School of Higher Education Studies

Permanent URI for this community

http://hdl.handle.net/11660/47

Browse

Browsing School of Higher Education Studies by Advisor "Dlamini, M. E."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Departmental Heads’ perspective on collaborative strategies to enhance teamwork in secondary schools at Nketoana District
    (University of the Free State, 2023) Koloti, Machogoane Sanah; Mdodana-Zide, L.; Dlamini, M. E.
    There are many situations in a school environment that need to be viewed to form effective teamwork at school. The literature confirms that teamwork is an important tool in any organisation, such as schools, which should practice teamwork to achieve the vision and goals they have set to be functional. Collaborative strategies should, therefore, be in place to ensure that teamwork is effective. Therefore, managers and leaders in schools, especially Departmental Heads, are entrusted with ensuring that collaborative teamwork is practiced effectively in schools for improved learner academic success. However, teamwork in schools still proves to be a challenging concept. Lack of teamwork in schools is believed to be one of the factors that are detrimental to the success and efficiency of the core business of schools, which is teaching and learning. This study aimed to explore collaborative strategies that can enhance teamwork in secondary schools. The study was grounded by the collaborative theory used as a lens for the study. The study employed a qualitative research approach to gather data through a case study research design. Semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and focus group discussions were adopted as data collection instruments. Purposive sampling was employed to sample 12 Departmental Heads (DH) from three schools in one Department of Education district in the Free State Province. Content analysis was used to analyse data where four themes emerged from the perceptions and expressions of the participants. The findings revealed that collaborative strategies are a tool that can assist in enhancing teamwork in secondary schools. The findings further revealed that Departmental Heads implement various collaborative strategies such as class subject meetings, school twinning, analysing and accounting for the results together, team planning and teaching, team marking, and parental involvement, to enhance teamwork in secondary schools. However, the findings also revealed that the Departmentl Heads do experience some challenges with the collaborative strategies they employ to enhance teamwork but find ways to mitigate the challenges. The study, therefore, recommends that every stakeholder in schools play a role in ensuring that more effective collaborative strategies to enhance teamwork are implemented in schools.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Enhancing skills acquisition in electrical infrastructure construction studies
    (University of the Free State, 2023) Lehlakola, K. D.; Tlali, M. F.; Dlamini, M. E.
    This study was a qualitative study with the aim to contribute towards the enhancement of skills acquisition in electrical infrastructure construction (EIC) among youth with the purpose of providing them competences that have the potential of heightening chances of their employability. The study achieved the identified aim by responding to the research question: How can youths’ acquisition of skills in EIC be strengthened to empower them to be self-employed and employable? The problem in this study was that a significant percentage of the South African workforce, which includes technical and vocational education and training (TVET) students who are accessing higher education, lack specific technical skills and this results in poor employability prospects. The delivery of quality TVET courses and content is dependent on the competences of the lecturers for enhancing skills acquisition in EIC studies. The framework guiding this study was critical emancipatory research for it is transformative and emancipatory. Youth participatory action research was used as method of data collection with critical discourse analysis to analyse the data according to discursive, textual and social settings. The findings of the study may empower TVET colleges to prepare students with skills for the EIC industry and contribute to socio-economic development of the economy of South Africa. The workforce needed comprises engineers, technicians and the tradesmen from South African universities and TVET colleges.