Professional management and governance of public schools

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LIMITATIONS OF EXISTING LITERATURE

Despite an extensive body of research on primary education in South Africa, no study that has been conducted extensively on stakeholder experiences of enabling children’s rights to basic education through public primary school admission policies has been found. A scrutiny of the available literature and scholarship on basic education has revealed that many of these studies address issues regarding curriculum reform, safety and security in schools, school governance and school governing bodies, teacher development and professional training, and management and leadership. Notable are the many studies dealing with school curriculum transformation in South Africa dating back to Curriculum 2005, its abandonment in 2000, and the introduction of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) to guide curricular reform in South Africa and its implementation, successes and challenges (Schwarz & Cavener, 1994:330; Brandt, 1994:7; Brady, 1995:10; Jansen, 1995:247; Jansen, 2007; Berger, 2003:26; Modisaotsile, 2012:4; Mouton, Louw & Strydom 2012:211; Malan, 2010:24) and other studies such as the one by Malan (2000:28), who is of the view that “OBE is firmly rooted in past educational approaches and does not represent a paradigm shift as advocated by OBE proponents”.

International framework

Eide, Krause and Rosas (1995:195) argue that the importance and the peculiarity of the right to basic education results from the fact that it contains aspects of all three generations of rights, namely civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights, and group rights. As noted by Churr (2015:2408), this right intersects with many other rights. It is not value neutral (Claude 2005:37). The intersection of the right to education with other rights was concisely stated by Claude (2005:37) when he wrote the following: Education is intrinsically valuable as humankind’s most effective tool for personal empowerment. Education takes on the status of a human right because it is integral to and enhances human dignity through its fruits of knowledge, wisdom and understanding. Moreover, for instrumental reasons, education has the status of a multi-faceted social, economic and cultural human right. It is a social right because in the context of the community it promotes the full development of the human personality. It is an economic right because it facilitates economic self-sufficiency through employment or self-employment. It is a cultural right because the international community has directed education toward the building of a universal culture of human rights. In short, education is the very prerequisite for the individual to function fully as a human being in modern society.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

In 2012, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) produced an informative publication on school management and access to education relevant to this study (OECD, 2012). In this comparative study, the OECD explored the similarities and/or differences of school systems. In particular, the study attempted to investigate and evaluate the management of public schools in the education systems in OECD and identified partner countries. The OECD study also investigated how school admission criteria considerations such as “students’ academic achievement, religious affiliation, academic and/or non-academic interests, or relationship with other family members who have attended, and others lead to inaccessibility of education and to socio-economic stratification of communities” (OECD, 2012:40). The situation is complicated by the education reforms in the OECD study countries that “tended to give more autonomy and authority to parents and students to choose schools that better meet their educational needs or preferences” (OECD, 2012:44).

Policies and practices in Canada

Canada has a federal government and 13 provinces and territories. The schooling system is organised into elementary schools (primary schools) and secondary schools (high schools). According to Withworth (1995:404), education authority in Canada is devolved with each province having a department of education. Schools are led by principals with the help of school boards. The boards are groups of elected members of a community with delegated authority from the provinces to manage and govern some aspects of public education in their areas. In this respect, the Canadian School Boards are to a certain degree similar to South African SGBs. The boards establish or formulate policies, and procedures for the implementation of such policies. Galway and Wiens (2013:5) state that, depending on whether the boards exercise local authority – such as hiring and dismissal staff, and providing school facilities or exercise provincial authority – such as taxation, textbook selection and curriculum, the Canadian school boards also run the business of the school through their leadership and oversight of the operations at the school.

Policies and practices in Finland

The provision of free basic education in Finland has a long history. The Compulsory Education Act of 1921, for example, made provision for all Finnish children aged seven to 13 to obtain a compulsory six-year basic education. Currently compulsory basic education is provided for nine years to children between the ages of seven and 16 years in terms of Section 9 (1) read with Section 25 (1) of the Basic Education Act of 1998 (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2014). According to Lampinen (2003:84), Finnish school admission policies and practices have been guided by the principles of inclusion and equal rights. A study conducted in 2007, Improving School Leadership, Finland, reported that “the principle underlying pre-primary, basic and upper secondary education is to guarantee basic educational security for all, irrespective of their place of residence, language and economic standing” (Ministry of Education, 2007:9).

Policies and practices in the United States of America

The United States is one of the countries that consider admission of learners on criteria that include parents’ endorsement of the school’s instructional and religious philosophy, and the socio-economic background of the learners. The education system in the United States of America has a history of grappling with a myriad of issues, including a separate but unequal schooling system. According to Boyer (1983:189), the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s saw a wave of significant efforts to make American public education equally accessible to everyone. One of the ground-breaking developments in this regard was the American Supreme Court ruling in the 1954 case of Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka (Brown v Board of Education, 1954). The ruling was that all learners were entitled to equal access to public education and that separate but equal schools were inherently discriminatory.

TABLE OF CONTENTS :

• DEDICATION
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• ABSTRACT
• DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY
• LIST OF ACRONYMS
• LIST OF FIGURES
• KEYWORDS
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
  • 1.1 GENERAL
  • 1.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
  • 1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT
  • 1.4 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
  • 1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
    • 1.5.1 Primary research question
    • 1.5.2 Secondary research questions
  • 1.6 RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
  • 1.7 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
  • 1.8 CLARIFICATION OF KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
  • 1.8.1 Admission
    • 1.8.2 Admission policy
    • 1.8.3 Basic education
    • 1.8.4 Co-operative and collaborative school goverance
    • 1.8.5 Principal
    • 1.8.6 Public primary schools
    • 1.8.7 Professional management and governance of public schools
    • 1.8.8 Stakeholder
  • 1.9 ASSUMPTIONS OF THE STUDY
  • 1.10 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
  • 1.11 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
  • 1.12 CONTRIBUTION AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH
  • 1.13 CHAPTER PLANNING
  • 1.14 CONCLUSION
• CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
  • 2.1 INTRODUCTION
    • 2.1.1 General
    • 2.1.2 Thematic approach to literature evaluation, analysis and interpretation
  • 2.2 LIMITATIONS OF EXISTING LITERATURE
  • 2.3 CONTEXTUALISATION OF THE CHILD’S RIGHT TO BASIC EDUCATION
    • 2.3.1 International framework
    • 2.3.2 African continental and regional frameworks
  • 2.4 SOUTH AFRICAN CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORKS
  • RELEVANT TO THE RIGHT TO BASIC EDUCATION
  • 2.5.INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMISSIONS
    • 2.5.1 The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
    • 2.5.2 Policies and practices in Canada
    • 2.5.3 Policies and practices in England
    • 2.5.4 Policies and practices in Finland
    • 2.5.5 Policies and practices in the United States of America
    • 2.5.6 Summary
  • 2.6 SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE ON PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL
  • ADMISSIONS AND
  • PRACTICES
    • 2.6.1 A historical perspective
    • 2.6.2 National sphere: School admission policy and legislative framework
    • 2.6.3 Provincial sphere: Gauteng Province school admission practices
    • 2.6.4 School level perspectives: School admission policies and regulations
    • 2.6.4 Summary of the school admission policies in South Africa
  • 2.7 PIVOTAL JUDISPRUDENCE AND JUDICIAL PRECEDENCE ON THE
  • MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF LEARNER ADMISSION
  • POLICIES
  • 2.7.1 Importance of case law
  • 2.7.2 Rivonia Primary School case
  • 2.7.3 FEDSAS case
  • 2.8 EXPERIENCES OF STAKEHOLDERS ON PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL
  • ADMISSION POLICIES
    • 2.8.1 Overview of stakeholders
    • 2.8.2 Admission policy implementation and experiences of principals
    • 2.8.3 Admission policy implementation and experiencesof the Department of
  • Education
    • 2.8.4 Admission policy implementation and experiences of parents and learners
    • 2.8.5 Admission policy implementation and experiences of School Governing Bodies
    • 2.9 INTRICACIES OF THE MANAGEMENT OF ADMISSION POLICIES
  • 2.9.1 Co-operative governance of schools
  • 2.10. INTER-RELATION AMONG LANGUAGE RIGHTS, SCHOOL ADMISSIONS,
  • AND THE RIGHT TO BASIC EDUCATION
  • 2.11 CONCLUSION
• CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
  • 3.1 INTRODUCTION
  • 3.2 RESEARCH PARADIGM
    • 3.2.1 Secondary research questions
    • 3.2.2 Purpose of the study
    • 3.2.3 Research aims and objectives
    • 3.2.4 Rationale for the study
  • 3.3 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
    • 3.3.1 Conceptual framework outline
    • 3.3.2 Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA)
    • 3.3.3 Co-operative governance
  • 3.4 RESEARCH APPROACH AND DESIGN
    • 3.4.1 Research approach
    • 3.4.2 Research design
      • 3.4.2.1 Phenomenological research
  • 3.5 METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION
    • 3.5.1 Document analysis
    • 3.5.2 Interviews
      • 3.5.2.1 Structured/open – ended face-to-face interviews
      • 3.5.2.2 Collecting the structured open ended face-to-face interview data
    • 3.5.3 Existing literature
    • 3.5.4 Sampling of research site and participants
  • 3.6 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
    • 3.6.1 Permission
    • 3.6.2 Confidentiality and privacy
    • 3.6.3 Voluntary participation and informed consent
  • 3.7 DATA ANALYSIS
  • 3.8 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
  • 3.9 SUMMARY
• CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPTRETATION
  • 4.1 INTRODUCTION
  • 4.2 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
    • 4.2.1 Theme 1: The state’s obligations regarding the right to a basic education in
    • terms of Section 29 of the Constitution
      • 4.2.1.1 Gauteng Department of Education
      • 4.2.1.2 School Governing Body Federations
      • 4.2.1.3 School Governing Bodies
      • 4.2.1.4 School principals
      • 4.2.1.5 Parents
    • 4.2.2 Theme 2: The impact of the Gauteng online admission system on learners’
  • right to basic education
    • 4.2.2.1 Gauteng Department of Education
    • 4.2.2.2 School Governing Body Federations
    • 4.2.2.3 School Governing Bodies
    • 4.2.2.4 School principals
    • 4.2.2.5 Parents
• 4.2.3 Theme 3: Admission policy as key enabler of the right to a basic
• education
• 4.2.3.1 Gauteng Department of Education
• 4.2.3.2 School Governing Body Federations
• 4.2.3.3 School Governing Bodies
• 4.2.3.4 School principals
• 4.2.3.5 Parents
• 4.2.4 Theme 4: Critical challenges in the learner admissions to public primary
• schools policy and the impact of the policy on the right to a basic
• education
• 4.2.4.1 Gauteng Department of Education
• 4.2.4.2 School Governing Body Federations
• 4.2.4.3 School Governing Bodies
• 4.2.4.4 School principals
• 4.2.4.5 Parents
• 4.2.5 Theme 5: Recourse to the courts in disputes emanating from the
• implementation of the learner admissions to public primary schools
• policy
• 4.2.5.1Gauteng Department of Education
• 4.2.5.2 School Governing Body Federations
• 4.2.5.3 School Governing Bodies
• 4.2.5.4 Parents
• 4.2.6 Theme 6: Understanding and operationalisation of co-operative governance in
• school admissions
  • 4.2.6.1 Gauteng Department of Education
  • 4.2.6.2 School Governing Body Federations
  • 4.2.6.3 School Governing Bodies
  • 4.2.6.4 School principals
  • 4.2.6.5 Parents
• 4.3 CONCLUSION

• CHAPTER 5: OVERVIEW, FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND
  • CONCLUSION
  • 5.1 INTRODUCTION
  • 5.2 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
  • 5.2.1 Chapter
  • 5.2.2 Chapter
  • 5.2.3 Chapter
  • 5.2.4 Chapter
  • 5.3 FINDINGS FROM THE DATA COLLECTED
  • 5.3.1 General
  • 5.3.2 Outline of findings
  • 5.3.3 Specific findings linked to the various aims of the study
  • 5.4 CONCLUSION ABOUT THE WORKING ASSUMPTIONS
  • 5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS
  • 5.5.1 For the improvement of practice
  • 5.5.2 Recommendations for further research
  • 5.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
  • 5.7 CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY
  • 5.8 CONCLUSION
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • LIST OF APPENDICES

GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT
Stakeholder experiences of enabling children’s rights to basic education through public primary school admission policies