Exploring South African school management response to covid-19 pandemic: case of selected schools in Petsana, South Africa
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Date
2024
Authors
Mokoena, Nthoto Priscilla
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
Public schools’ management faces different challenges, ranging from a lack of an effective mechanism to manage the COVID-19 pandemic when it struck. This study explored management’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in public schools. The Strategic Management Theory as a theoretical framework for the study assist the researcher to come up with strategic plans capable of helping public schools’ management to manage their schools effectively. The study is situated in transformative paradigm and adopted a Participatory Research Design to enhance public school management strategies towards effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic in schools. Semi-structured interviews were used to generate data. This is appropriately in line with the qualitative research approach since it understands the experiences of individuals through non-numerical data. The participants comprised nine (9) people: public school principals, deputy principals and departmental heads. The participants were selected using the purposive sampling technique to select the principals and deputy principals and convenient sampling to select the departmental heads. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data generated through a qualitative research approach. The study found that syllabus reduction, shortage of teachers and absenteeism, and workload pressure are challenging that school management faced during the pandemic. It was also found that COVID-19 regulations, teamwork among staff members, and extra classes are methods that school management adopted to deal with the virus. It was concluded that online learning, parental involvement, and modification of the school syllabus were the best possible solutions that might help deal with such a pandemic in the future.
Description
Dissertation (M.Ed.(Education Management and Leadership))--University of the Free State, 2024
Keywords
School management team, Public schools, online learning, syllabus, COVID-19