GENERIC STORIES OF EDUCATIONAL CHANGE

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Introduction and background

On the 27th of April 2004 South Africa commemorated the first decade of democracy, a decade in which many things, including the education system, had changed radically. As regards education, the new government developed a range of far- reaching acts, policies and guidelines aimed at ensuring that all South Africans, irrespective of race, colour, creed or ability, will have equal access to quality education (RSA, 1995(a); RSA, 1996(b); DoE, 1997; DoE 1998; DoE 2000 and DoE, 2002. Key acts in this regard were the South African Qualifications Authority Act (1995), the South African Schools’ Act (Act 84 of 1996), the National Education Policy Act (1996), and the Employment of Educators’ Act (1996).
Notable policies were those relating to curriculum, admission to public schools, discipline, initiation and school safety, while guidelines aimed at the effective and efficient management of schools included Guidelines to Governing Bodies on the development and adoption of school codes of conduct (Potgieter, Visser, Van der Bank, Mothata and Squelch, (1992:12, 31); Bray, (2006:96-98) and Guidelines for the management and control of drug abuse at school. A number of strategies were used to ensure the implementation of these acts, policies and guidelines. These included, amongst others, the restructuring of higher education institutions, which resulted in the closing down of teacher training colleges, coupled with the development of new teacher education qualifications, the provision of a range of state-subsidized training programmes, and a code of conduct for teachers; the integration of schools previously separated in terms of racial and/or language groups; the provision of ‘free’ education to all those who could not afford to pay school fees, and the redeployment of teachers on the basis of teacher/learner ratios. While the development of Acts and policies started before 1994 in anticipation of a changed political dispensation, implementation happened gradually, with most of the changes only starting to have an impact as from 1998.
The decade of educational change that I am focusing on in this study is, therefore, the ten years from 1998 to 2008. In describing these changes and the effect they had on schools and on the principals responsible for managing these schools, I have to ask myself whether the changes so visible in the political, social and economic spheres are reflected in education, specifically in school education. Allied to this question is one about the way educators, especially those in management positions, responded to the changes that had to be implemented in schools. Can policymakers honestly say that the policies they were at such pains to develop have been effectively implemented, that they have transformed schools and will continue to do so? What about school principals?
How do they feel about the changes that have happened or should have happened? Have these changes affected them personally and professionally? Have they changed the way in which they used to manage their schools and, if so, is this the result of changes imposed from the top or changes that started at grassroots level? Put differently, how have school principals, given their position as leaders and managers of schools, navigated the changes that should have happened in schools from 1998 to 2008? Having studied Fullan and Stiegelbauer’s (1991) theories about the ‘new’ meaning of educational change, I realized that change meant different things to different people, that the concept itself had both an ‘objective’ and a ‘subjective’ meaning, that people who resist change often do so because they associate it with a ‘lowering of standards and that people’s understanding of change is often ‘false’ or lacks clarity. I also realized, from my own experience and from reading about change, that real change is often accompanied by a sense of loss, feelings of anxiety and a struggle for survival (Marris, 1975:78). Marris (1976:78-79) also mooted that, unless people are convinced of the value of change and/or buy into the reasons given for change the chances of their accepting it are slight or non-existent, especially if change is imposed from the outside. When change happens from the inside, that is, if those who have to implement change are also those who initiated it in the first place, there is a much better chance that the change will actually take place in the way it was meant to.
In other words, the need for people to make sense of change in terms of their own experience is crucial to the acceptance and eventual success of change initiatives. Since the focus of my study is on principals’ experience of change I had to determine whether they understood the changes and the reasons for their implementation. I also had to determine whether or not they accepted the changes or not and why.
I had to determine whether or not the principals I involved in my study considered the changes they were supposed to implement in their schools as politically rather than educationally motivated and that, since politically motivated changes do not last they could therefore ignore them (Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991:23). Because I know that principals cannot single-handedly implement change, that they need the support and commitment of the entire school community, I had to determine to what extent the principals in my study were able to wear the hat of change agents, to what extent they were willing to ‘get their hands dirty’ in effecting change, and to what extent they were able to instill hope in the hearts of those whom they had to lead towards a new way of schooling. I realized above all that, unless principals, as school leaders and managers, led the charge in changing their schools, things would simply remain the same (Fullan and Stigelbauer, 1991:25).

LIST OF CHAPTERS :

• CHAPTER 1: RESEARCH PARAMETERS
  • 1.1 Introduction and background
  • 1.2 Research problem and rationale
  • 1.3 Research purpose
  • 1.4 Research questions
  • 1.5 Research objectives
  • 1.6 Working premises
  • 1.7 Conceptual framework
  • 1.8 Theoretical framework
  • 1.9 Knowledge claim
  • 1.10 Research paradigm
  • 1.11 Research methodology
  • 1.12 Research design
    • 1.12.1 Defining data
    • 1.12.2 Sampling
    • 1.12.3 Data collection
    • 1.12.4 Data analysis
  • 1.13 Research ethics
  • 1.14 Trustworthiness
  • 1.15 Limitations of the study
  • 1.16 Significance of the study
  • 1.17 Research programme
  • 1.18 Concluding Comments
• CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
  • 2.1 Introduction and purpose
  • 2.2 Knowledge claim
  • 2.3 Research paradigm
  • 2.4 Research methodology
  • 2.5 Research design
    • 2.5.1 Stories as data
    • 2.5.2 Sampling: Identifying story-tellers
    • 2.5.3 Deciding on data collection instruments
    • 2.5.3.1 Conversations
    • 2.5.3.2 Interviews
    • 2.5.3.3 Observations
    • 2.5.3.4 Reflective journal
  • 2.5.4 Accessing principals’ spaces
  • 2.5.5 Collecting principals’ stories
  • 2.6 Interpreting principals’ stories
    • 2.7 Narrative Ethics
    • 2.7.1 The clearing house
    • 2.7.2 Protecting my sources
    • 2.7.3 Validating my story
  • 2.8 Conclusion
• CHAPTER 3: GENERIC STORIES OF EDUCATIONAL CHANGE
  • 3.1 Introduction and purpose
  • 3.2 The macro story of educational change
    • 3.2.1 Change as complex phenomenon
    • 3.2.2 Sustaining educational change
    • 3.2.3 Managing change at school level
  • 3.3 South Africa’s story of educational change
    • 3.3.1 Implementing change at school level
    • 3.3.1.1 Curriculum change
    • 3.3.1.2 Parental involvement
    • 3.3.1.3 Corporal punishment
    • 3.3.1.4 Principals as change agents and managers
  • 3.4 Sacred change stories
  • 3.5 Concluding comments
• CHAPTER 4: PRINCIPALS’ STORIES OF EDUCATIONAL CHANGE
  • 4.1 Introduction and purpose
  • 4.2 Main characters as narrators
    • 4.2.1 Character 1 – a principal in school A
    • 4.2.2 Character 2 – a principal in school B
    • 4.2.3 Character 3 – a principal in school C
    • 4.2.4 Character 4 – a principal in school D
    • 4.2.5 Character 5 – a principal in school E
  • 4.3 Narrative context
  • 4.4 Narrative content
  • 4.5 Narrative discourse
  • 4.6 Restructured narratives
    • 4.6.1 Kedibone’s story
    • 4.6.2 Goboima’s story
    • 4.6.3 Rekopane’s story
    • 4.6.4 Somisanang’s story
    • 4.6.5 Kedisaletse’s story
  • 4.7 Emerging themes
  • 4.8 Concluding remarks
• CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
  • 5.1 Introduction and purpose
  • 5.2 Research focus, purpose and procedures
  • 5.3 Research findings
    • 5.3.1 Educational change in South Africa during the period 1998 to
    • 5.3.2 Feeding change into schools
    • 5.3.3 The effect of educational change on schools
    • 5.3.4 The effect of educational change on the role of school principals
    • 5.3.5 Participating principals’ experiences of educational change
    • 5.3.6 Sustainability of change
  • 5.4 Conclusions
  • 5.6 Motivated recommendations

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