The role of South African Democratic Teachers' Union in the implementation of teacher redeployment policy in schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand what the role of SADTU (South African Democratic Teachers’ Union) is in the implementation of the Teacher Redeployment Policy in schools. The Approach to data collection was that of qualitative research. The methods used to collect data were interviews and literature review. The study used the interpretive paradigm. The theory applied is the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) theory. IPA aims to explore in detail how participants are making sense of their personal and social world. The approach to data analysis was that of a qualitative research. Qualitative data were organised and arranged categorically into themes and patterns emanating from the responses of participants. The data were analysed using descriptive explanations, based on the frequencies and similarities of the responses. The approach was primarily exploratory, just as would be expected of a qualitative research design. A combination of purposive, quota and snowball sampling was used in this research. The main finding in this research is that the role of SADTU in the implementation of teacher redeployment is not limited to observation as the policy prescribes. SADTU members go beyond that role and assume the role of active participation and decision making in the process. The main recommendation was that the policy should be amended to allow SADTU to participate actively in discussions and decision making. This will avert the unnecessary conflicts and instability in schools caused by the suppression of the union to participate actively. When the Teacher Redeployment Policy was conceived, the purpose was to achieve equity in teacher distribution by moving teachers from the historically advantaged White schools to the historically disadvantaged Black schools. The implementation of Teacher Redeployment Policy is causing more harm than good in so far as effective teaching and learning in schools is concerned. For most of the time, teachers are pre-occupied with worrying about how the process of teacher redeployment is going to affect them instead of focussing on delivering quality teaching in schools. Teachers who are most fitting to be the ones identified in excess in some cases enjoy the benefit of escaping redeployment for the simple reason that they are members of SADTU. At the same time, candidates who do not qualify to be placed in specific posts are placed into those posts at the expense of the best suitable candidates because of the biases. The role of the union is not to implement policy, but also to make sure that the policy is implemented in the spirit and letter in which it was formulated. The status of the teacher union in the implementation of policy is that of an observer who only surfaces when an observation is made whether there is unfairness and biases in the manner the Teacher Redeployment Policy is implemented.