School of Education Management, Policy, and Comparative Education
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Browsing School of Education Management, Policy, and Comparative Education by Author "Makhasane, S. D."
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Item Open Access Exploring leadership practices of addressing learner-on-teacher violence in secondary schools(University of the Free Stat, 2023) Majong, Nomase Sarah; Makhasane, S. D.The manifestation of learner-on-teacher violence is a growing concern for contemporary schools worldwide. Although it is a global problem, it also appears to be on the rise in South Africa and is not adequately reported or addressed. Yet, this phenomenon is still severely understudied, especially from a leadership perspective. Thus, this study aims to explore leadership practices of addressing learner-on-teacher violence in secondary schools. The study adopted a two-pronged theory consisting of the Social Cognitive Learning Theory (SCLT) and the Invitational Leadership Theory (ILT). A qualitative design was employed, and a multiple case study was utilised to call attention to leadership practices for addressing learner-on-teacher violence in secondary schools. Two secondary schools in the eastern Free State were selected for this study. Eight participants were purposively selected for the study. The data was mainly collected through semi-structured interviews (one-on-one interviews) with principals, heads of departments (HODs), and teachers and was supplemented by document analysis. Data collected from this study was analysed using thematic analysis, and five themes emerged. The findings revealed that learner-on-teacher violence in the forms of verbal violence, physical violence, and sexual harassment is prevalent in secondary schools. The study found that school leaders respond to learner-on-teacher violence incidents per the learner code of conduct, involvement of parents, and other school-based targeted violence intervention programs. However, the findings revealed that all these strategies seem insufficient to stop the prevalence of these incidents due to several challenges, including a lack of parent involvement, inadequate policies, and a lack of support from the Department of Basic Education (DBE). Therefore, this study recommends that the DBE capacitates school leaders on the review of policies and supports them with the implementation thereof. Parents and politicians must play their roles and refrain from interfering with disciplinary processes; thus, the Department of Education (DOE) must assist school leaders in that regard.Item Open Access Exploring the practices of school principals in Servant Leadership(University of the Free State, 2023) Khoarane, Khoarane Jeremiah; Makhasane, S. D.The most crucial issue in school leadership today is the effectiveness of leadership. The school principal is expected to portray acceptable values and facilitate excellent performance. How can school principals ensure quality production in leading the school, professionalism, accepted work ethics, and still remain at the cutting edge of 21 century, that is faced with 4th industrial revolution on leadership, is one of the most critical questions to be raised? This study aimed to explore school principals’ practices of servant leadership in schools. School principals, as leaders, came out of educational institutions where they were trained as school principals and leaders. The expectation therefore, is that they will have abilities in leading and have influence over followers. The practices are observed by those who are led by the school principal. Principals engage in those practices to influence those around them. Today, schools have all sorts of ill-leadership, and school principals need to stand firm as agents of change to better the situation. School principals should be effective in practising servant leadership in schools as away of combating the challenges they face. Effectiveness is what needed for school leadership to achieve success is. It is suggested that servant leadership has qualities that could help in enhancing effectiveness of school leadership. By practicing servant leadership school principal are able to influence and impact school leadership. The study engaged servant leadership and Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as theoretical frameworks. Servant leadership was used to interpret the practices of the school principals, while CHAT was used to identify and explain the findings in terms of culture and context. The study employed case study methodology to achieve its purpose. Two schools were chosen; both owned by the public and found in the rural area of Maseru. The study engaged focus groups, interviews and observation as a means of generating data. There were two focus groups, one from each school. There were 8 members in each focus group. The interview was done with school principals of the two schools. The findings revealed that school principals practised servant leadership. One core business of servant leadership is to serve. In practising servant leadership, findings indicated that school principals served internal and external stakeholders. The internalstakeholders included teachers and learners. Teachers were served by increasing their morale, empowering them, and promoting peace and stability in school. Learners were served by enhancing their morale and motivation.Item Open Access Leadership roles of school administrators in teachers’ professional development in Nigeria(University of the Free State, 2023) Sasere, Oluwasola Babatunde; Makhasane, S. D.There is a growing body of knowledge that focuses on effective teacher professional development (TPD) with a consensus that skews in favour of decentralised, school-based and teacher-centred approach to TPD as opposed to the centralised, traditional and top-down approach. On the contrary, developing countries such as Nigeria still practise a centralised education system where traditional top-down TPD remains the norm with the attendant consequence of professionally-deficient teachers in the classroom. This situation has left a lacuna vis a vis the leadership roles of school administrators in teacher development. Hence, the study investigated the leadership roles of school administrators in teachers' professional development in Nigeria. The study was a qualitative multiple-case study research informed by interpretivist paradigm. The study was lensed with two complementary theories, namely, Distributed Leadership Theory (DLT) and adult learning theory (ALT). Three schools were selected using a combination of purposive and snowball techniques was used to select four participants from each school. The participants comprised one school administrator and three teachers in each school, totalling twelve participants. The main data-generating instrument was a semi-structured interview supported by document analysis. The data was analysed using thematic analysis (TA). The findings showed that school leadership was perceived as a delegation of responsibilities by super-ordinate to sub-ordinate. It was also discovered that participants' perception of TPD is limited to the traditional centralised models. School administrators' support for TPD was also discovered to be limited by policy. The result further indicated that the Ministry of Education was responsible for TPD. Unfortunately, such training does not cater to teachers’ professional needs. The study proposed a data-informed model for the execution of school-based TPD. Recommendations were made based on the findings.