R: “Does your school have a vision and mission statement and how does it manifest in the daily activities of the school?”
Educator (school B)
“The aim of our mission is to develop our kids holistically so that they become er… reliable … … … er … dedicated and … er … how ca I put it? That they become very effective in the economy as well as trustworthy citizens of our country”
Educator (school D)
“Uhmm … more so that I’m actually new here I don’t know it by heart; because it’s only been a year that I’ve been here”.
R: “When you attend workshops on transitional issues like the implementation of the new curriculum, do you prefer that the principal accompany you or to go all by yourself and why?”
Educator 1
“Er … because I feel she must know exactly what we are doing. If it’s a school she can’t run a school if you don’t know what the teachers are doing in their classes. Er … if you are a leader, you can’t take the lead on what you give the teachers. So I feel that she must also be brought into this whole thing so that er … if we’ve got a problem or if there is something we don’t agree with and she knows that, or if there is an extra course that we have to attend or like that, that she is also aware of”.
(school C)
“An instructional leader … as regarding daily practice, I think we are lucky because Mrs T was at the Department for quite a long time, so er … I believe that she knows the importance of er …all workshops and things going on in the Department, that she must be a hands-on person, that you can’t just sit in your office and run a school. Er … it doesn’t work like that, you are a general manager, you must know everything of all the sections of a school”.
R: “Are the physical conditions of your school conducive to teaching and learning?”
Educator (school D)
“No, in the sense that er … that so many incidents have taken place whereby learners are stabbing one another seriously. There is no security enough and then er … there are few male teachers er… educators and the few who are there are not always available when there are fights among learners and when they are bullying one another around”
R: “What role has the principal in helping you cope with the transition?”
Educator (school C)
“Er … we had a meeting … a staff meeting and er …with me … we sat together er … with all the material we got in curriculum 2005 er… and she sat with me to go through everything again and she got a specialist in for me to just put me, you know? To equip me again and er …d’you know? She sat together, so we sat together and we er … discussed the different things we must do, all the components of curriculum 2005 er … with me… we had to report back to her whether everything was alright, but she really helped me a lot”.
R: “How would you describe the general attitude of the educators towards the IQMS?”
Educator (school D)
“… let us say IQMS, after having done or should that be done at school, should the IQMS be done at school, I think it will lead us somewhere, if he makes sure that it is implemented and it is done. He … er … it will lead us at least to a certain incentive”.
R: “Now are you saying that the IQMS is not done at all?” Educator (school C)
“It is not done at all, because I believe the IQMS is having … er … the backbone of the school, it’s having everything, it’s for us, it’s having incentives, opportunities and even job satisfaction’ especially, it gets up but because of the implementation which is not done we remain demoralized, demotivated”
R: “If you were to advise the principal to improve efforts to support you in instructional activities, which recommendations would you make?”
Educator (school B)
“Firstly, I would say teachers are managers and as managers, they manage their classes. They also need to be assisted in that aspect and be involved in more activities, because even if we end up being a threat to male teachers, women are always excluded when men are given some jobs. I think it’s high time male principals are made aware of the importance of including women in management and the like”
Educator (school D)
“Uhmm … I would recommend that er ... number one, that he has to try to be very knowledgeable in as far as all the learning areas that we are actually having here in the school by actually interacting more often with the educators, so that he can also know what is the latest trends. So that once he is informed, he will definitely render assistance that will actually … assistance that will actually help, but if he is not in the know how to go about these educators around here, it will be very, very difficult. So these Personal interventions to educators and maybe the department will actually better equip him to know actually how to go about interacting and actually helping in as far as er … instructional purposes are actually concerned”