Doctoral Degrees (Education Policy Studies)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Education Policy Studies) by browse.metadata.advisor "Berkhout, S. J."

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    The development of an education management information system from a sensemaking perspective and the application of quantitative methods to analyse education data sets
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2006-12) Van Wyk, Christoffel; Van der Berg, S.; Berkhout, S. J.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Education Policy Studies.
    Information is a necessary resource, produced by information systems and is a key building block to the management and decision-making in any organisation. The National Department of Education’s guidelines to establish Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) in provincial departments is a recognition that proper management, planning and evaluation are contingent on quality data, data that is complete, relevant, accurate, timely and accessible. The lack of quality data and the lack of integration with other information systems hamstring the effective use of EMIS. This study addresses these limitations in three basic objectives: a) developing an information systems development model, b) applying the model in a real-life context of the development of the Western Cape EMIS, and c) applying quantitative methods on integrated data sets derived from the EMIS in the Western Cape and other information systems. The study culminates in the development of a four-phase process model for developing and using EMIS in an integrative manner that would provide a more comprehensive picture for policy and decision-making. It outlines the establishment of an information systems development (ISD) model that integrates innovative emerging trends, such as improvisation, bricolage and sensemaking, in designing and implementing information systems. These approaches postulate that beyond the numbers and quantifiable world there is a complex reality that traditional approaches do not always capture. These include, amongst other things, the atmosphere, culture and structure of an organization, together with the behaviour, emotions, knowledge and experiences of all the people who in one way or another interact with the information system. The research presents an empirical application of this developed ISD model in education management information system (EMIS) and underscores the role of information systems in everyday practice. This work practice (Practice-in-Action) approach is used to describe how the day-to-day actions and practical experiences of role players contribute to the design, development, implementation, testing, maintenance and improvement of the EMIS and is used as a lens for understanding ISD. The study further uses quantitative methods, namely education production function and learner flow-through models, to illustrate how the process of knowledge discovery in large data sets in EMIS could be facilitated. The education production function aims to identify those variables that could have a significant influence on the achievement of students in the matriculation examination. The learner flow-through models attempt to measure the effect of learner dropout and repetition on internal efficiency of the education system. Data analysis was facilitated through integration of data sets from various sources, and in turn illustrates the important role of bricolage in ISD. Through this analysis, the role of information systems of this nature to make sense of reality was highlighted. Policy making then can build on the findings from such data analyses to investigate in greater depth any trends or emerging problems, going beyond only the quantitative and macro level analysis by studies at the qualitative and micro levels.
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    Intercultural understanding in global education communities : tracing intercultural education in a pre-service teacher training program at the University of Stellenbosch
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2005-12) Noble, Nicole C.; Berkhout, S. J.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Education Policy Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The world is at a rapid pace being confronted with the need to shift national education policies that reflect basic human rights, with equity and fairness to the forefront. Along side of this herald are demonstrations of active mobilizations on the part of institutions of higher learning to "internationalize" their policies and programs to help to produce global citizens that effectively interact in international settings. As South Africa experiences changing scenes in educational reform government officials, practitioners, and educators face a number of challenges. Particularly, those related to cultural interactions when engaging in activities across the diaspora of school environments. Often these challenges serve as impediments to open communication, understanding and sensitivity amongst diverse cultural groups. As these impediments are faced in classrooms teachers increasingly find themselves at a deficit to adequately host learning environments conducive to its participants. Institutions of higher learning have a responsibility to provide the kind of intercultural dialog that entrenches policies and program curricula that speak to the needs of diverse communities, in particular those preparing future teachers. The research introduces the concept of global education communities to contribute towards shaping the kind of institutions that provide opportunities for students to practice, and become skilled in intercultural understanding. The research also raises serious discussion through the proposal of the elements of intercultural education towards contributive measures to address intercultural education, communication, and training. A case study of a four year pre-service general education training program (BEd GET) at the University Stellenbosch was conducted to trace and examine the presence of intercultural education. Data was collected by means of triangulated document analysis, interviews, and questionnaires. The research looked to a metaphoric analogy using Appreciative Inquiry, power with, and elements of intercultural education. The data was analyzed using qualitative strategies including classification and category construction, with imaginative variation and heuristic inquiry. The findings revealed that themes from intercultural education found expression or appearance in some aspects of the program outcomes, various module offerings, and teacher practice and approaches of the BEd GET curriculum. While the research also revealed that intercultural education does not appear to be a wholly attended pedagogy and practice in the GET program, the findings and interpretations revealed that intercultural education has numerous opportunities for expression and appearance to lay foundations for intercultural practice in theory. Another dimension of the research also revealed that students and lecturers collectively were not familiar with the concept of intercultural education, nor could a distinction between multicultural, and intercultural education be made. Furthermore, students' understandings and feelings reveal some resistance to themes in cultural diversity. The findings seem to reveal a need to incorporate strategies that raise intercultural consciousness. In view of the University of Stellenbosch's plan to internationalize, the findings present critical implications and recommendations toward incorporating intercultural pedagogy and practice into the methodological framework of the BEd General Education program. It finally poses future program and module development with respects to intercultural education and practice through the suggested use of the Hammer and Bennett's (1998, 2002) Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).
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    School principals' experiences of the decentralisation policy in Zimbabwe
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2010-03) Masuku, Elisa; Berkhout, S. J.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Education Policy Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The decentralisation of power in education is part of a global process that has become part of the education reform policies of most countries. Decentralisation, which is typified by the redistribution of power to local levels, is claimed to serve a variety of ends from democratization to efficiency, empowerment of stakeholders to improved quality of education. It is, however, a complex process that is difficult to capture as power is seen to manifest in multiple ways. During the nineties Zimbabwe, against the background of a massive increase in enrolments, for a variety of reasons including the improvement of the quality of education, embarked on the re-distribution of administrative and financial power in the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture. The implementation of this policy revealed major discrepancies between the intentions of government and the way it translated in educational sites. The aim of this study is to explore how the intentions of decentralisation in education as a policy aimed that the improvement of the quality of education is experienced by school principals. An interpretative methodology with in depth interviews, focus groups, some observations and document analysis were employed to engage in the debates about decentralisation. Although this was a small study the findings concurred with studies of decentralisation in other countries where it was found that the re-distribution of power in education manifests differently in different contexts in the same country. In countries such as Zimbabwe where resource limitations and restructuring concomitantly took place the experience of principals revealed that conditions arose that could not be seen to be conducive to the improvement of the quality of education such as the ambiguity of the meaning of who is responsible for what, the power struggles as government was seen to recentralise crucial roles, increased workloads of principals due to the devolving of administrative and supervisory functions to school level, loss of teachers and other specialist functionaries conducive to a drop in standards and the challenge to parents who had to contribute increasingly to enable schooling of their children. These findings are indicative of the claims from studies in other countries that decentralisation as a policy for whatever reason is seldom more than political rhetoric to decentralise conflict. Exploring the intersection between the literature on decentralisation and parental involvement of education, however, revealed the opening up of other spaces that enabled local power relations to develop in creative ways as parents got increasingly involved in schools. Apart from the challenges related to the redistribution of power as authority delegated, devolved or deconcentrated from government, this study revealed that power manifests in relations and interactions not necessarily ascribed to the intentions of policy, neither as a substance or function only.
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    Teachers, assessment and outcomes-based education: a philosophical enquiry
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009-12) Slamat, Jerome Albert; Waghid, Yusef; Berkhout, S. J.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Education Policy Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The core question that is addressed in this dissertation is: “How can we think differently about education in order to transcend the predicament that outcomes-based assessment poses for teachers and the practice of teaching?” This question is addressed against the background of my own narrative and experience in education in South Africa and in dialogue with the ideas of a number of contemporary philosophers. I assume an internal link between the outcomes-based discourse and its attendant assessment system. I argue that although outcomes-based education is proclaimed to be a progressive pedagogy, an alternative argument can be made that characterises it as an old behaviourist, management theory, overlain by a new policy technology called performativity. Thereafter, I engage critically with outcomes-based assessment as a prime example of performativity. In the next step I explore the ways in which outcomes-based assessment poses a predicament to teachers and to the practice of teaching. I then construct an alternative view of education that, in my opinion, provides a way to transcend the predicament that outcomes-based assessment poses for teachers and the practice of teaching. I also compare my alternative view of education with a new notion of education as therapy and standing in need of therapy, which is also presented as an alternative to instrumental approaches to education. Thereafter I consider the implications of my alternative view of education for teachers and assessment. I consider potential critiques against my argument at various stages in this dissertation. In the final chapter, I anticipate five more potential critiques against the argument developed in this dissertation and give initial responses to these. At the end of this dissertation I extend an invitation to deliberation in the spirit of my alternative view of education.