dc.description.abstract |
The study aimed to explore the perceptions of secondary school educators of the East London Education District on the developmental aspect of the Integrated Quality Management System. The researcher has observed that despite the endeavors of the Department of Education to implement IQMS, it seems as if there is no real development taking place in schools. The research was conducted in two secondary schools, one from an urban area and another from a rural area of the district under study. Purposeful sampling was employed and the sample comprised four educators from each school (i.e. the principal, IQMS coordinator, union member and post level one educator).In this study the researcher employed a qualitative research approach in the form of a case study. The case comprised secondary school educators (including principals) of two purposively selected schools. The case study was meant to ensure the description and analysis of the qualitative data. Qualitative research lies with the idea that meaning is socially constructed by individuals in interaction with their world. The study embraced a basic interpretive paradigm. This type of paradigm is interested in understanding how participants make meaning of a situation or phenomenon. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews since they give the researcher latitude to explore emergent themes and ideas. Findings reveal that the IQMS has not been fully implemented in schools because of many challenges. These challenges include lack of understanding of the IMQS process by educators, lack of honesty on the part of Developmental Support Groups in the way in which they are scoring during class observation, negative attitudes which educators are still harboring towards supervision, time factor, and lack of support on the part of the education district office. The respondents managed to come up with some developmental aspects of the IQMS although it became apparent that they are outweighed and clouded by these challenges. The respondents were adamant that the IQMS has, (a) given educators guidelines on how to teach, (b) gives schools autonomy to develop educators in-house, (c) it has improved cooperation in schools, (d) facilitates self-development and, (e) conscientizes educators about their strengths and weaknesses. |
en_ZA |