SUMMARY OF MAIN IDEAS OF THE STUDY

This section gives a summary of main ideas that were raised in the study. It starts by summarising ideas chapter by chapter. This is followed by a summary of cross-cutting issues.

6.1.1 Ideas of the study Chapter by chapter

In chapter 1, the background to the study was outlined in an effort to contextualise the study. The chapter sketched approaches to district support to schools from a number of countries in the world and then moved on to the South African approaches. The common thread is that district support comes in the form of visits to schools by district based officials who are mandated to promote the quality of teaching and learning in schools. In the case of South Africa these officers include Subject Advisors; EDOs and IQMS Coordinators. The motivation for the study, research questions, definition of terms and summary of methodology were also covered. The chapter ended with an outline of the whole study.

154 In chapter 2, the literature that was relevant to this study was reviewed, focussing on key concepts and theoretical frameworks. The concept of support with related terms of ‘inspection’; ‘supervision’ monitoring and control were covered and were seen as aspects of quality management. These concepts were discussed within the context of decentralised functions to education district offices. Theoretical frameworks used to understand the mandate of districts in managing quality through what is called ‘support’ visits, a term coined to move away from those that have connotations of control and compliance. The first framework draws on school effectiveness and school improvement tools of analysis, and seeks to understand district support within that. The second theoretical framework focuses on Deming’s cycle of support, which explains how the notion of support should be understood.

Chapter 3 presented the methodology of the study. It started by anchoring the study on philosophical ideas, covering different ontological and epistemological bases of research. This was followed by an outline of the research design and the methods of data collection and fieldwork processes. The whole study was then discussed through the lenses of canons of research rigour, under the title of ‘research quality’. In conformity with the conventions of all academic research, the chapter ended by outlining ethical considerations which guided the study.

In chapter 4 the presentation and analysis of the data that was collected was discussed. The data was collected through interviews and documentary analysis. It was divided into a number of themes, some drawn from research questions and others emerging from the data. .

Chapter 5 discussed the main research findings that emerged from the data in chapter 4. These findings were related to conceptual and theoretical frameworks that were discussed in chapter 2. In this chapter, a framework was developed of a district support model that takes into account the needs of all stakeholders.

155 6.1.2 Summary of Cross-cutting issues

6.1.2.1 Issue 1: District Education officials must, first be clear about their mandate and second, they must be allocated the requisite material and skills resources

The first issue is divided into two aspects. The first is that education district officials faced resource related challenges in carrying out their mandate to visit all schools, consequently impacting on the frequency of visits to schools. This raises the question as to whether the state decentralises responsibilities without the accompanying resources. The second issue relates to what they did when they visited schools. In schools they interacted mainly with teachers and principals outside the classroom and did not directly supervise teaching and learning. While there may be reasons for this, which include state agreements with teacher unions, it is important that the officials are adequately equipped with the necessary skills to support teaching and learning.

6.1.2.2. Issue 2: Need for coordinated support to schools.

One of the main findings of the study is that the three categories of district officials did not coordinate their activities of support to schools. One school signalled the fact that this lack of coordination manifests itself through contradictory messages that are communicated by the district office to schools. The danger of lack of coherency in district support is that it can encourage blind compliance to satisfy technicist demands from each official who visits the school at the expense of improvement in school effectiveness . This study suggests a framework of ideas that can lead to the development of coordinated district support to schools.

156 6.1.2.3 Issue 3: Balance between School effectiveness and School

improvement

Drawing on school effectiveness ideas, it can be argued that the visits by district officials constitute part of a repertoire of administrative inputs to schools. These are expected to lead to enhancement of quality in terms of increased learner outputs which have acquired the desired outcomes. However, as appeared to be the case in this study, if no attention is paid to the black box, that is, teaching and learning, then there is no way of ensuring intended effectiveness. There is, therefore, a need to focus on support, not merely as a fashionable way to move away from the politically controversial ‘inspection’ and ‘supervision’, to focus on actual value-adding visits that result in school change or improvement to be reflected in learner success rates and their qualitative transformation.

6.1.2.4 Issue 4: School level pedagogic supervision and support

The fact that district officials did not have first-hand knowledge of what is happening in the classroom, due to the fact that their visits preclude classroom visits means that they do not have direct knowledge of what is happening in the classroom. They receive information from the principal and members of the School Management Teams who have been delegated to conduct pedagogic support and supervision. While the value of reports from school level officials cannot be dismissed, it can be argued that without first hand (arising from direct observation of processes in the classroom) knowledge of the pedagogical needs of schools it may be difficult for district officials to devise appropriate support strategies and activities.

157 6.1.2.5 Issue 5: Implications of district support for teacher accountability

Findings about how district offices support schools have implications for three types of accountability for teachers. The first is contractual accountability which refers to the fact that teachers are held accountable to their employer, which is the government through the district office and not to teacher unions. This raises questions about the status of district agreements with teacher unions on matters of teaching and learning. The second type of accountability is professional accountability. Teachers as professionals have their association in the form of the South Africa Council of Educators. This raises the issue of the extent to which this association can work with district officials to support teaching and learning in schools. The third form is public accountability. Teachers as members of the public are accountable to the public to deliver quality teaching and learning. This calls for a high level of responsibility on their part to meet the learning needs of students. Support, in this case need not only come from the district but form parents as well.