Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'School management and organization Social aspects Victoria'

Thesis (M. Ed.(Educational Psychology)) - Central University of technology, Free State, 2010
The purpose of this study was to: * Investigate how school management understands and responds to the impact of HIV and AIDS on educators at Botshabelo primary schools. * Formulate recommendations, based on the findings of the study, for the design of programmes to develop school principals and heads of department so that they can proactively deal with HIV and AIDS. The method of research consists of an investigation in which a sample of thirty (30) primary schools at Botshabelo in the Free State Province was used. Questionnaires were distributed among the principals and heads of department. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the experiences and perceptions of the principals and heads of department towards understanding and responding to the impact of HIV and AIDS on educators. The empirical research was undertaken so as to gather information that could provide answers to the following research questions: * What is the impact and effect of HIV and AIDS on educators? * How can educators be assisted to cope with the impact that HIV and AIDS may have on their lives? * What impact do HIV and AIDS infected educators have on school management? The literature study showed that HIV and AIDS impact on education in various ways. It also indicated that the pandemic has a psychological-social impact on educators. Questionnaires revealed that most educators lose interest in their career. The study also revealed that HIV and AIDS education has not been extensively covered and standardised at the primary schools in Botshabelo. The findings derived from questionnaires provided several implications for planning, teaching and implementation of HIV and AIDS awareness programmes. Although the majority of the principals and heads of department believed that it is necessary to implement the HIV and AIDS policies in their schools, the results revealed that some are neglecting the implementation of HIV and AIDS policies. Lastly, the specific HIV and AIDS programmes should be co-ordinated by the Free State Department of Education in order to ensure that the support programmes achieve what they are intended to achieve. Principals and heads of department should be encouraged to take the lead in the fight against the impact of HIV and AIDS on education.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the operation and impact of teacher study groups at one school site throughout a school year. The study was exploratory in nature. The research questions focused on the major factors in the school's external and internal context that impacted the study groups, the typical behaviors and interactions of the study group participants, and the impact of the study groups on the participants, the curriculum, and instruction.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The study represents an analysis of the role of civil society organisations/non‐governmental organisations (CSOs/NGOs) in building human capabilities through knowledge construction. It assesses the effectiveness of community publishing in building human capabilities under challenges they face in the environment they are operating in. The complex environment CSOs/NGOs are operating in is dealt with. It will be demonstrated that CSOs/NGOs give marginalised communities, especially women, children and the disabled, a platform where they can organise themselves and give them an opportunity to influence policy and development of their community. Community development has many interpretations. This study focuses on communities as central agents responsible for their own development. When communities participate in their own development, they are engaging in an educational process which is both formal and informal in nature. The education process helps them to understand their situations better. This type of education called ‘popular education’, is based on the belief that people involved in the process have important knowledge that they have acquired from their experiences in life and the education they receive mainly consists of dialogue between different knowledge sets that they possess. In the process, when people participate actively in the development of their communities, a sense of ownership is developed. For the purpose of designing the study, observation of the direct involvement of staff from local government, Africa Community Publishing Development Trust and partner organisations as well as working with communities from Shamva, Umzingwane and Buhera provided the basis. It is noted that party politics affects the development of a CSO/NGO sector that is capable of building human capabilities. It is, therefore, clear that government should create an enabling environment that is free from violence and rule of law should be respected as this helps CSOs/ NGOs to implement capability building programmes conducive for all communities to participate in the development of their areas.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die studie ontleed die rol van burgerlike organisasies/nie‐regeringsorganisasies (BOs/NRO's) in die bou van menslike vermoëns deur middel van kennis konstruksie. Die studie beoordeel die effektiwiteit van die gemeenskap uitgewery in die bou van die menslike vermoëns en die uitdagings wat hulle in die gesig staar in die omgewing waar hulle hul bevind. Die komplekse omgewing waarin BOs / NRO’s hul bevind word inmiddels behandel. BOs/NRO's gee gemarginaliseerde gemeenskappe veral vroue, kinders en gestremdes 'n platform waar hulle hul self kan organiseer en gee hulle ' n geleentheid om beleid te beïnvloed en hul gemeenskap te ontwikkel. Ontwikkeling van die gemeenskap het baie interpretasies. Die studie fokus op die gemeenskappe as sentrale agente wat verantwoordelik is vir hul eie ontwikkeling. Wanneer gemeenskappe betrokke is in hul eie ontwikkelings proses, neem hulled deel aan ’ n opvoedkundige proses wat van nature beide formeel en informeel is. Die opvoedkundige proses help hulle om hul situasies beter te verstaan. Hierdie tipe van Onderwys genaamd "gewilde onderwys", is gebaseer op die oortuiging dat mense wat betrokke is in ‘n proses belangrike kennis besit as gevolg van persoonlike lewenservaringe, die opvoeding wat hulle ontvang bestaan hoofsaaklik uit dialoog tussen die verskillende kennis stel dat hulle besit. Wanneer mense aktief deelneem in die ontwikkeling van hul gemeenskappe, word 'n gevoel van eienaarskap ontwikkel. In terme van die ontwikkeling van die studie het die direkte betrokkenheid van die personeel van plaaslike regering, ACPDT en vennoot organisasies asook die werk met die gemeenskappe van Shamva, Umzingwane en Buhera die basis gevorm van die studie. Politieke partye beinvloed die ontwikkeling van die BO/NRO‐sektor en dit stel hulle in staat om menslike vermoëns op te bou. Die regering moet 'n instaatstellende omgewing skep wat vry is van geweld en waar die oppergesag van die reg gerespekteer word. Dit sal BO’s/NRO's help om vermoëns bouende programme te implementeer wat gemeenskappe die geleentheid sal gee om deel te hê aan die ontwikkeling van hul gemeenskap.

M.Ed. (Education Management)
Traditionally it has been accepted that if schools need to be improved, it has to be done within the metaphor of schools being organizations. The general belief was that within this framework schools can realize the full potential of the youth. History and reality has revealed to educational leaders and reseachers that schools have not really served the real purpose they were created for. This revelation entails that schools don't only fail to ensure optimal learning opportunities and facilities to all participants; they also fail to ensure a safe and natural environment. The support for this argument can be derived from the fact that during the last two to three decades education, and therefore educational management, has gone through numerous phases of change, restructuring and renewal. The fact of the matter is that mankind is not satisfied with the contribution that education and educational management has made to ensure the prosperous survival of humanity in an always changing world. This has become a tremendous headache for educational leaders. As if this is not enough, the number of interested parties in the provision and management of education is always increasing. The vociferous demands of these people with regard to educational matters is obviously something that educational managers must always bear in mind. The problems of educational leaders and managers are definitely not made easier by the fact that sUbordinates, especially teachers, are increasingly showing dissatisfaction with the manner in which teaching is being managed and supervised. Teachers are mostly heavily aggrieved by the fact that their true status as professionals and their sense of responsibilty as professional educators are undermined by current and prevailing bureaucratical supervisional practices and processes.

Small businesses represent by far the largest proportion of business entities within Australian business, and as such represent a vital component of the country’s economic structure (ABS, 2016). There has been a significant increase in the Australian population due to immigration from a range of countries. In fact, Australia is now very diverse, with migrants arriving from more than 200 countries across the world. There are approximately 5.3% of all small businesses that are run by Vietnamese entrepreneurs in Australia (ABS, 2016). It is clear from this figure that Vietnamese small businesses make up a significant proportion of this sector in Australia. This thesis examines the dynamics of Vietnamese migrants in small business in Victoria. The consideration of environmental and personal factors in understanding Vietnamese migrant business start-ups, survival and Ethnic Entrepreneurship theories has been the focus of discussion for this study. Firstly, there is a general consensus of what contributing environmental and personal factors influence the Vietnamese migrant in business start-up. Secondly, the thesis looks at how these factors are associated with the Ethnic Entrepreneurship theories identified in the literature. Lastly, the work identifies what factors have contributed to the Vietnamese migrant in sustaining their small business.

Leung Tsan-wing.
Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references.
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Abstracts in English and Chinese.

M.Ed. (Educational Management)
Situational leadership can be very effective in schools if applied correctly. It is therefore essential for the head of department to know exactly what situational leadership is all about. Situational leadership is defined by the Hersey and Blanchard as follows: Situational leadership is based on an interplay among: the amount of guidance and direction (task behaviour) a leader gives, the amount of socio-emotional support (relationship behaviour) a leader provides, and the readiness level displayed by the followers in performing a specific task, function or objective. There is unfortunately no one best way to influence teachers. It is of the utmost importance that the head of department must have the ability to diagnose and interpret the situation correctly in order to adapt his style accordingly. The leadership style of the head of department will therefore match the maturity level of the teachers. The ultimate goal will be the effective changing of leadership style from telling to selling to participating and eventually to delegating. The teachers will then be able to function independent and autonomous. The influence of various management models and-theories will also be dealt with in this research. The model of Hersey and Blanchard most probably originated from the model of Tannenbaum and Schmidt. Situational leadership is accepted worldwide as effective and functional if applied correctly. The correct application will thus result in effective teaching and positive results in that specific department. It is therefore an indisputable fact that situational leadership has a positive influence on teaching and educating if applied efficiently.

The generation of robust causal evidence is of paramount importance for informing policy and assessing the effect of different interventions in the educational setting. The objective of this thesis is to design and apply new methods for causal inference, particularly in observational studies, to answer pressing educational questions and provide evidence of the effect of specific events and policies. This thesis consists of three papers that use different identification strategies, such as a natural experiment, a regression discontinuity design, and a difference-in-differences approach, in combination with matching techniques, to identify the effect that specific educational interventions and a natural disaster had on students' and schools' outcomes in Chile. In the first paper, Vielma, Zubizarreta, and I present a new way of matching in observational studies that is able to (i) balance covariates directly with multiple-valued treatments, (ii) build self-weighted matched samples that are representative of a target population, and (iii) handle matching problems in large datasets in a fast and efficient way. The key insights of this new approach to matching are balancing the treatment groups relative to a target population and positing a linear-sized mixed integer formulation of the matching problem. We illustrate this method using both a simulation study and a case study. In the observational study, we estimate the effect that different intensities of the 2010 Chilean earthquake had on senior high school students' educational outcomes. We find that while increasing levels of exposure to the earthquake had a negative impact on school attendance, it had no effect on college admission test scores. In my second paper, I tackle the issue of generalization in a regression discontinuity design. Regression discontinuity designs are a commonly used approach for causal inference in observational studies. Under mild continuity assumptions, the method provides a robust estimate of the average treatment effect for observations directly at the threshold of assignment. However, it has limited external validity for populations away from the cutoff. This paper proposes a strategy to overcome this limitation by identifying a wider interval around the cutoff for estimation using a Generalization of a Regression Discontinuity Design (GRD). In this interval, predictive covariates are used to explain away the relationship between the assignment score and the outcome of interest for the pre-intervention period. Under the partially-testable assumption of conditional time-invariance in absence of the treatment, the generalization bandwidth can be applied to the post-intervention period, allowing for the estimation of average treatment effects for populations away from the cutoff. To illustrate this method, GRD is applied in the context of free higher education in Chile to estimate effects for vulnerable students. I find evidence that students at the margin of eligibility were positively affected by the policy, increasing both application and enrollment rates to university. In terms of a generalized effect, evidence is also consistent with an increasing effect as we get away from the cutoff. Finally, the third paper in this thesis addresses the question of unintended consequences in school segregation due to the introduction of a targeted voucher scheme. I use a difference-in-difference approach, in combination with matching on time-stable covariates, to estimate the effect that the 2008 Chilean voucher policy had on both average students' household income and academic performance at the school level. Results show that even though the policy had a positive effect on schools' standardized test scores, closing the gap between schools that subscribed to the policy compared to those that did not, there was also an increase in the differences between socioeconomic characteristics at the school level, such as average household income.

Despite decades of research on school effectiveness and improvement, we continue to struggle to support school improvement at scale. I suggest this is in part due to methodological and theoretical limitations of the extant literature: While there is a growing consensus that leaders should “diagnose” school improvement needs to devise contextually appropriate improvement strategies, no empirical guidance exists to support how to make such diagnoses or which strategies to employ given contextual variation. I address this gap through a mixed methods analysis of how schools with varying improvement capacity at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City adapted and learned in response to the pandemic’s challenges. While the COVID-19 pandemic has presented school and district leaders with a more extreme context in which to confront a central problem that has confounded educational researchers and practitioners for decades: How can school and district leaders build the improvement capacity that will enable them to continuously meet the needs of all students in all schools? There are five key findings of the present study. First, using Latent Transition Analysis (LTA), I identified six statistically significant subgroups among all New York City elementary, middle, and high schools serving students in grades 3-8 (n=1225) based on teachers’ perceptions of school improvement capacity. I further described the relationship between this typology and school contextual covariates and student outcomes, depicting the types of schools that are classified in each subgroup and the relationship between subgroup classification and academic outcomes. Second, I demonstrated how teachers’ perceptions of school capacity varied from 2017-2019 and further identified a differential relationship between principal turnover and school improvement trajectories. Third, I found strong qualitative support for the quantitative typology, describing alignment between teachers’ and leaders’ lived experiences of school improvement and change and the quantitative typology and trajectories with one key exception: those schools that experienced a leadership transition after 2019 were most likely to have experienced dramatic change. Fourth, I found teachers’ and leaders’ perceptions of challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic varied, in part, as a function of their improvement capacity at the onset of the pandemic. Respondents in schools from high-capacity subgroups were more likely to view pandemic challenges as easy to overcome, while respondents in schools with minimal improvement capacity were more likely to be overwhelmed by the multiple, compounding challenges they faced during the pandemic. Finally, I found key differences in the strategies schools employed to adapt and learn in response to these challenges, which again, varied based on their improvement capacity when the pandemic hit. Together, these findings provide support for a theory of differentiated school improvement.

D.Ed.
The aim of this research is to explore affective, historical, social and educational factors that led to poor management or the break-down in school management due to local interest group structures in the Kathorus area. In order to achieve the designated goal the following aspects will be investigated: the opinion of members of variotis local interest group organisational structures regarding the role of school management in Kathorus; the level of commitment of these structures in school management/administration to achieve the culture of teaching and learning; identification of a suitable, practical strategy for overcoming the problems caused by the local interest group organisational structures at schools and local levels.

Understanding what schools can do to help low-income and high-achieving students succeed academically was one of the prime motivations of this dissertation. In Mexico, low-income students perform in the lowest quartiles of standardized tests, and their future is not promising. In order to understand what factors can help low-income students succeed at school, I reviewed the school effectiveness and resilience literature as to understand the different factors that determine academic achievement of students coming from low-income backgrounds. Through a thorough quantitative analysis of the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 and the Formato 911 databases, I identified the different factors that helped low-income students succeed at school. I first analyzed the student, family, and school factors that determined students’ academic achievement in Mexico, in order to get a general idea of what determined achievement of students in Mexico, as a country. Then, I went further and focused more on my sample of interest and analyzed the student, family, and school factors that were associated with a higher probability of showing higher scores on tests, even when struggling with a lack of resources. The most noteworthy finding from the analyses conducted to understand what determined students’ achievement in Mexico, as a country, was that academic performance was mainly explained by students' individual characteristics. Characteristics, including whether the student had a low or high socioeconomic status, whether he or she was in the appropriate grade, whether the student was a girl or a boy, whether he or she attended preschool, whether the student lived with his or her mother, and the attitude he or she had toward school, seemed to be associated with how the student scored on standardized tests. The school level variables that had a positive association with the students’ performance were the schools’ mean Index of Economic, Social and Cultural Status (ESCS), whether the school was private, and the percentage of indigenous students in the school. By estimating cross-level interaction effects, I found the interaction between ESCS and whether the school was located in a rural area and whether the school was a distance education program to be statistically significant. The aforementioned outcomes showed that one additional standard deviation of income had a very small effect on the academic achievement of students living in rural areas or attending a distance education program school. Another interesting finding is that the number of teachers enrolled in the incentives program offered by the government, Carrera Magisterial, was not statistically significant in any of my models, showing that this program was not effective in improving the education that middle school and 15-year-old students received in Mexico. I also analyzed the different factors that increased the probability of low-income students obtaining scores that were higher than would have been predicted given their socioeconomic status. I named these learners resilient students. I found a student’s attitude toward school, whether the student repeated zero, one or two or more primary school grades, whether they student attended a private or a Telesecundaria school, and the average class size of the school to be statistically significant variables. Attitude toward school seemed to have the largest contribution to increasing the probability of being categorized as resilient, almost half of a standard deviation, and remained positive and statistically significant in the analysis. The analysis showed that improving a student’s attitude toward school in one standard deviation, increased the probability of that student being resilient by 24 percentage points. However, it is hard to tell if students who are succeeding are doing so because of their attitude or if successful students have a better attitude because they are doing well in school. In any case, this variable was highly statistically significant and was similar to a noncognitive ability measure, which, according to the literature, includes skills omitted in most of the analyses of the determinants of achievement. One of most relevant findings of this study is that the number of teachers enrolled in the incentives program of the government, Carrera Magisterial, was not statistically significant in any of my models, showing that this program was not effective in improving the education that middle school and 15-year-old students received in Mexico. One of the implications is that the government should not consider the possibility of restoring that program in the Mexican education system. Preschool education, attitude towards school, gender, and time-spent in class are factors that highly related with the success of low-income students. Additional analysis and data is needed in order to perform further analysis on the impact that these determinants have on students achievement. Finally, this study revealed that Telesecundarias play an important role in helping economically disadvantaged students gain access to education in locations where no teachers or other school resources are available and are also positively associated with academic success.

本文希望探討弱勢小學如何在教育市場化趨勢下，因為收生不足而被教統局宣佈殺校，然而經過學校持分者的奮鬥，一年後竟能取錄足夠學生，成功逆轉重生。研究對象學校近年取錄的學生人數一直上升，甚至成為社區上受歡迎的學校。弱勢學校在汰弱留強的市場定律下竟能逆轉重生，這個香港教育界的特殊現象，箇中原因及意義便是本文著意的地方。
本文採用質性研究方法，邀請兩所位於不同貧窮社區的小學接受研究。兩所小學同樣經歷逆轉重生，其中一所小學甚至兩次殺校。在具體田野操作方面，本文採用民族誌研究方法，筆者透過長時間參與觀察、深度訪談、比較閱讀，整理兩所學校由殺校至今的逆轉發展脈絡。
研究結果發現，兩所能夠成功逆轉重生的學校從：宏觀層面、中介層面和微觀層面，均能啟動和累積社會資本，並轉化為不同類型的資本，包括：文化資本，經濟資本等，以支援學校的非常態運作，避過殺校宿命。此外，研究發現兩所學校的教師團隊同樣呈現一條由社會資本轉化為教學專業資本的脈絡，並在校本課程的編訂和教學法的探索得到成效，讓學生學習蒙受其利，這是學校逆轉的背後策劃能量。
本文期望教育領導人士能重新理解類教育市場脈絡的多端力量，並希望教育領導者了解學校在類教育市場的定位。另外，本文希望讓所有學校持分者重新理解社會資本在教育場域的正面能量。當中尤以校長為核心，啟動和轉化學校社會資本，他的信念和力量將是領導學校逆轉重生，以至持續發展的關鍵。
最後，本文無意為弱勢學校逆轉重生的現象下定論，限於資料收集的局限、類教育市場脈絡、社會資本概念的複雜性，本文主要通過現有的材料和論據，為香港弱勢社群教育這個領域作為開拓研究的鋪墊。
This thesis attempts to answer the question about how a disadvantaged primary school experienced turnaround in a Quasi-education market.
This is an ethnographic study, employing qualitative methods. Two primary schools from two low-income districts were invited to participate. They both suffered from "school closure"(殺校). One of them even went through it twice. Ethnographic research was conducted with Participant Observation, In-depth Interview and Comparative Reading throughout the research duration.
The results of the research showed that two turnaround schools mobilized and accumulated social capital and transformed it into other forms of capital, such as cultural capital and economic capital, in order to support the schools’ contingency plans on macro, meso and micro levels.
Another finding is that the teaching teams of the two turnaround schools also showed a path of transforming social capital into teaching professional capital, including school-based curriculum designs and research into teaching methods. These efforts of the schools succeeded in creating a favorable condition for them not only to survive, but to flourish.
This thesis hopes to call attention to two important facts:
1. Education leaders can benefit greatly from alerting themselves to the Quasi-education market and its related concepts, and also assessing the position of their own schools in it.
2. Stake-holders, especially school principals, are shown to be capable of mobilizing and transforming school social capital. His or Her faith and strength are the foundation power of turnaround schools and also their sustainability.
My goal is not to draw a conclusion about turnaround schools in general. Instead, my humble task is to launch an exploratory study of these schools in order to highlight the possibilities open to such schools. Lastly, this research paves a way for future development of studies of the education of disadvantaged groups in Hong Kong.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
吳偉強.
Parallel title from added title page.
Thesis (Ed.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 321-331).
Abstracts also in English.
Wu Weiqiang.

School principals have a key role to play in managing educators with HIV/AIDS because it poses a serious threat to the quality of education provision. The aim of this study was to identify needs and challenges facing school principals in managing educators with HIV/AIDS and to provide school principals with in-depth information on how to manage educators with HIV/AIDS. A literature study was conducted to determine the impact of HIV/AIDS on the education sector. In order to obtain a better understanding of the problem, a qualitative research strategy was used. Data collection was done through individual interviews with school principals and focus group interviews with educators. Data analysis was done using Colaizzi‟s phenomenological approach. The findings of the research confirmed that HIV/AIDS has a disruptive effect on education provision. Finally, recommendations were made to address the identified problems.
Further Teacher Education
M. Ed. (Education Management)

This study investigated the impact of HIV/AIDS on education management and the self-actualization of teachers and learners in the context of HIV/AIDS and the role of the principal in dealing with this. The impact of HIV/AIDS on various key management structures including curriculum coverage, academic outcomes and control of stock and attendance registers, and importantly also the role principals should play, is probed. South Africa has the largest number of HIV infected people in the world, and also the largest number of AIDS orphans. In 2004 more than 4000 teachers died of HIV/AIDS complications and 12.5% of the teacher workforce is reported to be HIV-positive. A quarter of these are between 30 and 40 years of age, pointing to future teacher shortages. Learner absenteeism impact negatively on school management, as learners who are affected by HIV/AIDS are not able to attend school regularly. Many drop out of school due to the impact of AIDS, unplanned pregnancies and drug abuse. Absenteeism of learners and teachers, impact negatively on management structures in the school. The role of principals to provide quality education in worst affected schools is becoming increasingly complex. Sexual and substance abuse is a huge problem in many South African schools, and an aggravating factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS. In a third of sexual abuse cases teachers are implicated. Moreover, the large numbers of increasing orphans in the school system threatens to become a serious disciplinary problem. Many of these learners become disruptive and often turn to substance abuse to relieve their distress. The managerial costs of HIV/AIDS in education include costs due to absenteeism, lost productivity, hospitalization, and replacing administrative workers and teachers. These factors impact negatively on school management, academic performance and self-actualization. The most profound affects of HIV/AIDS are concentrated in education where the presentation of quality education is threatened. Principals in South Africa face the daunting task of providing quality education with an increasingly ill, absent and demoralised teacher corps, to increasingly ill, absent and disrupted learners of whom many are AIDS orphans.
Educational Studies
D.Ed.

In rural China, when approaching the end of nine-year compulsory schooling, students face four equally popular post-compulsory education decisions (PCED): dropout, work after graduation, vocational high school, and academic high school. The literature tends to simply treat PCED as dichotomous (continue vs. leave school), and there is a geographical research imbalance favoring inner China. An increasing volume of studies also suggest that traditionally recognized factors like socioeconomic status and academic performance are not as influential as before in advancing the schooling. People have started to look at socio-emotional support, such as the promotion of self-discipline and confidence. At present, it is grassroots NGOs (GNGO) who take the major responsibility for providing this type of support in rural China, and there is rare discussion of achievements, let alone evaluation of practical impact. Given the existing problems, the key research questions of this study are: (1) What are the current PCED determinants for China’s rural students? More specifically, what are the PCED determinants for lower secondary students in rural Guangdong, a coastal province? (2) How can GNGO intervention affect PCED by boosting certain subjective factor(s)? The tested treatment is the Lighthouse program, whose one-month summer camp aims to improve student attitudes towards their life, such as making them more confident, organized, and social. The key to answering the first question is to explore a comprehensive list of variables applying to local populations, which cannot be achieved simply through a literature review. When answering the second question, since Lighthouse participation is voluntary, it is important to deal with selection bias, to ensure that any identified Lighthouse impact results from its activities rather than the student characteristics that lead to their participation. To overcome these methodological challenges, I first employed the Delphi approach. Delphi is an iterative process used to collect and distill the judgments of experts using a series of questionnaires interspersed with feedback. It is used to identify possible PCED determinants that are missing in the literature, to determine factors that lead to Lighthouse participation, and to collect discussions about both PCED determinants and GNGO intervention. Based on the Delphi results and literature, I then designed five questionnaires for students, households, teachers, principals, and Lighthouse volunteers. In Jun-Oct 2012, I led seven research assistants in conducting two waves of surveys in eight towns, building a firsthand dataset of 6298 valid observations with imputations. Multinomial logit was used to investigate PCED determinants. It predicted the PCED probabilities, given nine groups of independent variables. Propensity score matching was used to evaluate the program impact. It calculates the treatment propensity for each student based on their characteristics, so the Lighthouse impact can be compared between treated and untreated students of similar treatment propensity. Tests of robustness and heterogeneity were conducted after both methods. Qualitative materials collected from Delphi and on-site interviews were used to explore the causal mechanism. I use relative risk ratios to report the findings of PCED determinants. The findings challenge the existing literature regarding the roles of gender and parental background, further extend knowledge of monetary reward/cost and subjective factors, and confirm new possible determinants that have seldom been investigated in literature. The main model passes the robustness check, and there exist explainable heterogeneity effects. It is notable that education aspiration stands out as a strong PCED determinant, ceteris paribus. Propensity score matching shows that the Lighthouse program mainly affects PCED by boosting educational aspiration for students with high academic performance, although that impact fades gradually if there is no follow-up service. The novelty of the program to local people, volunteer team morale, and volunteer acceptance of Lighthouse training could help explain why increases in aspiration varied across sites. The role-model effect might explain why the increase in aspiration exists, as there are signs that the students tried to copy the volunteer’s schooling decision once trust was built. This study makes three major contributions. It can be translated into comprehensive advocacy for education policies related to PCED, such as dropout prevention and the promotion of VHS. It may also suggest the value of, or at least the required improvement to, China’s educational GNGOs, which are young and remain confined by governmental regulations. Last but not least, this is a unique showcase of how qualitative-quantitative sequential mixed-method works better in exploratory analyses. The study has limitations in timing, missing data, external validity, implementation of research methods, and heavy rely on self-reported questionnaires, but they can be largely eliminated by conducting proper further studies.

This dissertation presents research on three topics relating to how education is linked to economic development in China. The data are obtained from the 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2013 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS). The first essay examines the consequences of the Cultural Revolution. Using the 2003 and 2006 CGSS, the research is able to identify participants in a specific initiative, the “up to the mountains and down to the villages” movement (referred to as the Sentdown Campaign) and the length of time that they were involved in the initiative. The econometric results--including OLS, Heckit and 2SLS methods--provide evidence of substantial negative and long-lasting effects of the Cultural Revolution on education, labor force participation and personal income. Those who were involved in the Sentdown Campaign were found to be able to recoup some of these losses through the accumulation of education after they came back from rural areas, but these were generally not enough to compensate for the overall disruptions the Cultural Revolution caused on them. Furthermore, those who were sent down and stayed for more than five years in the countryside were not able to recuperate any lost years of schooling and, instead, suffered bigger losses in income than any of the other groups discussed in this essay. The second essay examines the attitudes of urban Chinese citizens towards migrants, as obtained using survey data from the 2005 CGSS. Estimating probit equations of the likelihood that the respondents in the sample had positive attitudes towards migrants, the research shows the connections between a range of explanatory variables and these attitudes. Educational attainment is not found to reduce negative attitudes towards migrants, a result that is different from the literature on the determinants of attitudes towards immigrants in recipient countries. The research also finds that as migrant presence grows in workplaces and neighborhoods, urban residents actually become more positive in their attitudes towards migrants. Gender is also found to have a significant impact on attitudes towards migrants. Men tend to have much more positive attitudes towards migrants, perhaps because social conventions frown against urban women having friendships with migrant men, or because the marriage market in urban China favors urban men marrying rural women. The third essay examines the role played by human capital in accounting for income growth in China between 2003 and 2013. An Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of the growth in individual hourly income shows that the overall role played by human capital on income growth in China during this decade is significant for men but not for women. For men, human capital accounts for 0.1796 in log-income change between 2003 and 2013, which given the total log-income change in this time period for men was 0.9160, represents close to 20 percent of the growth in income in the country. For women, the impact is small and actually negative, equal to -0.0433 out of the 0.8435 increase in log-income during the decade, a result that is mostly the outcome of declining rates of return to education among females.

The aim of the study was to investigate the changing role of the secondary school principal in building sustainable communities. It is supposed that communities that are not sustainable affect secondary schools. The focus is on how the secondary school principal should go about building, sustaining and uplifting the school community. The direct and indirect involvement of secondary school principals in community issues, could contribute to sustainability within the community, which gradually becomes a reality. The task of the secondary school principal is realised through the results of effective educative teaching and learning practices. Through literature study it was found that the role of the secondary school principal in enhancing sustainable communities would contribute to the upliftment of communities. The qualitative approach was successful in obtaining information about how the changing role of the secondary school principal in building sustainable communities is viewed. Recommendations were made concerning research findings for stakeholders and officials to note.
Educational Studies
M.Ed(Education Management))

The purpose of this study was to investigate the misconduct of learners in secondary schools in the Ntoane village. It served to determine the • extent to which teenage fall pregnant; • the intensity in which teachers tackle gender violence in schools; • the manner in which the parents’ culture and values are enforced by the teachers. Recommendations are made on how to overcome these barriers and to improve the level of misconduct. A literature study was carried out to gain an understanding of misconduct, and covered the following issues: • What is misconduct? • The causes of misconduct. • An overview of learner misconduct. • The origins of learner misconduct. • Manifestations of learner misconduct in the classroom. • The factors which cause learner misconduct. A qualitative research method was used in this research. The targeted population groups are teenagers in grades 9 and 10 in the Ntoane village. v Interviews were conducted at two schools in the Ntoane village where educators, the school governing bodies and members of the representative council of learners were interviewed. The findings were discussed at length to determine the research objectives. Conclusions were drawn after analysing these findings, and recommendations were formulated.
Education Management
M. Ed. (Education Management)

The United Nations works towards sustainable development for present and future generations and therefore set their target for 2030 to attain seventeen goals, not only to help future generations meet their own needs, but also to help this present generation to be sustainable. In view of all that, one realizes that world leaders released a new, holistic paradigm shift known as systemic thinking. The new paradigm falls back to the ancient old tension between parts and the whole. Nowadays, 21st leaders reject the emphasis on the parts with its linear, rational and competitive edge. At this time in history, the new paradigm embraces a nonlinear, integrative, intuitive and holistic view of life with a moral vision at the tail end. As a result, a strong emphasis on the earth as a living being called world leaders to emphasize the moral calling of humans towards the planet. At it's heart, the calling is spiritual in order to keep the planet sustaining itself at all costs. Therefore, leaders tune themselves in to sense the future- that's to say they continuously solve complex problems fast and secure with simple solutions. Forecasts of the future is derived from sensing, experience and observation of best future possibilities. Presencing means leaders envision the future and then act on what they sense. Sources of leadership vision are foresight that leads to insight and action. Before any of the above will be effective, some preparation has to be done. Preparing the mind, heart and will to open and to resist judgementalism, cynicism and fear lays the groundwork for implementing sustainable development principles. Sensing requires stillness or mindfulness; becoming quiet to wait for the right moment to act. Strong and impulsive reactions to promote the egoistic self should be quenched by asking oneself “Who am I?”, “What is my task?” .This study examined the role of motion leadership towards sustainable development in Canadian secondary schools in Alberta Province. A qualitative investigation at three independent schools in the province of Alberta near the greater Calgary area was done. Data were gathered by means of face-to-face, in-depth interviews. Each interview lasted thirty minutes. Each school’s principal, assistant-principal and a teacher have been interviewed. Data were also gathered through document analysis from the Alberta education websites. The findings revealed that, to a greater or lesser extent, motion leadership is present throughout. Findings showed that openness in the schools are present and that leaders do try to get rid of their blind spots. Participants were in favour of mindfulness sessions at their schools and work towards a borderless migration to spread the sustainable development principles. The study, in the light of the new paragdigm, recommends that firstly, motion leaders need to remain clear on their moral vision, namely to serve the planetary wellbeing through sustainable development principles. Secondly, the study recommends that every motion leader has to help to turn the beam of observation on themselves in order to see that they are part of a holistic system and part of the problem the system might encounter. Thirdly, both parents and the wider community should be intricately involved in learning to become system citizens.
Educational Leadership and Management
M. Ed. (Educational Leadership and Management)

In the light of the HIVAIDS pandemic in South Africa and its potential impact on learners, counselling is still the best available tool that can be used by the school management team to deal with the loss, pain, trauma and suffering experienced by the lear:ners. This study focuses on the role and functions of the school management team in managing the counselling of primary school learners affected by HIV/AIDS in Mount Ayliff District in the Eastern Cape, using a literature review and empirical· investigation. The former discusses the HIV/AIDS phenomenon, school policy on HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS counselling, and the role and functions of the school management team in managing school counselling services. Egan's model, known as the skilled helper model was used to provide an understanding of counselling services. A qualitative study investigated the views of a sample of management teams of three primary schools in Mount Ayliff District in the Eastern Cape. Sites and participants were selected by purposeful sampling. Data were collected by use of indepth interviews with two principals, two deputy principals, four heads of departments (HODs) and one senior teacher. All the interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. Notes were also taken to supplement the audio-tapes. The data were later analysed. Essentially, findings illustrated that the school management team has a critical role in ensuring the provision of effective counselling services to those learners who are affected by HIV/AIDS. The data further reflected the importance of a school counsellor, an HIV/AIDS school policy and the Department of Education's intervention in training and empowering the management team in effectively managing the ravages of HIV/AIDS in schools.
Educational Studies
M. Ed. (Education Management)