Reading and creating critically leaderful schools that make a difference: the post‐apartheid South African case

Perumal, Juliet

doi:10.1080/13603120802452532

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…Mindful of the subjective element of interviews, this paper demonstrates that specific changes that affect the core work of teaching and learning at a micro level can be initiated at dysfunctional schools through a professional development programme that offers both theoretical understanding and practical assistance for school by school. The case of School P which was purposefully selected, demonstrates that the characteristics outlined within Sammons' et al [14] adapted framework of learning and teaching are critical for any degree of reform at schools which are not functioning at desirable levels. This study supports Edmond's [6] findings that the most significant agent of change at a school is the school principal.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, the state of functionality is not a dichotomous one; schools can be plotted onto any point of the functional-dysfunctional continuum. In their study of dysfunctional schools in South Africa, Christie [4], [5] and Perumal [14] show that dysfunctional schools in general display the following features -all of which have a detrimental impact on the core work of teaching and learning: poor physical and social facilities; serious organizational problems -including weak and unaccountable leadership and administrative dysfunction (for example, difficulties in drawing up time-tables), poor communication, and inadequate disciplinary and grievance procedures; poor relationships with surrounding community; poor communications and interactions with the education department; questionable pedagogic practices; and unqualified or under-qualified teaching staff. In the late seventies, Edmonds [6] in his study of characteristics of effective schools identified 'strong leadership of the principal' as the most influential factors for effective schools.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This paper, however, focuses on technical management rather than substantive management as the former was the principal outcome of the ELP. Drawing on the various models, particularly Sammons' et al [16] model of school effectiveness and with the view that critical school leadership is inextricably linked to the notion of distributive leadership, as noted by Perumal [14], I used the following characteristics in determining the improvement made at School P.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effecting Technical Management Reform at a Semi-Functional School: A Case Study of a School in an Informal Settlement in Gauteng, South Africa

Moodley¹

2011

IJCDSE

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In response to the educational crisis in South Africa, a professional development programme (PDP) was initiated by the Gauteng Department of Education and University of Witwatersrand for school leaders of, mostly, dysfunctional schools. The aim was to develop school leadership with a focus on improving teaching and learning in the classroom. This study is informed by the framework of the PDP and theories of classroom pedagogies, particularly Sammons' et al. model of school effectiveness. Using the case study approach, it demonstrates the improvement in technical management made by a primary school principal over 2 years. The paper presents the challenges experienced at the school, the leadership practices engaged in, and the effects of the implementation of strategic leadership practices. It argues that positive changes in school management and leadership practices can occur through a PDP and concludes that attitudinal change and a conscious effort in implementing specific leadership practices can contribute to a systematic improvement in teaching and learning practices. Finally, it recommends that an evaluation of the effect that the PDP has had on overall school functionality, requires representative sampling of participating schools from the various districts of the province of Gauteng. It also recommends that to determine the effect that a PDP has on school functionality, it is necessary to evaluate not only technical management, but substantive management where learner outcomes are measured, as well.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effecting Technical Management Reform at a Semi-Functional School: A Case Study of a School in an Informal Settlement in Gauteng, South Africa

Moodley¹

2011

IJCDSE

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“…These children currently live in the surrounding suburbs of Yeoville, Berea and Hillbrow. These downtown suburbs have fallen prey to the social maladies of crime, poverty, unemployment, food and housing insecurity and HIV/AIDS (Perumal: 2009).…”

Section: Overview Of the Research Site And Refugee Bridging Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responding with hospitality: Refugee children in the South African education system

Perumal

2015

Education as Change

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Refugees have remained a significant feature on the South Africa landscape and a concern in the country even prior to the advent of democracy. Since the advent of democracy in 1994, South Africa (SA) has received waves of newcomerspeople fleeing wars, drought and poverty from countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Angola, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia. South Africa allows for the admittance of refugee children into its system provided they have the requisite documents. This article reports on qualitative research, conducted with refugee children attending a Refugee Bridging Program at Mercy College, an affluent private school in Johannesburg, South Africa. The article addresses the questions: (i) what are the personal and academic experiences of refugee children enrolled in a refugee bridging school programme; and (ii) how does an ethic of hospitality facilitate their integration into education and prepare them for entrance into mainstream schooling? The article provides pen portraits of their personal family biographical details; their preflight; flight and settlement experiences; their social and academic experiences; as well as their short-term and long-term academic plans and career aspirations. I draw on theoretical insights from deconstructionist conceptions of hospitality and guest-host dialectics as espoused by Derrida (2001). In addressing issues of marginalisation in relation to access to education, the article argues for complementing a rights-based framework with a hospitality-based framework to Education as Change 2015.19:65-90. PerumalResponding with hospitality respond humanely and with immediacy to refugee children within South African education, thereby giving credence to the country's policy rhetoric to agitate for promoting the values of democracy, social justice, equity, reconciliation, and freedom from violence, discrimination and prejudice.

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“…Some do so with persistence, reaching out to migrant children and their parents through inclusive school practices (Blair 2002;Gaetane 2008). Others are 'hard to reach' (Crozier and Davies 2007), exercising a form of passive racism as they 'manage' diversity in an attempt to preserve the status quo (Parsons 2009;Perumal 2009). Transformational practices in schools invariably centre on the transformation of students (and their parents) rather than school cultures, with an absence of meaningful attention to racialised (and gendered) dynamics in school leadership discourse (Blackmore 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Practising leadership in newly multi-ethnic schools: tensions in the field?

Devine

2013

British Journal of Sociology of Education

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This paper explores the leadership practices of three principals following a period of intensive immigration in Ireland. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, it conceptualises schools as structured social spaces and of their leadership work as a form of practising. This practising is an outcome of the intersection between deeply embedded subjectivities operating in diverse fields of action that shape, constrain and transform each principal's practices. Presenting an analytical model that highlights the circular and capillary-like dimension to such practising, the paper explores how principals' recognition of immigrant children (their recognitive practices) as well as investment in supporting their learning (distributive practices) are shaped by the logics of practice across different fields, as well as by their own evolving habitus and struggle to be authentic in a period of rapid social change. Practising effective leadership in newly multi-ethnic schools must be conceived as layered and multiple but must be underpinned by an ethic of justice, if the minoritised status of 'ethnic' others is to be challenged and overcome.

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Reading and creating critically leaderful schools that make a difference: the post‐apartheid South African case

Cited by 17 publications

References 9 publications

Effecting Technical Management Reform at a Semi-Functional School: A Case Study of a School in an Informal Settlement in Gauteng, South Africa

Effecting Technical Management Reform at a Semi-Functional School: A Case Study of a School in an Informal Settlement in Gauteng, South Africa

Responding with hospitality: Refugee children in the South African education system

Practising leadership in newly multi-ethnic schools: tensions in the field?

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