally-oriented activity theory approach has significant implications in terms of challenging conventional processes of educational transformation as well as hegemonic knowledge-making traditions themselves.

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The impact of teacher professional conduct on learner experiences and performance in poor school communities in South Africa

Munje

2018

Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education

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An Education System’s Perspective on Turning Around South Africa’s Dysfunctional Schools

Abstract: The

Cited by 13 publications

References 7 publications

Reclassifying Township Schools—South Africa’s Educational Tinkering Expedition!

Reclassifying Township Schools—South Africa’s Educational Tinkering Expedition!

Changing educational traditions with the change laboratory

The impact of teacher professional conduct on learner experiences and performance in poor school communities in South Africa

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