INTEGRATING SCHOOL REFORM AND SCHOOL-COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT. FOUR CASE STUDIES FROM SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOLS. APRIL 1994 - J U N E 2000. by ANDREW MARK SCHOFIELD B.A. (Hons)., The University of Natal, Durban, South Africa, 1986 H.Dip.Ed., The University of Natal, Durban, South Africa, 1987 M.A., Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, 1990 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of Educational Studies) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September 2003 © Andrew Mark Schofield, 2003 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of €~S> ^ t-fr-n S ^ . -The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date &> ^T o 5 . DE-6 (2/88) Abstract By 1994 education in South Africa had collapsed (TRC, 1998; CCOLT, 1996). In response, South Africa's first non-racial government initiated a wide ranging School Reform (SR) program. However, almost a decade after the reforms commenced there have been very few substantial changes in the majority of South African schools: The Education Rights Project (2003a) and the South African Human Rights Commission argue that SR is failing the majority of South Africans. This thesis explores an alternative, School-Community Development (SCD), that integrates school reforms with programs that draw members of the school's neighbouring community (the "school-community") into the process of changing schools. I argue that SR is an inadequate response to the problems that confront schools. Using the case study method I show that SR is enhanced when integrated with locally developed social, cultural, economic, and school development programs. The thesis makes two contributions to the literature. First, the thesis challenges the "simplistic solutions to educational problems" (Anyon, 1997, p. 12) that constitute SR. Second, the thesis presents a materially grounded critique of SR in South Africa that evokes the "multiple voices" (Sayed, 2002, p. 32) from the four case study schools. Accordingly, our understanding of "making change work at the micro level", a neglected area of South African educational research (Sayed and Jansen, 2001, p. 7), is enhanced. n Table of Contents Abstract ii Table of Contents iii List of Maps vi List of Tables vii List of Acronyms viii Acknowledgements x Part One: Introduction, literature review, and research design 1 Chapter One. Introduction: School Reform and School-Community Development 1 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Background: problem statement and school district context 4 1.2 Contribution to the literature 9 1.3 Thesis structure 10 1.4 Conclusion 15 Chapter Two. School Reform 16 2.0 Introduction 16 2.1 School Reform 16 2.1.1 School reforms and educational outcomes 17 2.1.2 School reforms and education planning 19 2.2 School reform: Critique 20 2.3 School reform in developing countries 27 2.4 Conclusion 35 Chapter Three: School partnerships and SCD 37 3.0 Introduction 37 3.1 Partnerships 37 3.3 Joining SR and community development: School-Community Development 44 3.3.1. Connecting school development with community socio-economic projects 45 3.3.2 Diversifying and decentralising project implementation 47 3.3.3 Use SR and state resources to promote local participation and school-community change 50 3.4 Conclusion 51 Chapter Four. Research Method 53 iii 4.0 Introduction 53 4.1 The case study method 53 4.2 Data collection 59 4.2.1 Literature review phase 60 4.2.2 School selection and interviews 62 4.3 Data analysis 67 4.4 Researcher voice, bias, and limitations of the study 71 4.5 Conclusion 77 Par t T w o : Pol icy on a St r ing 78 Chapter Five. School Reform in South Africa. 1994-1999 78 5.0 Introduction 78 5.1 The South African Schools Act 78 5.2 SAQA, the NQF, and Curriculum 2005 81 5.3 Curriculum 2005 83 5.4 Critique 87 5.5 Conclusion 94 Chapter Six. Soshanguve school district context 96 6.0 Introduction 96 6.1 Socio-economic and demographic contexts 96 6.2 School district background 107 6.3 Conclusion 114 Part Three: W i l d Power 116 Chapter Seven. Ayanda Primary School 116 7.0 Introduction 116 7.1 School description 116 7.2 Approaches to SCD 120 7.2.1 Atang Vegetable Gardens 123 7.2.2 Physical development 127 7.2.3 School based staff development 129 7.3 Effects on teaching & learning 131 7.4 Conclusion 133 Chapter Eight. Boeipathutse Junior Secondary 135 8.0 Introduction 135 8.1 School description 135 8.2 Approaches to SCD 138 8.2.1 Mobilizing different sectors of the community 140 8.2.2 Integration with indigenous planning frameworks 145 8.2.3 SCD: Tensions in the process 149 8.3 Effects on teaching & learning 151 8.4 Conclusion 157 iv Chapter Nine. Reitumetse High School 158 9.0 Introduction 158 9.1 School description 159 9.2 Approaches to SCD 162 9.3 Effects on teaching & learning 169 9.4 Conclusion 174 Chapter Ten. Rodney Mokoena Preparatory 175 10.0 Introduction 175 10.1 School description 175 10.2 Approaches to SCD 179 10.3 Effects on teaching and learning 189 10.4 Conclusion 198 Chapter Eleven. School-Community Development: Generalization and replicability 199 11.0 Introduction 199 11.1 SCD: Five principles 199 11.2 Recommendations for policy 204 11.3 Suggestions towards future research 208 11.4 Conclusion 213 Bibliography 215 Appendices 250 Appendix One: National and Provincial Department of Education programs delegated to the Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District. 1995-1998 250 Appendix Two: Interviews and Personal Communications 252 Appendix Three: Summary of Case study School's Data 256 A3.1 Ayanda Primary School 256 A3.2 Boeipathutse Junior Secondary School 257 A3.3 Rodney Mokoena Preparatory School 258 A3.4 Reitumetse High School 259 Appendix Four. Soshanguve Sustainable SCD Program: Outline of sub-programs .... 260 v List of Maps Map One. South Africa: Provincial boundaries and Key cities 5 Map Two. Soshanguve, Akasia, and the Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District 9 7 Map Three. Soshanguve Case Study School Locations 101 vi List of Tables Table 1. School-community development: A Typology 70 Table Al-1. Programs delegated to the Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District. 1995-1998 250 Table A2-1. Table of Interviews 252 Table A4-1. Soshanguve Sustainable SCD Program: Outline of sub-programs 261 vii List of Acronyms ABET Adult Basic Education and Training ANC African National Congress ASU Auxiliary Services Unit CCOLT Commission into the Culture of Learning and Teaching COLTS Culture of Learning, Teaching, and Service DEC District Education Coordinator DNE Department of National Education ECD Early Childhood Development GDE Gauteng Department of Education HOD Head of Department IFP Inkatha Freedom Party INSET In-service Education and Training LSEN Learner's with Special Education Needs NECC National Education Coordinating Committee NGO Non-governmental Organization PTA Parent Teacher Association RCL Representative Council of Learners RSA Republic of South Africa SADTU South African Democratic Teacher's Union SAIDESouth African Institute for Distance Education SBINSET School Based In-service Education and Training SCD School-Community Development SDP School Development Plan SECC Soshanguve Education Coordinating Committee SGB School Governing Body SOREA Soshanguve Resident's Association SR School Reform SRC Student's Representative Council viii SWED Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District SWED: DDU Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District: District Development Unit SWED: T&L Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District: Teach and Learn Unit TLO Teacher Liaison Officer TRC Truth and Reconciliation Commission ix Acknowledgements Writing this thesis would not have been possible without the support of my wife, Suzanne Smythe, and my committee, Prof. K. Adam-Moodley, Prof. K. Rubenson, and Prof. H. Schuetze. In addition, it is with a deep sense of gratitude that I acknowledge the opportunities offered by Moss Nkonyane, and all teachers, Principals, and students in the Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District. Finally, I express my heartfelt thanks to the members of the case study school-communities: The people of Ayanda, Boeipathutsi, Reitumetse, and Rodney Mokoena schools. To you all, Ke a leboga bagaetsho baba rategang. x Part One: Introduction, literature review, and research design Chapter One. Introduction: School Reform and School-Community Development 1.0 Introduction By 1995 schooling in South Africa appeared "to have broken down" (Commission on the Culture of Learning and Teaching (CCOLT), 1996, p. 1). Indicators of this breakdown included sporadic teacher and pupil attendance, ineffectual administration, supervision and school leadership, inter-organizational rivalry and corruption including theft and sale of school facilities, and sale of examination grades and papers by teachers for cash, drugs, or sex. Furthermore, "vandalism, gangsterism, rape and drug abuse were rampant" (ibid, p. 1) and widespread decay of school physical infrastructures was in evidence (ibid., p. 14; ESP, 1995). Two years later, a report on teacher education pointed out that the classroom context was dominated by "disruptive behavior ranging from alienation from school work, teenage pregnancy, classroom disobedience, school boycotts or 'stayaways' to social crime, vandalism, violent behavior, rape and drug abuse ... with considerable impact on teacher performance and student achievement" (DNE, 1997b, p. 9). In response, South Africa's first non-racial government initiated a wide ranging School Reform (SR) program that began with the establishment of non-racially based National and Provincial education departments (de Clercq, 1997a; Manganyi, 2001). Key reform priorities were identified for the period 1994-1999, the initial term of office of South Africa's First Non-Racial government. These priorities defined the reform of schooling in South Africa and were intended to "prioritize those most disadvantaged under apartheid" (African National Congress 1 (ANC), 1994, p. 13). The priorities for reform included reconstructing the bureaucracy, governance and management of schooling, integrating education and training, restructuring the school system (into General and Further Education Bands), introducing a new outcomes based curriculum, rebuilding the educational infrastructure, new Early Childhood Educare (ECD), Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET), Special Education and Teacher Development programs, and rationalizing higher education institutions (ANC, 1994; DNE, 1996b; RSA, 1996a). These priorities were given a legal mandate by South Africa's Constitution (which guaranteed the right to a basic education) and two acts of parliament, the South African Schools Act (RSA, 1996a) and the South African Qualifications Act (RSA, 1995). This framework underpinned SR in the post-Apartheid period (Foster & Smith, 2001; Harley & Parker, 1999) and spawned nineteen different reform programs in the National and Provincial education ministries (see Appendix 1). However, almost a decade after the reforms commenced there are very few substantial changes in the majority of South African schools: The Education Rights Project (2003a) and the South African Human Rights Commission argue that SR is failing the majority of South Africans. This failure of SR occurred at the same time that impoverished families were sacrificing basic needs, such as food and accommodation, to ensure their children's attendance at school (ERP, 2003a). Is it inevitable that school reform fails (Cuban, 1997)? And what conditions would have supported more effective reform implementation? In answering these questions I argue, as do Keith (1996) and Anyon (1997), that reform that is limited to schools and ignores communities is an inadequate response to the problems school-communities confront. I show that SR is enhanced when integrated with School-Community Development (SCD) programs. These programs draw members of the school's 2 neighboring community (the "school-community") into the process of reforming schools by focusing on local, community identified concerns, and by initiating local community development programs as part of school reform. SCD therefore can be defined as occurring when different sectors—parents, teachers, students—of a school's community engage in sector identified programs (that could be social, economic, cultural, or pedagogic in focus) thereby achieving both community identified goals and facilitating the implementation of SR initiatives. The traditional foci of SR, school governance, or curriculum, or student retention, is broadened to encompass community identified priorities. "Community" is understood to include those people living within a definable area who have social and psychological ties with each other and with the place where they live, and "local community development" is the result of planned intervention(s), initiated by members of a community, to change their economic, social, cultural and/or environmental situation. School-Community Development occurs when local community development is initiated by members of families living within a school's service area (the school-community) as part of a structured approach to school change. Local context, therefore, is critical to the development of SCD in any particular community. With this background, Chapter One continues in section 1.1 with a vignette illustrating the context of SR's implementation in South Africa and the SCD approach. Section 1.2 then provides a concise statement of what this study contributes to the SR, SCD, and South African education policy literatures. Section 1.3 outlines the structure of my argument: The tripartite and chapter division of the thesis is stated and justified. Section 1.4. concludes the chapter. 3 1.1 Background: Problem statement and school district context. Soshanguve township, in South Africa's Gauteng Province, is situated 120 kilometers North-West of Johannesburg and 40 kilometers North of South Africa's administrative capital, Tswane (formerly, Pretoria) (see Map One). Chains of rambling informal settlements, wherein unemployment rates average 60% (ERP, 2003a), surround the township. In the midst of one of these communities is St Francis Primary School1. During a 1997 school planning meeting the problem of student late coming was identified by teachers and parents as needing immediate intervention and redress2. According to the teachers and school's management, student late coming had multiple consequences: Teachers, feeling that students were not interested in learning, arrived late and neglected lesson planning. In turn, more students arrived late or skipped classes; students that arrived on time were demoralized by the high levels of absenteeism of their peers and teacher's lack of lesson preparation or absenteeism (Soshanguve Education Co-ordinating Committee (SECC), 1996a). Teachers, students and parents interested in addressing teacher/student late coming formed a research group (St Francis Primary School, 1997) and discovered that not all students came late: most frequently, latecomers were single mothers living on the far side of the township. These women had to leave their children at day-care facilities prior to attending school. A solution was proposed: Establish a day-care next to the school where local unemployed grandmothers could be trained to provide qualified early childhood care. A grandmother living near the school was approached. A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) provided training in early childhood education and small business Original school names are retained. 2 In 1997 St Francis Primary had 650 students, 21 teachers, and 17 Classrooms. The school had neither running water nor electricity; ablution facilities consisted of a row of six ramshackle pit toilets. 4 Map One. Republic of South Africa. Provincial Boundaries and Major Cities. South Africa's Former Provinces | Htr.MMl llfll", t-l'jl tit, 5 development, and a small loan secured kindergarten-learning aids. This initiative had several outcomes (Headstart Project, 1998). The women students brought their children to the kindergarten and arrived at school on time. Staff and student morale changed from mutual recrimination to the beginnings of action based on a respectful dialogue; teaching and learning improved (Headstart Project, 1998). Improvements to the school's physical plant (the provision of additional toilets and connecting the school to the local electricity and water grids by the Gauteng Provincial Administration) was maintained by the school's surrounding community members. The proprietor of the kindergarten was now self-employed. Some of her earnings paid off her small loan, some went to the school fund and the rest contributed to maintaining her multi-generational family. These changes presented a new school-community relationship to members of the surrounding informal settlement and resulted in reduced theft from the school and less vandalism (Headstart Project, 1998). This vignette illustrates the interdependence between teaching, learning, and community life in South African township and rural schools and the importance of integrating SR with the socio-economic development of the community surrounding a school (Cummings, 1997; Nzamujo, 1999). Termed "School-Community Development" (SCD), this approach integrates teachers, students and/or parents in a range of school or community-based programs that impact on teaching, learning, and community life. How this integration occurred constitutes the problem addressed in the thesis through case studies in four schools in Soshanguve. The Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District (SWED) administers schools in Soshanguve. The district was selected for five reasons. First, it exemplifies all the characteristics of the collapsed culture of teaching and learning discussed in a Special Hearing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) (1998) and noted in various commissions of enquiry (see, CCOLT, 1996, for example). Second, the district's schools span the range of South African 6 schools: From private schools run by far-right, neo-fascist groups to remote rural public farm schools; from elite schools attaining 100% graduation rates, to schools identified as "failing" and requiring targeted Provincial intervention. Third, although it was described by the Gauteng Provincial Education Superintendent General in 1995 as "my worst district ... it's the one that gives me the most headaches in the Province" (M.Nkonyane, personal communication, 25 April 1996) by 1998 the district was considered "innovative" and a "leading district" (Metcalfe, 1997; Potenza, 1997; SAIDE, 1998). Fourth, the district's socio-economic indicators (for example, levels of unemployment, education and income, Gross Domestic Product, poverty and crime levels) mirror those found across South Africa (see, for example, ERP, 2003a; CASE, 2000a; SAHRC, 1998), and in urban and peri-urban areas of developing countries (Pun, 2002; Nzamujo, 1999). This allows cross-case comparisons to be made, hence strengthening the generalizability and possible transferability of research findings. Fifth, having worked in Soshanguve from 1993-1998, initially as a School Change Facilitator and later as co-ordinator of the District's Development Unit on the SWED's Management team, I had access to socio-economic, school demographic and statistical data, as well as a range of contacts in the school, and district and provincial education administrations. This background facilitated the conduct of research and influenced the "researcher's voice" (Van Maanen, 1988). Thus the initial point of entry to the district was through the mirror of my own memory and experience by drawing on diary, journal, archival and video material. The study covers the first six years (1994-2000) of South Africa's first non-racial government. Members of the school district's management team participated in identifying the case study schools by giving background information on school-community initiated programs, and by updating me on SR in the district since my departure from the district in 1998.1 selected four schools because they revealed different manifestations of SCD and reflected thematic and 7 procedural differences to SCD. In each instance the case study schools responded to the "unprecedented social dislocation" (TRC, 1998, Ch. 9, Para. 11) and "the pervasive experience of social malaise" (SWED, 1997c, p. 12) by differentially incorporating the SR agenda of the South African government into SCD initiatives; the contexts of the schools (their local histories, economy, and geography (Chisholm, 1999) and the interests of local community members and leaders) fundamentally influenced SCD, and SR. In contrast to reproduction theory that argued that schools reproduce social inequality (Bowles & Gintis, 1976) the school case studies show that SCD can reduce social inequality while improving the effectiveness of SR implementation. The case studies demonstrate how school-communities addressed inequality and contributed to school and community development in four important ways. First, systemic poverty that impacted strongly on learning (SAHRC, 1998; ERP, 2003b; DNE, 2003) was addressed. Second, the programs were not confined to schools and established various sites of development action drawing a wide array of participants into the development process. Third, SCD broke down historical feelings of antipathy towards the formal school system that emerged during the apartheid era. Fourth, the approaches built trust among members of the school-communities, facilitating community reconstruction by reestablishing fragile social bonds among community members. Additional school focused impacts on teaching and learning occurred. These included changes in school administration and management, changes in curriculum and curriculum delivery, greater diversity of learning opportunities, and higher commitment to implementing various aspects of national and provincially initiated SR programs at the school level. The extent and diversity of these impacts are explored in greater detail in the course of the thesis. 8 1.2 Contr ibut ion to the literature The thesis makes two contributions to the literature. First, the thesis challenges the "simplistic solutions to educational problems" (Anyon, 1997, p. 12; Sadovnik & Semel, 2001) that are encapsulated within School Reform (SR). Currently, SR is the predominant approach to school and education system change. It is supported by key funding organizations operating in South Africa (Joint Education Trust (JET), 2002; World Bank, 2002) and was adopted by the South African government to address the legacy of Apartheid educational practice. With Anyon (1997), I argue that SR, as it is currently theorized, is incapable of addressing the problems confronting schooling since "successful urban school reform must also restructure the urban environments that produce failing schools and children without hope" (Anyon, 1997, p. 12; Sadovnik and Semel, 2001, p. 28; Tye, 2000). Anyon (1997), Keith (1996, 1995), Shaeffer (1994), and Crowson and Boyd (2001) identified the lacunae in SR and integrated community development and school-partnership models. Building on this work I show how educational change can "be part and parcel of more fundamental social change" (Shaeffer, 1994, p. 13) by encouraging development policies that are particular to each school-community and that integrate the traditionally disparate SR and local community development literatures. Inspired by Crowson and Boyd's (2001, p. 17) observation that there is "much to be learned about the SR potential" in SCD, this study provides "a set of thorough understandings ... as to just what it might mean to move toward a community-based foundation for school improvement" (Crowson and Boyd, 2001, p. 17). A second contribution of the thesis emerges from my critique of SR in South Africa. Since 1994 SR focused on governance, curriculum and lifelong learning, on "strategic incremental reforms" (Karlsson, 2000, p. 13). The social context of school and community was 9 ignored (Jansen, 1997, 1998) and the utility of the SR paradigm was unquestioned (Chisholm and Fuller, 1996; de Clercq, 1997a and b; Deacon and Parker, 1998). Sayed and Jansen (2001, p. 7), for example, observed that there was a "lack of understanding of the process of making change work at the micro level". South African education policy analysis reflects "the voices of university-based academics ... there is a need to voice submerged discourse and views from many different institutions and sites. The vibrancy of the post-apartheid dialogues necessitates multiple voicing that moves beyond those with the policy resources" (Sayed, 2002, p. 32, emphasis added). The thesis addresses these concerns directly: The case study method evokes 'multiple voices' from the four schools as they struggle to reform education and address the multitude of problems that the schools confront. Accordingly, our understanding of "making change work at the micro level" is enhanced. In so doing the thesis extends education discourse in South Africa that focused since 1994 on SR and has as yet failed to demonstrate how South African schools can achieve sustained and effective change (Sayed & Jansen, 2001, p. 7). 1.3 Thesis structure. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part One introduces the central problem to be investigated in this thesis. Following the introduction in chapter one, chapter two reviews the SR literature. Adopting a historical perspective, Tyack and Cuban (1995, p. 4) define SR as "planned efforts to change schools in order to correct perceived social and educational problems ... [this] ... entailed a long and complex set of steps: discovering problems, devising remedies, adopting new policies and bringing about institutional change". Key components of SR programs, including teacher and staff development, are discussed and critiqued. 10 The literature suggests two approaches that extend SR: School-community partnerships and SCD. These approaches are the subject of chapter three. While there is an extensive literature on school partnerships (Shaeffer, 1994), and an emerging literature on SCD (Anyon, 1997; Keith, 1996; 1999), there is no investigation of programs that integrate SR, school-community partnerships, and SCD (Crowson & Boyd, 2001, p. 12; Goldring & Hausman, 2001, p. 199). Consequently, the literature on SR and school-community partnerships is extended in this study by showing how, and to what effect, including a school's community in local school and community development programs achieves both pedagogic and socio-economic change. Thus, integrating reform, partnership, and community development defines SCD and is a central theoretical focus of the thesis. With the literature review as backdrop, chapter four outlines the research methods used to examine the central question raised in the thesis: How can SR and SCD be integrated? The chapter begins by introducing the case study method. Applications of the method in South African educational research are discussed. The chapter then discusses data collection and analysis, and defends the approach followed in the thesis. To situate and clarify my own role in the district, and to define my own voice in the thesis, the chapter ends by addressing the question of researcher voice, researcher bias and possible limitations to the study. SCD was investigated through semi-structured interviews with school and district personnel, archival research, and site visits. Interview questions were designed to shed light on how SR and SCD are integrated. Interviews focused on the perceptions and understandings of SR and SCD. All interviews addressed four themes: the SR programs implemented, SCD programs implemented, problems encountered integrating SCD and SR, and the effects on teaching and learning that occurred as a result of integrating the local community into the school through SCD. 11 Part Two, "Policy on a String", consists of Chapters five and six. The organizing metaphor relates to one of the most enduring images of my experience as a school administrator in Soshanguve: On a visit to Makosini Secondary School in 1996, shortly after the school's roof had blown off during a thunderstorm, I walked into the barren staff room. In the center of the room, hanging from a wooden desk by a thin piece of string was the centerpiece SR legislation of the South African government, the South African School's Act (RSA, 1996a). I picked up the legislation, intensely aware of the frail string, hearing the principal explaining that the legislation "is there for the teachers to read and initial" (Diary, 7 August, 1996). Which indeed some had done. The fundamental message in Part Two reflects on the ease of passing SR legislation, yet the difficulty of implementing SR in contexts like Soshanguve. Chapters five and six discuss the SR agenda implemented by the South African government in the 1994-2000 period and introduces the Soshanguve community and school district. Chapter five describes and critiques the SR policy agenda pursued in South Africa between 1994 and 1999. South Africa presents an important case of SR because the approach was adopted as national policy to address the educational legacy of Apartheid and Colonial rule (CCOLT, 1996; Chisholm, 1997; de Clercq, 1997b; Karlsson, 2000; RSA, 1996a). The thesis does not repeat prior research on policy development and implementation in South Africa. As chapter five shows, this work either traced the design of individual programs (Khulisa Management Services, 1999; McGrath, 1997) or investigated macro-policy restructuring and policy borrowing (de Clercq, 1997b; Lemon and Stevens, 1999). Consequently, the chapter reviews the policy choices implemented by the South African government since 1994 and shows the limited impact on teaching and learning of SR. Having introduced the policy context, Chapter six discusses the social and economic contexts of the case study schools. This social context undermines SR and the education system 12 (Anyon, 1997; Christie, 1998), a system that by 1994 had collapsed (ANC, 1994; CCOLT, 1996; DNE, 1996b). For example, the Commission into the Culture of Learning and Teaching (CCOLT, 1996) reported "abundant evidence" indicating that "schooling appeared to have broken down" (ibid. p. 1). Evidence cited included dysfunctional education infrastructures, insufficient facilities and resources, ineffective or ad hoc leadership, management and administration, conflict between principals, teachers, parents and students, and finally, the debilitating effects of the socio-economic contexts of township communities (CCOLT, 1996). CCOLT also noted "in many cases, the circumstances that teachers have to deal with are well beyond their training. Drugs, rapes and killings in the wider community if not the school, were cited as common problems" (ibid. p. 34, emphasis added). An additional dimension, the pervasive experience of poverty, further affects the implementation of SR (SAHRC, 1998; ERP, 2003a, 2003b) and drove SCD in the case study schools. The policy and social contexts described in chapters five and six situate discussion in Part Three of the thesis which presents the research findings. Moving from Soshanguve Valley to Soshanguve Ridge, we begin (in Chapter seven) in Ayanda Primary School. The school makes two specific contributions to the literature on SCD. Firstly, staff development is linked with SCD in the school's innovative approach to School-Based Teacher In-Service (SBINSET). Secondly, the school's approach to community development and integrating the community into the school through the establishment of a community cooperative makes another important contribution to the SCD literature. Reitumetse High School, the subject of chapter eight, is located on the edge of Soshanguve township, facing South, down the Soshanguve and Akasia valleys. From the school you can see on the horizon the gold bearing quartzite ridges that surround the metropolis of Tswane (formerly Pretoria), and that stretch in a vast arc on towards Johannesburg and 13 Vereeniging. The school-community emphasized the establishment of a range of school-community partnerships, and the creation of local employment opportunities. Once again, SR and SDC are integrated and the process of implementing SR is facilitated. Chapter nine takes us to Boeipathutsi Junior Secondary School, located on Soshanguve Ridge. Boeipathutsi's most important contribution is the integration of SCD with indigenous planning frameworks. By deliberately manipulating indigenous planning frameworks members of the school's community facilitated several mutually reinforcing development processes within the school. Together, these processes enhanced the implementation of school reforms initiated by Provincial and National government, and created an environment that supported SR implementation. The final case study, of Rodney Mokoena Preparatory School, is presented in chapter ten. Perhaps the apogee of SCD, the school's wide-ranging approach to SCD integrates school-based staff development with various programs aimed at local community social and economic development. Not only do these programs reach to the core of SR and impact on curriculum design and delivery, but they also provide material benefits to the local community thereby stabilizing both the local community and the school's environment. Chapter eleven draws the argument together by extrapolating from the case study schools five key principles that constitute and reinforce the implementation of SCD programs. The conclusion, therefore, shows the importance of the case studies and suggests ways of generalizing the research findings to provincial and national levels of policy implementation. 14 1.4 Conclusion The thesis examines one fundamental question: How are SR and SCD integrated in four South African schools? The question is an important one because eight years after South Africa's political transition and the adoption of SR, new structures of school governance and new curriculum frameworks are in place (Karlsson, 2000; RSA, 2001). However qualitative change in the nature of teaching and learning is yet to occur (Jansen, 2001b; ERP, 2003b). As the thesis will show, in schools that integrated SR and SCD, that changed the SR model, real changes in the quality of education occurred: Legislation was successfully implemented; various improvements to teaching and learning occurred; social and economic benefits to the community surrounding the school were in evidence and reinforced changes within the school. I begin the examination of integrating SR and SCD in chapter two with a discussion of the School Reform literature. 15 Chapter T w o . School Reform 2.0 Introduction Due to the international importance of SR (Popkewitz, 2000a, p. 3; World Bank, 1995; Boyd, 1999; Levin & Riffel, 1997) and the impact of SR in South Africa (Gauteng Provincial Government, 1996; RSA, 1996a; de Clercq, 1997a; Manganyi, 2001), this approach to educational change is examined in section 2.1 and critiqued in sections 2.2 and 2.3. Three different approaches to analyzing SR are identified in the literature: Organizational development, behavioralist, and post-structuralist. These approaches are complemented in section 2.3 by the particular insights of scholars in the developing world (Christie, 1998; Kraak, 1995; Harber and Davies, 1997; Nzamujo, 1999; Riddell, 1999b) who showed how the significantly different social, economic, and political environments that exist in developing world countries affected the terrain of SR's implementation. Sections 2.2 and 2.3 lays a basis for the exploration, in Chapter Three, of a corollary to SR suggested in the work of Anyon (1997), Keith (1996; 1999), and Orr, Stone, and Stumbo (2002). 2.1 School Reform Two approaches to defining SR are found in the literature. One approach defines SR in terms of outcomes: improved student results (Muller and Roberts, 2000), new approaches to school governance (Bryck, Bebring, Kerbow, Rollow, & Easton, 1998), or changes in teacher certification (Darling-Hammond, 1997a). A second approach focuses on the process of 16 implementing education policy, and defines SR by adherence to a policy approach that emphasizes reform as system wide educational planning. 2 . 1 . 1 School reforms and educational outcomes In their "Critical Review" of the "Sound and Fury of International School Reform," Muller and Roberts (2000) argued that SR incorporates the "entire gamut of approaches to [student] achievement improvement" (ibid. p. 1), including school effectiveness, school improvement, school development and school restructuring. They contended that school organizational, curricular and achievement-oriented, or teacher development goals of SR were "different means to the same end-improved achievement outcomes" (ibid. p. 1). Accordingly, the overriding concern of school reformers is with "pupil achievement outcomes and how these might be improved" (ibid. p. 1). This definition led Muller and Roberts (2000) to emphasize the school effectiveness and improvement literatures, and to use performance measures to identify and compare pupil achievement, and compare reform strategies (ibid. p. 16). Student "achievement improvement" (Muller and Roberts, 2000) and improved "institutional efficiencies" (JET, 2002) was directed at schools, with staff development, curriculum and pedagogy, school administration, and school governance as the foci of reform policies (Sadovnik & Semel, 2001, p. 28). Darling-Hammond (1997a) provided a different understanding of SR. She argued that a "central concern" for SR was to ensure "an adequate supply of well qualified teachers in all communities ... if these central concerns are not being addressed so that a growing supply of good schools and teachers is being systematically developed, reforms like charters, choice plans, and curriculum changes cannot succeed" (p. 154). The emphasis for SR in Darling Hammond's 17 view fell on teachers since "in the end, every reform strategy is constrained or supported by the availability of talented teachers, by the knowledge these teachers possess, and by the ways those abilities are used" (ibid, p. 155). Teacher quality and teacher involvement in reform programs (Darling-Hammond, 1997b; Zeichner, 1991) has been a focus of the SR movement since the mid-1980's and teacher development was recognized as being fundamental to SR in South Africa (Hofmeyr, 1995; NECC, 1994; NEPI, 1992). For example, the 1994 White Paper on Education and Training stated "the Ministry regards teacher education (including the professional education of trainers and educators) as one of the central pillars of national human resource strategy" (Republic of South Africa (RSA), 1994, p. 9). And a discussion document on National Policy on Teacher Supply, Utilization and Development noted "teacher education has the awesome task of playing a central role in our commitment to redress and national reconstruction and development within a context of global change" (Department of National Education (DNE), 1996a, p. 2). While teacher development was recognized as playing a "central role" in the process of SR, little further elaboration of a coherent school and teacher development policy emerged (Centre for Education Policy Development (CEPD), 2000; GDE: TSUD, 1997). Blaming teachers for the failure of SR programs (Darling-Hammond, 1997a; Fullan & Hargreaves, 1992; Tyack & Cuban, 1995) was a corollary of the SR movement's emphasis on teacher quality. Conflicting evaluations of teacher involvement in SR exist. Tyack and Cuban (1995) and Fullan and Hargreaves (1992) argued that insufficient teacher involvement resulted in failures in many SR programs. On the other hand, Mawhinney (1998) pointed out that teachers were involved in SR but this involvement occurred alongside the simultaneous implementation of local Management of Schools, Site Based Management and changes to school governance as additional components of SR. Mawinney argued that policy overload, teacher 18 autonomy, and the introduction of mechanisms for increased parental control and involvement in school administration and management encouraged "school wars" between parents and teachers (see also Driscoll, 1998, p. 117) and undermined SR. 2 . 1 . 2 School reforms and education planning Two scholars of SR, Tyack and Cuban (1995), confirmed a second widely held interpretation of SR by identifying SR with multifaceted, system wide, and state mandated school system change driven by state legislation. They defined SR as "planned efforts to change schools in order to correct perceived social and educational problems" (Tyack and Cuban, 1995, p. 4). Here, the focus of SR was on changing the administration, management and processes of schooling by following "a long and complex set of steps: discovering problems, devising remedies, adopting new policies and bringing about institutional change" (ibid. p. 4). Similarly Fuller (1993, p. 68) pointed out that "when educational reforms are attempted, they are embedded in [a] traditional bureaucratic structure. So, changes are translated into a ... sequence of reducing complex tasks into routinized tasks which are then sanctioned through hierarchical regulation." In their study of SR, Datnow, Hubbard, and Mehan (2002) observed that the "technological-rational perspective is the most extensively used approach for studying (school) reform. It operates on classical management theory which places a premium on planning, organization, command, co-ordination, and control" (p. 41). This "technological-rational" approach was reflected in the DNE (1996a and 1997b) and GDE (1996a; see also, CCOLT, 1996) through their emphasis on mandating through reform legislation education specific policy change to achieve educational efficiency (Lockheed and Verspoor, 1991; Heneveld and Craig, 1996; JET, 2002). 19 2.2 School reform: Critique. Three approaches to critiquing SR were identified in the literature: Organizational development, behavioralist, and post-structuralist. Organization development critiques pointed out that SR maintained the structure of schooling systems (Anyon, 1997), a structure that stemmed from the establishment of the modern bureaucratic state in the 19th century (Fuller, 1993, p. 29-30). This organisational structure established a hierarchical and segmented system of school organization and education system design (Mouzelis, 1967, p. 18; Oliver, 1976) breaking the school into discrete organizational domains corresponding to the various functions and organizational sub-structures of a school. This model of school system organization and reform identified the "technically best course of action to adopt in order to implement a decision or achieve a goal ... in terms of available factual data" (Taylor, Rizvi, Lingard, and Henry, 1997, p. 17). For example, in their review of education reform support funded by aid agencies, Crouch, Healey and DeStefano (1997, p. 5) observed that "perhaps 95% of donor activity in the education sector has been modeled after the traditional infrastructure projects of the 1950's." They concluded that those who promoted SR "in terms of both content and the stages of project design and management ... use a linear, blueprint philosophy for carrying out a clearly defined and often technically sophisticated task" (ibid., p. 6). School Reformers assumed that a rational analysis of social problems and a rational process of policy determination, choice and implementation was possible, desirable and occurred (Oliver, 1976; Datnow et al., 2002). This approach linked SR with a "conservative agenda," suggesting that state mandated education reforms "regarded teaching as a standard set of techniques that can be applied to everyone, everywhere" (Pinar, Reynolds, Slattery, & Taubman, 1995, p. 672). Similarly, Samoff s (1999) analysis of 237 20 education policy sector studies in Africa concluded that the School Reformer's rational approach resulted in education that was "all mechanics and no soul, more a complex industrial machine than an organic human enterprise ... studies reflect a functional and instrumental understanding of education as a system ... that focuses on what can be reasonably be measured" (Samoff, 1999, p. 268-269). Critique in the organization development tradition led to a focus on one or central pillars (World Bank, 1995) of SR. Fullan (1994), for example, suggested that SR programs that ignore instruction and instructional reform will fail. He (ibid. p. 46-49) cited the "New Futures Initiative" as a case in point. Here, an initiative with a budget of $40 million focused on youth in four inner-city communities for a five-year period. Activities varied according to local plans and the number of schools in each community. Significant structural changes were implemented. For example, in one community two schools were restructured into student/teacher clusters. Extended day activities, student counseling, performance incentives, interdisciplinary curricular units and common daily teacher planning were initiated. Yet these structural changes "were not bringing about fundamental change ... they left the basic policies and practices of school unchanged ... New Futures did not produce promising changes in the substantive content that students learn. It stimulated almost no fundamental change ..." (Fullan, 1994, p. 48-50). Based on a North American research base, Fullan (1994) argued that unless SR is focused on the "cultural core of curriculum and instruction" (ibid. p. 51) fundamental change would not occur. Although structural reform could occur by proclaiming new policies or implementing new legislation or performance standards these "top-down reform strategies have virtually no chance of reaching the core problems" (ibid. p. 51), namely, changing the nature of teaching and learning (see also: Dalin, Rolff, and Kleekamp, 1993). In addition, multiple 21 innovations and regulatory changes with competing objectives identified by state planners undermined the intended outcomes of individual programs (Mawinney, 1998). Hodgkinson (1991) and Cuban (1997) extended the organization development critique to evaluate the impact of socio-economic change on the structure and experience of SR. They showed that schools benefitting from reform programs were confined to upper-middle class communities. Hodgkinson (1991) lambasted the neglect of the 75% of US schools which he showed were untouched by reform efforts (see also, Dalin et al., 1983). Thus Hodgkinson (1991), Cuban (1990; 1997) and Tyack and Cuban (1995) emphasized political influences on SR. They advanced a model of SR 'swings', from progressive to conservative in orientation, and traced these changes to Dewey's progressive reforms in the 1920's (Cuban, 1990, p. 6-8; 10). A second, behaviouralist, critique contended that the manipulation of structural variables and the imposition of changes to the structures of schooling and administration attempted by school reformers did little to change the cultures of schools (Orr et al., 2002) since relationships between new programs or policies and people's subjective realities interacted to shape SR programs. Chisholm (1999), for example, pointed out that "schools themselves ... give a particular form to policies at the point of their implementation: as the operational terrain within which policies are implemented, institutional structures, cultures, histories and environments ... produce very different kinds of possibilities of response to new policies" (Chisholm, 1999, p. 89). How these subjective realities were addressed or ignored was central to program implementation (Fullan, 1991, p. 43; Jansen, 2001a). Yet the subjective dimension was not accounted for within SR's emphasis on legislative manipulation of education specific variables to achieve educational efficiency (Heneveld & Craig, 1996; Lockheed & Verspoor, 1991). Hence behaviouralists critique SR's origin in state legislation and administrative bureaucracies; that is, in legislation rather than the life-worlds of teachers. 22 Raymond, Butt and Townsend (1992) used teacher autobiographies to understand the subjective dimension of teacher change. Rather than evaluate the short term effects of a training program, curriculum initiative, or school structural change, Raymond, Butt and Townsend (1992) emphasized teacher growth through the conditions of their lives, careers and experiences in the various educational contexts that they encountered. This longitudinal research showed the importance of pre-teacher training experiences that "provide the foundations which not only influence the way a teacher begins to teach, but also act as lifelong references for teacher identity" (ibid., p. 150). Additionally, Raymond, Butt and Townsend (1992) showed that teacher development occurred in bursts or phases, individually and in isolation (in the classroom) and through reflection on teaching during term breaks. They concluded that change in teachers' practice occurred not through course participation but over "long periods during which individuals work alone" (ibid., p. 154). These findings were corroborated by research into teacher life cycles and school cultures. Huberman (1992, p. 131), for example, drawing on research with Swiss teachers showed the difficulty young teachers had in establishing their portfolios and classroom personality and the "increasing withdrawal and internalization" which characterizes mature teachers. For both these groups implementation of new materials is resisted: for young teachers, because they were still struggling to establish themselves in the class and staff rooms, and for mature teachers because they were established in their teaching routines. Huberman found that quality in-service courses did little to influence teacher implementation or change from established practice. Rather teachers needed the time, space and professional and collegial support to allow them to "tinker productively inside classrooms in order to obtain the instructional and relational effects they are after" (ibid, p. 132). 23 Research into the subjectivity of change provided essential insights into the process of change (and non-change) in schools. The research undermines the faith in rational planning and predetermined change strategies since the individualistic and subjective elements to school and classroom change is revealed. Thus, the "rational assumptions, abstraction and descriptions of a proposed new curriculum do not make sense in the capricious world of the teacher" (Fullan, 1991, p. 34; Sarason, 1982) and were viewed differently by teachers in various phases of their teacher life cycle (Huberman, 1992). Consequently, Hargreaves (1994) and Dalin, et al. (1993) emphasized that school staffs should drive SR and schools should be the change units from which reforms emanate (see also Comer, 1992; Levin, 1993). They suggested that SR cannot be achieved through legislation but by teachers and students developing programs to address identified school problems. For Hargreaves (1994) the central challenge of SR was a "challenge of abandoning or attenuating bureaucratic controls, inflexible mandates, paternalistic forms of trust and quick system fixes in order to hear, articulate and bring together the disparate voices of teachers and other educational partners (particularly students and their parents)" (p. 260). Necessary conditions included a shift towards participatory school management and educational administration (DNE, 1996b), and a change in professional development activity from individually based programs towards teachers from a school, as a group, identifying and collaborating in coordinated professional development activity (Wideen, 1987). For behavioralists, SR's implementation of changes to the structures of schooling and administration did little to change the cultures of schools and school-communities since the real crunch comes in the relationships between these new programs or policies and the thousands of subjective realities embedded in people's individual and organizational contexts and their personal histories. How these subjective 24 realities are addressed or ignored is crucial for whether potential changes become meaningful at the level of individual use and effectiveness (Fullan, 1991, p. 43). A third, Post-Structuralist, critique questioned the constitutive discourses of SR. An early example of this approach can be found in Duke (1992) who argued that the gulf separating the rhetoric of reform from the reality of school life accounted for the failures of reform programs. Thus, for Duke, reforms had limited impacts on schools because reforms were designed not to improve schools but to address the concerns of different policy advocates. Pinar et al. (1995, p. 683) endorsed this view. They concluded that the state "engages in the rhetoric of SR, and in the formulation of policies and practices of reform that it has little intention to fully actualize." SR, by this analysis, served to legitimize the state (Jansen, 2001b). While Duke concentrated on ineffective SR, Jansen (1999b) and Matthews (1997) addressed the "problem of legitimacy" in schools (p. 471). For Matthews, the changes in governance emphasized in SR programs (such as charter and private schools, home schooling, site based management and voucher programs) were emblematic of declining public faith in the school system. Consequently, Mathews argued that there are "many people who don't believe that the public schools are responsive to their concerns. So they are creating their own schools, trying to take back the schools, or putting someone in charge who will make schools respond to their policies" (p. 471). Popkewitz (2000b) extended this critique. He commented that "most analyses of the politics of reform apply structural concepts of power, the subjectivities in the educational arena are formed through an amalgamation of ideas, technologies, and relations that are historically contingent ... the refusal to make the subject problematic is one of the major difficulties of policy and studies of education" (Popkewitz, 2000b, p. 193). For Popkewitz, critiques of SR implicitly applied "structural concepts of power" and hence were incapable of discovering how 25 or why SR "predictably fails" (Tyack & Cuban, 1995). Muller and Roberts (2000), for example, ignored the critique of the school effectiveness and improvement literatures (Fielding, 2000; Harber & Davies, 1997; Morley & Rassool, 1999; Riddell, 1997), and research investigating how SR and the teacher-learner nexus was structured by the discursive framing of reform (Riddell, 1999b), teaching, and learning (Popkewitz, 1991). For Popkewitz, SR amounted to the imposition of "governing technologies that problematize the possibilities of action and self-reflection" (Popkewitz, 2000b p. 174). Rather than accepting the distinctions of, for example, school choice or student outcome measures offered by SR rhetoric as the "presuppositions of analysis" (ibid., p. 173) Popkewitz made SR rhetoric itself the focus of analysis (ibid., p. 173). Popkewitz showed that SR was "not linear but a story of fluctuation, uneven movements, and unpredictable transformations as political rationalities are brought into the pedagogical discourses through multiple capillaries, capillaries that traverse distinctions between state and civil society" (ibid., p. 173). Criticism in this tradition showed that SR programs were influenced through the educational, economic, and political perspectives of SR implementers or policy advocates (Riddell, 1999b). School reformers' educational perspectives occurred in the school effectiveness and school improvement literatures, and in policy research and programs on the teacher-learner interface (ibid. p. 211) and the content of learning (Centre for Education Policy Development (CEPD), 2000; RSA, 2000). School efficiency, school system efficiency studies and reforms (Heneveld & Craig, 1996; Psacharopoulos, 1989; World Bank, 1995), and teacher and institutional incentive reforms defined the economic perspective on SR. The political approach to SR divided into "as many camps as there are different theories of policy making. Ultimately, we are interested in the process of implementing educational reform, and thus, the behavioural assumptions and motivations of individuals and the role of the state according to 26 these theories" (Riddell, 1999b. p. 214). Political analysis of educational reform included society-centred analysis (Chisholm, Soudien, Vally, & Gilmour, 1999) and state-centred analysis (Grindle & Thomas, 1991; Taylor et al., 1997). A political analysis of reform showed, as Karlsson (2000, p. 13) eloquently suggested in her analysis of the South African reform process, that "a weakness with a reform-oriented strategy is that planners and bureaucrats (not to mention school administrators and educators) may lose sight of the goal during the serpentine convolutions of reform, withering transformation to the residual rhetoric of politicians." Post-structuralist criticisms of SR showed that the conceptualization of SR programs had a tangential rather than direct relation to schools, and that SR was driven by political and economic, rather than educational, motives (Riddell, 1999b). This argument led Pinar et al. (1995, p. 683), in their important survey of curriculum change and reform, to conclude that SR "seems driven by economic conditions which, when mixed with political agendas and institutional complexities results ... in institutional inertia." This understanding suggested that a-priori conceptions of school and individual, power and agency structured SR (Popkewitz, 2000b, p. 193). Taken together, the criticisms offered by organization development, behaviouralist and post-structuralist perspectives revealed SR's substantive weaknesses. However, further weaknesses emerged when SR was adopted by governments and development agencies of developing countries. 2.3 School reform in developing countries Muller and Roberts (2000, p. 9), Riddell (1999a; 1999b), Harber and Davies (1997) and Fuller (1993) provided insights into the emergence of SR discourses in developing countries. Six 27 key characteristics can be identified as fundamentally affecting the terrain of SR implementation in developing countries. First, the significantly different political, social and economic environments that exist in developing countries change the contour of SR. For example, the SR literature originated in societies with legitimate government structures capable of generating planning and policy documents, and where debate on school outcomes, organizational frameworks and processes shaped implementation. Furthermore, the literature on SR presupposed functioning national and provincial education departments. In the United Kingdom, Hargreaves and Hopkins (1991, p. 97), and Joyce, Calhoun and Hopkins (1999, p. 209-224) for example integrated school and local education authority (LEA) development plans within frameworks set by national policy, and showed how school and LEA planning cycles could be coordinated (Hargreaves and Hopkins, 1991, p. 131-134). These conditions seldom applied in the developing world: In South Africa the education ministry recognized its inability to address teacher expectations and did not have sufficient staff or resources to research and initiate programs, or to coordinate school development (DNE, 1996b; 1997a; Harber and Davies, 1997). An example from St Francis Primary, an event that preceded the school's ECD program discussed in chapter one, illustrated the nature of the social environment in which SR programs operate. Early in 1996 a male teacher attacked (with a vehicle jack) mostly women parents and community members attending a meeting called to discuss the teacher's position at the school. Since he transferred to St Francis nine months earlier the teacher had undermined staff and parental authority and organized the Grade seven students (ranging in age between 12 and 17 years) against teachers and parents. This was done through purchase of sweets and drinks for the children and verbal tirades that referred to his colleagues and parents as "Abathaki" (Black Wizards/People of the Night), and "Izimpimpi" (Sellouts)(Diary, 5 September, 1995). 28 Seemingly an example of the collapsed culture of learning and teaching, the situation was exacerbated by the teacher's ability to manipulate the community and arouse folkloric superstitions and explanations for their low socio-economic status. Folklore and cultural beliefs were manipulated in his quest for power in the school, a quest partly driven by the disempowering nature of township environments where even the appearance of status implied access to material resources (Journal, 7 September, 1995). Additional examples drawn from the literature elaborate on this imbrication of folklore with the material contexts of the school and community. In Botswana, Tshireletso (1997) reported that parents assumed that the government "adopts the children" when students went to school, thereby freeing parents from any parental responsibilities. While in some cases this resulted in the destruction of family structures, in others parents withdrew their children from formal state schooling programs. Palme (1994) showed that parents in Mozambique's Nampula province resented education when children were withdrawn from the community to a local school where children were unable to contribute their energy to family and community tasks and responsibilities. Peter Demerath (1999) showed in his case study of education in a Papua New Guinea village how concepts of educational utility were socially mediated and produced. Both Dia (1994) and Deng (1998) have argued that ignoring local evaluations of educational utility and purpose contributed to the breakdown of formal education systems and the failure of SR programs. A cause of this failure, Adedeji suggested, lay in the "lack of historical and structural connection between [government] institutions and their societies" (1999, p. 68)3. Clearly, in this environment where both material and mental (cognitive) structures affected SR, focusing solely on staff development, administration, or 3 Adedeji was not alone in calling for institutional renewal and restructuring in Africa (Dia, 1994; Davidson, 1992; Serageldin, 1994, p. 18) and decrying the illegitimacy of inherited state institutions (Mamdani, 1996; Ake, 1997, p. 70,87; Deng, 1994, p. 506,508). However, the school case studies will show that through SCD the renewal of schooling, as an institution, was possible and occurred. 29 curriculum (for example) undermined the implementation of SR programs (Harber and Davies, 1997). Second, in Western Anglophone nations departmental initiatives stimulated school planning and change: schools developed plans; teachers launched classroom curriculum programs. Educational change was launched from within the educational system. However, in developing country and South African schools, proper line functions hardly existed: District managers were still being appointed and districts did not have their full staff compliments (DNE, 1997a). Thus the National and Provincial education departments were struggling to maintain old structures (such as examinations, promotions, salaries) while simultaneously changing both structures and practices at head office, district and school levels (Karlsson, 2000, p. 18). Consequently, educational change and development programs were launched either by school-communities themselves, or by external agencies, and often driven by these agencies4 (Muller and Roberts, 2000, p. 9; Riddell, 1999a; 1999b; JET, 2002). In South Africa, rather than stimulating change, the government's SR program saw teachers and school governing bodies being so "overwhelmed by the volume of policies pushed down from national and provincial departments [they] began to show early signs of policy implementation fatigue in the form of confusion, resentment, denial and retreating into a mode of excessive bureaucracy" (Karlsson, 2000, p. 18). Third, reform initiatives were "generally funded by aid packages, and are tied to a particular intervention cycle" (Muller and Roberts, 2000, p. 9). For example, in South Africa, school management development and science and mathematics development reform initiatives were driven by externally funded and tied aid packages controlled by the Canadian and French 4 'External agencies' includes National or International Non-governmental organizations or development co-ordinating institutions. 30 governments respectively (D. Hindle, personal communication, 12 October 1997). Consequently, reform projects were episodic and not integrated with the identified educational priorities of developing countries (Riddell, 1999b; Samoff, 1999), a critique that was recognized by donor agencies (Crouch et al., 1997, p. 4). Nevertheless, the three US Agency for International Development (USAID) researchers recognized that: in spite of the serious and fundamental attacks on foreign aid, most projects continue to be designed as if none of these attacks had any validity or constituted an intellectual and technical threat, and were entirely political and budgetary in nature ... current approaches (standard projects, policy based funding) need to be reinforced with a more participatory, analysis-and-dialogue-based emphasis, that meets the critiques head on (Crouch et al., 1997, p. 2). In addition to funding and intervention cycles, aid agencies have also had wide-ranging impacts on the content of SR programs in the developing world. For example, the World Bank's Education and Technical Departments conducted significant large-scale studies of school and education systems, attempting to identify the organizational factors that produce generalisable SR "regularities" (Muller and Roberts, 2000, p. 9; see Heneveld and Craig, 1996, and DNE, 1996c). The World Bank's research allowed the Bank to propose a "universal" strategy for educational reform based on "six pillars" of reform (World Bank, 1995). These 'pillars' ignored the mental and material (Godelier, 1984; Mbembe, 2001) contexts of school-communities. Fourth, the difficulties of implementing SR in developing world schools was compounded by the nature of school change in "failing" schools in predominantly low-income communities (Fuller, 1993; Harbison & Hanushek, 1992). For example, the majority of South African schools were poorly resourced; had weak (in some cases non-existent) management, administration and governance structures; had fragmented staffs (CCOLT, 1996; SECC, 1997c); 31 and were located in peripheral communities (in terms of location and access to urban centres, resources and employment opportunities). In these schools various forms of consensus building and organization development needed to take place before SR could occur (Christie & Potterton, 1997). Fifth, and one of the most pernicious consequences of international SR policy borrowing, was the assumption that homogenous policy dictates would fit seamlessly into the extremes of wealth and poverty found in the developing world. In this regard, and referring to the South African situation, Kraak (1995, p. 196) pointed out that the "spatial inequalities pose a major responsibility for policymakers, who need to devise sustainable strategies which differentiate across diverse social and industrial settings, but which have the common aim of reducing social inequality." Thus SR's social context in South Africa was shaped by apartheid laws and structures that exposed the majority of South Africa's children to oppression, exploitation, deprivation and humiliation. Apartheid was accompanied by both subtle and overt acts of physical and structural violence. Structural violations included gross inequalities in educational resources along with massive poverty, unemployment, homelessness, widespread crime and family breakdown. The combination of these problems produced a recipe for unprecedented social dislocation... (TRC, 1998, Ch 9, Para 11. Emphasis added). These inequalities, and the consequent need to develop policy which was sufficiently flexible to operate in both marginalized and privileged environments, appeared to have been underestimated in the implementation of SR in South Africa (Jansen, 2001b; ERP, 2003a; SAHRC, 1998) causing government and the administration of the state to be "viewed as particularistic, a foreign organization that acts with limited legitimacy" (Fuller, 1993, p. 61). 32 Sixth, in the developing world, SR that neglected a stakeholder component- students, teachers, or parents- floundered (BRAC, 2002; ESP, 1995; Gabriel, 1984). The "Whole School Development" (WSD) approach to school development and SR was a case in point. WSD emerged in the United Kingdom in the 1980's to address problems associated with seemingly ineffectual teacher professional development (Bradley, 1995). WSD co-ordinated staff identified professional development needs, articulated through a development plan (Graham-Jolly & Peacock, 2000; Hargreaves & Hopkins, 1991; Hopkins, Ainscow, & West, 1994), and was restricted to curricular, instructional or organisational changes implemented by teachers throughout a school (Graham-Jolly & Peacock, 2000; One Thousand School's Project (TSP), 1996). Consequently, the international literature concentrated on implementing, co-ordinating or determining the effectiveness of whole school programs (HMSO, 1996). However in South Africa WSD programs were implemented that were quite different to those defined in the literature (Vilakazi, 1995). For example, when attempting to implement a Whole School Development model of SR the Education Support Project (ESP) reported that teacher development workshops were stopped by teachers who needed to address violent conflicts with, and among, students rather than learn about new approaches to pedagogy. Teachers indicated that they were prevented from teaching (in Soshanguve) by two Student Representative Councils (SRCs) fighting for control of the school, and (in Sharpeville) by the SRC becoming involved in gang activity and intimidating students not to attend classes at exam time (Education Support Project. (ESP), 1994). ESP realised that SR programs collapsed in the context of an overall breakdown in the culture of teaching and learning, and that programs needed to address teachers, students and parents simultaneously (ESP, 1995). ESP subsequently oriented their approach to WSD towards all key stakeholders in a school community (parents, teachers and students) while the international WSD literature 33 remained teacher and school staff focussed (see: Fullan, 1994; Newton & Tarrant, 1992). Fullan (1994), for example, recognised the importance of including students in school change programs, yet actual programs directed at youth empowerment (in school settings) were not described or included in reform programs. Similarly Dalin et al. (1993), presented a wealth of material and experience on school change programs, yet the contribution of parents and students to school reconstruction in his approach was insignificant. In the UK, Newton and Tarrant (1992) argued for a whole school development approach to SR yet, once again, the contribution of parents and students was marginalised. And Hopkins, West and Ainscow (1996) showed that teachers in the Improving the Quality of Education for All (IQEA) "Whole School Development program" held the initiative when launching school development activity in their schools (although often they were responding to central government regulation) and decided on the focus of school development activity. Implementers of SR programs in developing countries confronted a particular set of challenges. In essence SR was undermined by the significantly different political, social and economic environments that exist in developing countries, dysfunctional administrative structures, SR's origin in external government and international agency programs and priorities, and the complexities of international policy borrowing. SR was also affected by the particular mental and material conditions that exist in specific communities. Recognizing the importance of context Chisholm (1999, p. 89) called for a "different mode'" of SR precisely because the impact of new education policy is mediated by deeply embedded, historically engendered organisational practices and approaches developed over time and situated in and conditioned by local contexts and wider political and economic developments. Each school's organisational and institutional character is marked by a specific school culture and ethos rooted in its racially constituted past, 34 corresponding inequality of resource provision and the relationship to power and the struggles that have developed in and around it. As a result, educational change means different things and is recast and recontextualised in each school in ways that are particular to its organisational history and context. This school and community environment necessitated a wide-ranging reconstruction effort (Cummings, 1997). This effort constituted SCD by integrating SR with the socio-economic reconstruction of the community surrounding the school (Keith, 1996; Nzamujo, 1999). 2.4 C o n c l u s i o n For all of its "Sound and Fury" (Muller and Roberts, 2000), SR achieved few substantive changes to fundamental educational problems (Tyack and Cuban, 1995; Anyon, 1997; Keith, 1996; Muller and Roberts, 2000, p. 17). Consequently, Tyack and Cuban (1995) suggested that educators were doomed to an eternal "Tinkering Towards Utopia''' while the basic structure of schooling was left unchanged and problems of educational access, equity and quality continued to affect educational provisioning. SR's multiple foci and legislature-driven approach has attracted considerable criticism in the literature as has the belief that SR had "failed" (Fullan, 2000; Muller & Roberts, 2000). Various explanations for this failure have been advanced, leaving Hargreaves (1994, p. 260) to argue that reform had "no single agreed definition. Its meaning, rather, is to be found in the context and purpose of its use". An alternative approach emerged in the school partnership and SCD literatures (Anyon, 1997; Keith, 1996). Here the emphasis was no longer on teachers or parents as the focus of SR, but rather on using the school as part of community development, with teacher or parent 35 involvement being a part of community development processes. This approach rested on the assumption that it was "simply not possible" to address the "deep social problems gripping urban schools without a broad political and social mobilization of the communities they're located in" (Zeichner, 1991, p. 369). This approach, explored more fully in chapter three, connects SR and socio-economic change (Keith, 1996, 1999), and extends notions of schooling found in Western education systems. 36 Chapter Three: School partnerships and SCD. 3.0 Introduction Approaches to educational change that extend school reforms are discussed in chapter three. In the literature, two central approaches are distinguished. Firstly, school and educational partnerships, a school focussed approach to changing education systems, are discussed in section 3.1. Secondly, School-Community Development (SCD), is suggested by Keith (1996; 1999), Anyon (1997), and Auerbach (2002). SCD extends the understanding of educational partnerships found in the literature and is introduced in section 3.2. 3.1 Partnerships Internationally, partnerships are emerging as a central component of an "expanded vision of education" (UNICEF, 1999, p. 14) that supplants the legislatively driven SR model. For example, arguments for education sector partnerships were integrated into the Dakar Framework for Action adopted by the World Education Forum (WEF, 2000b). These arguments rested on Article Seven of the 1990 Jomtien World Declaration on Education for All (EFA) which stated that: National, regional, and local educational authorities have a unique obligation to provide basic education for all, but they cannot be expected to supply every human, financial or organizational requirement for this task. New and revitalized partnerships at all levels will be necessary . . . Genuine partnerships contribute to the planning, implementing, managing and evaluating of basic education 37 programs. When we speak of 'an expanded vision and a renewed commitment', partnerships are at the heart of it (World Conference on Education for All, 1990). The 1990 Jomtien call for strengthened partnerships was echoed at the 1996 Education for All (EFA) review, and was a theme of UNICEF's 1999 State ofthe World's Children report. UNICEF (1999, p. 66) noted that partnerships have become a central concept in planning and managing education, especially in situations where significant numbers of children are deprived of education. The state retains responsibility for setting national objectives, mobilizing resources and maintaining educational standards, while NGOs, community groups, religious bodies and commercial enterprises can all contribute, making education a more vital part of the life ofthe whole community. UNICEF concluded that "partnerships in the service of Education for All involves all segments of society in guaranteeing child rights" (ibid., p. 68). For UNICEF, partnerships in education were a central component of an "education revolution" (ibid., p. 21) and the "expanded vision of education that emerged from Jomtien" (ibid., p. 14). In Africa, the Sub-Saharan regional Conference on Education for All seek "partnerships with stakeholders, not simply in cost-sharing, but for the whole education process, including decision-making, management and teaching ... based on this new form of partnership, we shall forge goal-oriented alliances of stakeholders and focus on building capacity and transforming systems to meet the learning needs of the people and the developmental goals of the community, country and region" (EFA, 1999, p.7-8; see also WEF, 2000b, p. 18). Finally, Jomtien's Article 7 was reaffirmed at a meeting of National Education for All Sub-Saharan African coordinators who stated succinctly: "partnership remains the leitmotiv of the entire EFA process" (UNESCO, 2001, p. 13). 38 Clearly, education partnerships are as important as SR. However, various notions of 'partnership' exist, and different arguments justifying school-community partnerships are made. For example, the WCEFA Framework for Action (WCEFA Secretariat, 1990, p. 58) justified partnerships on the basis of two assumptions. First, as Windham (1992, p. 3) emphasized, partnerships at the school, district, provincial and national levels helped to "harmonize activities, utilize resources more effectively, and mobilize additional financial and human resources where necessary". Second, emphasizing learning, WCEFA suggested that "participation in learning opportunities cannot simply be assumed, but must be actively encouraged" through school and district based partnerships. For WCEFA, partnerships will turn learners into "partners" and, contends WCEFA, "learners tend to benefit more from education when they are partners in the instructional process, rather than treated simply as 'inputs' or 'beneficiaries'" (see also UNICEF, 1999, p. 66). Different agencies had varying reasons for promoting partnerships. UNICEF (1998, p. 11) stressed economic sustainability and efficiency when they argued that "partnerships at this time of economic uncertainty will strengthen the capacities and maximize the investments needed to ensure that programs for children are sustainable in political, technical, managerial and humanitarian terms" (see also: UNESCO, 1995; WEF, 2000a). Margaret Wang (2001) suggested that school-community, and school-family partnerships improved educational and social outcomes for children and families by connecting social and welfare services with SR. Non-governmental organizations, consultants and universities used partnerships to strengthen program legitimacy (T. Lelliott, personal communication, 11 September 1997; S. Orsmond, personal communication, 29 August 1997) while schools and education districts entered into partnerships to access technical expertise, including teacher training and teacher professional development, and extend material and human resources. The United States Agency for 39 International Development (USAID) contended that partnerships promoted democratization, gave voice to "seldom heard groups" (USAID, 1998, p. 24) and helped communities identify their needs. Two competing rationales for school-community partnerships exist. One rationale suggested that partnerships ensure community participation in schooling. For example, USAID (1998) claimed that partnerships ensured community participation in, and ownership of, the education process. For USAID, partnerships and participation of communities in SR are closely related: Partnerships facilitated community participation; and community participation ensured the success of SR programs (ibid. p. 24). This approach was supported by Uemura (1999) who suggested that community participation in schools was contingent on "creating and nourishing community-school partnerships" (p. 7). For Unemura, partnerships provide a necessary condition that enable school-community participation. Reviewing 23 World Bank funded education projects, eight of which were located in Sub-Saharan Africa, Uemura shows that community participation that was co-ordinated by partnerships maximizes resources, can improve curriculum relevance and educational delivery (p. 10), and can extend democratic practice by strengthening school governance structures (p. 8). However, Uemura (1999) includes an aspect of surveillance in parent-school partnerships. He contends that "community participation ... can also be a powerful incentive for teachers ... when teachers are monitored and supervised for their attendance and performance by communities, they tend to be more aware of what they do" (p. 11). Apparently, parental surveillance improves teacher attendance, pedagogy, and assessment. A second rationale for partnerships was held by Bray (2000) and Shaeffer (1994). They argue that community participation in schools takes a variety of forms, only one of which might entail school-community partnerships. Partnerships, in effect, are contingent on school-40 community participation; community participation in a school's life establishes a necessary condition for the establishment of school-community partnerships. Thus Bray (2000, p. 10) identifies eight types of citizen participation in education planning and locates the difference between partnership and participation in the ability of participants to influence program objectives since "there is a critical difference between going through the empty ritual of participation, and having the real power to affect the outcome of the process. Participation without redistribution of power is a meaningless and frustrating process for the powerless" (ibid., p. 10). Shaeffer (1994, p. 16-17) contends that participation by community members in schooling occurred to identify school needs and priorities; as part of school governance; and/or to determine educational content. Partnerships occur once school needs have been identified, and directly or indirectly assists with improving the content of educational programs in a school (ibid., p. 58). Accordingly, participation in decision-making at problem identification, feasibility study, planning, implementation, and program evaluation define school-community partnerships. Participation can include implementation of delegated powers and service delivery, issue based consultation, involvement through the contribution of resources, materials, and labor, involvement through attendance and the receipt of information (e.g. at parents' meetings), and finally, the use of a school's physical facilities. Different criteria emerge from the different understandings of the partnership-participation relation. For example, a review of World Bank funded education partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa showed that sustained school improvement occurred where projects incorporated parents and the neighboring school community through both partnerships and participation initiatives (Watt, 2001, p. 52). However, most World Bank projects restricted community participation to "cash and in-kind contributions to a matching fund, which is then 41 used to meet a prescribed set of needs identified by the government and the Bank in a project manual" (ibid., p. 48). Effective partnerships extend beyond the contributions of finance or proxy labor services since "focusing only on finance fails to secure the much deeper benefits that can be gained from shared decision-making on the substance of education" (Bray, 2000, p.33-34). Shaeffer (1994) recognizing that "anecdotal information of program 'success' abounds in the literature (p. 96) contends that evaluations of the effectiveness of partnerships "is brief and lacking in detail" (ibid., p. 96). Consequently, for Shaeffer, the evidence in the literature "is not necessarily proof of generalizability or replicability" (ibid. p. 96). Alternatively, as Watt concludes in his review of World Bank funded programs, "the narrow focus of [World Bank school-community partnership initiatives] ...limits the conclusions that can be drawn" (Watt, 2001, p. 48). For Auerbach (2002) partnerships are not generalizable or replicable. Rather, principles of partner organization and collaboration are transferable. She argued that since partnerships "incorporate multiple perspectives and multiple interests ... what partners set out to do must be renegotiated ... partnerships grow out of specific circumstances, needs and strengths; as such they must be context specific and responsive to participants and conditions" (p. 12). Different criteria define the effectiveness of a partnership. For Shaeffer, replicating a partnership was a criterion of an effective partnership; for Uemura, improved parental involvement in a school's operation and improved student grades define a partnership's effectiveness. For Auerbach (2002), effective partnerships incorporate unpredictability into their operation, responding to problems by incorporating these into the evolution of the partnership, or by establishing new partnerships and organizational clusters. Nevertheless, case studies showed that flexibility between partner organizations, material and non-material resource reciprocity, interpersonal trust, and context specificity are 42 central to the development of an effective partnership between schools and their surrounding community, or between schools, district administrative structures and local service providers (Auerbach, 2002; Bray, 2000). In addition, effective partnerships "need trust, ... long-term commitment, ... [and] ... clear and mutually accepted roles (Bray, 2000, p. 32-33) that structure institutional and interpersonal relationships. This interpersonal dimension was emphasized by Sack (1999, p. 12) who commented that "the nature and quality of the relationships between institutions, ministries and agencies will depend on how individuals get along and work together. It will also depend on how those individuals manage within their respective institutional constraints and how they communicate their constraints to their partners working in other institutions". Auerbach (2002) and Smythe and Weinstein (2000) did not define criteria for "effective partnerships". They contended that "what counts as success ... is variable and specific to the contexts in which they take place (Auerbach, 2002, p. 11). More than context specificity, for Auerbach effective partnerships were constituted not only by "positive outcomes for individual learners" (ibid. p. 11) but also by the contribution a partnership makes to collective, community change ... success does not just mean mastering skills or making gains in test scores ... rather than judging [partnerships] on the basis of attainment of discrete, predetermined (and often hinder mandated) learner goals, it is critical to see their accomplishments in terms of the ways in which they strengthen communities and foster dynamic relationships among members ... the focus is on community rather than individual change- on how the collective efforts of participants strengthen the community as a whole (ibid. p. 11-12). This focus, on community rather than individual change, on collective efforts to strengthen community and address community problems suggested an alternative approach to 43 the partnership model, an approach termed in this study "School-Community Development" (SCD). 3.3 Joining SR and community development: School-Community Development Novella Keith (1995) argued that SR and school-community partnerships are an insufficient response to the problems that schools and learners confront. She felt that the problem of school failure needed "reconceptualization" away from foci on reform or partnership models. Rather, to address persistent educational problems we need alternative solutions that emphasize the importance of two kinds of supportive structures: two-way "bridges" between the now largely separate worlds of family, peer group, school, work, and so on; and social and economic community development that builds on local strengths and is informed by an understanding of the broad context (historical, global) in which such development w i l l take place (Keith, 1995, p. 1-2). Here Keith suggested a working definition of S C D that was adopted in the thesis. Thus, comprehensive approaches to school-community change that address the interrelated nexus of cultural, social, and/or economic forces identified by members of a school's community using the school site and school structures (of governance, curriculum and assessment) define S C D ; the focus was on school and community change, rather than the school-based focus of school reform. S C D models display three central distinguishing features. One, S C D integrates the development of a school with the socio-economic reconstruction of the community surrounding the school. Two, drawing on sustainable development, community development and school 44 improvement theory and practice (Schofield, 1999; 2001), a diverse range of people act to initiate and sustain school-community development5. A corollary of this distinguishing feature was the loose coordination that exists among projects and project implementers- individual and group action becomes more important than centralised or delegated control (F. Tsokolibane, V. Ndhlovu, T. Dlamini, personal communication, 27 May 1996). Three, SCD uses public and private sector resources to promote local participation and school-community change. 3.3.1. Connecting school development with community socio-economic projects. Parker, Kelley, and Sanford (1998, p. 136) argue that SR can only occur along with "broad-based structural" political and economic change that works with parents, community groups and teachers. Similarly, reflecting on their multi-year study of SR in inner-city and poverty stricken United States schools, Stone, Henig, Jones, and Pierannunzi (2001, p. 147) have commented that "problems associated with concentrated poverty introduce special challenges to education reform that make programmatic and institutional change more problematic" than initially recognized by school reformers and policy analysts. To address these concerns, SCD integrates SR and school development with the socio-economic reconstruction of the community surrounding the school. Educationists are yet to consider the implications of the local community economic development or sustainable development literatures on the implementation of SR, or, the possible contribution of school-communities to sustainable (community economic) development. In South Africa, the possible contribution of education in general or schools in particular to sustainable or community economic development is not mentioned in publications on education, development or sustainability: McLennan (1997), for example, writing in Managing Sustainable Development in South Africa misses the opportunity to explore the relationships between sustainable development and education. Rather, her contribution reiterates the arguments of the Department of National Education (1996b) by discussing the inherited and proposed education management systems. Alternatively, the Municipal Services Project (2002) in their review of the South African Community Economic Development literature ignore the contribution of school-communities to social and economic reconstruction (see also Lyons, Smuts, and Stephens, 2001; Binns and Nel, 2002). Rather than reiterating these debates section 3.3 examines approaches that integrated the school and community (economic) development literatures. 45 An example of this 'broad-based' approach was found in Egypt where the Christian Association of Upper Egypt (ACHE) initiated school focused staff development programs in primary schools in Egypt's Upper Nile valley in 1941. By the mid 1960's, project staff realised that staff and school development was undermined by poverty and unemployment in the broader community. Consequently, following consultation and development planning with the community, the project was broadened from an initial focus on primary school pedagogy to include community identified development programs, such as brick making, agricultural development, health, art and handicrafts. Gabriel (1984) pointed out that a motivation for this shift was not only the recognition of the limited developmental potential of formal education in a peripheral economy but also that "we decided to devote ourselves to the most serious problems of our country. Therefore we were tempted to abandon all the schools in order to concentrate on social problems" (ibid. p. 84). Rather than abandoning the education sector, the project began to "work towards strengthening the school by considering each school as a vertebra of the spine which supports the whole body [the community]" (ibid. p. 85). By 1984 the project was working in 38 schools, spread across 800 kilometers. 11 500 Students and 500 teachers were active in the various program components. What was important about this project was the progression of an NGO initiative originally focused on school/staff development to include broader programs of skills training and community development occurring both at schools and, linked to schools, in the community. The project illustrated how school and community development challenges can be addressed through integrated school and local community development programs, in this instance initiated by an external development agency. Alternatively, SCD need not rely on NGO, or external agency, intervention. For example, Harber and Davies (1997) reported on a girl's school near Moshi in Northern 46 Tanzania. Here, through the sale of products from the school's self-reliance activities, in any one year roughly R31,500.00 was earned for the self-reliance fund, a fund controlled by the Student's Representative Council (SRC) (Harber and Davies, 1997, p. 77). In another example (ibid. p. 73) rural students established a piggery, orange plantation, school shop and a hairdresser. The self-reliance committee managed the productive activities associated with the school and presented accounts every 6 months to the school's general assembly. 3.3.2 Diversifying and decentralising project implementation. In SCD approaches either teachers, community members, students and/or parents initiate and sustain SCD. The approach established teachers as initiators of staff development projects, while parents, under- and/or unemployed community members ran local social, cultural, or economic development initiatives requiring limited capital inputs. SCD included consultation with (and development of) student, parent and sometimes broader community organizations (Schaeffer, 1994). For example, in the case study schools, SCD contained three key components- one emphasizing youth development, a second emphasizing teacher development, and a third emphasizing parent and school governance development. A physical resource development plan could be added as a fourth component of an SDP (SWED, 1997d). In the case study schools, staff programs included teacher appraisal, professional development, personal study and action research. These programs were both direct (such as a whole staff, group, or individually based course) or indirect (such as through participation on examination or marking committees) (SWED: DDU, 1997c; ESP, 1994). Student programs included Student Representative Council (SRC) development, career guidance and curriculum enrichment programs. Parent programs included school governance workshops, yet extended far 47 beyond governance programs to include small business development, literacy, and community reconstruction programs. All programs developing in a school were placed within a school development plan (SDP) formulated by various (interest specific) school development sub-committees. Sub-committees submited draft programs to a school development committee, which drafted the school development plan. Finally, the school development plan was ratified by the school's governing body (SWED, 1997d). Consequently, when implementing SCD models a range of local school-community identified interventions lead to SCD. Both school and community development programs were planned and run concurrently- the Bangladesh Rural Action Committee (BRAC) integrated women's self-provisioning of housing with their children's schooling (BRAC, 2002; Naik, 1991); in China, changes in the provisioning of education integrated school-communities with local enterprise development (Kwong, 1996). In effect, a school's mandate was broadened—to include an active engagement with community development concerns—yet simultaneously focused on the immediate realities of improving teaching and learning in the local school. The approach resulted in profound psychological change (Nzamujo, 1999; Cummings, 1997; Bockarie, 1997), as a teacher in one of the district's schools conceded when he commented "really, there are changes. I am more active than before. I have changed for the better. The defiance campaigns are over" (Mr. Rammaphoko. Interview, 6 August, 2000). Pun (2002) provided an example of the range of school-community identified interventions that constitute SCD. He reported on the work of his community in Nangi Village, Nepal and showed how the community have utilised the high school (Himanchal High) as a base for launching a range of community identified development projects as part of a 'school-community' development program. The projects, initiated in 1993, included the construction of additional classrooms, a school perimeter wall, and a library by villagers; the building of student 48 hostels by senior students, and planting 4000 tree saplings, 130 bushes of bamboo and 60 plum and apple trees (the latter for use in another income generating project for the community- jam manufacture and sale; the bamboo used for constructing student hostels, and for paper manufacture). In addition, students and community members installed a micro hydro electric power generator in a local stream, with trenching and cabling done by students; installed a VHF solar powered telephone (used to generate income through a surcharge applied to users), and engaged in beekeeping, tomato growing, chicken and rabbit farming, jam making and the , construction of a campground for tourists (which includes a solar powered hot shower). Pun (2002, p. 7) noted: the Himanchal High School Project is a long term project. It is not limited to the development of a school but the whole community. It actually is a community's effort to become self-reliant ... the mission of the first phase of this project is to set up a vocational school program and a high school in the area. The vocational program will actually be a training and income generating program to make the school programs self supportive. It will try to establish a rural economy by starting feasible cottage industries to improve the standard of living of people. The other issues for community development such as health, farming and environment protection will also be equally emphasized. Thus, a school-based approach to SCD was followed in Himanchal High School. There, staff, parents, students and members of the community reconfigured education provisioning to integrate curriculum with parent and student food and housing cooperatives, and adapted technology education to village development (Pun, 2002). Furthermore, the community identified the resources available to them, and the resources that needed to be developed, the school being one of these. In a potentially poverty stricken community such as Pun's, where 49 people were "entirely dependent on natural resources for living" (ibid., p. 10) any resource, even the process of developing a high school, became a mechanism towards community development. 3.3.3 Use SR and state resources to promote local participation and school-community change. From the perspective of district administration, while school-communities coordinate parents and students in local community development work, the district education office must focus on education support, administration, and the creation of an enabling environment for SCD. For example, in the SWED this entailed the district office developing a two-phase SCD implementation procedure, prioritizing school development planning in phase one while laying the infrastructure for SCD programs in phase two (SWED, 1997d). School development training workshops introduced by the SWED in 1997 emphasized school level problem identification, analysis, and prioritization structured around a School Development Plan (SDP). Having identified school priorities, teachers and parents (and in Secondary schools, students) chose an implementation priority and broke into implementation sub-groups that planned the activities needed to attain the chosen priority (SWED, 1997d). Each interest group (teachers, students, parents/community members) identified a specific development goal and the procedures and resources necessary for implementation, within the overall framework of a collaborative and culturally specific SCD process. 50 3.4 Conclusion Chapter three reviewed the literature on school-community partnerships and SCD. In the past 20 years, the formation of partnerships between school and community organizations became a central concept in planning and managing education, especially in situations where significant numbers of children are deprived of education. The State retains responsibility for setting national objectives, mobilizing resources and maintaining educational standards, while NGOs, community groups, religious bodies and commercial enterprises can all contribute, making education a more vital part of the life of the whole community (WEF, 2000a, p. 2). The World Education Forum continued by suggesting that instead of acting as an omnipotent central authority, States are finding that partnerships with multiple sectors of society offer a greater chance of achieving Education For All, and many are passing power to lower levels of the system to improve efficiency and responsiveness ... As governments look for ways of decentralizing responsibilities, increasing equality of educational opportunities and further mobilizing resources, they need strong, innovative allies (WEF, 2000a, p. 2). Accordingly, in SCD models, schools were provided with material resources from the administrative structures of the state, while school-communities made epistemological changes to curriculum and ontological changes to school organization as demanded by context and personality. Change in schools was considered holistically and was related to societal change processes. Evaluation was formative and was part of whole school review or teacher initiated 51 action research cycles. The range of local school-community identified interventions is not confined to schools, and establishes various sites of development oriented discourse and action. In short, and as we will see in Parts Two and Three of the thesis, in the SCD model public participation in local community development and school reform was facilitated, enhancing both development and reform. 52 Chapter Four. Research Methods. 4.0 Introduction The literature on SR, school partnerships, and SCD was introduced in chapters two and three. This chapter outlines the case study and associated research methods used to examine how SR and SCD models of school change are integrated. The chapter begins by introducing the case study method. Applications of the method in the South African educational research tradition, and weaknesses of these approaches, are highlighted. I then discuss the interrelated topics of data collection and analysis, and defend the approach followed in the thesis. The chapter concludes by addressing the question of researcher voice, researcher bias and possible limitations to the study. 4.1 The case study method. The case study method is used when investigating an "innovation in context to try and understand the broad range of factors that contributed to the success or failure of the innovation; to capture the complexity of the interactions as the innovative ideas were interpreted in practice; and to understand the uniqueness of the-case" (Simons, 1996, p. 229). Using the case study method, the thesis investigated SCD in four schools in one school district. Foreman's seminal elaboration of the case study method suggested.that case studies were appropriate when research investigated the interpretations given by research subjects, and when the research intends to determine the patterns "of factors significant in a given case" (1948, p. 419). Merriam (1988, p. 27), contended that case studies can take one of three forms: 53 Descriptive, interpretive and evaluative. For Merriam, Foreman (1948), and Lijphart (1971) descriptive case studies offered extensive description of innovative educational programs or approaches. Interpretive case studies utilized descriptive material to develop conceptual or theoretical arguments and evaluative case studies used description as a basis for explanation and judgement. Recently Yin (2003) has proposed a fourth type of case study, the multi-site case study, where research is undertaken in several localities within a demarcated geographical area to build a comprehensive understanding of an identified problem. Research questions trace the links among different variables or actors to explain how a situation developed. Case studies, therefore, do not only describe incidence and correlation but also explore the broad concatenation of variables that result in a specific outcome. Furthermore, the case study method is used to investigate and explain contemporary events (Yin, 1994, p. 19) by relying on direct observation and systematic interviewing along with documentary and archival research (Creswell, 1998; Stake, 1997; Yin, 1994). Researchers utilize participant observation and interviews, gather information and data from multiple sources, and triangulate their data during analysis to corroborate claims and observations, findings and evidence. For the thesis research, the multi-site case study method was chosen because it was "more open, complex and presenting multiple perspectives" (Simons, 1996, p. 229). This openness and acceptance of complexity was considered important in my attempt to show how SR and SCD are integrated. In short, the method was chosen because it shows how members of a school's community, and the school's social contexts, shaped policy and reconstructed schooling. In this instance, the evaluative case study was eschewed: No judgements will be made on the effectiveness of the approaches being followed in the schools. Rather, 'rich, thick' description will be provided. This description will be used to extend conceptual and theoretical arguments. The study therefore follows an interpretative, multi-site, case study method. 54 Creswell (1998, p. 202) and Miles and Huberman (1984, p. 241) suggested using 'negative cases' to refine working hypotheses or conceptual categories, and to improve the analysis. In the case study district several 'negative cases' could be drawn upon (Schofield & Mahome, 1998; SECC, 1997b). However, by defining a school as a 'negative case' the problems in the school are compounded (M. Nkonyane, personal communication, 2 August 2000) and the tradition of the SWED had been to avoid defining and categorizing schools as 'failing' since there was no consensus regarding 'failure' or 'success' (Dalin et al., 1993, p. 84). Significantly, during fieldwork, 'negative case analysis' was rejected by the Soshanguve District Director, who commented, "we have lots of schools that aren't working. We need to know why some are working ... we need to know about those functioning schools" (Interview, 8 August 2000). Two common criticisms of the case study method referred to a perceived lack of rigor in the research design, and to the (external) validity of the findings. While valid in some cases, these criticisms can be applied to any research. For example, poor survey or questionnaire design, or the identification of spurious correlations were replete in the literature, and were a common criticism of, for example, the school effectiveness literature (Jansen, 1995; Riddell, 1997). The external validity and the difficulty of generalizing from case study findings has been noted as a weakness in the case study method (Bryman, 1989, p. 172). However, as Yin (1994) points out, case studies are only "generalizable to theoretical propositions and not to populations or universes" (p. 21). Thus, the aim of case study research is not to add to (or develop) statistically generalizable data but rather to expand qualitative theory. Helen Simons (1996) rejects Yin's implicit distinction between qualitative and quantitative research, and Yin's dichotomization between 'theoretical propositions' and 'populations and universes'. She argued paradoxically: That "by studying the uniqueness of the particular we come to understand the universal" (p. 231). Thus, the case study is "the way of the 55 artist, who ... through the portrayal of a single instance locked in time and circumstance, s/he communicates enduring truths about the human condition" (MacDonald and Walker, 1975, p. 3; cited in Simons, 1996, p. 231). In South Africa the case study method had been used extensively in investigations of school effectiveness, school cultures, teacher professional development and school change, curriculum change, and education policy development. Chisholm's (1999) study investigated the impact of government policy in seven inner-city Johannesburg schools. Chisholm intended to show two things. One, how policy created a 'landscape of choice' (p. 88). This landscape was "not a passive landscape shaping choice, but is actively constructed by schools realigning themselves in new economic, political, and social environments. Local class and color cultures are being reshaped and remade, with active collaboration by schools themselves" (p. 93). Two, Chisholm analysed the "cultural-political frames used by teachers to understand new changes" (p. 88). She noted that "evidence from the interviews conducted suggests that there are two main factors at the school level which mediate and condition changes and responses to new policies: one is the socio-economic context of the schools, the other the cultural-political frameworks through which principals and teachers make sense of the process of change" (p. 89-90). In terms of socio-economic context, Chisholm suggested that "the way in which policy impacted on these schools was thus mediated in complex ways by internal social histories as well as the legacy of wider inequalities deposited in the fault lines dividing school along lines of race and class" (p. 92). Soudien (2001) studied teacher rationalization in the Western Cape Province. Soudien stated his research objectives and method, defined his analytical framework and key terms in relation to the literature, and situated his research in the context of a prior study on teacher 56 attitudes in the Western Cape. He showed that "none of the schools were willing participants in the process of rationalizing themselves" (p. 38). Soudien's study was important because it showed how "schools did and are responding differently to the process" (p. 38), and revealed the agency missing in Chisholm's (1999) analysis. He revealed a range of responses to teacher redeployment and rationalization existing in schools. His analysis prompts reflection on the process of teacher development and school change in schools in the developing world pointing to "the need to address the issue of reform in holistic terms. Specifically, it calls attention to the need for restructuring initiatives to be accompanied by school-wide supportive projects which achieve infrastructural change while simultaneously building professional community" (Soudien, 2001, p. 42). Christie and Potterton (1997) offered case studies of 12 resilient schools. Davidoff, Kaplan and Lazarus (1995), and Davidoff and Lazarus (1997), presented a case study of organizational change in one school. Christie and Potterton claimed to "provide a research based contribution to the development of school quality initiatives in South Africa" (1997, p. 4). However, school quality was not defined, and the literature on school quality was not referenced. Rather, Margaret Wang's (1992) model of, and criteria for, 'Resilient Schools' was applied to Christie and Potterton's case study schools. Although they made a valuable contribution to the literature on School Resilience, Christie and Potterton (1997) ignored the South African whole school development and school change debate (see: Ndhlovu & Bertram, 1999). In Motala's (2001) opinion, the Christie and Pottertion study provided "the most recent snapshot of working schools- a type of picture that was by and large absent in the South African literature" (p. 73). However Motala pointed out that the study did "not spell out the specific enabling conditions that are created through community and parental participation" (ibid. p. 73). Furthermore, Christie and Potterton were unable to show how schools became resilient, or whether schools 57 remained resilient. In fact, Potterton pointed out that "if you go back to those schools today, many have completely collapsed ... they were not very resilient" (Personal communication. 18 June 1998). Davidoff et al. (1995) and Davidoff and Lazarus (1997) presented a rich summary of a process of initiating school change in a single school. They emphasized the development of functioning organizational structures within a case study school through interventions by organization development specialists. The underlying rationale for their approach was revealed when they argued that "schools are organizations ... organization development is a strategy for managing change ... for the purposes of optimizing human fulfilment and increasing organizational effectiveness" (Davidoff et al., 1995, p. 174). Ongoing change in the case study school was not mentioned, and the effectiveness of the organization development model was assumed rather than demonstrated (Motala, 2001, p. 72). A weakness of these studies was their inability to show the relations between SR and the local community. In part this was due, as in the Jansen (1999a) and Ensor (1995) studies, to research objectives that investigated curriculum change rather than SR. While Jansen (1997), Soudien (2001), and Chisholm (1999) recognized the impact of the local community, to date none have researched the integral relationship between SR and the local community. Similarly, Christie and Potterton (1997) emphasized the influence of the local community on school resilience, yet they do not show how this influence can be mitigated or even channeled by integrating SR and local community development (Motala, 2001, p. 73). Soudien (2001) pointed out that "the question of [school and staff] development in the developing world has to be presented as a question of understanding the whole of the problem and not just one facilitating element... within it" (p. 42). Yet no further exploration or case studies of alternative approaches 58 are presented. This study, through its use of the case study method addresses this limitation in the research literature. 4.2 Data collection. Merriam (1988, p. 19) argued that the researcher's role in case study research was central. The researcher was the "primary instrument" for data collection and data was "mediated through this human instrument, the researcher, rather than through some inanimate inventory, questionnaire, or machine" (ibid., p. 19). The researcher responds immediately to an evolving social context and adapts research techniques and interviews to the contexts of research. Furthermore, depending on the degree of familiarity with the local social environment, the researcher might identify non-verbal or verbal cues, and can immediately process, clarify, and summarize findings as a study evolves. Not only was the researcher the central research tool when the case study method is adopted, but case study research is also "one of the few modes of scientific study that admit the subjective perception and biases of both participants and researcher into the research frame" (Merriam, 1988, p. 39). Consequently, "all observations and analyses are filtered through one's world-view, one's values, one's perspective" (ibid., p. 39). In case study research data can include documentary and archival records, memoranda and policy documents, interviews and observation, diary and field notes, and photographic, video or sound recorded physical artefacts (Creswell, 1998, p. 113; 121). Consequently, data collection was extensive (Creswell, 1998, p. 113) and occurred in three phases during the thesis research. Following Bowe and Ball (1992), the first phase reviewed legislation and literature on SR in South Africa since 1994. Interviews and interview analysis occurred during phase two of 59 the research process, and writing and feedback of analysis to participants took place during the third phase. 4.2.1 Literature review phase Phase one, the literature review, investigated SR and SCD, education policy development, teacher and staff development. This review included South African legislation (RSA, 1995, 1996a; Gauteng Provincial Government, 1996), policy directives (DNE, 1996a, 1996b, 1997b), minutes of meetings, diary and journal entries. Secondary analysis of policy priorities and implementation procedures of the South African Government, and primary and secondary data on the district's socio-economic and educational profile included local development planning studies (Mabopane-Centurion Development Corridor, 1996; SAIDE, 1998), and district and non-governmental organization's evaluations of educational provisioning, resources and shortages (Link Community Development/ Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District, 1997; SECC, 1997a; SWED: DDU, 1997a). Published and unpublished reports on teacher pre- and in-service education and development (GDE: TSUD, 1997; HSRC (eds.), 1996; IPI(TvL), 1995; Natal Teacher's Society (NTS), 1992; National Education Co-ordinating Committee (NECC), 1993; Teacher Organisations, 1994) gave insights into the approaches to teacher and staff development. District Commissions of Inquiry into the provisioning of education in specific schools gave in depth analyses of dysfunctional schools and the approaches of school districts towards SR (Soshanguve Education Co-ordinating Committee, 1997b; SWED, 1997a; Schofield and Mahome, 1998). Finally, complementing my own experiences, diaries, and journal entries written while working in the SWED, various national, provincial, and district reports and 60 memoranda on the implementation of Curriculum 2005 (Khulisa Management Services, 2000a; RSA, 2000; Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District: Teach and Learn Unit (SWED: T&L), 1998; South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), 2000) and the establishment of new school governing bodies (Khulisa Management Services, 1999; SWED: DDU, 1997d) were accessed. Merriam (1988, p. 61) and Marshall and Rossman (1999, p. 43) suggested that the literature review "builds a logical framework for the research that sets it within a tradition of inquiry and a context of related studies". Pursuant to this argument, the literature review formed the basis for chapters one, two and three and the conceptual analysis offered throughout the thesis, grounding the investigation in the context of the continued failure of SR in South Africa (ibid., p. 43). The material allowed description and analysis of the district context. However, previous literature and theory "may be inadequate for constructing frameworks for [a] study" when the research explores "new territory" (ibid, p. 46). This was the case in the thesis when the conceptual categories that encompass 'SR' were found to be inadequate to understand the approaches of the school communities. Furthermore, in South Africa 'education reconstruction' and 'SR' are conflated (Sayed & Jansen, 2001). This conflation of terms was avoided in the thesis by referring specifically to SR as "planned efforts to change schools in order to correct perceived social and educational problems... (through) ... a long and complex set of steps: discovering problems, devising remedies, adopting new policies and bringing about institutional change" (Tyack and Cuban, 1995, p. 4). However, as chapter one showed, the thesis extends current notions of SR by introducing SCD; SCD is defined as a community based approach to SR implementation that occurs when parents, teachers, and/or students engage in local school-community identified programs (that could be social, economic, cultural, or 61 pedagogic in focus that address locally identified problems) thereby achieving both community identified goals and facilitating the implementation of SR initiatives. 4.2.2 School selection and interviews Phase two consisted of school selection, interviews and interview analysis. This phase occurred during August 2000 in South Africa. Having worked in the district for five years it was possible to negotiate district, school and interviewee access. Although the final choice of study schools was my responsibility, protocol in the school district and province required that research subjects are consulted when identifying research parameters, design, and sites (GDE, 2000), and that consensus be established between the needs of the researcher and the research needs of the district and province (GDE, 2000). During this consultative process I pointed out that the research would be strengthened by selecting schools that represent the range of schools in the township of Soshanguve: thus I needed at least one Primary, one Junior Secondary and one Senior Secondary school. My rationale for establishing this criterion emerged from the literature: numerous studies of SR in primary or elementary schools exist; studies on the processes of SR in Secondary schools are by comparison, rare. Mr. Nkonyane consulted with the District's Research Director, Mrs. Wileminia Makoro, and with members of the District's management team before suggesting schools to be included in this study (M. Nkonyane, personal communication, 2 August 2000). In leaving some of the responsibility for school site choice in the hands of the district I was respecting the vision of the District Director who preferred to dwell on the schools that he considered had been at least partially successful in overcoming the multitude of challenges that township and rural schools in his district faced (M. Nkonyane, personal communication, 2 62 August 2000; South African Institute for Distance Education, 1999). In this regard, Nkonyane pointed out that "we know all about our failing schools. We have Reports and Commissions of Inquiry, and Investigations on all those. We have catch-up programs for them. But we need to know about our good schools. What makes them good? How do they succeed? What do they do?" (Nkonyane, Interview, 3 August 2000). Furthermore, working with the local school administrations gave me an additional insight into the school district; rather than being dependant on my random school selection I was able to see and reflect on the criteria that the local educational community viewed as constituting successful models of school development, and incorporate these criteria into the emerging theory of School-Community Development. In this way I broke from the conventions of the literature that identifies criteria of success (Carrim and Shalem, 1993), effectiveness (Heneveld and Craig, 1996), or school quality (Wang, 2001; GDE, 1997), and rather identified—in chapter 11 — principles of SCD. In allowing the district a voice in determining school choice, and the schools a say in identifying interviewees and respondents, I was following Heron (1981, p. 35) who has commented that: knowledge about persons can fuel power over persons or fuel power shared with persons. And the moral principle of respect for persons is most fully honored when power is shared not only in the application of knowledge about persons, but also in the generation of such knowledge. On this view researchers have a moral obligation to initiate subjects into the whole rationale of the research they are doing and to seek the free assent of subjects to their rationale, so that, internalizing it as their own, the subjects can become autonomous inquirers 63 alongside the researcher. Put in other words, doing research on persons involves an important educational commitment: to provide conditions under which subjects can enhance their capacity for self-determination in acquiring knowledge This premise, that the research process should include the research subjects and should contribute to the betterment of their lives through reflective inquiry and dialogue, is standard practice among progressive academics in South Africa, was central to the struggle against Apartheid education (Motala and Vally, 2003, p. 182-3), and formed part of provincial education policy (GDE, 2000). For example, the important National Education Policy Investigation (NEPI, 1992; NECC, 1993; 1994) was structured around generating research questions, participation, dialogue and feedback from previously marginalized sectors of South Africa's population. The development of a new teacher appraisal instrument for South African teachers during 1994 and 1995 was driven by participatory action research where teachers in focus groups identified themes and concerns that were then addressed by a research team (Teacher Organizations, 1994). Finally, research to develop policy on Teacher, Supply, Utilization, and Development in the Province of Gauteng drew on teachers and administrators to identify problems and guide the research of the task team (GDE, 1994; GDE: TSUD, 1997). Building on this tradition, and recognizing the importance of including the subjects of research in the various phases of research, by 2000 the GDE had developed draft guidelines regarding the conduct of research in the province's schools (GDE, 2000). Rather than compromising the legitimacy of research findings, this approach of giving a role to the researched in the process of research strengthens construct validity and facilitates implementation of research findings. In fact Lather (1986) argued that "emancipatory knowledge" develops through collaborative inquiry because this approach to research increases 64 "awareness of the contradictions hidden or distorted by everyday understandings, and in doing so [collaborative inquiry] directs attention to the possibilities for social transformation" (p. 259). An example of this social transformation was provided by Wits EPU (2001, p. 12) who pointed out that school districts in their case study research were able to contest the framing of research parameters and 'talk back' (hooks, 1989) to the research teams thereby changing the construction of knowledge. Another example occurred in the Soshanguve- Wonderboom Education District during 1995 when a non-governmental organization engaged in a collaborative research process with teachers in 12 case study schools, examining teaching processes in township classrooms. Here, while initially reluctant to participate in developing observation criteria and interview schedules, teachers ended by endorsing the research process (Pretoria News, 9 October, 1997) and concurring with findings that were critical of their practices (Link Community Development/Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District, 1997). It was in this spirit and tradition of collaborative inquiry that Mr. Nkonyane suggested different schools that could be approached to participate in the study. Through discussion, the case study schools were finally agreed upon. In this process several schools were suggested but discarded because, in most instances, of my excessive prior engagement in the schools. For example, a school that was led by Mr. M. Kwale, the Secretary General of the local education coordinating committee, had a long history of school-community development work and community activism centered around the school. However, I had worked with Mr. Kwale since 1994, as an NGO fieldworker and as Soshanguve co-ordinator of the One Thousand Schools Project's school governance program (see Moodley, 1996; Graham-Jolly and Peacock, 2000; Vilakazi, 1995). Thus, I had extensive experience with Mr. Kwale and his school's staff, experience that I felt could affect my objectivity when reporting on their activities. Consequently, with the District Office's support a short list of schools was developed. I 65 contacted school principals and requested the participation of their school-communities in the research process. No principal declined my request. Principals consulted with their school governing bodies and teachers, and again, no objections to participating in the research occurred. Interview dates were established in consultation with the respective schools. Working through the district and school administrations gave additional legitimacy to the research program and signalled to the district office, school administrators and teachers that the research process was (in township language) "transparent". Interviewees were determined by the staffs and elected School Governing Bodies of the case study schools. In all schools, prior to commencing interviews principals discussed with me the school delegations for interviewing. On one occasion a principal reflected on a gender imbalance in student interviewees and suggested the inclusion of more female student representatives to rectify this imbalance. At Reitumetse, the case study High school, few teachers and students were interviewed because the school was conducting trial Grade 12 examinations. The case study schools established interview timetables. Principals provided interviewees with an initial briefing of the research topic and process. As Appendix Two shows, twenty-four individual interviews and two group interviews were conducted. Merriam (1988) suggested that interviews should be conducted to discover research participants' feelings, intentions, and motives for past actions, and interviewing allows "us to enter into the other person's perspective" (ibid., p. 72). This understanding directs the researcher towards open-ended interview questions and a semi-structured interview format leading Carspecken (1996, p. 155) to argue that the "ideal qualitative interview [is] semi-structured" around two to five lead off questions that are "designed to open up a topic domain that one wishes a subject to address" (ibid. p. 156). Depending on the person being interviewed, 'lead off questions in the thesis focused on 66 the perceptions and understandings of SR and local community development. Four lead off questions were asked, these being: 1. Could you please describe the different education reconstruction programs that were implemented in your school? 2. Could you please describe the different local community development programs that were implemented in your school? 3. What problems were encountered integrating local community development and education reconstruction programs? 4. What effects on teaching and learning occurred as a result of integrating the local community into your school through the programs you have described? During individual interviews and group discussions, back questioning and participant feedback (where findings and interpretations are presented to research participants allowing them to judge the accuracy of the analysis and suggest alternative interpretations) (Creswell, 1998, p. 202, Miles and Huberman, 1984, p. 242), was used to generate additional information and clarify ambiguous or contradictory claims. 4.3 Data analysis. Creswell (1998, p. 153) argued that "for a case study ... analysis consists of making a detailed description of the case and its setting". This approach satisfies one kind of case study type noted by Merriam (1988, p. 27): the descriptive case study. The thesis not only presents "detailed description" as analysis but also transcends the 'merely descriptive" (Merriam, 1988, p. 131) by interpreting and analyzing the data. 67 Stewart (1998, p. 28), Creswell (1998, p. 202; 213), and Stake (1995) included triangulation of information as data analysis. Creswell, for example, equated triangulation with "searching for the convergence of information" (1998, p. 213) while Stewart related the diverse types of data collected in ethnographic studies as itself a form of triangulation (1998, p. 28). Although both perspectives are valid, triangulation in the thesis entailed corroborating findings by using different data sources to reveal and illuminate research themes (Miles and Huberman, 1984, p. 234; Creswell, 1998, p. 202). Various procedures can be used to verify qualitative research. These include prolonged engagement and observation in the field, triangulation of data, peer review, stating the researcher's bias, informant review of data (Stewart, 1998, p. 37), "rich, thick description" (Creswell, 1998, p. 203), and using an external reviewer to (re-) interpret data (Merriam, 1988, p. 169-170). While Creswell (ibid., p. 203) suggested using at least two of these procedures in case study analysis, in this thesis all of these verification procedures were used. Accordingly, notes were drafted during interviews alongside simultaneous recording. Recordings were transcribed and returned to interviewees for their verification. Additions and comments made by interviewees were incorporated into the analysis. Criteria were not defined a-priori, as in the Carrim and Shalem (1993) and Davidoff et al. (1995) case studies. Rather, the informants and focus schools revealed key themes, approaches and problems of SCD. Following interviews and low level coding (Carspecken, 1996, p. 96), a general review of all information using summary notes, reflective notes and memos occurred (Creswell, 1998, p. 140). Alongside data coding, triangulation among interviews and primary source material obtained from the school district, non-governmental organization (NGO) and local civic organizations operating in the school district occurred. This material, referenced in the course of the thesis narrative, 68 included reports of District Unit activity, evaluation reports of schools and programs, school profiles scripted by a local NGO, and NGO evaluation reports. With initial coding and triangulation complete school narratives were compared and a tentative typology of SCD approaches was developed. Following Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Merriam (1988) analysis then shifted from a comparison of narratives to a comparison of narratives with the properties of categories identified in the typology of SCD foci. Five key SCD foci were identified in the interviews: Curriculum development, Youth development, Staff development, Material resource development, and Socio-Economic development. Foci reflected the particular interests of individuals within a school's community and a specific school's history and resource availability. For example, at Rodney Mokoena, Ceramics, Metalwork, and Bricklaying courses were established and run as part of the school's construction. Ayanda's vegetable cooperative emerged out of the particular context of the school- a poverty stricken neighbourhood. Both Ayanda and Rodney Mokoena, being Primary schools, have less youth initiated development programs than that found in Boeipathatusi Junior Secondary. The typology, summarized in table 1, structures the presentation of findings in Part Two of the thesis. Problems affecting teaching, learning and SR identified during interviews are integrated into Chapter six's discussion of the district context. This was done because all schools experienced vandalism and theft; all schools experienced the effects of unemployment and poverty. The accounts of these experiences differed and combined to create a sense of the texture of Soshanguve's SR context. Socio-economic and demographic data from Soshanguve and Gauteng complemented the interview data, the 'tales from the field' (Van Maanen, 1988). The data shows how responses to their environment by school-community members differed. Accordingly, chapters seven to eleven present data in school case study units. 69 Table 1: School-community development: A Typology SCD Focus Exemplar School (Chapter) Socio-Economic development Vegetable Garden Cooperative Ayanda Primary (Seven) Education with Production Rodney Mokoena Prep. (Ten) Ceramics, Bricklaying and Metalwork training programs Rodney Mokoena Prep. (Ten) Community computer centres Boeipathatusi JS (Eight) Reitumetse High (Nine) Material resource development Computer centre Boeipathatusi JS (Eight) Reitumetse High (Nine) Canteen Boeipathatusi JS (Eight) Reitumetse High (Nine) Staff development ' School based professional development workshop programs Boeipathatusi JS (Eight) Ayanda Primary (Seven) Rodney Mokoena Prep. (Ten) Youth development Youth AIDs Boeipathatusi JS (Eight) Curriculum development Permaculture/curriculum integration Rodney Mokoena Prep. (Ten) Black History Month Rodney Mokoena Prep. (Ten) Parents as storytellers Rodney Mokoena Prep. (Ten) Although common themes and school foci exist, presenting data thematically would emphasise thematic levels of abstraction and detract from the sense of agency (and urgency) that school case study presentation retains. Nevertheless, a unifying structure was used in the school chapters: First, an introduction situates the school and identifies specific aspects of the school's history or geography. Second, I discuss specific aspects of the school's approach to SCD, and third, specific effects of SCD on teaching and learning in the school are noted. The fourth, and 70 concluding, section draws on the specific contexts and approaches of the schools to identify general or thematic principles that guide SCD. An initial thesis draft was circulated in the district for comment. This draft, along with all other data collected was synthesized in the writing and presentation of the final thesis document. 4.4 Researcher voice, bias, and limitations of the study. Prior engagement with, and emotional attachment to, the school district inevitably influences the researcher's voice (Van Maanen, 1988). In social scientific research, prior experience in a community can, in fact, assist the research process. In educational research, for example, Burgess (1984) and Maged (1998) observe that prior teaching experience facilitated access to research sites (Burgess, 1984, p. 38; 45), allowed them to build relationships with informants (ibid. p. 75; 107), and was essential to developing "the trust and confidence" (ibid. p. 103; 39) of interviewees. Thus, for Burgess and Maged, prior engagement in a school facilitated the research process, heightened their credibility among students and teachers, and improved the validity of their findings. While prior engagement in a school was important for Burgess and Maged, for Stone et al. (2001, p. 25) current, ongoing, commitment of key informants in school districts and cities that initiated SR was considered a "major criterion that determined our choice" of case study sites. Moreover, these "local team leaders" helped to design and implement the research procedure and structure interview templates (ibid., p. 25). As in the Burgess and Maged studies, my prior experience in Soshanguve facilitated access to the schools and the district. For example, during 1994-1998 I had worked with John Maluleke, the Principal of a school selected by Moss Nkonyane, the District Director, and Wileminia Makoro, the Distict's Research Coordinator to be included in the study. On the other 71 hand, at Ayanda Primary, a school that I had little experience with during my time in the District's Development Unit, the school's deputy principal approached me after interviews with parent members of Ayanda's vegetable cooperative. After commenting on his experience on a management development program that the District had initiated with a local university I was invited to observe a teacher development workshop planned as part of the school's development program: Access was enhanced by prior 'engagement in the field'. The question of bias needs to be addressed in this context. Researcher bias is inevitable in social scientific research (Dawe, 1973; Marshall & Rossman, 1999, p. 28-32). Bias is reduced through the careful formulation of research questions, through triangulation of findings and the use of various research techniques (such as interviews, field observation, and archival research), and by presenting initial findings to participants as part of the research process. To reduce bias, each of these approaches were applied while collecting and analysing data. Yet Feminist, Post-structural, and Post-Colonial theory points out that bias can never be eliminated, and the 'positionality' of the researcher can inform the research in important and often enriching ways. Furthermore, this theory problematises the researcher's relationship to the subjects of research by problematizing concepts of'other' and 'self. Fine (1994, p. 70) for example cautions that "much of qualitative research has reproduced ... a colonizing discourse of the 'Other'". Fine's 'bias' was to "rupture the textual laminations within which Others have been sealed ... to review the complicity of researchers in the construction and distancing of Others" (ibid., p. 71). One version of this 'Othering' can be found in, for example, a comment by South Africa's first Director General in the Department of National Education. Manganye contends: we have to acknowledge that in dysfunctional schools the participants have an attitude problem. The teachers had forgotten what it means to be members of one 72 of the most esteemed professions in the world. As for the parents, they had forgotten that the education of children is a twenty-four hour job of their own, a responsibility which cannot be regulated to teachers and government officials... The pupils had catapulted themselves into a premature adulthood of sex, drugs and violent crime (Manganyi, 2001, p. 36; Taylor & Vinjevold, 1999; See also: Vinjevold & Roberts, 1999). A different kind of "Othering" occurred in the thesis. Here, the case studies show a triumphant Other, an other that had "defied the odds" (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August, 2000) and thereby ruptured the stereotypes of teachers, parents, and students that Manganye (2001), and Taylor and Vinjevold (1999) perpetuate. Furthermore, if the school case studies reveal the power and differential agency of 'the Other', of 'the people on the margins' (Hall, 1991, p. 16), they also reveal the ineffectuality of the powerful whose policies "effectively rules out any major transformation of education in South Africa's future ... schools will not change, and education quality will not improve" (Jansen, 2001b, p. 284-285). Just as there is no uniform 'Other', there is no uniform 'self. In the thesis I present two constructions of "the self. One, a construction based on the SR literature (chapter two) and the application of that literature in South Africa (chapter five). And then there is the self of the authorial narrative. A second self-construct emerges when we hear Stuart Hall commenting, "only when there is an Other can you know who you are" (1991, p. 16) and Fine observing that "self and Other are knottily entangled" (Fine, 1994, p. 72). I recall how every day that I worked in Soshanguve my self and other was immediately apparent: I would be driving, sometimes in a Government car, through a multitude of pedestrians. To keep cool, I would generally be sipping a 500ml cold Coke easily purchased on my secure government salary. At traffic intersections or school entrances students would call out "Leguha, leguha" ("White person, white person" in Se 73 Sotho) or "Mlungu, Mlungu/ Walungu, Walungu" ("White person, white person"/ "Person of the Whites" in isiZulu). Self and other are indeed "knottily engaged" (Fine, 1994, p. 72). Class and racial locations were obvious signifiers in Soshanguve's world. But class and racial positionality are different. Narayan (1993, p. 671) argued for a focus on the "quality of relations" (cited in Wolf, 1996, p. 17). She "rejects the overused binary of insider-outsider" (Wolf, 1996, p. 17), of self and other, and argued that we exhibit a '"multiplex subjectivity' with many cross-cutting identifications" (Narayan, 1993, cited in Wolf, 1996, p. 17) allowing me to choose, accept, or deploy different facets of my subjectivity depending on the context. Thus, while the introduction given by a co-worker at a meeting in Soshanguve that "Tshepo's soul is blacker than Mandela's" (Tsolokibane, 1997) reveals social acceptance, this soul was never revealed at meetings with white parents or principals in the other community within the Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District, that of Akasia; nor did it live the daily realities of township life. Finally, my positionality is contingent on the positionality of others: I could not control other people's racialized lives or their readings of my multiplex subjectivity. I had to be aware of my race and class location. But I could not allow it to oppress me (a stranger once said to me: "if you can't get over your white guilt and accept yourself, you are useless to us"). Accepting my classed, radicalized, and gendered identity meant I could get on and work, and 'engage with the field'. Engagement brings up the limitations of the study. We have discussed the first significant limitation of the study- that of bias. Two additional limitations are also apparent. First, the question of temporality, and second, a question of measurement. Regarding the temporal limitation, the thesis is not able to sufficiently show the 'slow change' identified by Huberman (1992) and Raymond, Butt and Townsend (1992) that school 74 change requires. For example, Fullan (2000) contends that SR takes, on average, seven years to become institutionalized in a school. Yet he also suggested that schools are equally capable of regressing, of making rapid improvements in administration or new curricular offerings yet equally quickly falling back to fragmented or "balkanized" (Hargreaves, 1994) communities. This long-term dimension to institutionalizing SR requires a presence in a school that is sustained across a number of years. Thesis time constraints prevented the investigation of this dimension of SR. A further important limitation in the thesis regards the measurement of effects of SR and SCD on teaching and learning. Various approaches to identifying and 'measuring' SR exist. The most widespread was contained within approaches to measuring 'school effectiveness' (Heneveld, 1994) or identifying 'school quality indicators' (Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO), 1996) and performance indicators. Several problems emerge regarding the "indicators" of School Effectiveness and measuring the outcomes of SR. One, the tendency to choose what was 'measurable' in a school brings an emphasis on bureaucratic and administrative rationality and, in the classroom, an emphasis on exam and test results. Inevitably, teaching 'to the test' and rote learning comes to predominate in this environment (Harber and Davies, 1997, p. 28) and other possible educational goals - such as personal growth, self esteem or social responsibility- become subsumed by the identification of a narrow range of outcome indicators. Two, and related to the identification of outcome variables, there are innumerable technical difficulties when cross correlating variables. For example, a factor analysis which identifies a set of management and curriculum practices as effective in Dutch schools produce quite different outcomes in a village school in Fiji (see, Riddell, 1997). Analogously, as shown by Harbison and Hanushek (1992) in their seven year study of Education Performance of the 75 Poor in Brazil, while 'good' teachers are necessary for student achievement, specific teacher inputs are impossible to determine: Teachers with low qualifications or teaching experience of limited duration became an inconsistent indicator of a school's effectiveness over time and between schools in a district at a particular time (ibid, p. 199). And furthermore, the focus on identifying teacher effects could be masked by administrative decisions to, for example, stream students and place 'difficult students' in small or 'special' classes ... or even transfer them to 'alternate' schools. Three, effectiveness research allows policy makers and researchers to emphasise one factor while ignoring others: Teachers can be blamed for ineffective schools ... they can display "psychologically abnormal" behaviours (Reynolds & Packer, 1992, p. 180) while inadequate state funding or erratic materials provisioning was ignored. For Harber and Davies (1997, p. 5) school effectiveness had therefore been "undertheorized" and, particularly in developing countries needs to be located "within broad parameters of the international and local economy, of the local culture, and of the way that social actors make sense of these worlds". Finally, Dalin et al. (1993, p. 84) pointed out that what constituted a good or effective school is a question of value and not an empirical question because education itself is more than a question of institutional and school effectiveness (Goodlad, 1984). Furthermore, the a priori definition of an effective school (see, Heneveld and Craig, 1996, p. 33, for example) leads to teachers' alienation from the goals and processes identified as being 'effective' (Fullan, 1991, p. 43). In short, "only the school itself can decide, try out, assess and reformulate" (ibid., p. 85) its own conception of what it is to be an 'effective' school. The approach to SR that Goodlad (1984) outlined in his classic A Place Called School amounted to more than change over time of pre-identified school effectiveness or school quality criteria. Rather, education and SR for Goodlad amounted to a cultural enterprise that was woven 76 into social and cultural change (1984, p. 349), an approach that cannot be fully interpreted using quantified data, or through attempts to determine educational input and output correlates. 4.5 Conclusion. Helen Simons (1996) suggested that "paradox for me is the point of case study. Living with paradox is crucial for understanding. The tension between the study of the unique and the need to generalise is necessary to reveal both the unique and the universal, and the unity of that understanding" (p. 14). The case study schools apparently emphasize the unique. Yet the problems of Soshanguve schools, and the approaches of policy to problem identification and amelioration, are not restricted to that community. For example, drawing on experience in the Eastern Caribbean in 1991, Levin and Riffel argued that the "main difficulty" of school reform: stems from our almost unthinking commitment to a particular model of what schooling is and our reluctance even to consider that the model may not be appropriate any longer. The model continues to be based on the mass production idea of the nineteenth century which underlay the development of universal public schooling. Though that mass production world has largely disappeared, the thinking to which it gave rise remains very much present. The main impediments to a different organizational form are mental, not physical (1997, p. 21). The model of school reform that currently predominates in South African schools was founded upon a rationalist behaviouralism. While this approach yielded its own insights, education exists within a fissiparous context that continually impacts upon schools, teachers and students (Motala, 1995, p. 169, 177; Fuller, 1993). We explore this policy and school district context in the thesis's part two, "Policy on a String". 77 Part Two: Policy on a String Chapter Five. School Reform in South Africa. 1994-1999. 5.0 Introduction Part two explores South Africa's SR 'policy on a string'. I begin in this chapter by introducing the central SR policy agenda adopted by South Africa's first non-racially elected democratic government. Chapter six deepens the understanding of the policy context by introducing the case study school's education district and local community context. Chapter five discusses the central legislative frameworks governing education in South Africa in the post-Apartheid era. The South African School's Act (SASA, Act 84 of 1996) (RSA, 1996a) and the National Qualification's Framework (NQF) (RSA, 1995) are introduced in sections 5.1 and 5.2. Section 5.3 discusses an important consequence of RSA (1995) and RSA (1996a): the introduction of Curriculum 2005. With this background, section 5.4 critiques the SR policy slate followed in South Africa. Section 5.5 concludes the chapter by turning to a question raised in the case study schools: Was SR able to meet the objectives of educational equity and redress identified in ANC (1994) education policy documents and education position papers scripted during the period of resistance to the Apartheid state (National Education Co-ordinating Committee (NECC), 1993; Sisulu, 1986)? 5.1 The South African Schools Act In November 1996 the South African Schools Act (SASA, Act 84 of 1996) was passed, described by the then Education Minister as "one of the most transformative pieces of 78 legislation, which is opening up a new chapter in school governance, organization and funding" (cited in Kgobe, 1996, p. 2). The act established universal free access to any school by any South African child and specifically outlawed the practice of racial discrimination in any (private or public) school. Technically, the act emphasized the funding and governance of education (Kallaway, 1997) and introduced two new organizational frameworks for South African Schools. First, in terms of grades, a "General Education" band was free and compulsory. This band accounts for students in Grades One to Seven, and students exit with a "General Education Certificate". A "Further Education" stream accommodates students from Grades eight to ten. Graduates leave with a "Further Education Certificate" and, if they have obtained adequate marks, can proceed to Post Secondary Education Institutions. A second key organizational shift occurred in the establishment of two categories of schools in the country: public and independent. Of the latter, all private secular and religious institutions needed to register as independent education institutions. Registration of Preschools, Primary and Secondary schools became the mandate of the Provinces. Provinces in turn delegated responsibility for school registrations to district officials. In terms of RSA (1996), education became a provincial responsibility. South Africa's 9 provinces passed provincial education acts (Gauteng Provincial Government, 1996) and established Provincial education administrations and policy frameworks (for example, (Gauteng Provincial Government, 1997; GDE, 1996b, 1997). Thus, the National and Provincial legislation established a foundation for new governance and administration frameworks in schools by providing principals, teachers, parents and education administrators with a basic guideline for education reconstruction. 79 An important change introduced by the SA School's Act occurred in the establishment of regulations for new School Governing Bodies (SGB's). The act legalised a demand that first emerged during the 1976 uprisings for Student Representative Council's (SRC's) and Parent, Teacher, and Student Association's (PTSA's). These regulations are contained in the Act's Chapter 3 that allows school communities to participate in the education of their children. Section 16 places the power for school governance on SGBs who are also made responsible for the development and improvement of schools. Section 21 of the Act allows parents to assume joint responsibility with the Education authorities for the provision and control of education and training in schools. The section also ensures that communities are responsible for the growth and development of schools in terms of staff, learners, learning materials, finances and buildings. Following Section 21, SGB's apply to a Provincial Superintendent General to assume control of the maintenance and improvement of the physical plant of a school, the purchase and procurement of textbooks and other educational resources, and the payment for maintenance services for the school's buildings (including rental, leases and contracts for security). In addition, SGB's can apply to determine extra curricular school activity and school learning program options. In the opinion of DNE (2001), "by allocating Section 21 functions to schools the Head of Department (HOD) is giving new meaning to the idea of democracy and self-managing schools" (p. 2). Furthermore, the "school and community" will benefit from the allocation of functions to schools because "they serve as the first step towards self-management. Communities can expect more involvement and participation in the affairs of the schools" (ibid. p. 3). Finally, DNE (2001) claims that Section 21 of the South African Schools Act allows parents to "exercise their democratic rights over the education of their children" (ibid. p. 3) by governing their schools and ensuring quality education. This was achieved by parents assuming responsibility for the 80 education process and discipline in their respective schools, promoting and fostering principles of equity and open access to education, monitoring and ensuring effective utilization of resources, and finally by ensuring safety and security in schools (ibid. p. 3). 5.2 SAQA, the NQF, and Curriculum 2005. Two initiatives, both the result of the passing into law of the South African Qualifications Authority Act (SAQA Act, No. 58 of 1995) occurred in 1996. One, a single National Qualifications Framework (NQF), linked to the General and Further education certificates, and extended to include adult education, lifelong learning, recognition of prior learning and qualifications portability was established (see, HSRC, 1995). Two, the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) was established to implement and co-ordinate the NQF. The objectives of the NQF are to: create an integrated national framework for learning achievements; facilitate access to, and mobility and progression within education, training and career paths; enhance the quality of education and training; accelerate the redress of past unfair discrimination in education, training and employment opportunities; contribute to the full personal development of each learner and the social and economic development of the nation at large (South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), 2000a, p. 3). These objectives are met through the establishment of a single education qualifications structure, the SAQA, which co-ordinates the implementation of the NQF. According to the SAQA, the NQF was central to the transformation of education in South Africa. SAQA (2000b, p. 5, 2000a, p. 4), for example, points out that the NQF: 81 with its commitment to outcomes-based education and training is the means that South Africa has chosen to bring about systemic change in the nature of the education and training system. This systemic change is intended to transform the manner in which the education and training system works as a system, how it is organised and the vision that drives participants within the system as they perform their own particular roles and functions within that system. SAQA adopted an eight-level national qualifications framework. Level 1 accommodates three Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) certification levels and the (Primary and Secondary schools based) General Education and Training Certificate (GETC). A Further Education and Training Certificate (FETC) is accommodated at the SAQA Level two, and consists of school grades eight to ten. By incorporating the school based General and Further Education Certificates into the NQF it becomes apparent that a close link between the NQF, outcomes-based education and the new school's Curriculum 2005 exists. For SAQA, these links are established by the NQF which "sets a systemic framework for organising the education and training system around the notion of learning outcomes", and Curriculum 2005 being "the curriculum that has been developed within an outcomes-based education framework" (SAQA, 2000a, p. 8; RSA, 2000, p. 9). The SAQA act provides a guiding framework for the establishment of outcomes based education and training in South Africa. However, the further implementation and elaboration of OBE in schools occurred through the launch in 1997 of Curriculum 2005. 82 5.3 Curriculum 2005 Curriculum 2005 (C2005) is the attempt by the National Department of Education and Provincial Departments of Education to develop the structures of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and the approach of outcomes based education and training (OBET) in the South African school system (RSA, 2000, p. 1). This curriculum initiative was, in the eyes of the Review Committee into C2005, probably the most significant curriculum reform in South African education of the last century. Deliberately intended to simultaneously overturn the legacy of apartheid education and catapult South Africa into the 21st Century, it was an innovation both bold and revolutionary in the magnitude of its conception. As the first major curriculum statement of a democratic government, it signalled a dramatic break from the past. No longer would curriculum shape and be shaped by narrow visions, concerns and identities. No longer would it reproduce the limited interests of any one particular grouping at the expense of another. It would bridge all, and encompass all (RSA, 2000, p. 1). An intimate relationship exists between SAQA, the NQF, and the new curricular approaches of the South African government. SAQA (2000a, p. 8), for example, states that "the NQF sets a systemic framework for organising the education and training system around the notion of learning outcomes ... Curriculum 2005 is the curriculum that has been developed within an outcomes-based education framework". The model is a hybridisation of international curriculum theory and practice, integrated with the specific policy debates and national needs identified during South Africa's political transition (Harley & Parker, 1999, p. 181; RSA, 2000, p. 2; 11). 83 The basic policy framework for C2005 was stated in Curriculum 2005: Lifelong Learning for the 21s' Century (DNE, 1997a). The document encourages continuous and formative assessment programs (ibid., p. 20), teacher autonomy in program and syllabus development, student team learning and skills development. C2005 replaces the examinations oriented and content laden apartheid era curricula (Christie, 1999, p. 282). Applying the 'critical outcomes' of the NQF to the Early Childhood Development (ECD), General Education and Training (GET), Further Education and Training (FET) and Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) sectors, DNE (1997a) identifies 8 Learning Areas6 and two types of learning outcomes. One, critical cross-field outcomes "are generic and cross-curricular. They underpin the learning process ... [and]... are not restricted to any specific learning context, but they inform the formulation of specific outcomes in individual areas of learning for all learners at all levels on the National Qualifications Framework" (DNE, 1997a, p. 9). Critical cross-field outcomes guide teaching and the development of learning programs and materials. For the DNE, "curriculum development should begin with the formulation and agreement of critical outcomes and that these should inform all subsequent curriculum development processes" (ibid., p. 9). Critical cross-field outcomes include identifying and solving problems; working effectively as a member of a team; organizing and managing oneself; collecting, analysing, organising and evaluating information; and effective communication using various media, (ibid., p. 9). Two, "Specific outcomes" are to be met by learners during the nine years of the compulsory General Education phase and are guided by the critical cross-field outcomes. Sixty-four specific outcomes describe the competence that learners should demonstrate in specific contexts and learning areas at certain levels. Specific outcomes are the basis for assessing the 6 Specifically, Language, Literacy and Communication; Mathematical Literacy, Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences; Human and Social Sciences; Natural Sciences; Technology; Arts and Culture; Economic and Management Sciences; and Life Orientation. 84 progress of learners and the effectiveness of learning processes and learning programs (DNE, 1997a, p. 19). Launched in 1995, implementation was scheduled for all school grades (1-12) by the year 2000. However, in March 1997 the implementation time-table was revised to 2005 and the new curriculum became known as Curriculum 2005. The 1997 - 2005 implementation plan was revised several times. The DNE intended that C2005 would commence with pilot programs in Grades 1 to 3 and 7 to 9 in the second half of 1997 as preparation for full implementation in 1998 and continuing to 2001. This schedule was not met and implementation was scaled back to only Grade one starting in 1998. In August 1998, the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in the senior phase was postponed from 1999 to 2000. Pilot programmes in Grades 3 and 7 were begun in 1999 and in 2000 Grades 3 and 7 implementation occurred. By 2000, learners in Grades 1, 2, 3 and 7 were receiving the new curriculum program, and C2005 was introduced into Grades 4 and 8 in 2001. It was hoped that implementation in all Grades would be completed by 2005 (DNE, 1997a). In 1997 the DNE commissioned a non-governmental organisation, the Media in Education Trust (MiET), to train 20 officials from each province with a basic understanding of C2005. Using MiET developed training materials, 'master trainers' would "cascade" the C2005 material to district officials who would in turn train teachers in their districts. This training model, in South Africa referred to as the 'Cascade Model', became the primary means of preparing teachers for C2005 implementation. However, efficient INSET does not entail effective INSET, and effective INSET gives teachers control of their INSET; takes into account the "subjective reality" of the teacher(s) and their school(s); and was dependant on a supportive school and subject department culture (Bradley, 1995; Darling-Hammond, 1997a). 85 In 1997 and 1998 workshops with teachers were conducted as one, three or five day-sessions. Teachers had no control over this professional development, and the training bore no relation to staff or school identified training and in-service needs. Furthermore, training quality varied: An evaluation of OBE implementation in Grade 1 Classrooms in the Eastern Cape Province stated that while '92% of educators had received training' in that province, 'only 36% found it good or excellent' (cited in RSA, 2000, p. 57). The content of the training emphasized theoretical and terminological clarity, and never considered the practicalities of classroom materials development and implementation. As an NGO involved in C2005 teacher training pointed out in their submission to the Review Commission into C2005, "the training has played an advocacy rather than a skills development role" (RSA, 2000, p. 57), and Jansen's case study of Grade 1 teachers concluded that 'teachers uniformly feel that their preparation for C2005 was inadequate and incomplete' (1999a, p. 208). Similarly, Vinjevold and Roberts (1999) found that Grade 7 teachers had been unable to apply their new understanding to classroom practice. For Khulisa Management Services (2000a) 'training was too short and there was insufficient hands-on training.' Although training had improved teacher's understanding of OBE, teachers still struggled to design learning programs, integrate specific and critical cross-field outcomes or understand the new approaches to assessment. Teachers felt that insufficient support occurred after training workshops and that they are left to 'sink or swim' (Link Community Development/Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District, 1997; Pithouse, 2001; Diary, 19 March 1998). Teachers ascribe poor support to insufficient trained provincial and district personnel, and transport, infrastructural and resource constraints (RSA, 2000, p. 62). Further dividing teachers and district officials, poor quality training, insufficient materials, and irrelevant content was blamed on district trainers and not the 86 MiET (Khulisa Management Services, 2000b; R. Mekwa, personal communication, 15 November 1997; Pithouse, 2001). Realizing this, some districts abandoned the MiET training model and materials and initiated their own training programs (see Potenza and Monyokolo, 1999, for case study; SWED Teach and Learn Unit, 2000). While RSA (2000) claimed that "departmental officials at district levels ... are not involved in curriculum implementation processes" and "no other support structures help teachers implement C2005 in their classrooms" (p. 62), in fact "Teach and Learn" units co-ordinate school and district level training (Potenza, 1999; SWED: T&L, 1998; de Clercq, 2001). In addition, the administration, development, and auxiliary service units also provide logistical and infrastructural support to teachers and district trainers wherever possible (de Clercq, 2001). However, as Chisholm (1999, p. 89) and Ball (1990, p. 118) have pointed out, a multitude of factors affect policy implementation. In the case of C2005 these factors include inadequate training and information, inadequate instructional material and departmental support; dysfunctional educational infrastructures; the debilitating conditions of teaching and learning (CCOLT, 1996); and insufficient local and institutional capacity (RSA, 2000, p. 62). Furthermore, RSA (2000, p. 13) concedes that mandated implementation, insufficient support from implementing agencies, inadequate training, and unfeasible time frames also mitigated against effective implementation. Contrary to arguments made by practising teachers (Pithouse, 2001, for example), some researchers claim that there was little willingness among teachers to engage with, or attempt, the outcomes based approach (RSA, 2000, p. 13; Taylor and Vinjevold, 1999; Vinjevold and Roberts, 1999). Criticisms of C2005 focus either on philosophical aspects of outcomes based education (Parker, 1999; Harley and Parker, 1999), or, as the preceding discussion showed, C2005's 87 implementation model and the nature of classroom and follow up support given to teachers. However, criticism of the SAQA and SA School's Acts was more substantive. 5.4 Critique Critique of South Africa's education reforms followed one of two trajectories (de Clercq, 2001). One trajectory examined the appropriateness of the policies chosen (Gilmour, 2001; Kraak, 1995): the "policy gap" (Sayed & Jansen, 2001; Sayed, 2002) between policy choices and the material conditions in classrooms and schools. Here, critique examined the appropriateness of the adopted policies and the discrepancy between International and National policy development contexts and the socio-economic and educational conditions in South Africa (see: ERP, 2003a). On occasion, this analysis subjected current reform programs to philosophical critique, and exposed the theoretical contradictions that lay within the outcomes based education discourse (Deacon & Parker, 1999; Harley & Parker, 1999; Parker, 1999). A second trajectory investigated the policy implementation processes, and the material and capacity limitations that were faced by educational administrators in South Africa ( Enslin & Pendlebury, 1998; RSA, 2000). Policy analysis in this vein concluded, for example, "a major stumbling block in our current situation is the failure of sound education policy to impact meaningfully on actual school practice" (Motala, 2001, p. 72). Kraak (1995), Chisholm and Fuller (1996), and Jansen (1999b) questioned the appropriateness of the reform policies adopted in South African education. Kraak (1995), for example, argued that there was an incompatibility between the policy discourses and the socio-economic circumstances of the majority of the countries' population. Kraak (1995) suggested that policies need to be specifically tailored to address the specific educational challenges 88 presented in either rural or urban socio-economic environments. However, Kraak did not suggest mechanisms whereby policies might be adopted to fit their local environments, nor did he consider any budgetary implications of his argument. He stated: core/periphery divides have huge implications for social policy ... spatial inequalities pose a major responsibility for policy makers, who need to devise sustainable strategies which differentiate across diverse social and industrial settings, but which have the common aim of reducing social inequality (ibid. p. 186; see also Deacon and Parker, 1998). Chisholm and Fuller (1996) took Kraak's critique further. They argued that the new educational objectives of the South African state betrayed the educational objectives of the opposition and resistance movements in South Africa. These objectives were debated within the "People's Education" movement that flourished during the period of insurrection that existed in South Africa between 1983 and 1994 (Sisulu, 1987; Zungu, 1987; NECC, 1992). For Chisholm and Fuller (1996) the aspirations of the People's Education movement were abandoned in the new educational policies in South Africa, only to be replaced by an emerging education and training system that was designed to meet the human resource requirements of the economy in response to demands made by the business and organized labor constituencies. Jansen (1999b) down played the role of organized business and labor in shaping the educational objectives of the state. Rather, in a case study of the process of curriculum restructuring, he argued that restructuring was "about legitimizing a vulnerable Ministry of Education which lacked the political will to re-direct educational and curriculum policies to reflect the broad visions for alternative education which had mobilized political struggle in the past three decades and more" (1999b, p. 65). He concluded that: 89 in a Ministry in which the key incoming leadership sees its primary role as bureaucratic rather than political, as placatory rather than interventionist, as legalistic rather than strategic, conservative politics will triumph ... the proverbial 'balance of forces' [is] firmly entrenched in favour of the apartheid curriculum and its settled bureaucrats. And this is unlikely to change... (ibid. p. 65). Amongst others, Jansen (1999a), Jansen and Christie (1999), Sayed and Jansen (2001), Potenza and Monyokolo (1999), and RSA (2001) investigated the processes of SR in South Africa. The most breathtaking of these studies was Jansen's (1999a) "tentative and preliminary account" (p. 203) of the implementation of Outcomes Based Education in 32 Grade one classrooms in two provinces (KwaZulu-Natal and Mapumalanga). After outlining the research methods followed by his team, Jansen summarised their findings and concluded with "synthesis and reflection" on the process of curriculum change in South Africa since 1994. Jansen showed that teachers held different understandings of OBE, and were uncertain of exactly what practices constituted OBE. This diversity of understandings of even fundamental OBE concepts led to teachers claiming that OBE was "nothing new", or, contrary to classroom observation, claiming that they had made classroom changes (p. 210). Although teachers had access to curriculum documentation, teachers felt that their preparation for Curriculum 2005 implementation was "inadequate and incomplete" (p. 208), and that outcomes based education could not be implemented in the "early part of the school year with young children" (p. 209). Jansen's 'synthesis and reflection' on the findings of his classroom based case studies present a sobering evaluation of education policy change in South Africa. Like Pithouse (2001), Jansen laid bare the (much vaunted in policy documents) nature and extent of teacher participation in curriculum development (see, for example, RSA, 2001), exposing with Carrim (2001a) the framing of teachers and teaching in the new policy rhetoric. Jansen argued that 90 "South Africa has developed a conception of ... policy by declaration. By this I mean the practice whereby the mere promulgation of a particular set of policies is expected to transform institutions in a rational, linear, and uniform way" (1999a, p. 212). Jansen concluded that curriculum policy, planning, and development did not sufficiently consider the social contexts where schools and classrooms operate (p. 213). Consequently, "the dominant mode of curriculum policy will retain its centralised and context-blind character while continuing to create a legitimating discourse of participation and consultation" (p. 215). Potenza and Monyokolo (1999) did not come to the pessimistic conclusions of Jansen (1999a). Addressing curriculum change and policy implementation as members of a district curriculum implementation team, they reflected on the implementation process in their own school district, using their district's experience as the basis for a case study evaluation. Their reflection and analysis answers some of the questions regarding policy implementation raised by Jansen (1999a). For example, Potenza and Monyokolo pointed out that teacher development began in a policy vacuum. Key INSET posts in the GDE had not yet been filled ... there was no coordinated strategy for teacher development in the province to guide the implementation of C2005 ... all officials and teachers had to go on was the Draft policy document for the Foundation Phase (1999, p. 238). Potenza and Monyokolo also showed how district officials and schoolteachers responded to the demands of Provincial and National Education Departments. For example, district officials evaluated the effects of departmental training programs, and concluded "the cascade model was not an effective way of training teachers" (1999, p. 239). District officials therefore decided to "attempt to reach every Grade 1 teacher in the district as directly as possible" (ibid., 91 p. 240) through school and cluster workshops, and by establishing teacher led curriculum cluster committees. Two results flowed from these workshops. One, Potenza and Monyokolo's colleagues gained a clear understanding of the needs and concerns of classroom teachers, and oriented their training to the specific contexts of their teachers. Two, foundation phase teachers in the district engaged, to an unprecedented extent ... in discussion and debate about the school curriculum. 'What do you expect your learners to know and to be able to do by the end of Grade 1 ? What do you mean by knowledge? ... The fact that teachers are asking these questions is an indication that they are becoming more reflective practioners (ibid., p. 242). Potenza and Monyokolo (1999) concluded that "Curriculum 2005, for all its deficiencies, is beginning to restore to teachers their role as professionals and intellectuals in society" (p. 243). Chisholm (1997), de Clercq (1997a) and Chisholm et al. (1999, p. 399) agreed that the legislation and policy programs constituted a "rational-bureaucratic" model (Taylor et al., 1997) of SR. They, along with Kraak (1995), questioned the assumptions of the model and asked: What if the societal context assumed in the 'rational-bureaucratic' model did not exist? And what if many of the problems faced by schools and school districts originated outside an education system defined by the rational-bureaucratic model ... that because schools and communities were interconnected it was impossible to address educational 'problems' without broader considerations of social reconstruction (Committee on the Culture of Learning and Teaching. (CCOLT), 1996, p. 41; RSA, 1998; Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), 1998)? 92 However, as Kraak (1995) alluded, in neo-Colonial Africa many of the problems faced by schools and school districts, and supposedly addressed in the educational objectives and policies of African states, lay outside an education system defined by a functionalist rationality (see also Deacon and Parker, 1998; Palme, 1994; Nzamujo, 1999; Harber and Davies, 1997; Jones, 1993). For example, the collapsed culture of teaching and learning was a manifestation of the extent of community pathology and the Apartheid legacy (TRC, 1998, Ch. 9, Para. 11). This social dislocation was manifest as individual and social psychological stress (Christie, 1998; Jones, 1993; Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), 1998). In addition to this existential crisis the collapse of teaching cultures and departmental line functions affected SR (DNE, 1996b; Harber & Davies, 1997). Further discussed in Chapter six, these broader features of social life affect school reform both directly and indirectly yet were not addressed in the policy prescriptions of the reform movement. Legislation and departmental memos drove the response to the failed culture of teaching and learning of the South African government and the National and Provincial Departments of Education. By September 1999 a comprehensive legal framework for policy development and implementation was established (Foster & Smith, 2001). Commencing with the framework established by the Constitution (RSA, 1996b), the focus on schools (RSA, 1996a) was broadened in 1997 to include Higher Education. Throughout, policy documents and programs "testify to ongoing national concerns with rights, redress and equity, providing an enabling framework for balanced state and market-driven provision and developing the tools with which to transform the legacy of inequality" (Chisholm, 1998, p. 13). Unfortunately, in the great majority of South Africa's schools the picture that Chisholm (1998) claimed is yet to materialise (ERP, 2003a). In fact, in the schools the master narratives of SR in South Africa- rights, redress, 93 equity- are silent (ERP, 2003b). SR, by the Department of National Education's own admission (DNE, 2003, p. 54), had failed. 5.5 Conclusion Chapter five introduced the SR policy initiatives of the new South African government. The initiatives rested on the values of democracy, liberty, equality, justice and the pursuit of national reconstruction (ANC, 1994, p. 3). These values and objectives "inform our education and training framework" (ibid. p. 3) to such an extent that six years later Soudien reiterated that central to the reform process is the ideal of reconstruction and development. Against a historical backdrop of unequal funding for education and a legacy of disparity in white, coloured, Indian and African schools, the new democratic government in South Africa has declared its intention of achieving equity and equality in the education system (2001, p. 33). However, the initiatives' inability to impact on teaching and learning in township schools (Motala, 2001, p. 72; DNE, 2003, p. 54), and their failure to incorporate community members into SR are the most recurrent criticisms of these initiatives (Chisholm, 1997; de Clercq, 1997b; 2001; ERP, 2003b). In fact, teachers, school administrators, students and parents are caught within an intractable web: An 'educational problem'~the collapse in the cultures of teaching and learning—was imbricated in socio-economic collapse, and cannot be solved without simultaneous and profound social reconstruction (Manganyi, 2001; ERP, 2003a). Yet the 'educational problem' was addressed and analysed within the frameworks offered by SR, frameworks that encourage a singular focus on legislation or curriculum directives; schools or teachers; parents or students (Orr et al., 2002). This approach results in 94 very little change in schools: Policy lands up 'on a string', a part of the "residual rhetoric" of politicians (Karlsson, 2000; Jansen, 1999b). Chapter six shows that there is an alternative approach that can be integrated with SR, and explores how this alternative appears in practice. 95 Chapter Six. Soshanguve school district context. 6.0 Introduction Chapter six introduces the school and school district context in two ways. First, socio-economic, demographic, and interview data provides an understanding of one context of education reform in South Africa: the community context of the school district. Utilizing different data sources allowed a nuanced understanding of the context in which School Reform was being implemented7. Second, I introduce the district education office and show how the Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District's administrative structures dovetailed with socio-economic conditions to shape the context of the case study schools. 6.1 Socio-economic and demographic contexts Two distinct communities, formerly constituted solely by racial criteria, can be found within the Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District (Map Two). One, Akasia, was a former "whites only" designated group area. The other, Soshanguve, was established in 1973 as a township to house Sotho, Shangaan, "Nguni", and Venda speakers (and hence the acronymic name: Soshanguve). Being a 'white' group area, and historically supporting the ruling National Party, Akasia received the benefits of apartheid spatial planning (McCarthy & Smit, 1984; RSA, 1998, p. 20 et sec). 7 Emphasis is on the Soshanguve district. Seminal research on the history of Apartheid education can be found in Hartshorne, 1992 and Cross and Chisholm, 1990. See also Chisholm, 1999; Chisholm and Fuller, 1996. 96 M a p Two . Soshanguve-Wonderboom Educat ion Distr ic t : School district boundary. 1995-2001. K E Y R80 National & Urban and Industrial Land Use Provincial roads M20 Regional roads Peri-Urban and Farmland Secondary roads Dams, lakes, and rivers School district Soshanguve Municipal centers boundary Wilderness areas Soshanguve Municipal subdivisions Railway lines Provincial boundary 97 Soshanguve bore the scars of Apartheid and Colonial era planning: High structural unemployment, a low tax base, inadequate social service and infrastructure provisioning, and spatial remoteness from centres of employment (McCarthy & Smit, 1984). The SWED argued that these scars contributed to a social context characterized by: the pervasive experience of social malaise: ... high crime rates, prevalence of male initiated family violence, rape and child abuse, alcohol and substance abuse, poverty and homelessness, difficulties in re-establishing the culture of rent and service payment, the low human rights and cultures of tolerance (SWED, 1997c, p. 12). The township was created "at the height of 'grand apartheid'" (Mufamadi, 2001, p. 1) as a temporary transit camp for migrant labor journeying from Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and the Northern Transvaal to the Pretoria-Johannesburg manufacturing belt, and the gold mines of the Witwatersrand reef. This temporary status resulted in the community having to compete with the established townships of Mamelodi and Atteridgeville for services- one of the first residents, and Principal of Soshanguve's first Secondary school, Mr. Elias Mahome recalled: Man we had to fight for everything! They [the white minority government] wouldn't give us a thing. First, there were no schools, so people had to travel to Atteridgeville or Mams [Mamelodi] or we schooled them ourselves. It took years before they gave us even a school! (E. Mahome, personal communication, 2 August 2000). While there were no schools in Soshanguve, there was also very little stable employment. For example, a survey conducted in August 1996 indicated that 38,9% of Soshanguve were unemployed and looking for work and while 44,2% of Soshanguve residents were employed on a full time basis (Mabopane-Centurion Development Corridor, 1996) the 98 majority of these were paid at or marginally above the poverty datum line of R353.00 per month (Harsch, 2001, p. 5). Reflecting the precariousness of Soshanguve residents' economic lives, 62% of Soshanguve families are dependent on a single income earner (SWED, 1997a, 1997b, p. 4). Furthermore, the insecure and informal nature of work of the employed household member increases family vulnerability: The main employment activities of informal settlement residents were running stalls and tuckshops selling fruit and vegetables, cigarettes, sweets, cold drinks and chips (CASE, 2000a, p. 205). The relative scarcity of jobs in the township meant the community had a (virtually) nonexistent tax base. Furthermore, the majority of Soshanguve residents were, and remain, 'low income' earners: Four percent of Soshanguve families report zero income, and 41% of the township's families earn between R1.00 and Rl 500.00 per month (Mabopane-Centurion Development Corridor, 1996). Families in Soshanguve South Extension 4, Soshanguve's largest informal settlement community wherein two of the case study schools are located and along which a third borders, have suffered from falling incomes since 1996. Drawing on time series and survey data, CASE (2000a) showed that by 2000 median incomes in the community had fallen to R520 per month (p. 207) and 25% of CASE respondents in Extension 4 pointed out that they "often" were unable to feed their family during the past year (2000b, p. 3). When asked about their average monthly income, 42% of Soshanguve South Extension 4 respondents said they earned less than R200 a month, while 26% had an income between R301 and 500. The highest level of income was R7000 (8% said they earned between 5000-7000) (CASE, 2000a, p. 208). The majority of CASE respondents (64%) said they did not have other sources of income. Among those who had other sources, 85% relied on other household members, while the remaining 15% was divided between those who relied on other relatives and on pension or child maintenance (ibid., p. 208). 99 Socio-economic vulnerability increased in fluctuating income environments. Thus, less that 13% of households had a household income that varied by less than ± R150 between 1996 and 1998. The average (median) income fluctuation was R350.00 for Soshanguve's Section E residents (CASE, 2000c, p. 3-4). Finally, an indicator of relative economic marginalization, economic productivity, and job scarcity, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) compares the economic output of specified economic regions. When divided by population the GDP per capita shows the economic output of individuals within a community. In 1996 Soshanguve's GDP was R278/capita substantially below Greater Pretoria's regional R4 977/capita and Gauteng's provincial R7 478/capita (Mabopane-Centurion Development Corridor, 1996, p. 45). In this environment of high marginal and un-employment it came as no surprise that the discourse on rights, redress, and equity, and their incorporation into the SR frameworks adopted by the new South African government seldom surfaced in the case study schools (Map Three). Rather, interviewees in each case study school identified "unemployment" and "poverty" as the most important problems affecting teaching and learning. For example, Mrs. Sara Seroka, Principal of Boeipathutsi Junior Secondary school, responded to "What problems affect teaching and learning in your school?" with: Firstly, the unemployment. The unemployment rate is too high in this old settlement. Because this area is an old settlement you find that our learners usually stay with their grandparents [who] are not employed. Their mothers and their fathers also, some of them are not employed. So what happens? They live only on the pension that is received by the poor grandmother or grandfather. So what happens now, it's now linked to crime: There's no money in the family and 100 Map Three. Case Study School Locations. KEY Railway River Provincial Road Zonal Boundaries Regional (District) Road Secondary District Roads Provincial Boundary Industrial area Provincial Name Peri-urban and Farmland Nature Reserve Residential area Schools Number Name Number Name 1 Ayanda Primary 3 Reitumetse Secondary 2 Boeipathutsi Junior Secondary 4 Rodney Mokoena Preparatory 101 once kids want something desperately at school they go out and find any way to get money. Then ... you see?" (Seroka, Interview, 7 August 2000). Mrs. Mmakola, a teacher at Rodney Mokoena Preparatory School was incredulous that the question could even be asked. To her, the challenges that teachers faced were obvious. Surprised at the question, she repeated it: Problems that affect the school? There is 90% parent illiteracy. There is 90% unemployment. It is difficult for parents to be involved in voluntary work ... It is a serious ordeal with 90% unemployment (Mmakola, Interview, 8 August 2000). Mr. Mpelele, another teacher at Rodney Mokoena Preparatory stated that: the main problem is poverty. This affects learning because most of the learners have no food. You can see what they wear... . Most community members are not educated and not working. This influences learning. For example sometimes things should be supplied to the learner by a parent but because of poverty it cannot be done ... so to stop the child from being embarrassed you stop teaching those skills (Mpelele, Interview, 8 August 2000). Extending the insights provided by interviewees, CASE site monitors provided vignettes of life in Soshanguve South Extension 4. For example, a female monitor described how: every [evening] after sunset there is so much smoke in our extension. I began to wonder if these people are getting cold or what. I then approached two mothers at different sites and different times. What amazes me is that I got one and the same answer. They both haven't got money to buy even a single litre of paraffin nor any place where they could borrow R2.40. They said that it is as if Extension 4 is cursed. No one seems to be successful. They wonder if they could ever afford to use electricity. I felt pity for them. It's heart-breaking to see such things. I 102 couldn't do much as I was also in the same situation (CASE, 2000a, p. 221). The monitor also described how she and her friends celebrated a birthday: "It's my friend's birthday today. He is worried because he is out of coins. We then decided to write soft and sweet messages for him. We really did change his mood. We realised that it doesn't take an expensive thing to make a friend happy. That's what friends are for, he said, and started singing for us" (ibid., p. 221). When it was her son's birthday, the monitor said: This is the day on which I gave birth to a son. He is turning five years old today. I have no money at this present moment, [neither] does his father. I just looked at him and thought about the first day I saw him. I wished him all the best and kissed him. He simply said he doesn't need a kiss but a bicycle and a cake (ibid., p. 221). A male monitor described his mother's birthday: I went to central city and bought a new dress for my mum. It was to be a surprise for her 60th birthday, [on her birthday] I woke up at 5 in the morning, went to my mom's bedroom, put a wrapped present on her bed. She was still asleep. I went back to bed. When she woke up, she was surprised to find something on her bed. She opened it and found a new dress (ibid., p. 221-222). Poverty meant that students come to school hungry and on occasion, malnourished (Morabe, Interview, 3 August 2000). And it resulted in students arriving exhausted at school: Sometimes we find that we have got learners who come from far ... and they are coming on foot. They walk many kilometres- and sometimes they take trains to school and they come from far and then they walk it ... sometimes you find kids do say that they don't have bus tickets and you find teachers that contribute to them for that. And also clothing, you see our students in their uniforms (Seroka, 103 Interview, 7 August 2000). The district experienced rapid population growth since 1989, in some areas approaching 15% per annum. Predominantly due to rural-urban migration and the availability of land in Soshanguve's informal settlements (CASE, 2000a, p. 2), population growth threatened to overwhelm education provisioning in the township's informal communities (SECC, 1997a; SWED: DDU, 1997a) and placed stress on the educational fabric of the community through school, classroom and teacher shortages and consequent overcrowding of classes (SWED: DDU, 1997a). For example, the CASE (1998 and 2000) surveys of Soshanguve's Extension Four indicated that families have to send children to a very wide range of schools often quite a distance away. In Soshanguve South Extension 4, respondents mentioned 29 different schools attended by just 76 household members who were at school. This is an issue of great concern in Extension 4 ... residents have even set up their own temporary school which is attended by 8% of school children in the surveyed households (CASE, 2000c, p. 9). In this sea of unemployment, poverty, and resource scarcity, anger, frustration and helplessness turned inward, and became directed at the local community: Mutual recrimination surfaced easily, schools were vandalised and a cycle which reinforced alienation and destroyed the individual's sense of agency spiralled uncontrolled (Christie, 1998). At Boeipathutse, a teacher, Elias Ramaphoko, pointed out that with the immediate community, the big problem is vandalism. For example, last week they stole the electricity meter. The community does not have full ownership of the school. Who did that we do not yet know. We want the parents and the people in the surrounding community to know that the school belongs to 104 them. There must be a sense of ownership that this is needed. It is not yet here, this sense of ownership (Interview, 6 August 2000). Vandalism was related to unemployment and poverty, as a Department Head confirmed: "Unemployment is also a big problem ... some people think of other avenues of getting something for themselves- like stealing. Schools become targets ... our community around here is very demoralized" (Masuku, Interview. 6 August 2000). Mrs. Makgato, the Principal of Reitumetse Secondary, a case study school located on the edge of Soshanguve South Extension 4, corroborated these insights when she stated: There is vandalism, thefts and disappearance of supplies. The impact of unemployment is severe. We have outsiders coming in during breaks. There's a lack of cooperation from parents who sometimes think teachers are too lazy. Poverty and low pay effects our students in different ways. For example you get learners who cannot get equipment or anything additional. The computer programs, for example, affects learners who don't have any money because then they cannot participate ... (Interview, 3 August 2000). John Maluleke, the Principal of Rodney Mokoena Preparatory noted this spiral of recrimination and blame when he stated that: Parent to teacher relationships are also declining. Teachers are quick to judge. They judge parents ... The parent still shows love and this needs emphasis. This lack of communication between parent and teacher is one of the most dangerous problems ... What if they [parents and students] do not have food? Why would they buy the Sunday Times [newspaper] because a teacher asked the student to bring a Sunday Times as part of a class exercise? The teachers do not want to ask some of these more fundamental questions (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). 105 Although poverty, unemployment, crime, and vandalism had direct tangible effects on education in Soshanguve, the effects of Apartheid era education provisioning also continued to affect schooling. For example, by 1998 twelve percent of Soshanguve schools still had no access to water, 36% had no access to electricity and over-crowding levels averaged at 173% (GDE, 1996b): an interviewee commented "Another problem is the overcrowding of learners. The block [classrooms] that some of them are using is for the preschool. The preschool will be opened later" (Kekana, Interview, 8 August 2000). Poverty, not a quest for equity or redress, also drove SCD. For example, after witnessing a student dying from poverty related illness a Department Head in Ayanda Primary, Mrs. Dineo Morabe, reflected: After the death of this child I asked myself as to how many learners were we to lose before we take a relevant step. What worried me most is the fact that some learners suffer from pellagra and malnutrition ... I brought this idea of introducing this gardening project at our school ... My aim with this project is to promote good health. We encourage learners to eat fresh vegetables ... Vegetables are [also] sold at affordable price. We donate them to needy learners (Morabe, 1999, p. 2). Ayanda Primary's Atang Gardening Project fed students, teachers, parents and members of the local community, employed parents, integrated the community into the school, and was utilised by teachers as a practical curriculum resource. The project was one component of Ayanda Primary's approach to SCD, further explored in chapter seven. 106 6.2 School district background Not all problems in the case study schools were related to Soshanguve's political economy or social history. Several respondents, for example, mentioned inefficient district provisioning as a problem affecting school change. Principal John Maluleke gave specific data: Provisioning is still a problem. We might order today, yet receive the following year. For example charts. We ordered these in 1998 but they only arrived today. We have a supportive community- look they even built this very school! So we discuss our problems with them. We tell them our problems and they suggest ways of solving these problems. For example local community supply. We addressed that problem, so now they supply us whenever it is possible. Maintenance of windows is another one. Broken facilities were reported at the beginning of the year. We cannot access the money from the department or money that is allocated to the department for minor repairs. So we spent our own R 6000 to do repairs. We do have unemployed parents. Can't the department delegate the maintenance budget and allow us to identify service providers ... Emergency cases could be dealt with by us here (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). However, education districts were new administrative structures in South Africa (de Clercq, 2001). Establishing school districts included specifying and delimiting functions between Provincial, Regional and District offices and clarifying National, Provincial and District education responsibilities. Initially the Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District (Map Two) had a staff of one (the District Director, appointed in January 1995) with no office, desk, chair or telephone (M. Nkonyane, personal communication, 25 April 1996). This 'district' was to 107 continue administering education while becoming established as a functional structure and implementing new educational programs conceptualized by the National and Provincial education departments. Maintaining educational administration included ensuring that basic tasks of school visits, teacher professional development, school renovation and minor works, examinations, assessment and coordinating promotion schedules and standards, school provisioning and school evaluations continued. In addition District Education Co-ordinators (the former School Inspectors) also had to implement teacher rationalization and redeployment policy priorities of the National Department of Education. These policies were highly contentious and divisive within schools and were debilitating to the DECs, as the GDE: TSUD task team pointed out: the rightsizing and redeployment strategy has all but collapsed ... [it] ... has been fraught with problems ... the complexity of the current situation and the lack of communication around it appears to be damaging the relationships between the teachers and the GDE. This and other factors ... are contributing to extremely low morale... (GDE: TSUD, 1997, p. 195-196; see: SWED, 1997a; Wits (EPU), 2001). A further task, that of identifying "School Quality Indicators" and commencing a 'school quality' program was added to the job descriptions of the DECs in 1996 (H. Sanford, personal communication, 15 March 1998). By May 1995 the District's Management Team (DMT) was appointed and support staff personnel had been absorbed from the previously segregated education administrations. Each member of the DMT had their own understandings of SR and was struggling with their own educational responsibilities (H. Nkosi, personal communication, 16 May 1996). These responsibilities revolved around the need to continue a semblance of educational administration 108 while initiating SR programs (M. Prew, personal communication, 21 June 1996). Integrating previously segregated education departments into new administrative arrangements caused uncertainty regarding employment security and an environment where rumours regarding retrenchment and dismissal were rife (H. Sanford, personal communication, 15 March 1998). This environment reinforced inter-racial suspicions and mis-understandings (Manganyi, 2001). To address the collapsed culture of teaching and learning in Soshanguve, the SWED's District Director, Mr. Moss Nkonyane, called a district education conference in December 1996. Viewed as a "community building exercise" (Nkonyane, 1996) the conference included representatives of the district education office, the teacher's union, and a local civic structure, the Soshanguve Education Co-ordinating Committee (SECC). The conference was scheduled to last two days, and was tasked to identify and propose solutions to the problems affecting education in Soshanguve (Soshanguve Education Co-ordinating Committee, 1996a, p. 3). Ultimately lasting four days, the conference identified one hundred and twenty-nine problems as affecting township schools and school administration (SECC, 1996). The identified problems were corroborated by a focussed evaluation of ten sample schools conducted jointly by the SWED and a local non-governmental organization, Link Community Development (Link Community Development/ Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District, 1997). LINK/SWED (1997) emphasized that violence, crime and a lack of resources were demoralising teachers in the township schools (p. 60-61). The Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education district's management team recognized that "unprecedented social dislocation" (Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), 1998) required a "comprehensive approach" to SR. District office staff confirmed this understanding at a February 1997 staff-planning meeting. There, participants argued that many problems faced by schools and school districts originated outside the education system, and that education 109 reconstruction had to integrate school and community reconstruction (SWED, 1997b) through a structured approach to school and community development. Following the February 1997 planning meeting, recognizing the Apartheid social and economic legacy (SWED, 1997b), and integrating the SECC (1996) problem analysis and a problem analysis undertaken by the District's Principals in May 1997 (SWED/SECC, 1997), the SWED initiated in September 1997 the "Soshanguve sustainable SCD program". The program's short term goal was to stabilize and improve the quality of teaching and learning in the District (SWED, 1997c) through the implementation of eleven different community partnership projects (see Appendix Three). Following community stabilization the program broadened to encourage cooperatives or small- and micro-enterprises at (or linked to) schools to support school and community development. For example, Thutong Senior Primary, Boeipathutsi Junior Secondary and Reitumetse Senior Secondary established computer training facilities; Ayanda Primary a vegetable cooperative; Rodney Mokoena Preparatory initiated ceramics, bricklaying and metal work training programs along with integrated Education With Production, Permaculture and cultural curricula; and Padisago Primary, a comprehensive cultural revitalization program and community park. Projects were aligned with, yet extended, Provincial and National Education Department SR priorities (see Appendix Four). Furthermore, the district education office could not prioritise local community development while the culture of teaching and learning was virtually non-existent (Link Community Development/ Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District, 1997; SECC, 1997a). Hence, the District Office focussed on stabilizing the educational context and improving teaching and learning by prioritising "School Development Planning", Early Childhood, and Education Management Development (SWED, 1997a, 1997b). Partnerships were entered into with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and a university to provide 110 SCD planning and school management development training, and to train unemployed women in ECD care and small business development. District school development training workshops were held in February, March and April 1997 (SWED: DDU, 1997a). Each township school was requested to send three representatives to a series of two-day (weekend) cluster workshops, held in March and April 1997. Participants attending these initial training workshops were expected to return to their schools and conduct school-based development planning workshops8. Training workshops emphasized problem identification and analysis at school level and the identification (through nominal group techniques) of school priorities. These priorities were linked up, in the training and workshop processes, to national and provincial priorities (SWED, 1997d). In the school workshops, having identified the school priorities, teachers and parents (and in some schools, students) broke into subgroups and chose an implementation priority. These groups then discussed and planned the various steps that should be achieved to meet the chosen priority (SWED, 1997d; SWED: DDU, 1998). After the training workshops, staff at 64 Soshanguve schools adopted school development planning as a mechanism to co-ordinate school reform and initiate the process of SCD established by the SWED (1997c). The SWED's process includes identification of a school vision and school priorities, teachers and parents (and in Secondary schools, students) determination of a single implementation priority and the formation of implementation sub-groups that plan the steps needed to attain the chosen priority (SWED, 1997d). Through the integration of parents, students and staff into a collective planning and implementation process the divisions, hostility and mis-trust prevalent in township schools was indirectly addressed and Of the 82 participating township schools, by August 1997 the district office had received 64 school development plans. I l l a culture of self determination emerged9. Mutual planning, conducted within teacher, student and parent interest groups, and subsequent implementation undermined these cycles of recrimination by showing publicly the desire for change (Rappaport, 1998; SWED: DDU, 1998). To the Soshanguve district officials, the process of producing SDPs was more important than the final school development plan (SWED: DDU, 1998). For example, naturally, detailed plans did not emerge in the initial planning cycles. Initially almost every plan focussed on physical resource development. Very few youth and parent/governance plans were prepared. The school identified physical resource priorities did not differ markedly from the prioritisations forwarded to the district office as part of the (provincial) School Renovation Program. Since the district had already identified physical resource development priorities and had already commenced a works program, the school development plans that the district office received reinforced the prioritisations of the District's Physical Resource planner. Other training requests that occurred in school development plans could be directed to the relevant departmental training or support units (such as, in the Gauteng Department of Education, Teach and Learn or Auxiliary Services) (GDE, 1994; GDE: TSUD, 1997) based on school-community identified priorities. However, mobilizing and training teachers, encouraging teachers and parents at the workshops, training them in workshop facilitation, and gaining an understanding of school development planning undermined the psychological oppression created by Apartheid and Colonial administrations by evoking the multiple literacies of a community's voice (SWED: DDU, 1998). Reitumetse's Principal acknowledged this dramatic shift in individual and COLTS, 1996 outlines the culture of learning and teaching in Gauteng schools. The emergent culture of self determination was recognized by the Province's Minister of Education in a speech to parents, teachers and students in the district in February, 1997 (Metcalfe, 1997). Similar recognition was provided by various private sector institutions and companies that began to invest in the district (see, for example, S AIDE, 1998). 112 collective consciousness when she pointed out that because of the district's approach schools were no longer "seen as the property of the oppressor" (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000). In the SWED, a further distinguishing feature of SCD was the conscious application of the theoretical and practical insights of the South African black consciousness activist Steve Biko (1974) and the Italian social theorist Antonio Gramsci (1971) to the school district context (J. Maluleke, personal communication, 15 November 1996; Schofield, 1998; 2002). In Soshanguve this was achieved in three ways. First, the district office included a materialist analysis of the socio-economic forces affecting teaching and learning in the community. For example, the district argued that: (t)he factories and business in Rosslyn [industrial area] ... are acutely sensitive to market fluctuations and shifts in the international economy. Thus while we will always need an industrial base, less money will be re-invested in declining economic sectors, resulting in less jobs. This affects our students directly since most schools in the district are not educating our children for the changing economic future. Rather, our education system has been oriented, de facto, towards training some for skilled and semi-skilled labour and the rest of our people for unskilled (or no) labour (SWED, 1997c, p. 12). Second, following extensive school-level debate, by offering administrative support while leaving community based work the responsibility of partner organizations the district office avoided what Gramsci (1971) termed the "Piedmont solution", where the "state replaces local social groups in leading a struggle of renewal" (ibid. p. 105). Thus, the training offered by partner organizations was designed to facilitate local community economic development and community renewal by "local social groups". 113 Finally, the District's SCD program was part of a strategy of "Passive Revolution" (Gramsci, 1971) and the development of "psychological consciousness" (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August, 2000) mediated by representatives of the state and members of (former) liberation movements. This program included establishing small businesses and cooperatives to initiate economic development within the context of SCD. In this way the program addressed the concerns of Hamnandi Pun, a teacher and school-community developer in Nepal who stated: No matter what a person says, the problem of filling hungry stomachs comes before implementing the ethics taught in literature or seminars ... the teaching of [for example] environmental ethics would be so nice and would work best if accompanied with programs to help villagers make resources for bringing food for them to live. Emphasis to establish local economy must be given along with awareness programs [emphasis added] (Pun, 2002, p. 10). 6.3 Conclusion Chapter six outlined the social, economic, and educational context of the SWED. Into this context the South African Government introduced the panoply of SR programs reviewed in chapter five. However, teachers, parents, and students were wrestling with entirely different sets of problems: Unemployment, crime, vandalism, and a 'fragile' state (Mbembe, 2001). In this context policy implementation seemed as fragile and unsustainable as the string holding the South African Schools Act (Act 84 of 1996) in Makosini Secondary. But there were school-communities that successfully married the tensions existing between the National Government's SR program and immediate community needs. How this 114 occurred we examine in part three of this thesis which shows how four case study schools reconciled SR with the demands of SCD. 115 Part Three: Wild Power. Chapter Seven. Ayanda Primary School 7.0 Introduction Although programs directed at schools, teachers, and classrooms are essential in SCD, a Soshanguve teacher noted that a development officer who wishes to see improvements to teaching take place in, say, a school must not only address educational questions but must also take account of the institutional context in which the change is to occur... this requires more than interaction with the individual teacher. Those who desire change must concern themselves with the way of influencing the context in which teachers find themselves... we need to change the environment in which teachers teach (Mlangeni, 1996, p. 3). The SCD approach simultaneously develops programs in the school and in the community surrounding the school, in "the context in which teachers find themselves ... the environment in which teachers teach" (ibid.). In this regard, Ayanda Primary School's approach to SCD balanced teacher and staff programs with local community economic development. 7.1 School description Driving north from Pretoria on the provincial Route 80 you pass the industrial area of Rosslyn. Turning west, off the R-80, after passing a BMW plant, a bus manufacturing facility and other light manufacturing establishments, informal settlements replace the factories. The 116 settlements stretch away to the West and East continuing towards Soshanguve in an unbroken chain. To the North, on the horizon, Rodney Mokoena Preparatory School is situated, about five kilometers away. Ahead, and down a short side road, is Ayanda ("To expand", isiZulu) primary school. The side road was not tarred, and very uneven. Flat-topped Akasia trees surround the school. The road peters out and you drive across the edge of a soccer field. A row of hawker shelters hides the school. When arriving at the school a visitor would park in front of the shelters and, traditionally, would greet the sellers. Trees provide shelter to a strip of concrete paving that leads between two classrooms and on toward the administration block. Although in 2000 the surrounding community consists of informal shack settlements, this had not always been the case. Established early in the 20lh century (LCD, 1998a) the school was located within a 'white group area' and restricted to members of the "White population group" under the 1956 Population Registration, and 1983 Education Acts. In 1994, because of declining ("White") learner enrollment (which at that time stood at 27 'white' learners)(LCD, 1998a) Ayanda was transferred from the Transvaal Education Department (TED), the department administering 'White' schools, to the Department of Education and Training (DET), which administered 'Black' education in non-homeland areas. Initially operating as a satellite school of the neighbouring Refitlhile-Pele Primary, which was overcrowded with 2500 learners in 10 classrooms, Ayanda Primary School opened on 16 April 1994 with 2 teachers, the principal, Mrs. Madja, and 201 students, housed in 4 classes and an administration block. The school was now independent of its mother school with its own school governing body, management, and administration. Ayanda's governing body had nine parents, three educators, one non-teaching staff member and up to three additional co-opted members (Ayanda Primary School, 2000). 117 In 1997 the first heads of departments and deputy principal were appointed. By 1999 the teaching staff had grown to 21 with 4 non-teaching staff and 874 students (Ayanda Primary School, 2000). Due to a lack of accommodation BMW donated wood to the value of R6000 for construction of three additional classrooms and Clapham High School donated temporary structures that accommodate 4 more classes (Link Community Development, 1998a, p. 2). The school includes a garden, sports field and a caretaker's house used to store food for a feeding scheme and accommodate an educator who stays in the house during the week. Eight brick classrooms are electrified. The other classes are held in a variety of buildings. Some buildings are concrete with corrugated iron roofs and black boards hanging from the rafters. Other classes are community-built facilities raised above the ground on concrete bases, with sub-standard flooring and un-insulated plywood walls. The classrooms made from BMW's donated wood in 1999 do not have electricity or sufficient lighting from the windows. All classrooms were clean, tidy, and decorated by the learners and teachers (Field notes, 3 August, 2000). The schoolyard was partially paved. Gardens, maintained by full-time gardener, surround some classrooms, the administration block, and pathways linking the school's buildings. The school had a borehole, which provides it with water. Coincidentally, on 9 August 2000, a community member was repairing the borehole. Ayanda also had a septic tank for sewage, but as of August 2000 the tank was blocked resulting in the learners and educators having to use 4 pit toilets for the entire student body. The school garden contains spinach, cabbage and various other vegetables that are farmed by the local community. There was also a netball court and soccer field (Field notes, 3 August, 2000). The school's most pressing needs identified by the principal, SGB, educators, and learners were accommodation, access to water, and school security. Class sizes at Ayanda average 50 learners and student enrollment "rises every year" (Madja, in LCD, 1999, p. 6). 118 During the period of research four classrooms were not suitable for teaching since "they have no electricity or no windows. Some have tin roofs causing the classrooms to be cold in winter but very hot in summer. Rain makes such a noise on the roof that it is difficult to teach" (Morabe, 1999, p. 2). Mr. Ngwenya, a parent on the governing body points out "planks are not right" (Link Community Development (LCD), 1998a, p. 3). The principal, governing body, and teachers identified a water shortage as a problem affecting the school in interviews and corroborating documentation (LCD, 1999). Although Mrs. Madja includes toilets as accommodation, Ayanda's planning documentation points out that toilets cannot function without running water and a sewage system (LCD, 1999). To alleviate the shortage of toilet facilities Mrs. Madja lobbied the local school district office for additional facilities, and used pit-toilets in private homes surrounding the school. During field visits conducted in August 2000 it was pointed out that the broken borehole heightened the school's water problems. Mrs. Madja commented "with the bore hole in the school grounds out of action learners have no water supply during the school day and must go outside to find water" (Interview, 3 August, 2000). The teachers and learners identified improved security as a priority that needed to be addressed by the school-community (LCD, 1999). Mrs. Madja estimated that "there are 425 burglaries per year" (ibid., p. 5). The caretaker's house was broken into during 1999 and 2000. Mrs. Mmutle, a grade one teacher, said "the classrooms are not secure; work is sometimes scattered around the classrooms by intruders, or even ripped up" (ibid., p. 6). Goodness Mahlangu, 13 years old, said "we must protect our school... when we are not in the school thieves come and break into our school" (ibid., p. 6). 119 Poverty, malnutrition and hunger deeply affected learning at Ayanda. Mrs. Morabe points out the close relationships that exist between poverty, classroom performance, and parent involvement in the school when she concedes: I realize that it is not easy for us to achieve the school vision if we have this hungry learners inside our classes since the feeding scheme is only able to give each child two slices of bread at 11:00. Before 11:00 the child cannot concentrate because she is hungry. Our class performance was deteriorating day by day. The more parents lose jobs the more we experienced unpleasant situations in our classes. That is why we invited parents, especially the unemployed parents, to come to school to discuss this matter. Children were told to invite their parents to the meeting at the school where the introduction of the gardening project was discussed. Parents attended the meeting in large numbers (Morabe, 1999, p. 2). Poverty, therefore, drove SCD at Ayanda. 7.2 Approaches to SCD In Ayanda Primary, "the most important SCD program started by the school is the community development program. ... The program included discussion with parents and started as a small gardening project. At this time candle making was also part of the operation, as was sewing" (Madja, Interview, 3 August, 2000). Mrs. Madja noted that community involvement was crucial "I don't see a school existing without the community". Mrs..Madja argued that including the community can "help to raise the school; once the parents are educated our jobs as 120 educators will become lighter... they will understand better and help in the future of Ayanda" (Link Community Development (LCD), 1998a, p. 9). In this task Ayanda's School Governing Body (SGB) takes on a central coordinating role. For example, Ayanda's Deputy Principal, Mr. Zweli Mphele, stressed the importance of the parents in the governance of the school because "they help to disseminate information. Also decisions are more effective if the whole community is involved in the decision; we can't solve problems without the educators and parents... we must all sit down" (Z. Mphele, personal communication, 8 August 2000). The SGB chairman Mr. Abner Rahune, a parent, ensures that "every stakeholder is represented" allowing Ayanda's community development program to be multi-faceted (LCD, 1999, p. 3). The community development program started in 1996 with the purchase of two sewing machines by the school, and initial attempts to run candle making and gardening projects. By 2000, the sewing project was "... ongoing but the candle making stopped. In the sewing program track suits and jerseys were made. These are made and sold at school" (Madja, Interview, 3 August 2000). In addition to an adult education program, which ran in the evenings until 6 o'clock, the community development program included involving parents in fundraising, on the school's feeding scheme, as assistants in the scholar patrol, and in the Atang gardening cooperative. The cooperative provided a space where parents could "farm the school Garden, growing cabbage, spinach and other vegetables, or to sell to the teachers and the rest of the community. They do not pay for this, but the school hopes it can help those who are unemployed to get by" (LCD, 1999, p. 9). The vegetable and sewing operations drew different parent and community groups to the school. In the track suit (sewing) project participants were "all parents, but they are not local. They live a little bit away. Between six and eight parents were involved. They sell a tracksuit 121 each. Teachers collect the money. The school gets a percentage of the money" (Morabe, Interview, 3 August 2000). The gardening project integrated parents living in close proximity to the school and who could work in the vegetable gardens each day. Mrs. Morabe, the coordinator of the gardening project, and an HOD at the school, conceded that by 1998 the gardening project had virtually collapsed. However, in that year an Ayanda student died from Pellagra and malnutrition related complications to a diabetic condition. The incident had a profound effect on the staff, and Mrs. Morabe in particular: It was a heartbreaking event. This little girl suffered from those diseases for almost 4 years. After the death of this child I asked myself as to how many others were we to lose before we take a relevant step .... There was a large empty area that was not used at our school, big enough to be utilized for gardening. I brought this idea of introducing this gardening project at our school .... My aim with this project is to promote good health. We encouraged learners to eat fresh vegetables which according to doctors are important for boosting immune system and also protective. Vegetables are sold at an affordable price. We donate them to needy learners (Morabe, 1999, p. 1; Interview, 3 August 2000; Parent Interview, 9 August 2000). The death of the student revitalized the gardening project. The project was restructured and re-launched as the "Atang Vegetable Gardens". The Vegetable Gardens project incorporated a specific sector of parents into SCD while simultaneously affecting teaching and learning, and building the local economy. The project also shows the process of SCD. Three aspects of this process deserve emphasis: one, the component of time; two, the component of 122 participant reflection on success and failure; and three, the component of school-community partnership. For these reasons the project deserves greater scrutiny. 7.2.1 Atang Vegetable Gardens The Atang vegetable gardens started in 1998, "after the sewing started" (Morabe, Interview, 8 August 2000). Teachers "called parents to a meeting to improve the nutrition of the kids, but also to help the parents earn money and eat food" (Morabe, Interview, 8 August 2000). However, nutrition was not the only reason for establishing the project: Most of the parents are unemployed, to while away time, they involve themselves in destructive acts ... [The project] can keep them away from indulging in immoral acts, it encourages them to be constructive. We are trying to accelerate growth with a direct attack on poverty through programs like this, or to raise productivity and the living standard of needy parents, even if it takes time, we believe it will eventually bear positive results, and our dream will become a truth (Morabe, 1999, p. 3). At the Atang Gardens' first community meeting Mrs. Morabe emphasized the need to address poverty as part of the school's mandate, and obtained community support for a vegetable gardening operation. In her meeting planning she had invited a local community worker, Mrs. Lucky, who was experienced in gardening projects, and asked her to explain to the parents about: a. what is the project; b. preparation on the project; 123 c. implementation and supervision of a gardening project. It was like a workshop. After that workshop some parents were interested but some were not. I asked those who were interested to remain while others were released (Morabe, 1999, p. 3; Interview, 8 August 2000). Initially, "about 16 parents were involved. Now we are about 10. We got implements from Mrs. Lucky, a social worker" (Morabe, Interview, 8 August 2000). In its first year of operation the project faced numerous difficulties: We had no equipment for the project. Individual parents had to bring along tools. The soil was very difficult to deal with. People had to work tediously to try to prepare the soil. It was painful to watch them under such difficult conditions, and they were all female. They came along with their children, one of which had diarrhea because of poor nutrition.... Lack of determination of appropriate cropping, pattern on the basis of available resources and research knowledge were the problems in the beginning. For example we did not test our soil to find out which crops are suitable for the soil. We even lack the skills of sowing the seed, the spacing measurements, the suitable place on the shadow or sunny place, i.e., the basic knowledge needed for the project. We plowed haphazardly and there was low productivity. Most of our beans were rotten because they needed scaffolding. We lost most of the lettuce crop because we did not market it before hand in preparation for selling. Worst of all we did not estimate the time when it would be ready. It was ripe in December, or the festive season, while everybody was on holiday. Very few participated on the project, they were also demotivated, because of the absence of the others. The people around the school mostly do not use lettuce. They did not buy it and it was a great loss, since it was 124 planted in great numbers. Most of our crops were also stolen because we were not well organized. The lack of proper training was a factor which contributed towards the failure of the project (Morabe, 1999, p. 4). These setbacks caused Mrs. Morabe to review all aspects of our failure and success of the project, I sat down and planned for the new year. Since I still had hope on the project, firstly I planned to see the social worker for help. I made an appointment with her and we discussed the project, the aims, the failure, and success of it. I asked her to be part of the project since I could not run it alone. Since my preparations were not correct we were forced to review the following aspects: technical, institutional, and financial. We started first by looking at location and found it to be a suitable place for us, then we revisited for equipment and discovered that there is a shortage of it... (ibid, p. 4-5). Reflection brought about an important realization for both Mrs. Morabe and Mrs. Lucky, the social worker: " both of us had little knowledge about... gardening" (ibid, p. 5). Rather than return to focus on teaching or social work, Mrs. Morabe and Mrs. Lucky "then looked for someone who could help us [identifying] Mr. Magoro, who is an agriculture researcher at the agricultural research council ... after reading our report he removed the items not essential for the project and added the important ones" (ibid, p. 5). Mr. Magoro introduced two innovations to the gardening project. First, he introduced a project committee, drawn from parent volunteers active in the project. The project committee restructured project management. Second, Mr. Magoro initiated a training program for the parent cooperators. The training program included a structured approach to evaluating the 125 project, and a procedure to report to parents on the project's development. Mrs. Morabe elaborates: Mr. Magoro started by equipping the workers with the knowledge they will need. He showed the workers how to build the plot since ours were wrong. They changed 35 plots and made new ones. 20 plots have already been planted, and 15 are waiting for the seedlings. It is easy to evaluate a project in winter time because there is not much work to be done. Evaluation enables us to know whether we are improving or not. It is proper to call a meeting where we will have a report on how much money is spent, how much equipment is lost and how much is still left, how much work has been done, how many people we did have at the beginning and how many are remaining, it is also good to check our strengths, our weaknesses, our opportunities and our threats. This can help us to improve our planning in the next summer .... When coming to equipment we bought three spades, 4 forks, 3 rakes, 2 wheel barrows, and a hose pipe and more than enough seeds. For next term we don't need to buy this because we have enough and they are in good condition (ibid. p. 7). The project continued to face numerous difficulties. For example, in a group interview parents pointed out that: on some days people come in and buy two or three things. But on other days people buy nothing ... so that is a problem because sometimes they are buying and sometimes they are not able to pay ... So you don't know how much to be planting (Interview. 9 August, 2000). Alternatively, produce is infected by "miggies" (caterpillars) or the equipment breaks: 126 If we could purchase a water pump then when we are planting and when we are finished planting we could use that machine to help us. You see that man over there is fixing our pump for us. That will help us to make the land wet.... A little while back the land went for one month without any water .... In the day and in the night people come and get water. And that's when [the pump] got broken and then our vegetables didn't grow very big. So no one would buy the vegetables so we had to throw them away. And that's a waste... so then you get these little things that eat the plants. A l l right you get these medicines... but that is costly to buy medicines to kill the miggies... (Interview. 9 August, 2000). Not all SCD at Ayanda emphasized local community economic development. Interviews and observation at the school identified three other approaches to SCD at Ayanda. These included extending the school's physical structure, an adult literacy program, and a school based staff development program that complemented government initiated SR. 7.2.2 Physical development Building additional classrooms and adult literacy was inter-related at Ayanda. Mrs. Morabe explained that We also have night school for illiterate parents. We also have not enough classes for the number of learners. So some parents who have learnt skills and are not working came in and made some classrooms for us. They are over there on the side of the school. But the classrooms are not very strong and so the project isn't functioning very well (Morabe, Interview, 3 August 2000). 127 Mrs. Madja elaborated on this aspect of community development. She pointed out that parents lobbied the local business community for building materials and supplies, and obtained donations of prefabricated classrooms from a neighbouring school: We had extra classes built from donations from firms. They [the classrooms] are behind the hall. There are also prefab classrooms and are donated from Clapham High school, in town. Our parents dismantled the prefabs at Clapham. They then got transport, brought them here, and rebuilt the prefabs at our school. We also got a classroom donated from Singobile (Interview, 3 August 2000). To improve the school's physical infrastructure additional funds are raised through various school programs. For example, Rl 068.00 was raised through the sale of old clothes, selling vegetables from the school garden, selling of cakes and cold drinks. Other parent activity included parents cleaning the school, book covering (Madja, Interview, 3 August 2000) and selling food at the school in shelters provided by Ayanda. Parents rented the shelters for R50.00 a month and sold a variety of snacks during the school's break times, thereby generating income for the school and facilitating the establishment of small businesses for themselves. The school also sold food to learners and parents at School Governing Body and parent's meetings. Finally, in 1998 a raffle raised R5 000.00. In addition to parent involvement in the knitting and gardening projects, a non-governmental organization's site report observes that a local social worker also helps the parents in making school track suits. This income brings employment to the area and R3.00 [to each parent] for each R1.00 to the school. Before the photocopier broke parents could make copies for 50 cents each. There was also a scheme whereby a photography firm took photos of 128 all learners and gave a part of its selling price of 18 Rand to the school (LCD, 1999, p. 5). Apart from direct financial and infrastructural benefits, the fundraising program generated greater parent involvement in the school, and "parents also look after the school and vandalism has drastically been reduced" (LCD, 1999). These claims were corroborated by the presence of parents volunteering to fix the school's broken borehole, parents serving on a parent-scholar patrol program, and finally a parent conducting minor works and repairs (Journal, 3 August 2000). 7.2.3 School based staff development Mrs. Madja emphasized "several different" government SR and reconstruction initiatives, and specifically mentioned "OBE, SGB, Quality assurance, Tirisano, Lekgotla (Bringing the communities into the school)" (Madja, Interview, 3 August 2000). Extending these programs, and in particular central government's "Curriculum 2005", Ayanda staff initiated a School Based In-Service (SBINSET) program. The program had various facets. These included workshops to share learning gained at district Curriculum 2005 training workshops, approaches to co-operative discipline, and the development of an induction booklet for new school staff (Pers comm., Mr. Z. Mphele, Deputy Principal, 8 August 2000; Ayanda Primary School, 2000). Contradicting Hofrneyr (1995, p. 34) and Hofrneyr, DeWee, & McLennan (1994, p. 5) who argued that school based INSET "leads to parochialism and bias", Ayanda's in-service program bore all the features of effective professional development identified by Dalin et al. (1993), Elmore and Burney (1999), and Hargreaves (1994). 129 Dalin et al. (1993) and Elmore and Burney (1999) related qualitative school change to experiential learning in work environments and emphasized that it was at teacher's task level that teacher professional development should be planned. For Dalin et al. (1993, p. 137) "the least effective training consists of general courses held at some public or private organization, removed from the workplace, often given to an individual (and not a team), and often presenting more general theory and/or 'packaged' solutions...". Hargreaves (1994, p. 61) argued that staff development that was based on subjective interpretations of school and classroom change offered a "means of choice and discretion for teachers instead of mandates of standardized imposition (these) show signs of acknowledging the value of situated certainty over scientific certainty" in school change (emphasis in original; see also Sarason, 1982; Wideen, 1992). School based staff development and teacher in-service "is based on the concept of learning together" (Coombe, 1994, p. 11). Different approaches to learning, including peer group discussion, peer mentoring and team teaching, distance learning and self-study were used. School based in-service was based in the experience and expressed needs of a school's staff and required that responsibility for planning professional development was delegated to school professional development committees, with support from the District and community. School based staff development was part of "school development planning" (ibid., p. 10; p. 29-31) and could include clustering schools (ibid., p. 10; p. 56). SBINSET, and the concomitant enabling environment of school development committees, was implemented in Malawi and Zimbabwe. There, the approach was considered direct, simple, cost effective and sustainable, relevant to existing school environments, capable of enhancing and consolidating local skills, demand led and locally 'owned', and "based firmly on trust in the professionalism and expertise of teachers and head teachers" (ibid., p. 4-5). These 130 features of effective teacher in-service and school based professional development were clearly apparent at Ayanda. 7.3 Effects on teaching & learning Cullingford (1991), and Frere (1989), showed the importance of incorporating "student voice" into assessments of the effectiveness of teaching and learning. At Ayanda, the student's voice was clear, concise and articulate. Students enjoyed school life. Goodness Mahlangu in grade five and 13 years old said, "we are having fun, it is so good to learn". Ivy Seemise, in Grade six and 12 years old pointed out that "we clean our school because we love it... I like it in my heart". Khensane Shabalala, in Grade six and 14 years old, said that she "wants to learn", and she said that the most important thing for the school was nothing physical, but "respect". Jackson Raphiri, Grade six and 11 years old, stated "I like school because when I grow up I want to be a lawyer to support and those who are innocent" (LCD, 1999, p. 7). Not only students, but also teachers were supportive of the changes in the school: Mrs. Marietta Mmutle, a Grade one educator, was enthusiastic about the new outcomes based education methods. She stated that the new Curriculum 2005 was "very excellent" and was determined to "do things on their own", such as marking each other's work (LCD, 1999, p. 8). The deputy principal, Mr. Mphele, felt that the "children are very keen to come to school... they realize that without education there is no future" (ibid., p. 8). A sense of the nature of teaching and learning in the school was captured in two journal entries written after my first visit to the school on 2 August: On my way to the admin block I see a teacher giving a lesson to a group of five small children outside the classroom. The teacher has borrowed a bicycle and is 131 pointing out the various parts of the machine. The students asked questions and are engaged in the lesson. On completing her explanation the students go to into their class, returning to their cluster of desks. Another group of students join the teacher outside. Students in the classroom work quietly in groups discussing a topic ("Transport in Soshanguve"). Student talk occurred in three languages: SeSotho, isiZulu, and SePedi. I look into a second classroom. Here too, the students are also clustered in groups. The classroom is a hive of activity. Colorful charts and examples of student work adorned the walls. Silver stars hang from the ceiling. Word cards are plastered on the walls next to pictures, and on the ceiling. I greet the students and in unison they greet me back. I explain my presence to the teacher who welcomes me to the school. I ask for directions to the administration office and am referred down the concrete path (2 August, 2000). Later I wrote in my journal: I'm amazed at these teachers, how dedicated they are, and how they keep going. There's nothing here that you read about in things like the JET report. I can just see incredible levels of professionalism and dedication. What these teachers do, with no resources, in the middle of nowhere is insane. It puts teachers in the well-resourced schools in the city to shame (18 August, 2000). In Ayanda Primary, a social worker initiated sewing and candle making cooperatives that adapted the SDP model to their needs. A school-community vegetable garden was established when malnutrition and poverty was identified as of singular importance to the school. When parents were asked what the impact of the gardens was on teaching and learning in the school, one replied: 132 It impacts on learning because a hungry child cannot think. Now at least they can eat vegetables and spinach. They think better and then learn. Teachers see them learning and they [teachers] are happy and teach more. So our garden helps learning (Interview with six parent cooperators. 9 August, 2000). Principal Madja was more sanguine. She related changes in student learning to national government restructuring- to the identification of a foundation phase by the national Department of Education. She neglected to include the effects of her own staff and community development initiatives and commented that With foundation phase we call individual classroom meetings. After calling them [classroom meetings] we involve the parents. This has improved their visits. Hence they feel free to visit the school and also to help at educator's homes. Earlier there was a rift between school and parents. Today, they start identifying themselves with the school (Madja, Interview, 3 August 2000). From the perspectives of developing communities, the key limitation of the SR literature was the propensity to extrapolate the school and the teaching process from the life worlds of the community, teachers and students. Time and again, therefore, SR programs flounder. 7.4 Conclusion In Mrs. Madja's opinion the cumulative effect of Ayanda Primary School's approach to SCD was "local community ownership" (Interview, 3 August 2000), and that "parents and the community at large feel proud of the school" (Morabe, 1999, p. 5). It was precisely this nexus, between school, community and local economy that SCD programs grasped. However, precisely because this nexus was never stable SCD programs 133 varied from one school-community to another. The approach of Boeipathutsi Junior Secondary showed a different path to SCD. 134 Chapter Eight. Boeipathutse Junior Secondary 8.0 Introduction The thesis argues that SR was enhanced when integrated with SCD. Chapter seven demonstrated how a school integrates SR with school based staff development and the establishment of a local Community Economic Development program as part of its approach to SCD and SR. Chapter eight extends these insights by introducing two additional features of SCD. First, the case study shows the possible contribution of students to SR and SCD. While student contributions are limited due to the age, maturity and physical ability levels in Primary schools, in Junior and Senior Secondary schools youth contributing to SCD was a distinct possibility ... as the Boeipathutse case study shows. Second, the case study shows how a school-community adapted school development planning frameworks that originate in Western Anglophone nations to suit the particular historical and cultural context of the school. 8.1 School description A barbed wire security fence surrounds the school, located in one of the older residential areas of Soshanguve. Internal gates link the buildings to offer additional security. Single story school buildings, arranged in blocks, surrounded a central courtyard with trees, grass, and flowerbeds. Part of the courtyard was paved, but the courtyard needed relaying to become even. The courtyard area was used for morning assembly, as well as soccer and netball during breaks. 135 The exterior walls of classrooms are painted with educational murals (a big frog and a fly). Classrooms have desks, chairs, and chalkboards, but have few posters or visual aids. Group work teaching and learning was practiced, with student discussion and teacher led instruction forming part of the lessons. My field notes attempted to capture the texture of the school. During a visit on 4 August, 2000 I wrote: I arrive at 9:15 am. Two students are waiting outside the locked gates. I enter, park, and walk around to the administration office. The smell of frying chips hangs in the air. I enter the administration block. A computer is on. A Microsoft Word screen has "Giluton" on the screen. I also see an outline for a fun day, coincidentally to be held today. On the program I again see "Giluton" written. I greet the Administration Assistant and talk. I ask about the fun day. I am told that the fun activities will begin atl 1:30. The focus of the day was "Aids Awareness" and school fund-raising. To this end, all food sales will be conducted internally, with no external catering occurring. I am surprised to see that teaching was continuing while there was a hive of preparation going on all around me. I ask what "Giluton" was, but the Administration Assistant said that she does not know what it might be. She goes out while I note the green grass, painted walls, and education murals facing me. Another teacher returns, and explains that "Giluton" was an incorrect spelling of "glutton", referring to food, and the staff who are responsible for the food stands. I am shown into a room that will serve as my office for the duration of the interviews. On the office walls there are posters about the newly established 136 South African Council of Educators (SACE), OBE, and the school's vision statement: "The vision of Boeipathutse JS is to have technically and academically skilled educators and learners, as well as parents who are committed, respectful, knowledgeable, disciplined, and exemplary to the community and adequately resourced". Alongside the vision statement, the school's mission statement is displayed. It reads: "The mission statement of Boeipathutse JS is to develop our school through teamwork, and instill commitment on all stakeholders, strive to empower our school to be a model, competent academically, technically and socially". Other material on the walls include a list containing the "14 Principles of human relations", "Words of Faith", a self affirmation page, the school's management organogram, new teacher appraisal schedules (appraiser, panel, date of first visit, date of second visit), subject allocations and timetables. The school was connected to the local electrical and water distribution systems, allowing flushing toilets and classroom lighting. Three classrooms have no electricity, and no overhead or slide projectors were present in any classroom. School administration facilities included a staff room, telephone, computers, fax machine, principal's office, administration block, and a spirit duplicator but no photocopier. Although the school had a stocked library, it had no sports or laboratory facilities. Being a middle school, the school does not fall within the ambit of the national Primary School's Feeding scheme. Consequently, the school had established their own internal feeding program. 137 Also affecting teaching and learning, a student at the school commented: "There is still a lot of taxi violence, shooting and many people and even children carry guns in Soshanguve" (Grade 8 pupil, cited in LCD, 1998b). 8.2 Approaches to SCD Boeipathutse's SCD commenced in July 1997 with a weekend school development-planning (SDP) workshop involving parents, community representatives, and the school's staff. Boeipathutse's workshop completed a school district SDP training program initiated by the SWED (Appendix Three; SWED, 1997c; Potenza, 1997). At the workshop school problems were identified and prioritized in terms of their effect on the teaching and learning culture of the school (SWED, l997d). Community members chose a problem priority to address, and joined a "priority action team". The process was repeated in 1998 and 1999 when five priorities were established for the 1999 school year. These priorities included purchasing books for the school's new library and chairs for the school hall, installing internet facilities and establishing a basic computer literacy for all students, and introducing "practical skills like brick making" (Boeipathutse Junior Secondary School, 1999a). These priorities built upon targets identified in 1997 and met in the 1998 school year. Earlier targets included opening a new library, installing a media and art center and establishing a program of "continuous teacher development and training" (Boeipathutse Junior Secondary School, 1999a) including teacher training in computer skills10. For the 1999 academic year teachers and learners identified a shortage of textbooks, 8 The school's priorities for 2000 include "paving assembly area. Teaching and learning software. A shade for the assembly area. A laboratory. Develop the vegetable garden. To sell vegetables (involve parents), and avoid soil erosion at the back" (Boeipathutse Junior Secondary School, 2000). 138 exercise books, stationery, and computers. Student respondents avoided the topics of poverty and unemployment. Anastasia Modibedi, for example, commented that we do not have many problems bringing the community into the school. The problems that we have are things like children who smoke, or who do not listen to the teachers. Some take teachers like friends. Some girls like to stand at Caltex and wait for taxis instead of doing their schoolwork. But now it is better. We have dealt with that. What remains is the boys. The boys are still doing what they do-like smoking and playing around (Interview, 4 August 2000). In addition, students identified a shortage of desks, chairs, and sporting equipment, while teachers indicated a need for a photocopying machine (LCD, 1998b). Representative Council of Learners (RCL)11 Chairperson Phillip Makatu elaborated on the Student's perspective of Boeipathutse's SDP when he commented: The school does have a development plan. The plan shows how they [teachers and parents] want to work things out ... but we have our own plan. We have a plan for the Grade Nines. Every Friday they bring R2.00 each and are allowed to wear home clothes [rather than school uniforms]. This raises money for the school. The money goes to the fund-raising account. We will make a shelter, after last year's students made the paving for the courtyard (Interview, 4 August 2000). Although supporting these requests, the principal in 1998 and 1999, Mr. Pat Kupedi, argued that the school also needed a library assistant (because "access to information is key, so that the teacher may become the facilitator, and channel the knowledge") (ibid., p. 3). Finally, 9 Boeipathutse's Representative Council of Learners (RCL) was established in 1998, replacing the earlier Student's Representative Council (SRC). The change was initiated by students who wanted to indicate their support for the nomenclature shift from "students" to "learners" in Curriculum 2005 documentation (see: DNE, 1997a). Mr. Kupedi felt that the school needed to further develop its OBE curriculum and program (ibid., p. 3). Although different sectors of the school's community identified different areas of concern, the SCD planning process emphasizes and establishes a community dialogue (SWED, 1997d, p. 1). This dialogue, structured by the development planning framework, was of singular importance to the reestablishment of teaching and learning in the school (Seroka, Interview, 4 August 2000) because it serves to undermine the "culture of the previous dispensation" (Seroka, Interview, 4 August 2000). The extent to which the culture of the previous dispensation had been replaced by a new culture of community engagement was evidenced by a parent remarking that "we like the school very much. We do not get very many problems. There is nothing that we can complain about. I feel only up about this school" (Nester Moshara, Parent and Hawker, Interview, 4 August 2000). During interviews, two important themes relating to school development planning in the case study schools emerged. First, the school's planning process mobilizes different sectors of the school's community into SCD in different ways. Second, planning processes have been integrated with indigenous planning frameworks. Because of their centrality to SCD, these themes deserve further elaboration. 8.2.1 Mobilizing different sectors of the community Boeipathutse's engagement with local community organizations began in 1985 with the establishment of a civic organization, the Soshanguve Education Co-ordinating Committee (SECC). Mr. Pat Kupedi, Boeipathutse's Principal at the time, was elected to the SECC executive, and gave regular reports to the school's staff regarding SECC decisions. This 140 tradition of consultation, collaborative decision making around collectively identified problems, and collaborative problem solving had continued through to 2000. The different sectors of the community that Boeipathutse identify include political organizations, the SECC, church groups, parents, unemployed parents, local building contractors and small business people, and finally sporting and cultural clubs. While political organizations like the ANC and IFP are represented and involved in planning discussions, only the non-politically aligned civic structure, the SECC, had "the mandate to call structures and give information" (Seroka, Interview, 4 August 2000). Sara Seroka elaborated upon the process of consultation and the organizations involved in the consultative process when she points out for sure we do take it [the community] into account ... [when] .. .we think of the community we only involve those structures that we have in place. Like those that I am saying, like the SECC. But so far we don't have a person who is sitting in our governing body meetings who represents the community. Like the structures that we have, we have ANC, we have IFP, we must involve them in our meetings. But only the SECC has the mandate to call for structures and give whatever information comes through. Then once we discussed those they take it back to PTSA's. So the information is given through those. That way you get the information through the representative structures and you get the feedback to the representative structures (Seroka, Interview, 4 August 2000). A second, less formal, process of community engagement occurred by including community needs in school life. Here, individual community members or organizations request the school's permission to use school facilities on weekends and after school hours. For example, the school rents out space adjacent to the school's yard to informal street sellers. These hawkers sell food, cold drinks, and various snacks to Boeipathutse students during the 141 school's tea and lunch breaks. Mrs. Nester Moshara, a hawker who also had a child attending Boeipathatusi stated that: I make small sales. This is my only work. I come and help and work around here. And then I also sell goods. I speak Pedi and Zulu at home. I sell bread, soup, cheese, chips, fish, and sweets. I sell these things just outside the school over there. I spoke to the school and asked the school if I could sell outside. On days that I do not sell then I help around the school (Moshara, Interview, 4 August 2000). More important than simply extending the use of the school's facilities, Sara Seroka argued that by accommodating the community in this way We are giving them [community members] accommodation for their activities. In some cases they come here for churches and classes. And some, even the youth, they have requested to use our hall and grounds for softball. The hall is used for dancing. So they become a part of the school community, [and] we are developing the community by doing that because they know that we have a school which they are a part of (Seroka, Interview, 4 August 2000. Italics added). A third approach to integrating the community into the school occurred when Boeipathutse engages in local community economic development (CED) activity. For example, the school employs members of the local community. It facilitates local small business development by employing parents as school aides, or by employing parents as small contractors and builders to meet physical resource development needs identified in the SDP process: We requested parents to give us names of people who they know are contractors. 142 These RDP ones in the self-employment projects. And they were screened and we took the one who we felt was reasonable. Also, whenever there are damages we call our community people in. We don't only go for the ones we know. We call everyone. And the names they are given by the parents. If they say we know a certain plumber or we know a welder we call the people and look at their finances. If they tell us a written amount then we allow them to come and work... (Seroka , Interview, 4 August 2000). RCL Public Relations Officer Billy Makatu corroborated Mrs. Seroka's information. He pointed out that for the courtyard paving (a reconstruction project adopted by the 1999 Grade 9 students) the students were concerned with local employment, quality workmanship and value for money. This concern for quality continued into the 2000 school year: We want to make a shelter for the school. The shelter will go over the paved area because students cannot stand outside in the sun for very long over there. We have no idea how to make a shelter. We will find the cheapest and most suitable materials. It doesn't matter who makes the shelter. It can be a person from the township, or it can be a contractor from the city. We are only concerned with the best quality work and the best price (Interview, 4 August 2000). Becoming an employer can introduce new problems into a school committed to equity and redress. For example, Boeipathutse's staff felt compelled to pay employees at least a 'living wage' if not the recommended minimum wage. When this was not possible the school had to restructure its development program: Whereas for employing or employment for community members, we did that in the past by hiring some people coming to the school. But unfortunately that came to an end because we did not have enough funds. But we are up to do it 143 again once we are financially stable. We had many programs that where in the pipeline, in the development plan. We had to reconstruct the laboratory; to have our area paved; learning areas ... to have our library implemented. So, because he had to have those things done we couldn't give them a living wage. We had to give them R200.00 a month so it was not enough ... (Seroka, Interview, 4 August 2000). Seroka points out here a dilemma facing a school community in an impoverished neighborhood: How do you implement the many 'programs that were in the pipeline", and not compromise on program implementation, yet simultaneously pay contractors for services rendered? The problem stimulated a fourth approach to integrating the community into the school-by establishing a school "fund-raising committee". The committee, a subcommittee of the school's governing body, had the mandate to raise the funds to implement the school's development priorities. The fund-raising committee consists of six Boeipathutse staff, one parent, and two students. At least one committee member represents, and reports back to, the school's governing body. Money was raised in various ways. For example, in 1999 the committee raised R3983.40 in a fun day. Here an entrance fee was charged to members of the local community and donation forms are sent to parents. The community was entertained by "things like a yogurt drinking competition ... the boys entertained the crowds dressed as women" (Boeipathutse Junior Secondary School, 2000, p. 3). Additional money was raised through the rental of classrooms to local churches, and hiring out the school hall for community functions. Money raised by Boeipathutse was met (in British Pounds) through a program established by the SWED, an international non-governmental organization, and twin schools in 144 the United Kingdom. In 1999 Boeipathutse used this income to appoint an administration clerk, pave the school's yard, purchase student awards for achievers day, and buy eight computers (increasing the school's computers from 4 to 12) for the school's computer training facility. This allowed for the establishment of a computer community training program in 2000, a priority identified in the 1999 planning cycle (Boeipathutse Junior Secondary School, 2000). Boeipathutse (1996b) notes that involving the community in fund raising had important non-financial benefits. For example it "improves relations with parents- parents feel to be part of the team; community owning the school- [community members] help to take care of the school in the evening" (Boeipathutse Junior Secondary School, 1999b, p. 2). Furthermore, The school reports that due to the communities involvement with their fundraising activities, relations with community members and groups have improved. For example, the churches who hire classrooms for meetings and services have formed a committee to discuss security issues for the school. The churches involvement with the school has improved security, especially on the weekend, when the school is most vulnerable (Boeipathutse Junior Secondary School, 1999b, p. 4). 8.2.2 Integration with indigenous planning frameworks A second contribution of Boeipathutse lies at the nexus between school development planning and the place-based consciousness Of members of each school-community. The evolution of school development planning discourses occurred in contexts very different to those that exist in South African schools; the assumptions made by this discourse regarding the individual and the institution, agency and structure, are questioned (Adedeji, 1999; Chabal and 145 Daloz, 1999, p. 156) and extended by Boeipathutse's approach to school development planning. Furthermore, not only should we adopt a critical stance regarding the assumptions inherent within the SDP literature, but we should also be aware of different understandings of terminology based on teachers' past experiences. Teachers in South African township schools, for example, understood "school development planning" and "whole school development" as a school equivalent to community development planning (Vilakazi, 1995). Thereby, to teachers, the school became a community-based organisation (ESP, 1995; F. Tsokolibane, personal communication, 2 February 1996) with parents, teachers, students, or local community members initiating and implementing different aspects of Boeipathutse's development plan. Consequently, the school's development planning process became so absorbed into the school's culture that in 2000 school development planning was abandoned in favor of the Northern Sotho "lekgotla" process. Principal Sara Seroka explained: In the past we used to have people who would come and disturb the meeting ... So now we decided to do it this way: To involve the community through representative structures and all related stake-holders then they will come up with recommendations. So this year we conducted what we call a lekgotla. A lekgotla is what we call an indaba meeting. That's when everybody comes in with the purpose of focusing on the education ... We had several lekgotlas. The first one was around February. We had others but this year it was February at TNG12 and a follow up meeting ... (Seroka, Interview, 4 August 2000). Boeipathutse's approach was significant since it addressed a concern frequently raised in post-Colonial Africa: the indigenization of administration in Africa. For example, Anani argued that African "adherence to solely western principles of governance ... implies negation 12 Technikon Northern Gauteng, a local Tertiary education and training college. 146 to marginality of the indigenous African knowledge systems (1999, p. 58). He, and Mammo (1999, p. 173 et sec) showed that, "well thought out procedures for incorporating the place-based consciousness of the majority of Africans into present day administrative practices are needed" (ibid. p. 58). And Ismael Serageldin (1994, p. 19), opening a World Bank conference on "Culture and Development" in Africa argued that a cultural framework is ... a sine qua non to have relevant effective institutions rooted in authenticity and tradition yet open to modernity and change. Without such institutions no real development can take place ... the lessons of failure in Africa frequently can be traced to the absence of such institutions. Responding to Soshanguve's 'tradition and context', Boeipathutse and the case study schools extended the focus of school development planning on teaching or school management found in the literature (Hargreaves & Hopkins, 1991; Hopkins et al., 1994; Thurlow, 1997), 'rooting' school development planning in "authenticity and tradition". However, the involvement of students in the traditionally adult lekgotla showed the community changing traditional social structures to accommodate new social conditions. Youth involvement did produce tensions on the school's governing body and development planning structures: Some adults questioned how "young people" could be placed alongside adults in the social hierarchy (SWED: DDU, 1997d). To accommodate this tension youth identified specific problems within the lekgotla process. Subsequently, through the student's "Representative Council of Learners" (RCL) students planned and executed programs of action designed to ameliorate or resolve their identified problems. The RCL had 28 representatives, two from each class. The structure held monthly meetings and had arranged various school activities including a beauty contest, and a school dancing competition. Billy Malafjie, the Council's PRO pointed out that the beauty 147 contests and fun days masked a more important function. He stated "behind these functions we have something serious- like AIDS awareness, or correct behavior and anti-crime" (Malatjie, Interview, 4 August 2000). Indeed, the seriousness of a RCL arranged "gumba" (street festival) was observed during a visit to Boeipathutse. Field notes recorded the event: The fun day is in full swing outside. Stalls line the corridor facing out onto the grassy courtyard (with two Akasia trees). Students sell sweets, ice cream, pop, chips, and Bread/cheese/wors rolls. Teachers move around monitoring and assisting. In the Secretary's office, some of the same material of the Deputy and HOD offices is displayed: organogram of the school; management responsibilities; timetables; pass/fail rates; as well as additional material on educator duties. The computer screen reveals new information: "Boeipathutse AIDS campaign" and a program for the day's activity. 12:50. Fun day in full swing. Two huge speakers are hammering out township jive, with students break dancing around the courtyard (paved by the grade nines). 13:15. Full swing!! Now it is in full swing! About 500 students are gumba-ing away. A dull continuous scream echos around the courtyard. I see Billy, and we chat about how successful is the event. He tells me that the AIDS awareness program will still start, and that the students will still see posters of AIDS and hear about this disease that is "killing so many of our people". He also tells me about street gumba's, and that "this one is OK because there is no drink and fights". Pointing to the fence and gate he said: "It is closed in". Sara comes over and asks me whether I would like "pap, meat, or chicken" for lunch. A huge 148 plate of food is arranged and I eat a delicious meal with spinach and cauliflower. I offer all the money I had brought- R5.00, and feel humbled by this example of community grace and resilience (Journal, 4 August 2000). At Boeipathutse SCD was focussed on the animating features of people's "lived experience" (Touraine, 2000, p. 77) allowing context specific programs to emerge through practice- for students, a series of "AIDS Awareness Gumba's"; for parents, employment generation programs; and for teachers, curriculum and management development. Furthermore, participation was based on a respectful dialogue between teachers, school management, students, parents, and community members (Fieldnotes, 4 August 2000). Nevertheless, SCD was not without its contradictions and tensions. 8.2.3 SCD: Tensions in the process When attempting to change conditions in a school and its neighboring community, expectations were invariably raised, in turn leading to unanticipated outcomes. Sara Seroka explained: Once kids want something desperately at school they go out and try to get ... whatever they want—meaning clothing or even things for raising funds13—they want to see themselves contributing also. So that's an excuse now for them also to go out and steal and engage in these other negative activities ... So there is peer pressure ... and in our community, with these pressures to pay school fees and be purchasing at the tuck shop a child might go and steal. Yes and so also that can push you out of the school. It can teach you to become a drunk. You le: Stolen goods which are sold to raise money. 149 start to think: "No I cannot be part of this community, this school community, because everyone is buying, and everyone is working". For example, we have a tuck shop here, which also attracts many learners. But if a child isn't buying everyday then ultimately she or he won't come to school (Seroka, Interview, 4 August 2000). Seroka's narrative illustrated the difficult tensions teachers faced in high poverty environments: By improving, the school becomes perceived as an island of relative privilege in the community. Unintentionally, programs initiated by the teachers and parents alienated some students by creating expectations and needs that could not be met by some households. In the process, student self-esteem was reduced and students dropped out of school. Different tensions occurred within the parent community. There, accusations of patronage, "favoritism, sweethearts, and the principal's blue eyed boy" (F. Tsokolibane, personal communication, 2 February 1995) arose. To circumvent these accusations staff at Boeipathutse insisted on a process of "transparency" (South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE), 1999) where parent and teacher representatives served on fund raising and SCD committees. By giving parents and teachers the opportunity to collectively manage and scrutinize the school's financial statements, and to be involved in decisions like allocating hawker sites and identifying SCD priorities, potential conflict was managed within committee structures. The alternative was for tensions and conflict to explode within the school's -community, a process that can cause immense disruption to the school ... as the St Francis Primary school vignette cited on page 28 showed. 150 8.3 Effects on teaching & learning A common feature of the School Effectiveness (SE) and School Improvement (SI) literatures are their attempt to identify the effects on teaching and learning of specific changes to a school's organization. Analogously, writers within the SE and SI traditions contend that school organizational change was an initial condition that enables changes in a school's "system" (Chapman, 1993; Dalin et al., 1993; Davidoff & Lazarus, 1997). The Boeipathutse case study challenges this assumption by showing that only one dimension of the changes achieved by SCD on teaching and learning is organizational: School organizational change was an outcome of SCD, rather than an initial and sufficient condition of school development. Nevertheless, although there was a widespread recognition in the literature that organizational change need not result in qualitative changes in teaching or learning (Comer, 1992; Hopfenberg and Levin, 1993), in Boeipathutse apparently mundane organizational changes are reinforced by the various innovations in the school that synergistically improve teaching and learning. Seroka elaborates on these organizational changes: As far as teaching and learning is concerned we do a lot of reconstruction and changing there because we changed from a primary school there were only 2 HOD's. But now in changing to a middle school you have to have more head of departments in line with the particular subjects. So what we did we advertised posts for HOD's and then we had three posts one for languages, one for human and social sciences, and one for economics and management sciences. So after the appointment of those department heads we started to restructure. Educators had to be made aware to free the minds to be changed. The mindset needed to be changed again. To understand that we now function according to departments; 151 no longer as individuals for ourselves ... you know ... we function just as one school. But it is one school which has more units with a head of department. So we started by drawing our management plan for meetings: When do we meet; when does this particular department meet; what is expected of the department; and what do they speak of when they are in those meetings. So educators were given files to keep the records, and dates were given to educators to say when those files are going to be collected for monitoring and supervision and also evaluating. And then again also in those particular departments we try to empower more educators. We call in one person from each and every department. He or she should be the Subject Head. That's a rotating position in a Department. It changes each year. Now you have the Head of Department but you also have the Subject Head. So they work hand in hand. The Subject Head will assist the Head of Department in supervising and monitoring the work that is done (Seroka, Interview, 4 August 2000. Emphasis added). Two elements in Seroka's narrative deserve emphasis. One, she points to psychological change in her teachers: "The mind set needed to be changed again". One of the ways in which this was done was by broadening the field of responsibility- by introducing the rotating "Subject Head" position, and delegating management responsibilities to teachers. Two, she pointed to specific, and detailed, organizational changes: "Educators were given files to keep the records, and dates were given to educators to say when those files are going to be collected for monitoring and supervision and also evaluating". This psychological and organizational change extended to the school's management team. For example, Department Head Humphrey Masuku points out that: The old principles of management meant that everyone disowned the school. 152 Everything was left in the Deputy's hands ... in the past there was much laxity, we did not have much direction. I, as a new teacher, was inducted the wrong way. All we knew was defiance. Since 1996 we started to have a different vision of what is happening. The defiance era is over, but it is still difficult to take teachers back to teaching... (Interview, 4 August 2000). The changes in teaching and learning reached beyond teacher administration and addressed the central concerns of curriculum and the learning process. Student Anastacia Modibedi commented on the introduction of the school's computer center as a specific innovation in the school's teaching and learning environment. She stated: We go to the computer center and they teach computers, even if we do not pay our school fees. So that way they can learn. It also improves teaching.... At first, if people did not pay their fees they could not enter the computer center. Now, even though some people do not pay fees, they can go. We have raised money. The computer center is for the school. When parents come to school [to use the computer center] students are definitely more motivated- they learn about their mistakes (Anastacia Modibedi, Interview, 4 August 2000). The construction of the center, training teachers in computer curricula and use, and afternoon programs for parents all reinforced different aspects of SCD. Teacher Rammaphoko elaborated: The computer center started with three computers for the whole school, and with only one period per timetable circuit. We had the intention of getting three new computers each year. But now we have 20, excluding those in administration. We want to buy another 4 computers next year. I give the Saturday classes for parents, and the community, at a fee of R250.00 per course. People should take 153 all eight courses altogether. We then give them a certificate of attendance. The whole money goes directly to the school fund. And this is part of the school development plan (Interview, 4 August 2000). Mr. Rammaphoko's information was corroborated by one of the school's HOD's, Mr. Humphrey Masuku. Also serving on Boeipathutse's fund-raising committee, Mr. Masuku reported that: Another priority is to expose the kids to information technology. So we needed computers for that. Through fund-raising we purchased 15 computers, and we can offer information technology to every learner. Because raising money for the computers was a fund-raising project, we have given the community access to those computers. We do this by offering Saturday classes to the community. Community members pay R250.00 per module. Right now we are offering a special that consists of a combination of modules. The special includes Introduction to PC's and Word Processing (Interview, 4 August 2000). Seroka described how the introduction of the computer center affected weekly school schedules when she stated: we have also realized that there is a need for computer training hence our school started to have that. We have this structure [building] erected, we just completed changing one classroom into a computer room, then we bought four computers. From there we thought that we should raise school fees so that all learners should have access to computers. And that is what is happening in the morning. All learners have an opportunity, two periods per week, where now they are offered computers. And you know it's a cry now amongst all schools and all learners: All schools should have computers. And parents are sending the kids to where 154 there are computers now (Interview, 4 August 2000). Both Mr. Rammaphoko and Annastacia neglected to mention Boeipathutse's Saturday school program. This program, introduced by Boeipathutse in 1998 had been extended throughout Soshanguve by the SECC so that "all schools should have such Saturday classes" (Seroka, Interview, 4 August 2001). Sara gave the motivation behind Saturday schooling: "the problem is that it [poor scholastic performance] starts right down at the elementary school level. So we in fact start from the little schools to conduct Saturday classes" (Interview, 4 August 2000). Saturday schooling emerged from problem identification during the 1999 and 2000 development planning workshops. The program had not only shaped schooling in the district but had stimulated school fund-raising activity: When they came up with this thing of the whole of Soshanguve conducting catch up classes it animated from the lekgotla. And so some of us were tasked to go and get funds to remunerate educators who were conducting such workshops. So Soshanguve is far ahead of other districts because we speak about meeting schools ... (Seroka, Interview, 4 August 2000). Teacher Rammaphoko confirmed the changes in teaching and learning. He felt that: Really, there are changes. I am more active than before. I have changed for the better. A teacher is a researcher, so you cannot stay the same. The defiance campaigns are over. The current government is not doing enough. But the schools are not for the government, they are for us. We cannot blame the government. The present government is mostly promises- for example, they talk of Curriculum 2005, then want to stop it, and now it is still on again. There is a lot of confusion (Rammaphoko, Interview, 4 August 2000). 155 Parent Nester Moshara's comments on teaching and learning at Boeipathutse were more positive. Observing the growth of the school as a hawker selling produce to students during breaks, as a part time cleaner, and as a parent who had seen three of her children attend the school, she commented: The teachers and the school make the children all right. They do not allow the children to wander around. The children at this school want to go to college. When the children think of going to another school, they are sad. Children walk around and they are not in their classrooms at other schools. But here you cannot see them walking around. At other schools the children are stubborn. You think they are going to school, but they only come home later on in the evening ... Parents talk with the Principal here ... I have never heard any of these three children complain about the school or the teachers ... it is disciplined here and the quality of the training is all right (Interview, 4 August 2000). In this community where "morale is very low" and "unemployment is a big problem" (Malafjie, Interview, 4 August 2000), Phillip, Billy, and Anastacia, speaking as representatives of the student body observed several changes to the school's teaching and learning environment. Phillip, for example pointed out "mostly, discipline had changed. In the past children used to come late, also last year sometimes students were disorderly" (Interview, 4 August 2000), and Billy observed that "now the students wear their uniforms, and come early for morning studies. Fights also have decreased, and there is no more Corporal punishment" (Interview, 4 August 2000). 156 8.4 Conclusion Two specific contributions of Boeipathutse have been identified in this chapter. First, the school shows how students can be involved in SR and SCD. Although this contribution was limited due to the age, maturity and physical ability levels in Junior and Senior Primary schools, in Secondary schools youth contributions to SCD can be extensive, can draw on youth structures (such as class committees, class representatives, and Student Representative structures), and can capture the interests of students by drawing on youth interests and concerns. Second, the case study shows how a school-community adapted school development planning frameworks that originate in Western Anglophone nations to suit the particular historical and cultural context of the school's community. This adaptation shows that SCD extends school development planning in significant ways: The development planning process draws on the communities' "cultural framework" (Serageldin, 1994, p. 19), reshaping both planning and culture. Development planning at Boeipathutse, and in the case study schools, was not a technical exercise in identifying organizational strengths and weaknesses and planning accordingly but a process that emphasized community traditions and strengths. And by creating a space for youth participation in the school's lekgotla Boeipathutse parents and teachers contribute to building a vibrant African modernity by adapting cultural frameworks to the contemporary era. However SCD consists of more than indigenized school development planning processes: SCD also establishes a range of school-community partnerships to foster educational change. This theme, the subject of chapter nine, is examined in the Reitumetse High School case study. 157 Chapter Nine. Reitumetse High School 9.0 Introduction I first visited Reitumetse High School in 1997 while employed in the SWED. The occasion was a serious one. Representing the management team of the SWED, 1 was to discuss with the Principal, Mrs. Joyce Makgato, possible spill over effects on her school of an incident at her neighboring school, one of the oldest in the township. That school was led by one of the most politically active principals in the district, serving on the local education coordinating committee. By 1997 the school's Student Representative Council (SRC) was controlled, largely through the SRC President, by a local gang and served as a base for drug sales to students in the school and in neighboring schools, including Reitumetse. One weekend teachers went to the SRC President's home and spoke to the boy's father regarding his son's school performance and activities. It was decided that the boy would be caned, in the presence of his father. The caning took place, the teachers left. Subsequently, the father called the police and laid an assault charge against the teachers. The next morning (a Monday) the SRC President mobilized the SRC and intimidated students in the school into marching to a teacher's house. On arriving at the property, the students proceeded to burn the teacher's house down. The District Office expected students to march to Reitumetse and disrupt schooling there, and by extension in Soshanguve. Mrs. Makgato and I discussed various responses that the District Office was initiating, and courses of action open to her and her staff. While this incident was subsequently resolved, few other changes have happened in the community surrounding Reitumetse. 158 9.1 School description The school is located on the southern edge of Soshanguve township. Further to the south of the school and the township, extending towards Ayanda Primary and down into the Akasia valley stretches Soshanguve South Extension E, the informal settlement community where Ayanda Primary and Rodney Mokoena Preparatory schools are located. Reitumetse's student body was therefore drawn both from the formal and informal township communities, and reflects the socio-economic disparities that exist between these two areas. In terms of physical appearance, Reitumetse displays all the features of a township school: A security fence, a person to unlock the gate allowing cars in, the new mural, painted by students, of a microscope and on the right some new gardens. But there were no students wondering around. And the school was quiet (Diary, Feburary 10th 1998; Journal, 3 August 2000). An endemic feature of Gauteng township schools was the dust that was blown into every classroom and office from the dry South African veld. I first noted students wiping this dust off chairs and desks in the nearby township of Mamelodi in 1995, and wrote in my diary at the time that the "dust is everywhere. These teachers and kids wipe it off with minuscule little tissues. They are so stoic about it. They just accept this dust. I find it demoralizing; it'd drive me nuts. Forever wiping" (Diary, March 24th 1995). My journal entry of 3 August 2000 again notes the dust of township schools: I enter Mam Makgato's office. The pile of dusty newspapers in the corner, and that dusty floor and desk. On the walls: management duties listed for all the HoD's, principal, and deputies. Alongside these, school period times and study invigilation programs. Two certificates from the Soshanguve Principal-Teacher 159 Forum and Metropolitan Life presented to Reitumetse for first place in Matric results in the township (in 1994 and 1995). On a side desk, the RSA 1999 Year Book, two copies of the GDE education journal, and some exercise books (all covered in dust). Mam Makgato was not yet available: she was teaching. Her office and the administration office are still housed in a converted classroom. The administration block was burned down in the 1980s. A cage grill separates the administration office from the rest of the former classroom. The administration assistant was working on a computer, which was linked to a printer- so there is electricity here. I visit the Tuck Shop, which was student run, and students also do all of the cooking. I also visit the computer room and science lab, both built as part of the school's own reconstruction program. I returned to Mam Makgato's office and chat to the Admin assistant, asking her about the computer programs that she uses (Windows 95 and MS Works, supplied by the District Office). I ask about telephones, Fax Machines and availability of a Photostat machine; there is a Fax but it's not used. Mam Makgato arrives. She always crackles with energy. She pulls out a tissue and busily sweeps dust off her chair and desk while asking me about Canada and when I'm 'coming home' (Journal, 3 August 2000). The school's physical structures mirror other township schools: In places roof tiles are broken, but on the whole the roof was in a good state of repair; there are some broken windows, about four or five per classroom (Site visit, 3 August, 2000; SWED: DDU, 2000). The classrooms have black boards, but there are no educational posters (LCD, 1998c; Site visit, 3 August 2000). LCD (1998c) pointed out that the school had "running water" for the science 160 classrooms and toilets. However, bore diameters of sewerage disposal pipes laid during the Apartheid Era were too narrow to handle the quantity of sewerage for Secondary schools. This caused frequent blockage and overflowing in the ablution block (S. Sape, personal communication, 16 February 1997). Consequently teachers and students would sometimes "go across the road" and use ablution facilities in neighboring homes or shebeens (neighborhood taverns) (F. Tsokolibane, personal communication, 2 February 1995). LCD (1998c) observed that the school already had a lending library "established with donated books. This room is sometimes used as a classroom" (p. 3). By 2000, field notes and observation identified a basic science laboratory, a biology laboratory, and a home economics room. But this is not used since there's no equipment. The room is used as a school hall during inclement weather. You can see there's spaces for stoves. We have applied for the facilities from the department but they are yet to arrive (J. Makgato, personal communication, 3 August 2000). A staff room can be a unifying structure in a school (Rozenholtz, 1981), a place where teachers meet together, mark and plan during free periods, or just "hang out" (Cullingford, 1991; Rozenholtz, 1981). At Reitumetse there was no staff room; teachers used two separate rooms, raising the possibility of what Joyce et al. (1999) termed staff "balkanization": the fragmentation of the staff into different groups who compete for resources and authority in the school. The issue comes up during the interview with Mrs. Makgato: AS: Mam Makgato, I see there are two staff rooms and no admin, block- only your room here, and the burnt foundations over there. People would say that no staff room would make divisions among the teachers more severe. The fact that there is no one staff-room ... is that a problem here? Makgato: We don't get that one [the problem of staff division] here so much. It 161 seems that we are more united because we have that plan that we all decide upon and that we are all working to get to. So we have the priorities that we all set and work towards. And over some time we can see what we have achieved. So people become more united and become less confrontational. But we still have our little squabbles about this and that... (Interview, 3 August 2000). 9.2 Approaches to S C D In terms of school priorities, Reitumetse's 1997 School Development Plan (Reitumetse High School, 1997) indicates that the provision of electricity to all classrooms was prioritized by teachers, parents and students. A site evaluation conducted in 1998 by a local NGO confirms this prioritization: An English teacher, Mrs. Magodielo, commented at the time: "If only we had electricity I would bring in a TV to the school and expose the learners to different things... all the learners know is Soshanguve ..." (LCD, 1998c, p. 4). Reitumetse High School (1997) also indicated that a "Media center" was identified by the parents and Principal, an administration block and staff room was identified by the teachers, and a "Tuck shop" was identified by Mrs. Makgato. Again in 1998 Mrs. Makgato pointed out to LCD field workers that a tuck shop "would bring in money immediately" (LCD, 1998c, p. 4). Finally, students in 1997 prioritized paving the school's courtyard. Mrs. Makgato points out that school ownership of its development program was central to the school's success: The school initiatives are really parent and school governing body run. The school governing body runs the school as a business. They advertised the school in the local media. They know the procedure for advertising the school and 162 running it efficiently. For example they called meetings and run meetings. And they also discussed individual learner issues. They make time to talk to the parents of individual learners (Interview, 3 August, 2000). By 2000 many of the 1997 and 1998 prioritizations had been met. For example, parents had paved the courtyard and established a canteen that raised income for the school and employed parents and students: The canteen is run by unemployed parents. The parents come in and sell food at the school. They pay a fee, and share their takings. We charge R 12.00 each month for a stand. For the students involved in the canteen, it's part of their Home Economics or Business Economics courses (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000). Paving the school's courtyard was one way to employ parents and overcome a cause of tension in township schools, the payment of school fees: Another initiative that relates to SCD were bricks (to pave the courtyard). A parent raised funds for bricks which were donated by a company. The paving was done by parents. There was minimal payment to these parents who were involved in paving the school. Parents who are not able to pay the school fees were employed to do the paving ... this improves the area aesthetically but it also prevents the dust from flying up when it is windy, and a mud-bath from happening when it rains (Makgato, Interview. 3 August, 2000). In addition, the computer and biology laboratories were running, and new plans were being made: Makgato: We hope to site our next building project on the old administration block ... AS: The burnt one, outside? 163 Makgato: That's it. We will be rebuilding the admin, and staff rooms there. Then this can go back to a classroom (Interview. 3 August, 2000). Reitumetse's innovative approach to establishing partnerships with the non-governmental and private sectors was a central component of the school's approach to SCD. These partnerships are initiated by the school, or capitalize upon District initiatives, extend the school's ability to improve the teaching and learning experience, and illustrate the World Education Forum's comment that "the wider and the more active ... partnerships have been, the better the results" (WEF, 2000a, p. 2). The school's partnerships are structured by Reitumetse's School Development Plan and the problems identified for priority action during the planning process (Reitumetse High School, 1998; SWED, 1997d). The school's partnerships evolved since 1997 and became mutually reinforcing. Commencing with the school development planning training run by the SWED and Link Community Development, by 1998 several training exercises have been carried out as part of the school development plan. These include all teaching staff trained in OBE, school management team training, following the appointment in 1997 (December) of a second deputy, school governing body training carried out in 1997, and student representative council training carried out by the school governing body (LCD, 1998c, p. 3; SWED: DDU, 1997c, 1998). One partnership developed from the District-Link Community Development SDP training program (Appendix Three). Utilizing Link's United Kingdom (UK) office a school twinning program was established where fund-raising activity in Soshanguve schools was matched on a one-Rand to three-Pound basis by fund-raising in Great Britain by a partner school. Additional benefits from the program include visits by British teachers and 164 administrators to the Soshanguve twin school and curriculum enrichment activity in both twined schools. According to Mrs. Makgato, the fund-raising has raised over R6000. The gate takings and sale of snacks and drinks at a beauty pageant raised R1585. A camping trip for the Grade Tens to Aventura resort raised R2498. For that one we negotiated a discount and managed to get a free bus. Drinking glasses with the school emblem are being sold for R5 each, and T-shirts are sold for R35 each. The money was used to pave the outdoor assembly area (Interview, 3 August 2000). Mrs. Makgato's outline of the school's fund-raising was corroborated by LCD (2000, p. 4) who point out: Reitumetse School also raised money towards the laboratory refurbishment by holding a beauty pageant, organising a camping expedition, staging a concert and selling glasses and T-shirts bearing the school emblem. The events were supported well by the local community, and the school reports that relations with their neighbors are improving as a result, with residents looking out for burglars and vandals at the weekends (see also LCD, 1998c). Benefitting from a low South African Rand, Reitumetse's R6000 brought in "over R30000 from their British twin school as part of the Link partnership" (E. Kock, personal communication, 2 August 2000). This money was used to complete the school's Biology laboratory. A 1998 project report observes that Reitumetse's twin school in the UK, The Atherley School near Southampton, "is renovating the science lab". And Mrs. Makgato, commented at the time: "We needed new facilities, repairs, water, gas and electricity connections ... (the school) plans to make their new laboratory a center for the practical learning of natural sciences, and hopes to revive the enthusiasm for this field of study among the 165 learners" (LCD, 1998c). By 2000, both the computer center and science laboratory had been established. LCD (2000, p. 2) described how science came "to life" at the school following the opening of the laboratory: With the support of its twin school in the UK, Reitumetse Senior Secondary School in Soshanguve township, South Africa, has transformed one of its rooms into a fully functioning science laboratory, enabling the practical teaching of science at the school for the first time. Following donations totaling over £4,000 from the Atherley School ... Reitumetse School had purchased shelving and installed water, electricity and gas supplies in its laboratory. Until now the science teacher had to make do with just a collection of glass jars and a car battery. An opening ceremony was held on 20th March, attended by the whole school, representatives from Link and ... a governor of the Atherley School. A second important partnership existed between Reitumetse and the Headstart Project during 1997 and 1998. This partnership focused on Early Childhood Educare (ECD) and highlights the multifaceted nature of SCD, and the role of the structured community dialogue that was part of the approach. The ECD program emerged in September 1997 following school and district office recognition of the need to expand ECD provisioning in the community (SWED: DDU, 1997b). Simultaneously, the Headstart Project (a non-profit organization specializing in Early Childhood Education training and resource provision, unrelated to similar US programs) requested permission to run an ECD program in the district (SWED: DDU-Headstart Project, 1997). In addition to improving ECD provisioning, the District Office wanted to ensure that new ECD facilities would bring skills into the community and contribute to employment generation. 166 Finally, the District Office had to ensure that "programs and facilities cannot further divide our fragmented community by creating the impression that some localities are benefitting at the expense of others. So any program interventions have to be available to, at least potentially, every school in the township" (SWED: DDU-Headstart Project, 1997). Consequently the District Office suggested that Headstart match the district's ECD provisioning on a one to one basis throughout Soshanguve township, rather than the anticipated six ECD facilities that Headstart were proposing. For this to occur Headstart needed to expand their staff and training program; the District Office would provide logistical and administrative support and ensure political legitimacy for the program (SWED: DDU-Headstart Project, 1997). Accordingly Headstart agreed to train, on a phased basis, 60 ECD practitioners and to equip 60 ECD centers. This would allow a significant qualitative and quantitative improvement in ECD provisioning and it would be income and employment generating through the expansion of ECD facilities and the training and employment of unemployed care givers. The first group of 15 care givers began training in March 1998; Reitumetse's School Governing Body ensured that it had three parents on the training program and anticipated opening an ECD facility in a home opposite the school (H. Sanford, personal communication 18 May 1998). Prior to the training, however, Reitumetse's support for the ECD project through their identification of a team of unemployed parents and a site for ECD services, their hosting a visit to the school and future ECD site with staff of the Headstart Project, and their professionalism at school had impressed Headstart field workers (S. Orsmond, personal communication, 4 February 1998). Consequently, when Headstart were approached by a local computer company and asked if Headstart could "identify a secondary school in a township near Pretoria that has Matric students interested in free computer training" (N. Thorburn, as reported in S. Orsmond, personal communication, 4 February 1998), Headstart recommended 167 Reitumetse. Through this serendipitous integration of programs a new project, a computer bursaries and training program at Reitumetse, was born. Through the contacts established in the ECD (Headstart) program the District Office was approached by Ulwazi Computing with a proposal regarding a private sector-district office partnership. The district office was to identify 80 past Matric students who would be tested for computer aptitudes. Of these, 24 students would be selected and offered a bursary to undergo a six-week computer training program, worth R7000.oo per student. On completion of the course (which requires an 80% average) students qualify with an internationally recognized computer engineering qualification, the Microsoft A+ qualification (Ulwazi-Usko, 1999). Ulwazi computing raised bursary money through fund raising activity in the corporate sector; donor representatives presented seminars to the students on business etiquette and protocol (Ulwazi-Usko, 1999). The District Management Team felt that Reitumetse students, because of their consistent placing of highest Grade 12 results since 1994 in Soshanguve, deserved the chance to attempt the aptitude test. The Area Superintendent for Reitumetse, Mr. H. Sanford, was briefed on the project and agreed to co-ordinate aptitude testing with the school. Testing took place in February 1998, students were selected and training commenced in March. The first group of Reitumetse students were trained during March and April 1998: A development unit report on the training observed that "Student morale was high although they were a bit daunted by the high standards that were set (the pap also wasn't up to scratch)" (SWED: DDU, 1998, p. 7; Ulwazi-Usko, 1999). The training offered by partner organizations such as Headstart, Link Community Development, and Ulwazi was not only directed at improving teaching and learning. By involving parents and community members in training and planning the District office and schools also intended to facilitate local community economic development and community 168 renewal by local groups (SWED, 1997d). For example, the unemployed women trained in the ECD partnership were identified by Reitumetse's School Governing Body (SGB) in consultation with street committees that constitute the Soshanguve Resident's Association (SOREA), a civic organization that had emerged during the 1980's South African insurrection. Participating women gained ECD and small business development skills'4, and the basic infrastructure to establish their own ECD facility. By establishing and running small businesses (in Reitumetse's case, an ECD center, a canteen and the computer center), most of which were run by local women, local community economic development and community renewal was strengthened. The training also allowed Reitumetse to provide computer courses to the community. These courses, run by teachers or students who had been on the Ulwazi program, were income generating for the school. Mrs. Makgato explains: Finally, we have the computer programs. We have raised money for the computer center. For the past three months computer lessons are available. These lessons include parents or community members. The lessons cost R12.00 per month and are held in the afternoons and on Saturdays. The Itutheng computer company donated computers. Training came from Ulwazi (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000). 9.3 Effects on teaching & learning SCD, managed by the school's Governing body and co-ordinated through a SCD plan drafted during development planning workshops run by teachers and parents had a significant impact on the school. Mrs. Makgato, in her interview on 3 August 2000 shows the extent of the 1 4 Accredited through a partnership between Headstart and the University of Pretoria 169 shift in perceptions regarding Reitumetse in particular and schools in general. She commented that the programs "have definitely made an impact on teaching and learning. All that the school governing body did was to make the community own the school. Schools in the past were seen as the property of the oppressor" (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000). 'Ownership' of the school and the school's programs took different paths. For example, The school governing body wanted to find out about the ethos of the school. So it conducted some research. This research was called the 'Parent-school Research'. The teachers had to pull up their socks. This was an evaluation by our clients. The report has just become available... Learner representatives were always involved in the research and in the school. They are never regarded simply as learners (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000). Two "client" surveys were conducted, one of parents, and the other of (and by) students (Reitumetse High School, 2000). This change—teachers allowing parents and students to evaluate their performance—was significant in the context of South African township schools. For example, as late as April 2000, the District's Teach and Learn Unit, responsible for classroom pedagogic support, was commenting "assessment [of teachers] is still a thorny issue at schools" (SWED: T&L, 2000, p. 1). In both Reitumetse "client" surveys there was a general recognition that, although there were "a few teachers who did not prepare lessons and who arrived late for class" teaching at Reitumetse "was improving" and "was relevant to student's futures" (Reitumetse High School, 2000). Findings of the "Parent-School Research" (Reitumetse High School, 2000) were corroborated by a student in reference to the school's new Biology laboratory. Patience Mashabela, a sixteen year old Grade 11 student, felt that: We can now observe what is happening when experiments are conducted. The 170 results in Physics will now improve, because when we are asked questions we will be able to answer about what we have observed, not just theory. This will help me personally in my goal of becoming a Pediatrician (LCD, 2000, p. 4). A Grade 12 student, Patience Nchabeleng, was more succinct. She stated that "the way Reitumetse has improved shows that SA is-improving" (LCD, 1998c, p. 3) while Mrs. Makgato commented that the Biology laboratory would assist in turning teaching from a theoretical to a practical and applied focus. In her opinion: Our laboratory will become a centre for more practical experience of natural sciences and we hope to revive love for this study field. The look is quite motivating to learners and they are also protected from any lab accidents. The learners and educators are very excited .... We are expecting an improvement of the results of all the learners doing science - 65% of the school (LCD, 2000, p. 4). In a similar way, the school's computer laboratory was establishing Reitumetse as "the school for computer training in Soshanguve" (H. Sanford, personal communication, 2 August 2000). Through the Headstart and Ulwazi partnerships "the teacher's and the student's motivation has definitely been maintained. The students are dead keen to get on that program. It's a ticket out the township, you know? So they work like blazes, and the school's results then speak for themselves" (H. Sanford, personal communication, 2 August 2000): Since 1995 Reitumetse had the highest Grade 12 pass rates among all High and Secondary schools in Soshanguve. Related to the high pass rates, the school had experienced the least disruptions: For example, the spill-over of student unrest anticipated by the District Office in 1997 following the disruptions in a neighboring school failed to occur. Improvement or change in teaching and learning can not only be restricted to improved grades or changes in pedagogy achieved by implementing Outcomes Based Education. At 171 Reitumetse, an important component of the school's curriculum was, "cultural revival". Mrs. Makgato commented: Our cultural day ... we want to change from the clothing days and beauty pageants to traditional food and attire: The Vendas. Batswanas, Batlokas all in our different attire, with our different foods. We want to make this part of fund raising and teaching. And so we want introduce traditional dancing (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000). "Cultural revival" for Mrs. Makgato was important for several reasons. First, "the more we know where we belong, the better. So, the more we revive the norms and values of our past, the more learners will realize why we need discipline" (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000). Second, for Mrs. Makgato, the informal association between parents, teachers, and students that occur on cultural days and during cultural festivals builds trust... it makes us know the parents better. We come to appreciate their contribution. In an informal way it shows the learners that parents have something to teach. It will also encourage learners to open up and to clear their differences in an informal way (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000). Third, Mrs. Makgato points out that parent involvement in Reitumetse "brings income to the school and allows for projects to be achieved. It allows the community to own the school" (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000). We have seen in chapter four how Christie (1998) refers to the "social pathology" prevalent in township schools. The thoughtful inclusion of "cultural revival" at Reitumetse begins to address this pathology of the most deep-seated and pernicious consequences of Apartheid administration and education. Mrs. Makgato observed that: If cultural revival succeeds it will also give our learners exposure to another culture ... our own culture. The issue of beauty contests is not enriching us... it is 172 not our culture. We adopted a new culture, the culture of these Whites... this lands us up with our learners drinking beer, etc. right now our learners don't know about our cultural background. This is a real issue (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000. Emphasis during interview). In essence, "cultural revival" "if implemented carefully ... could bring us closer to where we want to be ... in communities where adults are respected and the young are willing to learn from them" (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000). Finally, the effects on teaching and learning are not restricted to Reitumetse or Soshanguve. The twin school program had also affected teaching at Reitumetse's UK twin. For example, LCD (2000) reports that: Staff and pupils at the Atherley School, near Southampton, are also delighted with their partnership with Reitumetse School. Pupils have been exchanging letters for some time, building up friendships and finding out about each other's lives. Last year the African theme was brought into the classroom across all areas of the curriculum, from water purification and food chains to art and sculpture. Pupils at the school raised money in many ingenious ways, including selling badges of the South African flag and holding a sponsored walk (LCD, 2000, p. 4). Through coordinated SCD a 'virtuous cycle' emerges: Parent involvement improves results and student motivation. Improved results brings in flinders and donor support, and improves teacher morale, in turn improving teaching. Improved teaching attracts parents who support the school through direct or indirect engagement in the school' programs and partnerships. For example, the school can call in successful people, people who have gone places, who might be living in 173 town now but who are from the township to come in and talk to our students on a regular basis. This has impacted on our learners by motivating them and keeping them motivated (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000). In effect, a spiral of improving teaching and learning was established. 9.4 Conclusion The Reitumetse case study shows that SCD consists of more than indigenized school development planning processes, the establishment of local community economic development enterprises, and the mobilization of the student body in youth programs. SCD also establishes a range of school-community partnerships that support SR. However, these partnerships are not focused on using parent labor or cash contributions to supplement school building operations or budgets. Rather, partnerships are part of a deliberate and conscious process of, to use Mrs. Makgato's candid expression, "developing us Africans" (Interview, 3 August 2000); in short, partnerships at Reitumetse were part of SR and SCD. Reitumetse also shows that the process of indigenization of planning processes need not be restricted to changing the structure of, and eligibility to participate at, meetings. Indigenization also includes a broad program of curriculum change and cultural revival. This theme of integrating curriculum change with cultural revival and community development took a particularly acute form in Rodney Mokoena Preparatory School. For this reason this theme is further explored in Chapter ten. 174 Chapter Ten. Rodney Mokoena Preparatory 10.0 Introduction While each school in this study adopted the district's approach to school development planning, perhaps the most detailed and wide ranging program was that followed at Rodney Mokoena Preparatory. The school's approach was to establish multiple points of contact with the community, and to facilitate the involvement of a diversity of interest groups in school-related initiatives by focusing on school-community problems at the local level. Rodney Mokoena's approach was structured by a development planning framework that creates an environment where members of school-communities debate and establish local democracy and local economies. Incrementally these debates and the actions that they engender begin to undermine community pathology creating new memories, new meanings, and new identities (Mamdani, 1996, p. 238; see for examples Nzamujo, 1999; Bockarie, 1997) or, as Principal John Maluleke stated "this is about psychological consciousness" (Interview, 8 August 2000). SCD takes tangible form in Rodney Mokoena's skills development programs that target unemployed parents and adults, the extension of Curriculum to include Education with Production, community story telling evenings and the introduction of 'Black History Days' that emphasize "the African Renaissance" (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). 10.1 School description Like Ayanda Primary, Rodney Mokoena Preparatory School is situated in the midst of an 175 informal settlement. However, the school's history was very different to that of Ayanda's. A collective of 11 Soshanguve women who intended to establish an early learning center started the school in 1996 in "the poorest part of the township" (P. Mabena, personal communication, 6 June 1996). Quickly realizing that the community needed more than an early learning facility, the collective decided to build a school instead (P. Mabena, personal communication, 6 June 1996). Teacher Yvonne Mapeto, in her interview on 8 August 2000 elaborated: There was a group of ladies who built the school ... they started as a society every month contributing whatever they could. But they felt that the needs were not being met in that. So they changed the focus realizing that we need to build a school and build a community but we can only do that if we fund raise. So, that raising some money also had their problems: some people didn't want to give them money or sponsor them up until they came up with a program. People would say: "Okay you want to fund raise. But what is it you want to fund raise for? And, where's your budget plan?" They had their own plans. Then, it was not an easy road but finally they found a sponsor, and that is where they got their money .... Their aim was to improve our community. And building this school it is a multifaceted school so that the community can be engaged in the activities like sewing, making bricks because we have a machine at the school for making bricks. Sina Kekana gave additional insights into the establishment of the school during her interview. She pointed out that "the school is in line with the community because the school was built by 11 women. They initially wanted to build a preschool but then decided to build the school here because they didn't want the children to travel" (Interview, 8 August 2000). 176 In this process the women's collective included representatives of the local community in designing, raising funds, and building the school. As the school's Principal pointed out: "The SANCO (civic) area committees were actively involved. The school was a mobilizing force around issues like crime, preschools, ... We co-opted them [community members] onto the school governing body to have a presence" (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). Initially called "Ikwezi", after the trust established to build the school, the school was renamed in 1997 as Rodney Mokoena Preparatory School, in honor of the deceased husband of one of the collective's members (Mapeto, Interview, 8 August 2000). The school's problems are the problems of the community: Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, crime, and domestic violence. Mmakola emphasizes crime: We no longer have late coming and so on as a problem. Now crime is the big problem. The department has offered security and an alarm system. Parents feel that they have no role to educate their children because of the notion of "in loco parentis"- that in a school the teacher is the stand in or substitute for the parent (Interview, 8 August 2000) while Kekana emphasizes the impact of poverty: "ninety percent of learners are needy" (Interview, 8 August 2000). In spite of these problems the school had consistently, and consciously "defied the odds" (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). Kekana bluntly states how these odds have been defied: I think the community plays a very important role. If you leave it out you can do nothing. In the past we would invite the community to play soccer and netball or we get the community to come in and do something ... have meetings and such things. This lets the community know that the school is here and it encourages participation in sport and culture (Kekana, Interview, 8 August 2000). 177 For staff at Rodney Mokoena, the 'community' does not only include parents, but also includes local small businesspeople, the unemployed, political and civic organizations; as Maluleke observes, "we need to involve everybody without prescribing to them" (Interview, 8 August 2000). 'Involving everybody' occurred in different ways. For example, Mmakola pointed out that the school's central location facilitates political organizations holding block and branch committee meetings. When asked "are there any community structures involved in the school?" without hesitation he referred to the Soshanguve Education Coordinating Committee (SECC) and the leadership positions staff at the school play: The SECC. Cry and John are both on the executive of the SECC. All SECC meetings are held here. Also extensions 4,1,11, and 20- they all have block committees. All their block committees have been meeting here. The school is the central location. The block committees are also used [by the school] to get information on education and problems affecting the parents... and the school is informed on community issues and how things are solved in the community (Mmakola, Interview, 8 August 2000). By allowing the school's facilities to be used by community organizations the school's presence in the community was enhanced, and the school was able to disseminate "information on education". Yet the process was reciprocal: The school gets information from the community and was able to shape its SCD planning process. As section 10.2 further reveals, Rodney Mokoena's approach was founded in a dialogue between community, parents, and the school's staff. 178 10.2 Approaches to SCD Rodney Mokoena's School Development Plan provides scaffolding for SCD. The school development plan: is drawn around September and finalized with the last meeting in September. We will bring in some guest speakers like this year, Haroon Mohammed from the GDE. So our school curriculum development is informed by broader policy. The plan is adopted in November, when we adopt the budget. We always have a teacher development component. We use our teachers as resources. It will result in the development of the school governing body and business component ... and finally broader community development. We have a person from the governing body who facilitates what they call the "alterable curriculum" a clear program around for example aids, with clear targets and figures (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). School development planning, SCD, and teacher professional development were inseparable at Rodney Mokoena. The teacher professional development component of Rodney Mokoena's SCD program incorporates curriculum development and curriculum extension through collaborative teacher planning and peer workshops. These workshops were jointly planned by the teachers, and held weekly, on Friday afternoons, after school. Mrs. Mapheto elaborates: Mapheto: ... and we as teachers, we have our own program that we always start on Fridays. So we talk as teachers about the problems that we encountered during the week in our lessons ... We educators at Rodney Mokoena, we learned a lot from each other. And learning a lot from each other will help us to grow more ... 179 We learned by workshops, seminars, and we called other NGO's so that they can help us if we have problems. AS: The workshops... are they run by the staff? Mapheto: Sometimes, but not always. We organize people from outside, so that they can help us. We identify a program where we need help, and they [external, specialist facilitators] present it. Before that person helps you we determine our weak points, and we can then go on. We learned from our weak points-that's where it begins ... it is part of the school development plan... but it is focused mainly on the learners .... We come with workshops on Fridays at half past one, we come together, we iron out our problems ... [For example] I have learners who have a problem in spelling, or I have learners in Maths that cannot add. And then we come again and say: "How can I use a simpler method so that these learners can come to my level of understanding?" Then another teacher would say: "How about teaching [about] AIDS?" We come with different suggestions. Then you start with different activities, in our meetings. Yes you start to present it. You say, OK that is a problem, we identify the problem and we come again and then ask someone [a colleague] if they can help with ideas. And then that particular someone would come and help me, or an HOD would come and tell you and say "this is your program". Learners come in and discuss it and present it. So that we can determine the weaknesses in that. Then we start. At times we learned from each other. That is when we learned. As a group. And teamwork is the best. And any 180 way it... it makes you grow as a person, with such teamwork. You cannot do without teamwork ... .At some point in there you might say: "Well there is an NGO. Lets ask them to come in and help ...". Like if you have a topic that will make you frustrated; a topic that you feel you will not be able to present it well, and maybe most of us have these problems. So you say: "How about calling someone like this or that NGO we have a problem in maths and we all know someone so that he can help us". For instance you have a problem in presenting fractions, so now MCPT [a National NGO that specializes in upgrading the mathematics skills of primary school teachers] came, they showed as their materials, and we used the materials. So learning was so good for learners. It was simple, and maybe because it was sometimes when you come into a class not engaged fully. So ... it improves our preparation too ... a lot (Mrs. Mapheto. Interview. 8 August 2000). Some salient points of Mrs. Mapheto's interview deserve emphasis. First, Mrs. Mapheto points out that it was the school's staff that identifies the problem areas (the "weak points") in their teaching and in their student's learning programs. And, following problem identification, and a debate regarding teaching priorities where inevitable compromises are made (one teacher suggested an AIDS awareness program and "we come with different suggestions") it was the staff who then identified areas that they wished to address. Second, while teachers on the school's staff are the first resource for teaching ideas and strategies, shared at the Friday staff development workshops, the staff do not only rely on their internal expertise. Thus, Mrs. Mapheto pointed out that where necessary external facilitators were used to present workshops on specific topics, but only on terms or conditions established 181 by the staff, and in accordance with staff identified needs and priorities. Staff planning and needs were prioritized before NGO or external facilitator, departmental or funder identified programs. If Rodney Mokoena's professional staff offer one voice in their SCD dialogue, another voice was that of civil society. This voice was heard in various ways. One, as Mmakola pointed out, was by providing a space for political and community organizations to meet at the school. The school does not only use these occasions to disseminate and gather information, but also as an opportunity to employ parents: Religious organizations use the school on Sundays. They pay to employ a person to open and close the school and cleanup. This person is an unemployed parent. The contributions from the churches goes to the parent [who opens and closes the school]. It is also used for candles. The parent who is employed by the religious structures is the same person who painted the school (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). Another community voice came through the partnership between Rodney Mokoena and the Ikwezi Trust. This interaction resulted in the physical construction of the school: Building Rodney Mokoena involved the community in the planning and construction of the school (P. Mabena, personal communication, 6 June 1996). The school's construction, and the community mobilization that it required was maintained by subsequently training community members in bricklaying and using the school as a catalyst for small enterprise development. Maluleke elaborated on this catalyctic role when he observed that "the Ikwezi trust is very important here. It trained people in brick laying. Parents were trained at Sosh Technical and are now employed or have their own companies (Interview, 8 August 2000). Three additional programs—sewing, pottery, and training women in Early Childhood 182 Educare (ECD)—extended the skills development started by the building of the school. However, these programs incorporated other sectors of the school's community into school programs. Thus, during 1999 and 2000 a program was run through the school's Ikwezi trust training unemployed women in sewing and needle-craft and since 1998 a partnership with Soshanguve Technical High School allowed interested parents and community members to gain access to pottery skills: The training for pottery was done at Sosh Technical. An example of the pottery is next to you ... that tea set. It was made by parents as part of a school program. Pottery came after bricklaying and metalwork. Not everyone was interested in those programs with Sosh. Tech. So we started those others (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). Both Maluleke and Kekana referred in their interviews to the school's Early Childhood Educare (preschool) program. Maluleke, for example, referred to the "preschool women's group" who were being trained in ECD by two of Rodney Mokoena's teachers. Maluleke, however, had a broader understanding of the ECD program than Kekana. Drawing on knowledge obtained through his position on the Executive of the SECC, he spoke of a goal of the SECC to have a network of "community-based child care centers" coordinated by and established through "a subcommittee of the SECC" (Interview, 8 August 2000). To this end, the school Mobilized them [parents and community members interested in ECD] ... They come in here for information, a Gazette, etc. They have monthly meetings. They collect materials for registering and use. These children later come to this school. Two teachers meet with them and discuss curriculum and admissions. The teachers are Betty Skosana and Mrs. Matobela. They are both on the school 183 governing body (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). However, the ECD training program was not only about training community members and 'community development'. The program also had an income generating function. Thus by building a preschool block and renting (initially a classroom) out to a ECD care giver trained by the school, income was generated. Sina Kekana elaborates: "we are waiting for the 11 women most of whom live in Soshanguve [to open the preschool...]. Now there are 10 preschool learners. This was Private- the [preschool] teacher pays rent. It was a form of fund raising" (Kekana, Interview, 8 August 2000). Staff development, civic, and community engagement in the school provide a partial perspective of Rodney Mokoena's SCD program. A further perspective was provided by the school's array of opportunities for parent involvement. In Rodney Mokoena's case, parent involvement in the school was a reciprocal process between school and parents. For example, the school employs parents and raises funds on their behalf. Employment of parents takes a variety of formats. For some, parents are employed in the school's cafeteria: Those parents who are unemployed we try to prioritize them and bring them into the school for employment. We are having six or seven parents employed directly through the school. We try to raise funds for them- we have established a cafeteria. Our parents were involved in this. Contracts go to parents or are held with parents. It is a major source of income. Parents sell food, cold drinks etc. This makes work for them. We do not want learners purchasing outside the cafeteria (Mmakola, Interview, 8 August 2000). Other parents are employed to maintain the school's grounds, or for general cleaning: "we have identified the most needy parents .... Parents employed in the school are the gardener and general cleaner. Four or five parents are working for the reconstruction and development 184 program, and we have an office cleaner" (Mmakola, Interview, 8 August 2000). Alternatively, Mpelele pointed out that parents are also employed to address a specific school need: "when I find a parent with x skill I bring the parent forward. We use the parent. For example we buy from parents the brooms we used to sweep the school. The parents make the brooms. We also use parents to paint the school" (Interview, 8 August 2000). As already noted by Mmakola, and corroborated below by Mrs. Kekana, the school raises funds to pay parents for their labor: And we fund raise for parents. For example there is an old man working here. He could not pay his [child's] school funds. So he comes and assists here. He was salaried, paid by us. Now the department is paying him as a ground hand. He works for free on Sundays instead of paying school fees (Kekana, Interview, 8 August 2000). Further explored in section 10.3, parents are also integrated into curriculum development through (amongst others) a "pajama evening", where parents and children come to school in the evening for classical (African) legends, told by grandparents. At these events, code switching and language hybridization (joining an English and Zulu word, for example) occurred constantly, a practice that continues during the school day. In addition, Parent involvement in the school takes the form of involvement in the black history day where they perform various acts. They are also invited to school to discuss the problems thereof for meetings ... They also report meetings and financial meetings. The school governing body has its own program and have different meetings for learners' parents. Every morning from 7:30 to 8:00 there is the parents hour. This improved the parent-teacher-learner relationship (Kekana, Interview, 8 August 2000). Thus the school extends the predominant model of parent involvement in schools. That model identifies parents as a source of proxy labor (Bray, 2000), as monitors of the school's teachers (Uemura, 1999), or solely for fund raising (Watt, 2001). In Rodney Mokoena's case, the school-parent relationship was reciprocal rather than unidirectional. The school's staff does not see parents as a source of labor or income, but rather as a complement to their own expertise. Parents reciprocate in various ways. They attend parent-teacher meetings and curriculum enrichment and extension activities. They volunteer their time: Parents clean the classrooms and the yard: they take care of the school ... Parents are also involved in the scholar patrol on a daily basis. They have been volunteering since 1994. This year Beef can (a local company) is giving R18 per shift ... that is 18 Rand per day (Kekana, Interview, 8 August 2000). And parents reciprocate with their support: How could we raise R 10,000 in this community? We have defied the odds. In October we had back history day. The.day celebrates our successes. It brings the parents. The parents pay a registration fee of R 30.00 to participate. We have 1300 students. Also we provide information on historical days. They [parents] take ownership of the school. People bring information on a company. We use this information in fund raising and soliciting donations. Another example is the school bore-hole. It provides benefits to the school and the community comes in and can draw water from the bore-hole. It has provided an atmosphere where the school has overcome the background of the community (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). The preceding narrative implies that SCD was a conflict and tension free process. On the contrary, SCD gives rise to new school and community tensions and can reveal old, dormant 186 conflicts. For example, at the end of her interview Sina Kekana commented: Problems that we face in the school? We have had the same chair of the school governing body since 1996. Some parents do not want the responsibility [of chairing the school's governing body]. The person goes into class and reports on educators. He speaks about the dress codes. But he is generally good. He comes to school and gives us workshops and encourages us. His wife works here as a cleaner and reports to him who knocks off early. After the department locked the gates to stop late coming the chairperson came and wanted the gates to be opened. He went against an earlier decision using his position as a chair (Kekana, Interview, 8 August 2000). Thus one source of conflict revolves around the perception of abuse of authority. Another common source of conflict lay in accounting procedures and in the failure to demarcate beneficiary parameters. Kekana therefore observed that in 1998 "we planted spinach, cabbage and vegetables. A member of the school governing body sold this stuff. The program stopped because some people did not think it was fair. They took the money and the school did not get anything" (Interview, 8 August 2000). Nevertheless, in Rodney Mokoena's case perhaps the greatest weakness of SCD lay in the success of the program: The school's excellence lead to disdain for central government programming: "the department or the government should engage in community audits. And develop structures like the benevolence and Ikwezi trusts. The reconstruction and development program might go away but the people remain" (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). Teacher, and Secretary of Rodney Mokoena's SGB, Mr. Cry Mmakola, offers this advice: I would recommend that a program is designed to train not only the school 187 governing body, but also the parents in how to identify different community needs. We should assign to schools the task of designing the programs to improve schools (Interview, 8 August 2000). Indeed, when discussing the central government's role in SCD, teachers consistently downplayed the role of the state in education and community reconstruction: "there are Provincial programs but I will start with those in the school ..." (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). Alternatively, interviews reveal the inadequacy of the state's vision: Provincial programs?! Most of these are focused on outcomes-based education. At this school we have linked these to Education with Production. We had many workshops. We invited people from Head Office and the National Department. All teachers are involved in these workshops. And we have Education with Production and Permaculture. We grow vegetables. We brought in two community people who were later employed. They were skilled on environmental issues (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). At Rodney Mokoena, SCD was part of a strategy of "Passive Revolution" (Gramsci, 1971; J. Maluleke, personal communication, 15 November 1996) and the development of "psychological consciousness" (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). This project included establishing small businesses and cooperatives to initiate economic liberation within the context of SCD. This thoughtful and deliberate process of developing "psychological consciousness" and establishing small businesses also had dramatic effects on teaching and learning. 188 10.3 Effects on teaching and learning. Bryck et al. (1998) suggested that improved teacher morale was a barometer of improved classroom and staff room cultures. While difficult to measure qualitatively, Mr. Mapheto claimed: Definitely I feel empowered, motivated. We need to get fully engaged in our preparations and be fully engaged in our learners' activities. AS: When you think back to when you started teaching and now... is there a difference? Why? Mapheto: At first... there was nobody there to supervise any ideas and my HOD was only acting so I didn't learn from that. So the first thing that I did when I came to this school I noticed that there was a big difference on the HOD's. And we learned that every day is lifelong learning. And then I think I would also say my mind changed at this school. It changed also through the management style, that is active and participatory management style (Interview, 8 August 2000). Mrs. Mmakola also stated, succinctly, "morale is higher" (Interview, 8 August 2000). A large body of literature on School Reform identifies teacher led curriculum change, innovation and development as central to sustained educational transformation and vital to improving teaching and learning (Zeichner, 1991 and Darling-Hammond, 1997a). Darling Hammond, in fact, places school based curriculum development at the center of school change. Seen in terms of this literature, the impact of Rodney Mokoena's SCD project was immense. Teacher led curriculum development follows weekly assessments of student learning and was an intrinsic part of staff development, community outreach and parent involvement. Curriculum development at Rodney Mokoena directly contributes to pedagogic renewal and 189 directly improves teaching and learning at the school. Curriculum development was extensive, incorporating Education with Production by learners, outreach programs to parents, programs incorporating parents into the curriculum, and extending the academic year through Saturday Schooling. For example, teacher curriculum development includes parents and the broader community. This curriculum extension occurred in different ways. One, through the emphasis placed on parent involvement in their child's learning, the school reaches into the home and changes the patterns of family life. Principal John Maluleke explains: In all the programs we plan, we want to extend the programs to the community. Programs that we have at school should be utilized at home. For example life skills: We think that life skills are the type of life to be used in a family. These skills need to be extended to the family and need to be practiced at home. In this process, Maluleke includes homework: Homework is not just to help the development of the child, but it is also to develop a routine at home. It develops the home. You don't have to know what is written there. Just make the space and the time at home (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). Independently, Teacher Mphelele also raised the possible use of homework, and in particular life skills education, to initiate change in the home environment: We use a homework timetable not just for extra class-work but also to teach numerous life skills- like nutrition and health. Small things like to stop diarrhea with sugar water. Parents sign the timetable to show that they are involved (Interview, 8 August 2000). The homework timetable was not only used to extend a development discourse into the 190 home, but it also: lets parents know what is happening. This homework timetable has been implemented since this year it is not done in all the schools. Because of this we find much improvement because the learners take the time to read and it encourages reading. Some still have learning problems but then we call specific parents on the weekend and discuss the promotion of the learners. The parent can see if the child is behind and gives us the power to retain the learners. This reduces conflict because by the end of the year the parent knows what is happening and is prepared. We find that this improves teacher morale. Teachers design these learning programs in a group. On Mondays we meet for preparation and on Fridays we meet for feedback. If there are any problems they are resolved within the week (Mrs. Mphelele, Interview, 8 August 2000). Another form of curriculum extension occurred when Rodney Mokoena's students taught their parents and neighbors and applied at home aspects of the school's curriculum. This occurred predominantly in the school's gardening and Permaculture15 curricula. In part these curricula, unique to the school and not part of National or Provincial curriculum or graduation requirements, dovetailed with Rodney Mokoena's approach to SCD. However, different analyses of Permaculture's location in the school's life were provided. John Maluleke, for example, included Permaculture in a discussion of the school's 1 5 Molisson (1990, p. ix) defined Permaculture as "the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way". Mollison (1990) applies Permaculture design layout to various geographic scales including small homestead, mixed-use farm and small community levels. Mollison shows that plot layout following Permaculture design principles can achieve high levels of local sustainability while reducing resource and energy dependence. Permaculture focuses on the household or cluster of households, and emphasises agricultural self-sufficiency and independence; planning and design was conducted at the household/farm level. 191 approach to SCD, and saw Permaculture and Education with Production as tools for community development rather than discrete curricula. This distinction was not made by teachers at the school- they included discussion on Permaculture as part of curriculum development and staff development. Mr. Mmakola's comments provided an exemplar in this regard. Clearly integrating curriculum development, curriculum extension and community development, he stated that: We have also Permaculture and environments ... On black history day some learners are sending [to school] the produce that has been made through Permaculture at home. All the money comes back to the school. The money is used to subsidize school fees for example (Mmakola, Interview, 8 August 2000). Parents were also incorporated into the curriculum development process. Corroborated in three different interviews, this incorporation occured through Black History days, Pajama evenings and story telling. Mr. Mmakola for example stated that: We have Black History Day where parents are involved in cultural activity. Then we have fun runs and that kind of activity. In the Black History Day the parents are involved in cultural activity like different traditional dancing, and the learners learn about the different cultures (Mmakola, Interview, 8 August 2000). Mrs. Mapheto spoke enthusiastically (and eloquently) about the Pyjama evenings and parent story tellers: Sometimes we make festivals for them like the dancing, traditional dancing in a different culture, so that they should, so that our learners should like the different cultures of our parents, and the language itself ... you invite a person, so that learners can learn from her and the beautiful language that she speaks. And how she used to portray her culture, and how she reveals herself to other learners, so 192 they can learn to live together. So they can become friends. The child can learn from that and the parent will tell this kid how they have been working in the old in days that they used to have and the stories they used to tell before they sleep, we call it 'Mbara mbaila'- 'Around the fireplace'. Then they will talk about stories, old stories and have a wonderful night before they sleep (Interview, 8 August 2000). Finally, Mrs. Mpepele's narrative provided an evocative image, through its detail, of one of the story telling sessions: "we have a pajama evening. It is done in the evening. Children bring their pajamas and teddy bears. We utilize the parents especially the elderly they tell stories. It is held from 6:00-7:00" (Mpepele, Interview, 8 August 2000). However, Mrs. Mpepele reiterates that at these events "we also emphasize a border cultural awareness. Instead of the Bible, parents tell what was done in the past. Everybody is your parent: You can learn from anyone. We even bring up difficult topics like traditional healing ..." (Mpepele, Interview, 8 August 2000). The Mbara mbaila (Around the fireplace) story telling program, and the dancing and cultural appreciation that occurred during the Black History days are used by teachers during their classroom teaching- Mrs. Mapheto, for example stated that: "when we are teaching history and geography we have to draw on the cultural values and emphasize the multi-cultural values. We can use the Black History days and the traditional dancing there." (Interview, 8 August 2000). Story telling reinforces home and school reading programs (Meoli, 2001). The school's Se-Tswana HOD, Mrs. Mpepele, collected the stories into two volumes of traditional tales. Teacher Yvonne Mapheto indicated that the collections are used in the classroom as part of reading instruction and reinforce reading at home: 193 ... the grandmothers stories ... they were not reading but telling stories. This gave people confidence later- the confidence and interest to read, came from home. You have to retell the story. We want to bring back these stories. We identified people in the community to do poetry, for example, and we have authors in the school.(Mapheto, Interview, 8 August 2000). Curriculum enrichment at Rodney Mokoena therefore draws on the parents and community's cultural resources to generate and sustain students' interest in learning. Using storytelling and traditional dance as an access-point to 'school' literacy and curricula brings to life Freire and Macedo's (1987, p. 151) comment that in the struggle to recreate a society, the re-conquest by the people of their own world becomes a fundamental factor. It is of tantamount importance that the incorporation of the students language as the primary language of instruction ... [be] given top priority. It is through their own language that they will be able to reconstruct their history and the culture. In this sense, the students language was the only means by which they can develop their own voice, a prerequisite to the development of a positive sense of self worth. Curriculum enrichment was complemented by a Saturday school program that extends the school year. Thus, not only was the curriculum modified to "incorporate the students language", but the structure of the school week was lengthened to allow more 'time on task'. Cry Mmakola, a teacher and Secretary of Rodney Mokoena's School Governing Body, described the program: A Saturday school was sponsored by Total16 in 1998, 1999, and 2000. Most learners come but they are not only from this school. Seven teachers were 1 6 A United Kingdom based petroleum products Multinational Corporation. The company operates an oil refinery in South Africa and had an extensive chain of franchised petrol stations. 194 enrolled but not all teachers are from this school. For example two of the teachers are white educators from Sunnyside. The remainder are unemployed teachers and retired teachers. Each learner pays R3.00 and when they register it costs R10.00. This money is used to pay the travel costs. In 1998 we registered 400 learners; in 1999 and 2000 we registered 300 learners. But attendance on any particular Saturday always varies (Interview, 8 August 2000). One final "innovation" (Mmakola, Interview, 8 August 2000), a parents' hour program, was used to improve teaching and learning and further incorporate parents into the school. Both Mmakola and Kekana referred to this aspect of the school's SCD program. Mmakola, for example, observed that: There are various innovations in the school program. We have parent hour. Here the guardian teacher calls a meeting to discuss the progress of learners with a parent. We call these meetings after the progress reports. We give parents reports beforehand. Parents and learners go together and prepare for the meeting. Teachers are not supposed to dominate. Parents show how children might be having problems at home that are affecting the child's schooling. So the teachers might become better informed about the child's situation. We also have a general parents meeting ... (Mmakola, Interview, 8 August 2000). In addition to the school's parents' hour program, individual teacher-parent meetings occur. Although these meetings focus on attendance, late coming, or work performance, and are initiated by classroom teachers, the meetings establish a direct communication between parent and teacher in response to a perceived problem. In this way, as Mmakola pointed out, parents could inform teachers of home or community factors that affect the learner's progress. Sina Kekana elaborated: 195 They have this program where the parents come at 9:30, 11:10, or 13:15. We might reverse this to have only one morning session. It is not done on a daily basis. If they [students] then come late, and is still late on the second or third time, a letter is sent to the parent. Then the parent comes at one of these hours. Sometimes if the parent is going to work parents can come earlier. Where teacher-learner relationships are concerned, we are trying individual attention. Where there are problems with the learner, teachers will say they want to retain a child. They write a letter to his or her home. Parents are invited to come to class to see the learner's progress. But we will also never refuse a parent's request [to observe in class]. This encourages learners (Kekana, Interview, 8 August 2000). The value of these meetings was not lost on teachers, so much so that some teachers have initiated their own 'meet parent' programs. Sina Kekana had held three additional parent meetings between January and August 2000. Her motivation was simple: "I am interested in meeting the parents. This has happened three times this year. We [also] bring parents into the school for feedback" (Kekana, Interview, 8 August 2000). As in the Ayanda and Boeipathutsi case studies, parent involvement had various effects, none of which could be predicted. For example, Mrs. Mapheto, when responding to the question "How do you impact on teaching and learning when you have these programs?" stated: Now parents will respond positively because they are concerned and consulted. If the learners are out of order we can bring in their parents and say: "You are out of order." [And to the parent]: "You are supposed to take care of your child. You are supposed to be responsible for that and you are supposed to bring the kid to respond." 196 So parents challenged us on that, especially when it comes to the education of their children. And they tell you that 'if you do this I will do that'. So we need to be involved. So it really helps to have the parents involved so that we can learn together to be a family or whatever. Parents and learners. Because usually our meetings ... are very positive and cordial. So that when you talk, you actually don't need to: learners will. And they will tell other parents that so and so is not doing such as we wanted. They usually talk to the parents so that you don't say this person doesn't respond .... And then you can come to a common goal. I think that will be the very best approach. Let the parents understand them, especially so that they can develop the child. I don't have any problem (Interview, 8 August 2000). The approach of Rodney Mokoena Preparatory contradicted the literature that argued that parent observation in the classroom undermined teacher professionalism (Darling-Hammond, 1997b). Mrs. Mapheto spoke directly to this observation. For her, by structuring parent meetings after a reporting period, by having regular communication with parents regarding student progress, and by having a 'positive and cordial' dialogue with parents, she did not 'have any problem' with parent participation. Principal John Maluleke confirmed her claim. In his observation, over the past few years teachers have become more open. Parents want feedback, and give feedback for example they thank us for the gardens that are now in their homes. Parents also suggest ways of dealing with problems. You see this especially at the grade seven level (Interview, 8 August 2000). In Maluleke's opinion, parent involvement "motivates the teachers. With parent involvement teachers apply themselves better. They demand meetings on students, and also they 197 engage the learner and the parent around the discipline problems. By addressing the problem early it doesn't grow" (Interview, 8 August 2000). 10.4 Conclusion It would appear that by the standards of the community Rodney Mokoena Preparatory was doing exceptionally well: The school was expanding (it had opened two satellite schools in Soshanguve extensions 2 and 4)(Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000) and, as Sina Kekana observed, "Education has improved because every parent wants their children to come here. So some travel many kilometers on foot and they do not arrive late" (Interview, 8 August 2000). If the fundamental purpose of education "...is to ensure that all students benefit from learning in ways that allow them to participate fully in public, community, and economic life," (New London Group, 2000, p. 9) do we see here a process where schooling became education- a "transformative act [that] begins to assume an active and decisive participation" (Freire and Macedo, 1987, p. 54)? If so, then the lessons of Rodney Mokoena, Reitumetse, Boeipathutse, and Ayanda have broader policy and research implications. We turn to these in the concluding chapter of this study. 198 Chapter Eleven. School-Community Development: Generalization and replicability. 11.0 Introduction This thesis examined the integration of SR and SCD approaches to school change. I have argued that SR is an inadequate response to the problems that confront schools. Using the case study method, I have shown that school reform is enhanced when integrated with School-Community Development; when national and provincial government initiated school change is integrated with local community identified needs and programs. However, SCD presents an apparent contradiction: If the approach is contingent on local agency, and is a locally based response to educational and social concerns, can SCD be replicated? I address this contradiction in section 11.1 by discussing five general principles of SCD that emerged from the case studies, and that are consistent with the literature on SCD. I then proceed to make some cursory recommendations towards integrating SCD into Provincial and National policy frameworks in section 11.2 and suggest avenues for further research in section 11.3. 11.1 SCD: Five principles The first principle that emerged from the case study schools suggests that context specific strategies for school and community development should be generated through dialogue and practice. A common feature across the case study schools was that participation among interest groups (parents, teachers, students, unemployed school-community members) varied. Rather than viewing this participation as a hindrance or evidence of 'a lack of commitment' 199 (Chaane, 1997) to SR members of the case study school communities used varying forms of participation to allow context specific strategies to emerge. Participation was focussed on the animating features of people's "lived experience" (Touraine, 2000, p. 77). This participation, to borrow Touraine's eloquent metaphor, "does not grow in over-protected greenhouses; it is a wild flower" (Touraine, 2000, p. 58). To continue the metaphor, participation grew because it was built on the generative themes (Freire, 1978; Hope, Timmell, and Hodzi, 1984) that were identified as important to the respective school-communities. In the case study schools, participation was focussed on school-community problems and was structured by a development planning framework thereby creating an environment where members of school-communities debated their visions of an 'effective school'. Thus, at the heart of school-community development lay the basic thesis that a wide-ranging community dialogue was essential to SR, community development (Keith, 1999. See also, TRC, 1998; Lane & Dorffnan, 1997, p. 13) and even community healing (Rappaport, 1998). Although dialogue alone was insufficient in conditions of extreme material disadvantage (Pun, 2002) debate and the actions that result began to undermine the community pathology, the "social dislocation" (TRC, 1998) that was the legacy of the Apartheid state: recall John Maluleke's comment that encouraging diversity in the paths to SCD facilitated "real change to occur here. Consciousness-how we think—has changed: teacher's, parent's, everyone's" (Interview, 8 August 2000); each school "defied the odds" and overcame the constraints of the local school community, history, and political economy. This approach required policies that were particular to each school-community and that were contingent on the different personalities, life experiences and ambitions of individuals within those communities. Consequently, a condition for establishing SCD was a community dialogue that shifted people's identity from cultures of poverty and violence (Mbembe, 2001, p. 200 173, et. sec.) towards an understanding of their own power, and a self confidence in their own abilities (Biko, 1974). In the case study schools, discussion and analysis of education problems was supplemented by small scale, manageable programs to improve the material conditions of community members and also address the psychological effects of Colonial and Apartheid rule (Biko, 1974). A second principle of SCD therefore relies on community members identifying and implementing small scale, manageable programs that addressed concrete needs. This was achieved by integrating members of school communities into school development programs, and also by accepting a wild element to school, community and district implementation. For example, the case studies have shown that programs implemented by parents and under- or un-employed local residents included socio-economic development (Vegetable Garden Cooperative, Education with Production program, Ceramics, Bricklaying and Metalwork training programs and the establishment of Community computer centres) and improving the school's physical plant (including establishing a Computer centre and a Canteen, or laying a courtyard). While some teachers were involved to different degrees in these programs, all teachers were active in school based professional development workshop programs and curriculum enrichment and development. These (teaching staff focussed) programs included Permaculture and curriculum integration, Black History Month programs, and the 'Parents as storytellers' initiative at Rodney Mokoena Preparatory school. Finally, student initiated programs included infrastructure improvement and upgrading, and AIDS awareness programs. While manifesting incredible diversity and reflecting the different needs and interests of different community members, common among all programs was their small scale, and their local manageability. Scale and local manageability increased the possibility of community involvement in programs and, as the Ayanda study showed, allowed rapid localized appraisals of 201 emerging problems. Furthermore, they led to a third principle of SCD. The third principle emphasizes the importance of ensuring community ownership of programs. Community ownership was achieved when community members took over programs initiated through SR yet modified these to fit community conditions and needs. For example, in the SWED different people and organizations 'owned' different components of the District's Sustainable School and Community Development program, and district officials had to divest ownership of the District program, allowing partner organizations to take over, and claim ownership for, school-community development. At Ayanda, the vegetable gardens operation was taken over by unemployed community members, and at Reitumetse the Computer Center led to a further training partnership with the private sector. Community ownership brought autopoiesis (Capra, 1997, p. 98) and unpredictability to the implementation process. A fourth principle of SCD therefore is to welcome unpredictability and diversity in program development. In their study of the local politics of reforming urban schools Stone et al. (2001, p. 159) point out that "civic capacity requires more than good ideas or conducive institutions. Ideas and institutions must be embedded within, and augmented by a supportive array of relationships. Without those relationships, even the best ideas and most appropriate institutional reforms [fail]". These supportive relationships are unpredictable and diverse. For example, at Reitumetse the ECD partner introduced a company offering free computer training to Soshanguve students. Students who were trained helped establish a computer facility as part of (and hence reinforcing) the SDP process at their former school. Similarly, school's participation varied. In Ayanda Primary, a social worker initiated sewing and candle making cooperatives that adapted the SDP model to their needs. A school-community vegetable garden was established when malnutrition and poverty was identified as of singular importance to the school after parents recognised the potential impact of vegetable gardens on 202 teaching and learning in the school by relating hunger, nutrition, and learning (Interview with parents. 9 August 2000). Parent participation in Rodney Mokoena Preparatory was of a different order. Here parents are integrated into curriculum development through evening story-telling and planting seeds with their children as part of the school's (home based) Permaculture program. Once again, the case study schools showed that while the specific practices of SCD vary it was possible to identify replicable principles in the case study experiences: in this case the recognition and celebration of diversity and unpredictability. For example, World Bank evaluators routinely recognize the importance of 'local control' and 'diverse community inputs' (Crouch et al., 1997; Uemura, 1999) in school-community partnerships and education provisioning and reform. Nevertheless, the programs that are initiated routinely circumscribe community involvement to a narrow range of "input variables" with specific delineated outcomes (Heneveld and Craig, 1996). While some provincial and local administrations, aid agencies, and hinders recognize that community specific solutions emerge unpredictably through diverse community channels (Chambers, 1997; Unemura, 1999) attempting to set predetermined implementation targets and outcomes might undermine SR and School-Community Development in the medium and long term. An alternative approach demonstrated in the case study schools sees dialogue structured by development planning frameworks that focus on school-community problems and that creates environments where members of school-communities reestablish cultures of schooling. The principle recognizing unpredictability and diversity also recognised that change in schools is multifaceted and part of societal change; it can include school reforms like teacher initiated and school based professional development, student development programs, curricular change, school based management and parental involvement in governance. But it can also 203 include community social, cultural and economic development- the traditional concerns of community development theory. Evaluation was formative (following community development theory) but was part of whole school review or teacher initiated action research cycles, so often the concern of those involved in school reform initiatives. As we have seen, the range of school-community identified interventions was not confined to schools but established various sites of development oriented discourse and action. A final (fifth) principle suggests using state resources to promote local participation and school-community change. In this regard, it is important to differentiate state and local roles in SCD. On the one hand, in Soshanguve, although schools were provided with material resources from national and provincial government, school-communities made local/community level epistemological changes to curriculum and ontological changes to school organization as demanded by context and personality. This approach situated schools in the contexts of their communities yet facilitated the implementation of government initiated school reform policies. On the other hand, when establishing the frameworks for SCD teachers, parents, and/or administrators also facilitated local development frameworks that were centred on schools, and that supported the different human endeavours underway in their school-communities(GDE, 1994; GDE: TSUD, 1997) by creating a supportive policy environment that structures local community involvement in SR and school-community development. This topic, the role of the state in creating a supportive policy environment is the subject of section 11.2. 11.2 Recommendations for policy In this thesis I have argued that SCD is central to the reconstruction and development of schools and communities. School reforms fail, chapter two has shown, because the approach is 204 incapable of finding a mechanism to meaningfully integrate community needs into the spaces offered by the process of reforming schools. However, a unique feature of the case study schools lay in their use of SR as a mechanism to integrate school and community needs by focussing community identified problems, by focussing on what Paulo Freire has termed the community's "Generative Themes" (Freire, 1978; Hope et al., 1984). Thus SR needs to include teacher and community concerns. Consequently recommendations towards provincial and national policy focus on two areas of school (reform and) community development: teacher professional development, and community integration into school and local development planning. In so far as teacher professional development is concerned, teachers commented that Curriculum 2005 training failed when they were removed from the school environment; because the training was a short (between one and three days) training course with no support or followup; and because training was attended by insufficient numbers of teachers from any single school (RSA, 2000; Jansen, 1999a). In this light, teacher development programmes need to be school-cluster or school-based, following staff development committee requests and prioritisation. Staff development committees (subject and non-subject focussed) should be formed at schools as sub-committees of a school development committee. As in Rodney Mokwena and Ayanda Primary schools, the staff development committees planned a systematic programme of professional development events and courses that identified the staff priority, professional development event and the nature of follow-up. A staff development plan, a subsection of a 'school development plan', would need to list all professional development requests for a school. Furthermore, and noting that Provincial Ministries of Education have some of the resources to provide follow-up materials and programmes and can ensure continuity and scale of activity, it is recommended that school development plans should be co-ordinated on a District 205 basis with the participation of school governance structures, teacher and community organisations. New approaches to appraisal, school governance and parental involvement (RSA, 1996a), curriculum change (RSA, 1995) and departmental management and support (RSA, 1996a) should be structured as part of SCD. In Soshanguve, district coordination required district and NGO personnel to train school-community members in development planning (SWED, 1997d). These workshops resulted in the essential outcome of participants developing specific action plans which, when taken together, formed a school development plan (SWED, 1997d). Follow up support was offered by education managers (school inspectors) who visited schools and were guided by school development plans, and by the District's development unit who provided NGOs with the staff and school development plans. Thus, School and/or staff development plans are forwarded to DDUs who develop a district development plan that indicates district and school priorities. District officials then circulate the District professional development guidelines among NGOs, departmental INSET officials, colleges and universities for programme delivery. In Soshanguve, this allowed NGOs to develop courses and programs according to teacher needs (SWED, 1997c; Appendix Four). In some cases (for example, among NGOs following school focussed or centre based delivery models), negotiation and prioritisation of delivery sequences occurred between NGO and school communities. An important second set of policy recommendations concentrates on structuring the integration of communities into school planning cycles. Teachers commented that staff development pales into insignificance when teachers and parents are confronted with unemployment and poverty. Teachers interviewed pointed out that students living in poverty cannot "bring a Sunday Times [newspaper]"(Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000) for classroom use during the week. Thus professional development that ignored the broader school and 206 community influences on teacher and student behaviour had limited implementation success (Gabriel, 1984; Jansen, 1999a). The case study schools attempted to address these contextual elements to schooling by drawing community members into school planning. Accordingly, it is recommended that School Development Committees (SDCs) are formed with parent, student (in secondary schools) and teacher representation. SDCs would not replace school governance structures but would be responsible specifically for community, school and staff development. SDCs would plan school development programs. School development programs would include programs specifically for parents and students (such as ABET programs for parents and life planning and extra-curricular and extra-mural programs for students), and projects that address social, economic, or cultural concerns. Schools develop school and staff development plans according to their identified and perceived needs. Other sections of the school development plan could include development plans for youth and youth structures and planning for school infrastructural development. For example, the Rodney Mokoena case study showed in particular how, and the extent to which, parents can be involved in their children's learning. Similarly, the Reitumetse, Ayanda, and Boeipathutse studies showed that parents and other adults responded to initiatives to upgrade their own skills within the context of lifelong learning. In short, it is possible to identify a six-step process that guided SCD in the case study schools, and that should form the basis of any policy recommendations. One, programmes start with a problem and needs analysis in individual schools. Two, a school change team is formed to co-ordinate school-based activity. Teams consist of between four and eight teachers. Three, a school development plan is formulated. Four, training and development programmes, focussed on students, parents and/or teachers are initiated to support achievement of school-community identified goals. Five, frequent development team, staff, and school-community meetings are 207 held to report back on problems and progress of identified targets. Six, school development plans are forwarded to a single district official who identifies training and program needs, and who advises district administrators regarding school identified needs. A final recommendation would be to support ongoing research into the implementation of SCD. It is to this concern that I turn in section 11.3. 11.3 Suggestions towards future research The thesis opens up three central avenues for future research. One possible area for research entails follow-up studies of SCD in failing schools, and studies of schools that attempted to integrate the community development into school reform, yet failed. The thesis concentrated on successful examples of SCD showing how the approach generated different paths towards reform, and how different sectors (parents, teachers, students) assumed different leadership roles and responsibilities within the SCD process. Yet what are the conditions where SCD does not succeed? Related to this research would be to turn to the First, and Second Worlds and identify school-communities that have applied the SCD model in these social and economic contexts. Why was the model attempted, and what were the effects? What was the nature of the local education policy and leadership environment, and did this environment support or hinder the integration of school reform and School-Community Development? A second important area for follow-up research focuses on theories of the state, and in particular the "discursive state" (Dryzek, 1990) or the Subjective State (Bourdieu, 1999; Rosell, 1999) where problem definition, and solution formulation and implementation is debated among stakeholders (Robinson, 1998). Policy is configured to local community voice and folklore resurrecting an "authentic and reasonable" (Dryzek, 1990, p. 14) public discourse by 208 establishing procedural criteria for resolving social disputes, and initial principles for a reinvigorated democratic processes (Robinson, 1998; Sanderson, 1999, p. 330-331). This approach to governance generates a variety of institutional forms with different policy outcomes depending on the policy domain and spatial scale of the problem (Robinson, 1998, p. 153). It is claimed that this process of extending and "systematizing a diverse contribution to community affairs" (Manyard, 1999, p. 140) restores individual and community morale (Rappaport, 1998), contributes to the establishment of social capital (Putnam, 1992), and builds democracy (Sanderson, 1999, p. 330-331). But does it? Do we not see perhaps, the state 'withering away' by withdrawing from coordination and service provisioning functions, and leaving communities to obtain services from the most cost-effective providers. For example, the rhetoric of partnerships frequently amounted to the delegation of financial and administrative burdens of government to communities prompting Lynch (1997, p. 77-8) to observe that moves towards greater involvement of local communities in the provision of primary education have often been little more than thinly disguised means to move the burden of financing onto the backs of the poor, where such approaches have not included the allocation to those communities of adequate and appropriate resources to fulfill the devolved functions. Alternatively, are we perhaps witnessing the emergence of a new form of community self-management and governance, and the extension of democratic decision making, as claimed by Rosell (1999)? Research in this domain would need to examine the linkages between the school district and the schools, and the integration of SCD with district planning. Here we would need to carefully indicate the parameters of 'successful' or 'effective' SCD implementation. A sine qua non in this research would be the extension of indicators of success, effectivity or 209 quality away from the literature's focus on schools and educational domains to include an examination of the nature of support from the school district; the linkages between school development planning and local regulatory frameworks such as local banking regimes (that determine access to credit or that facilitate co-operative or joint ventures) and community micro-financing (such as the South African stokvel system, where community members contribute a monthly stipend to a rotating cash pool); and town and regional planning regulations that structure the nature and extent of local business operations and enterprise location. A third possible research trajectory that emerges from the thesis focuses on the questions of identity, participation, and language. For example, in the case study schools people's individual biographies, and their "hybrid identities" (Fine, 1994) were focussed on school-community problems, and structured by a development planning framework. This approach created an environment where members of school-communities could debate their visions of an 'effective' school. Furthermore, interviewees pointed out that incrementally these debates and the actions that they engendered began to undermine the community pathology that was the result of the Apartheid state. Did this change "in my morale" (Mapheto, Interview, 8 August 2000) alter school-community member's identities and their sense of self? If, as Piot suggests, people are constantly "involved in, and defined through, relations ... [our self is a] ... diffuse, fluid self- a self that is multiple and permeable, and infused with the presence of others" (1999, p. 18-19), did the experience of working together to address mutually defined community problems change people's identities? Or did the experience reconstitute and reaffirm people's identities? To what extent did SCD shift people's identities from a 'culture of poverty' towards that of a personhood braided into a liberatory self-confidence? Did SCD help create new memories, meanings and emotions, thereby helping to re-establish fragile bonds of social cohesion and support? 210 The question of participation emerges in this regard. While the thesis shows that participation was never seamless or 'problem free' (projects failed because of poor fiscal management; a SGB chairperson monitored teaching, and his wife reported teacher attendance; "drunkards" disrupted a student fundraising event) it also shows that significant participation did occur. A further, longitudinal study that combines quantitative and qualitative data would allow us to understand why people in impoverished and resource poor communities "defy the odds" (Maluleke, Interview, 8 August 2000). Studies of school governance in South Africa show that participation and attendance at meetings was declining (Khulisa Management Services, 1999). Did this trend occur in the case study schools? Did the approach of integrating community needs into school reform, into the new school governance policies, increase participation and lead to the emergence of a 'virtuous cycle' where greater community participation led to greater policy implementation success, leading to greater community participation? And who participates? At Ayanda, one of the eight Vegetable Gardens co-operators was a man; all the hawkers selling food and refreshments were women. In a community that averages 60% unemployment, where were the men? Why were they not 'participating'? Finally, the thesis suggests a deeper exploratory study on the effects of language on international policy borrowing. For example, a deconstructive analysis of policy text and text reception, or situated problem statement and description would yield exciting insights that might undermine the faith in the policy prescriptions of international agencies like the World Bank's "School Reform" project (World Bank, 2002). In this regard, we have already seen how the term "Whole School Development" was given an African identity in the transition from a school-focussed approach to school reform, to a school-community focussed approach to social and educational change (ESP, 1994; Vilakazi, 1995). What other examples of semantic policy slippage occur? And with what outcomes? The language of interview respondents, their 211 description of problem and solution, is a related field of research that emerges from the thesis and that also emphasizes the importance of ethnographic study. For example, in her interview Mrs. Makgato referred to learners who "cannot get equipment or anything additional. The computer programs affect learners who don't have any money because then they cannot participate" (Interview, 3 August 2000. See chapter six, p. 105). Mrs. Makgato referred here to two different topics. One, when speaking of "equipment or anything additional" she referred to school supplies like paper, pens, and an eraser. She is pointing out that her students are poverty stricken, and that any additional expense throws a family into crisis. Two, Mrs. Makgato referred to the "computer programs" that were introduced by member's of her school's community, following collective planning. Participation and use of the centre initially required that students pay a deposit and user fee to cover the costs of additional resources like computer paper that the District education office was not able to cover. However, for students who could not afford the fee, the introduction of the computer programmes that had been identified through School-Community Development planning "affects students" (Makgato, Interview, 3 August 2000). In the world of the township, "affects students" was a diplomatic way of saying that students would drop out or "become nonsensical" (F. Tsokolibane, personal communication, 2 February 1995), township talk again that captured a host of activities that could include (inter alia) drug or alcohol consumption, car theft and hijacking, home invasions, or rape. Another example is provided in Rodney Mokoena's "Pyjama Evenings". What poverty is hidden by the term? What values are aspired to? What mental images come to mind, and what life worlds and biographies are triumphed over in this simple celebration of community agency? And what policy prescriptions flow from the pens of policy analysts who hear of schools that are holding fireside pyjama evenings and family nights? A linguistic analysis would therefore 212 explore how people in the school-communities use words to hide and reconfigure their life worlds, to selectively retell their (auto)biographies and construct narratives of power and agency. This analysis and research would remind planners that living in poverty does not equate to living without dignity, and would help to establish school reform programs that create a space for local agency. 11.4 Conclusion The struggle to replace the legacy of racially based education provisioning in South Africa is not over. Indeed, both the South African government (RSA, 2000) and key advocates of the School Reform process (Taylor and Vinjevold, 1999) recognize that SR has made very little impact on the quality of education received by the majority of South African school children, and it has made even less impact on the quality of their lives. It is my contention in the thesis that SR, as currently conceptualized, is incapable of bringing about significant and meaningful school change. i Rather than more of the same, I argue for something different: I argue for integrating SR with local community development, an approach that is termed School-Community Development (SCD). SCD emphasizes the creative capacity of individuals to negotiate the tension between local needs and provincial and national policy frameworks. The case studies revealed that there are lessons to be learned, critiqued, and re-visited as part of the dynamic and reflective process that constitutes School-Community Development. The approach involves people in dialogue and practical action in attempts to change their school-communities and, as we have seen in the case study schools, changes both the consciousness of community members and the quality of teaching in the classroom. Significantly too, in the Permaculture based seed-213 planting operation of students at Rodney Mokoena and in the vegetable cooperative food was produced; and in the candle making, vegetable growing, masonry and metalwork, sewing, daycare and computer programs of parents, local businesses were created and previously unemployed parents gained skills and an income. In this process poverty was addressed, and lives were changed. In Africa we have a saying: "After the mountain, another mountain". The phrase speaks to the continual emergence of new struggles and 'new problems'. The process of SCD is not another "simplistic solution to educational problems" but recognises that new problems will be created through community involvement. However, problems are now being addressed by people living in the community; schooling is being transformed from within. In this sense SCD represents a quantum shift in the nature, practice, and process of reforming schools. 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Program Implementing unit School management development District Development Unit (DDU) Renovation of toilets in 5 schools DDU Scholar Transport DDU Education Management Information Systems DDU District Education and Training forum DDU School Governing Bodies DDU Rural and Farm schools- integration and Rural education forum DDU Impilo (Early childhood improvement) DDU ABET (Adult Basic education upgrading) DDU School renovation DDU 5% plan (Improvement in Matriculation results by targeted 5%) DDU Facilities planning and minor works DDU Curriculum 2005 Teach and Learn Unit (T&L) Life skills Auxiliary Services Unit (ASU) Special needs integration ASU Teacher redeployment and excess District Education Co-ordinators (DECs) 250 School quality improvement (Identification of school quality indicators) DEC'S Continuous assessment DEC'S Co-operative discipline and abolition of corporal punishment DEC'S 251 Appendix Two: Interviews and Personal Communications Table A2-1. Table of interviews. INSTITUTION CODE NAME ROLE DATE Al Mr. M. Nkonyane District Director 3/8/2000 A2 Mrs. E. Kock District PRO 2/8/2000 A3 Mr. M. Prew Field Director, Link Community Development 2/8/2000 A4 Dr. F. de Clerque Policy Analyst 6/8/2000 Ayanda Primary Bl Mrs. B. Madja Principal 3/8/2000 B2 Mrs. D. Morabe HOD 3/8/2000 B3(l) Mrs. L. Malapang Parent; Member of Vegetable cooperative 7/8/2000 B4(l) Mr. D. Mkhartswa Parent; Member of Vegetable cooperative 7/8/2000 B5(l) Mrs. A. Shibangu Parent; Member of Vegetable cooperative 7/8/2000 B6(l) Mrs. C. Thosago Parent; Member of Vegetable cooperative 7/8/2000 B7(l) Mrs. C. Ndlovu Parent; Member of Vegetable cooperative 7/8/2000 Boeipathutse Junior Secondary CI Mrs. S. Seroka Principal 7/8/2000 C2 Mr. H. Masuku HOD 6/8/2000 C3 (2) Mr. P. Makatu Chair, RCL 6/8/2000 C4(2) Mr. B. Malatjie PRO, RCL 6/8/2000 C5 Mrs. A. Modibedi RCL 6/8/2000 C6 Mr. E. Ramaphoko Teacher liaison officer, Teacher 6/8/2000 C7 (3) Mrs. N. Moshara Parent, Hawker 6/8/2000 C8 Mr. W. Raswene Chair, SGB 6/8/2000 252 C9 Mr. S. Mahlangu Parent 6/8/2000 Rodney Mokoena Preparatory DI Mr. J. Maluleke Principal; Treasurer, SADTU 8/8/2000 D2 Mr. C. Mmakola Secretary, SGB; Teacher 8/8/2000 D3 Mrs. G. Memela Teacher 8/8/2000 D4 Mrs. Y. Mapheto Teacher, PTA 8/8/2000 D5 Mrs. S. Kekana Deputy Principal 8/8/2000 D6 Mrs. J. Mpepele HOD 8/8/2000 Reitumetse High School El Mrs. J. Makgato Principal 3/8/2000 E2 Mrs. G. Moela Teacher 3/8/2000 E3 Miss. C. Mabena SRC 3/8/2000 Notes: 1. Group Interview conducted in Afrikaans and Northern Sotho. 2. Group Interview. 3. Interview conducted in Afrikaans. Interview structure (Individual, Pair, or Group) determined and arranged by schools. Interviewees determined by schools, following consultation with researcher. List of Personal Communications Pers.Comm.: Hindle. (1997). Discussion with Mr. D. Hindle on the Canada-South Africa Education Management Development Program and international donor funding. 12 October 1997. Pers.Comm.: Kock. (2000). Discussion with Mrs. E. Kock on school twinning and school partnerships at Reitumetse. 2 August 2000. Pers.Comm.: Lelliott. (1997). Discussion with Mr. T. Lelliott on Wits University's Education Management Development Program. 11 September, 1997. Pers.Comm.: Mabena. (1996). Discussion with Mrs. P. Mabena on community involvement in planning and building Ikwezi (later Rodney Mokoena Preparatory) school. 6 June 1996. 253 Pers.Comm.: Mahome. (2000). Discussion with Mr. E. Mahome on Soshanguve school problems, and history of Soshanguve on 2 August 2000. Pers.Comm.: Maluleke. (1996). Discussion with Mr. J.Maluleke on education problems and strategy of the South African Communist Party. 15 November, 1996. Pers.Comm.: Mekwa. (1997). Discussion with Mrs. R Mekwa on problems and tensions regarding C2005 implementation. 15 November, 1997. Pers.Comm.: Makgato. (2000). Discussion with Mrs. J. Makgato on community involvement in school rennovation. 3 August 2000. Pers.Comm.: Mphele. (2000). Discussion with Mr. Zweli Mphele on school based teacher inservice at Ayanda Primary School. 8 August, 2000. Pers.Comm.: Nkonyane. (1996). Discussion with Mr. M. Nkonyane on establishing the Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District. 25 April 1996. Pers.Comm.: Nkonyane. (2000). Discussion with Mr. M. Nkonyane on Case study schools and education developments in Soshanguve. 2 August 2000. Pers.Comm.: Nkosi. (1996). Discussion with Mr. Ft. Nkosi on school-community problems and planning. 16 May, 1996. Pers.Comm.: Orsmond. (1997). Discussion with Mrs. S. Orsmond on Early Childhood Development. 29 August, 1997. Pers.Comm.: Orsmond. (1998). Discussion with Mrs. S. Orsmond on teaching and learning at Reitumetse High. 4 February 1998. Pers.Comm.: Prew. (1996). Discussion with Mr. M. Prew on Link Community Development work with SWED, Soshanguve school problems, and school planning. 21 June 1996 Pers.Comm.: Sanford. (1998). Discussion with Mr. H. Sanford on teacher redeployment and school quality program. 15 March 1998. Pers.Comm.: Sanford. (1998). Discussion with Mr. H. Sanford on progress of Early Childhood Educare training program and involvement of Reitumetse High parents. 18 May 1998. Pers.Comm.: Sanford. (2000). Discussion with Mr. H. Sanford on computer training at Reitumetse High and ongoing school development planning. 2 August 2000. Pers.Comm.: Sape. (1997). Discussion with Mr. S. Sape on development of school infrastructures and condition of school physical plant in Soshanguve. 16 February 254 1997. Pers.Comm.: Tsokolibane. (1995). Discussion with Mr. F. Tsokolibane on school and community problems and planning. 2 February 1995. Pers.Comm. Tsokolibane, Ndlovu, Dlamini. (1996). Discussion with Mr. F. Tsokolibane, Mr. V. Ndlovu, and Mr. T. Dlamini on school and community problems and approaches to school and community development planning. 27 May 1996. 255 Appendix Three: Summary of Case study School's Data A3.1 Ayanda Primary School ADDRESS: SCHOOL TELEPHONE: SCHOOL FAX.: Principal's NAME: NUMBER OF TEACHERS: NUMBER OF STUDENTS: SCHOOL GRADES: TEACHER-STUDENT RATIO: NUMBER OF CLASSROOMS: PUPILS PER CLASS: Plot 172, Morula Sun Rd. Rosslyn. 0200. (Physical) PO. Box 911-2111. Rosslyn. 0200. (Postal) (012) 541 4130/790 0824 (012) 541 4130 Mrs. Bathabile Madja 21 (5 male, 16 female; 19 permanent, 3 temporary) 856 (425 Girls; 431 Boys) (2000) 1-6. ages 7-16 1:40 15(8 permanent brick; 7 temporary- community made, of wood on concrete base) 28 (lowest) - 37 (highest) 256 A3.2 Boeipathutse Jun io r Secondary School A D D R E S S : S C H O O L T E L E P H O N E : S C H O O L F A X . : P r i n c i p a l ' s N A M E : N U M B E R O F T E A C H E R S : N U M B E R O F S T U D E N T S : S C H O O L G R A D E S : T E A C H E R - S T U D E N T R A T I O : N U M B E R O F C L A S S R O O M S : P U P I L S P E R C L A S S : 1415 Block F. Soshanguve. 0152. (Physical) PO. Box 29. Soshanguve. 0152. (Postal) (012) 799 8383/ 799 174/ 799 5432 (012) 799 8383 Mrs. Sara Seroka 28 (9 male, 19 female; 26 permanent, 2 temporary) 858 (1999); 972 (498 Girls; 474 Boys) (2000) 7-9. ages 14-18 1:35 28 39 (lowest)- 48 (highest) 257 A3.3 Rodney Mokoena Preparatory School ADDRESS: SCHOOL TELEPHONE: SCHOOL FAX.: Principal's NAME: NUMBER OF TEACHERS: NUMBER OF STUDENTS: SCHOOL GRADES: TEACHER-STUDENT RATIO: NUMBER OF CLASSROOMS: PUPILS PER CLASS: PO. Box 29. Soshanguve. 0152. (Postal) (083) 229 3075 None Mr. John Maluleke 21 (5 male, 16 female; 18 permanent; 3 temporary) 856 (425 Girls; 431 Boys) (2000) 1-6. ages 7-16 1:41 19 27 (lowest) - 36 (highest) 258 A3.4 Reitumetse High School ADDRESS: S C H O O L T E L E P H O N E : S C H O O L FAX. : Principal's N A M E : N U M B E R O F T E A C H E R S : N U M B E R O F STUDENTS: S C H O O L G R A D E S : T E A C H E R - S T U D E N T R A T I O : N U M B E R O F C L A S S R O O M S : PUPILS PER C L A S S : 1669 Zone C. Soshanguve. 0152. (Physical) Private Bag 79. Soshanguve. 0152. (Postal) (012) 799 4483 (012) 799 4483 Mrs. A. J. Makgato 30 (12 male, 18 female; 25 permanent; 5 temporary) 987 (475 Girls; 512 Boys) (2000) 10-12. ages 15-19 1:28-51 25 28 (lowest)-51 (highest) 259 Appendix Four . Soshanguve Sustainable S C D Program: Outl ine of sub-programs. The Soshanguve Sustainable SCD Program consists of eleven different components (Table A4-1), identified and prioritized during a needs identification process that included consultation with teacher's unions and associations, the local Principal's forum, and consultation with Soshanguve's education co-ordinating committee. Program components included School Development Planning, youth development, cognitive development and cognitive teaching, mathematics teaching development and a School's Management Development Training program. A (cooperatively run) computer network and training facility was established in one of the schools and an Early Childhood Development program trained unemployed parents in small business development and ECD. While these projects reflected the focus of the district education office, and had a clear pedagogic orientation, the implementation procedure allowed school-communities to establish their own programs. To implement the program partnerships with local non-government organizations (NGOs) and institutions were established. In one case this saw an NGO field worker seconded to the district office and trained in school development planning and development planning workshop facilitation (SWED, 1997c). In another, the district offered logistical support and endorsed the program offered by the NGO. In a third, the district established a partnership with a local university and developed a management-training program with school and university staff. A baseline evaluation conducted in 10 Soshanguve schools, initiated by a partner NGO after the school development planning training workshops had been concluded, consolidated the successes of the training program and fostered closer relationships between the schools, teachers and district officials (Link Community Development/Soshanguve-Wonderboom Education District, 1997). 260 Table A4-1. Soshanguve Sustainable SCD Program: Outline of sub-programs (SWED, 1997c). Sub-program Description Implementation period & status School Development Planning The program trained representatives from 88 schools in Soshanguve in school development planning. The partner, Link Community Development, raised international donor funding. 1997-2001 Training Completed School's Management Development Training Program Poor management and leadership in schools contribute to the low quality of South African education. The District Management Team evaluated a University program but wanted several school representatives on the course simultaneously. Accordingly, negotiations with the university occurred, the program's structure was adjusted, and cohorts of school teams were trained in 1998 and 1999. 1998-2000 Training Completed Early Childhood Development Program The partnership trained early childhood development (ECD) practitioners in Soshanguve, and equipped early childhood centers in the township. The program is income and employment generating 1998-2000 Training Completed Computer network and Training Facility Computer Centers and Training Facilities are established in schools as part of SCD. This program was initiated, and is co-ordinated, by the Soshanguve Principal-Teacher Forum and the Soshanguve Education Co-ordinating Committee, both civic structures in Soshanguve. 1996-Ongoing School's Water Audit A partnership with the Department of Water Affairs. Schools elect a student water committee and water conservation awareness is incorporated into curricula, using teaching material developed by the Department of Water Affairs. Ongoing 261 Mathematics Upgrading Program The Mathematics Upgrading Program is co-ordinated by the Teach and Learn Unit and the Mathematics Center for Primary Teachers (MCPT). The program's goal is to train all primary school mathematics teachers in communicative and outcomes based mathematics teaching. Ongoing Learner's with Special Educational Needs (LSEN) program Co-ordinated by the Auxiliary Services Unit, the LSEN program prepares teachers for the integration of LSEN learners into the formal classroom (mainstreaming programs). Each school will, as part of its development plan, identify a LSEN team. The program trains these teams in approaches to, and classroom techniques of, integrated teaching. 1997-2000 Ongoing Researcher in Residence The Researcher/Evaluator in Residence is based in Soshanguve, and conducts research into the district's developing educational culture. Implemented; Ongoing Technology Education Program Working with the Ort-Step Institute, the program was to train all primary school teachers in technology education and integrating technology into the curriculum. 1999-2002 Not implemented Youth development program Co-ordinated by the Youth Development Co-ordinator of the Auxiliary Services Unit, the youth development program trains SRC members in the district in youth leadership, youth and development planning and project identification and planning 1999-2002 Ongoing Cognitive teaching program To be established with Vista University's Center for Cognitive Development, over a three year period, all teachers in the primary and junior secondary phases were to be trained in cognitive teaching, cooperative discipline and 'whole brain' learning 1999-2002 Not implemented 262