Browsing by Subject "Education and state - South Africa"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    An exploration of the interface between policy and practice
    (1998) Wildschutt, Geralda; Craig, Anita
    The domains of policy and policy implementation have been researched to a far greater extent than the link and interface between these two domains. It is this area that the current study attempts to explore. Education Support Services (ESS) and particularly psychological service delivery as part of this service within the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), has seen several new policy proposals and documents during the period of 1994-1995 and the practitioners in this field are currently in the process of implementing (some of) these new policies. This study explores the interface between new policies (policy domain) on the one hand, and the practice of psychological service delivery to schools (implementation domain) on the other hand. Discourse analysis and specifically the technique of discourse analysis proposed by Ian Parker (1992) provides a framework to analyse and understand the issues involved in these two domains, and as such, the relationship between them. In this regard, the following trends in the data are interesting : the positive patterns regarding the interface between policy and practice obtained from the data include a team worker, democratic discourse and new world. The above-mentioned person-position, discourse and world represent the values of the new policies and therefore facilitate the implementation process. There are, however, also certain negative signals contained in the data, namely: a victim, an us-them discourse and a cruel world. These patterns pose a threat for the implementation process. The study therefore provides a working document for those involved in policy making in ESS to ensure a smooth implementation process. It will also help the practitioners (school psychologists) and departmental officials in ESS to understand the issues involved in transformation and the need for different actors on the policy-practice continuum to talk.
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    Policy after legislation : a case of accommodation? : a case study of a school's response to externally imposed educational reform between 1994 and 1996
    (1998) Petersen, Tracey; Soudien, Craig
    The study investigates the response of a former white Model C school to externally imposed educational reforms contained in the Education White Paper (1995); the South African Schools' Bill (1996) and the South African School's Act (1996). The study examines the path of policy - making after legislation. Drawing on the work of Bowe et al. (1996) as a key text, the study investigates the dynamics of the policy process within the school. The study uses as a conceptual framework Bowe et al.'s (ibid.) argument that the policy text is multiple, and that the legislated policy text is one of a number of representations of the policy. As such, the study seeks to identify the sites of text generation and the dynamics involved in the formation and maintenance of the dominant representations of the legislated policy texts. The research examines the impact of perceptions of the external policy changes and of the institution on the manner in which the school responds to the change. The relationship between power and policy-making referred to by researchers such as Ball (1994) and Blackmore et al. (1994) is clearly evident in the response of the executive of the school to challenges to the dominant discourse. The dominant discourse is described as a discourse of "Model C" schooling: predominantly white, and relatively progressive in so far as selected black students are permitted to attend the school. Linguistic exclusivity and the limited agency in the policy process are the two main strategies used to protect this dominant discourse. The study examines the strategies of resistance to this dominance and the ways in which these dissenting voices are marginalised. The study identifies the response of the school as "adaptive accommodation" whereby the school not merely reshapes the legislated policy to fit the structure of the school, but physically restructures the school so that anticipated policy change can be contained. The study concludes that the legislated policy has failed to challenge the policy paradigm of the previous education system.
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    Teacher responses to rationalisation in the Western Cape Education Department : implications for administration planning and policy
    (1998) Gasant, Mogamad Waheeb; Soudien, Crain
    Apart from its current application in the process of transformation of South Africa's education system, interestingly, the term rationalisation is absent from the international literature. The high level of impact that the economics of education has in the provision of education presupposes that, in the "Global Village", world trends and access to international financial markets to fund transformation in education will inform the national policy making process. In South Africa macro education policy is set by the National ministry. In this regard teacher I learner ratios and funding to the provinces have been set at the highest level of government. In terms of this, it is understandable that national imperatives will influence and in many cases determine provincial policy making and the implementation thereof. This study examines educator responses to the way in which the rationalisation of teacher numbers is being applied in the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). The investigation takes into cognisance the particular historical, political and social background of the Western Cape Province. In doing so this study recognises the influence that these factors have had on the way teachers view the rationalisation policies and, more importantly, their implementation. In the apartheid era education was organised, according to "race", into four different departments. Thus the Department of Education (DET) controlled "Black" education, the Cape Education Department (CED) controlled "White" education, the House of Representatives (HOR) controlled "Coloured" education and the House of Delegates (HOD) was responsible for "Indian" education. Since the number of HOD teachers in the WCED only constitutes 0,47% of the total [WCED, November 1995], they were not taken into consideration for this study. While there is a convergence of opinion by educators of the three ex departments on many issues regarding rationalisation there is also a noticeable divergence underpinned by historical difference in funding and human and physical resourcing. Conclusions drawn point to the fact that there is a general acceptance of the policy of the rationalisation of teacher numbers in the Western Cape. Yet, while this policy might promote equality of numbers, its merit as a means to assuage the demand for the equitable redressing of the injustices of the apartheid era remains questionable.