A school development plan : the role of the school head in Botswana

Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate the role of the secondary school head in Botswana in respect to four themes, namely: staff development; classroom supervision; school culture building; and conflict management. Basically, school development planning was defined as a strategy that can be employed to improve the teaching and learning processes. This could be achieved by on-going staff development programmes that equip staff with new knowledge and new classroom teaching techniques. Details of strategies that could be used to achieve this were examined and discussed in this thesis. Two chapters of the literature review were made in this thesis. Chapter II (Part I) made a direct link between the literature review and the research questions on the main topic of this thesis. Chapter III (Part II) on the other hand provided, a comparative analysis of school development planning between Botswana (as the focal point) and the United Kingdom and Australia (as examples). The analysis was concerned with three issues of: human capacity; budget allocation and its control; and accountability. The inclusion of this second chapter on the literature analysis was to add weight and to raise the analytical standard of the thesis. Closed responses and open-ended questionnaires were used to gather data. A total of 60 respondents comprising heads and teachers from 10 junior and five senior secondary schools participated in the investigation. Summaries of the findings from both the empirical and theoretical components for each of the themes are that: • There cannot be development without developing the developer. • Classroom supervision is essential because it provides the basis for staff development and subsequently improved teaching. • School development planning must be a staff co-operative effort leading to the formation of a sustainable school culture of working teams. • Conflict is always there in organizations, what is important , however, is for the administrator to manage it such that it benefits the organization. Basically, the empirical and theoretical components, supported each other on the majority of issues. The United Kingdom and Australia, being developed countries, do not experience the problems of funding, staffing, and other supportive resources to effectively implement school development planning to the extent of Botswana.