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Exploring the role of principal-cum teachers in a multi-grade school context : evidence from five principals in one district of KwaZulu-Natal.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Ngcobo, Sikhulekile General. |
| Copyright Year | 2015 |
| Abstract | Globally, research shows that in many countries multi-grade teaching is practised. The research shows that in some countries this practice is exercised by choice and in other instances, it is by necessity. In the context of South Africa, it is exercised not by choice but as a necessity. It is one of the ways of ensuring that the Education For All goals are attained even in remote areas. In South Africa, the Constitution of the country, Act 108 of 1996, clearly spells out that all children have a right to learn irrespective of what the conditions are. Research shows that multi-grade teaching is mostly practised in rural areas where the population is very low in such a way that children who are part of that society cannot make a class or a mono-grade in their school. This is due to the stipulations of the Post Provisioning Norms that is used in the context of South Africa which declares that the number of teachers stationed in the school is determined by the number of learners enrolled in the school. Research shows that in schools where multi-grade teaching is practised, principals are also engaged fully in teaching multi-grade classes. Therefore, in these schools, principals perform two crucial roles, leadership and management and multi-grade teaching. Principals are compelled to develop a knowledge base within the complexities of the actual classroom situation and also for administrative, leadership and management. In this study, these principals are regarded as principal-cum teachers. This inquiry investigated the experiences of principal-cum teachers as heads of institution and also multi-grade teachers. Handling these two roles simultaneously requires some skills since it is two roles rolled on one hand. Through a multi-site case study design, involving five schools as sites and triangulated by conducting individual interviews, focus group interviews and observations, I focused on three issues. I focused on exploring their daily roles and how they experienced these roles; their different strategies employed to manage their multiple roles and finally looking at what we can learn from the principal-cum teachers regarding ways of better managing multi-grade schools. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10413/13378/Ngcobo_Sikhulekile_General_2015.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
