Department of Educational Management and Leadershiphttps://hdl.handle.net/10500/64212024-03-29T05:50:30Z2024-03-29T05:50:30ZThe effects of principals’ leadership style on teachers’ performanceMkhonza, Mathews Sabelohttps://hdl.handle.net/10500/308792024-02-23T12:18:51Z2023-01-01T00:00:00ZThe effects of principals’ leadership style on teachers’ performance
Mkhonza, Mathews Sabelo
School results have been dropping in South Africa and principals are the ones managing school curriculum and assessments. Governement and parents invest a lot of money in education to make sure that they prepare the younger generation for university education and the work environment. On account of this, the beamlight on the performance of students, teachers and schools would make no sense if principals being key leaders in schools are not understood particularly in terms of their leadership style. Therefore, this research aimed at investigating the effects of principals’ leadership style on teachers’ performance in secondary schools in Soweto, South Africa. The research utilised qualitative research approach. The data collection method that was used included interviews and focus group discussion. Data was assembled by drawing a sample of 3 principals, 3 deputy principals and 6 teachers from 3 different schools. Glaringly, there was more male participants compared to female counterparts. Amongst the study findings, is the revelation about results of schools. The study revealed that matric results are good in secondary schools in Soweto, a township in Johannesburg metropolis.This finding contrasts some earlier findings of previous studies about township schools. The good performance of the schools is linked to the principals and their leadership. Most of the teacher participants point to the influence of the principal’s leadership on their work performance. Importantly, as established in this study, there was evidence that suggested that there is a direct effect between democratic leadership style and performance of teachers.
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZThe role of school management to ensure constructive discipline in secondary schools in the Lulekani Circuit, Limpopo ProvinceNdhlovu, Percyhttps://hdl.handle.net/10500/308362024-02-26T14:17:28Z2023-08-27T00:00:00ZThe role of school management to ensure constructive discipline in secondary schools in the Lulekani Circuit, Limpopo Province
Ndhlovu, Percy
The aim of this study was to explore the role of school management in ensuring constructive discipline for effective teaching and learning. This study is based on Skinnerian Model, constructivist paradigm, phenomenological design and qualitative approach. The study was conducted in 4 schools in the Lulekani Circuit of Mopani District. Purposive sampling was used to select a principal and 3 HoDs from each of the 4 selected schools, as participants of the study. Interviews were used to collect data from the participants. Thematic Data Analysis Method was used to analyse the data. An analysis of the data revealed that poor school management, home background, overemphasis on learners’ rights, the media and peer groups contribute to poor discipline in schools. The data revealed that effective implementation of policies and code of conduct, punishing learners who violate code of conduct and stakeholder involvement are the best strategies of maintaining constructive learner discipline.
2023-08-27T00:00:00ZStakeholders’ perspectives on TVET colleges-industry partnerships for employability of graduates : an exploratory study of TVET colleges in Mpumalanga Province, South AfricaNdlovu, Nhlanhlahttps://hdl.handle.net/10500/308172024-02-14T14:04:09Z2023-08-31T00:00:00ZStakeholders’ perspectives on TVET colleges-industry partnerships for employability of graduates : an exploratory study of TVET colleges in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
Ndlovu, Nhlanhla
The purpose of this study was to explore stakeholders’ perspectives on TVET college and industry partnerships for the employability of TVET college graduates. The study investigates the nature of current partnerships, the roles partners play, and the challenges currently being faced. The study also proposes a new framework for improving partnerships between TVET colleges and the industry.
The study was conducted in Mpumalanga, a province of South Africa. The ever-increasing number of unemployed youths as noted by StatsSA and many other organisations motivated me to want to find out if better TVET college and industry partnerships could alleviate the problem of unemployability. It was my assumption in this study that better partnerships between these two stakeholders could yield positive results as far as the employability of TVET college graduates was concerned.
I used a qualitative research design to gather in-depth insights from stakeholders as to how current partnerships could be improved. Data were collected using in-depth interviews, focus groups and document analysis. Participants included TVET college students and graduates, an official from DHET, two Deputy Principals: Academic and two Student Support Services officials responsible for student placement into the workplace. I used interpretivism as a research paradigm. This allowed me to interpret a lot of subjective data collected from the participants. This involved processing large amounts of data and ascribing meaning to them.
Data collected revealed that there was a concerted effort from DHET and TVET colleges to engage partners to improve the employability of TVET college graduates. However, the data also revealed several challenges concerning partnerships. The challenges included a lack of planning, leadership, organisation and supervision or control of the whole process. The other challenge was the complete lack of industry placement for NCV students and a few partnerships forged for NATED students.
In addition to properly managing student placement in industry, I also recommended that instead of the five-to-ten-day workplace-based experience (WBE) for NCV, colleges must consider a completely new programme where students are placed for a whole year in industry, and they are assessed and given marks. I also recommended that these students do a practical project during this placement period so that they gain an even more profound understanding of their vocational programmes. I also recommended that this programme be a compulsory part of the student’s studies. I also recommended a regular review of syllabi to ensure currency and relevance.
The study is useful in that it exposes challenges currently being experienced in TVET colleges and industry partnerships and proposes practical ways of improving these. I believe that better-managed partnerships would result in graduates who are employable and future employers who are confident of the capabilities of these graduates. Involving industry in the training of graduates is of paramount importance.
The research was conducted in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. It would be interesting to carry out similar research in other provinces to get a sense of what is obtained in the rest of South Africa. The data collected in other provinces would give a clearer picture of what is happening and the recommendations thereof would be relevant for the whole of South Africa.
2023-08-31T00:00:00ZExploring instructional leadership practices of campus managers in influencing students’ academic achievements in TVET colleges in Gauteng and Mpumalanga, provinces of South AfricaMuthumuni, Veronica Mapasekahttps://hdl.handle.net/10500/308162024-02-15T06:29:28Z2023-04-01T00:00:00ZExploring instructional leadership practices of campus managers in influencing students’ academic achievements in TVET colleges in Gauteng and Mpumalanga, provinces of South Africa
Muthumuni, Veronica Mapaseka
The South African Constitution (RSA, 1996), Section 29, states that “everyone has a right to basic education, including adult basic education, and to further education, which the State, through reasonable measures, most make progressively available and accessible”. It was on this basis that TVET colleges were established to accommodate young school leavers and adults with skills, knowledge, and good attitude in preparing them for the world of work. Studies on leadership at TVET colleges and poor performance revealed that poor performance was some of the main findings in TVET colleges. This study therefore aimed to explore instructional leadership practices of campus managers in influencing students’ academic achievement at TVET colleges in the Gauteng and Mpumalanga Provinces. A qualitative research approach with a case-study design method was used in this study. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and document analysis. Purposive sampling was used to select participating TVET colleges and at each TVET college, ten people participated. This included campus managers, two HoDs (one NCV and one NATED), two lecturers (one NCV and one NATED) and five students (two NCV, two NATED and one SRC). Data analysis for this study was done through coding and organised into categories and themes which were interpreted.
The findings of the study linked to the literature revealed that there are weaknesses concerning the instructional leadership practices of campus managers in executing instructional leadership roles to ensure that the teaching and learning process is effective. Campus managers are not aware of the roles they should play as instructional leaders in monitoring the entire process of teaching and learning. They believe that HoDs can play those roles and provide reports to campus managers concerning the teaching and learning process. Campus managers further highlighted that their work overload and insufficient time were some of the factors that made them not execute their instructional practices as they are expected to. This led them to delegate their instructional tasks to HoDs, and them focusing more on administrative duties. Based on the findings, recommendations were made to assist campus managers. One of the recommendations was to advise the DHET or TVET colleges’ head offices to give campus managers intensive trainings on instructional leadership. These training, workshops, courses, or seminars would assist in making campus managers know their roles as instructional leaders and this would enable them to support, monitor and develop lecturers for the improvement of students’ academic achievement.
2023-04-01T00:00:00Z