EVALUATION
4. DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.1 INTRODUCTION
The previous chapter outlined the research design and methodology employed in this study. This chapter focuses on the presentation, analysis and discussion of the data gathered by means of 30 survey questionnaires to principals and 300 survey
questionnaires to educators in KZN as well as interviews with senior education managers and union officials. The central aim underpinning the chosen methodology and the choice of research instruments was to address the following three research questions outlined in chapter one, namely:
• To what extent are the assumptions underpinning IQMS justifiable?
• To what extent does IQMS promote accountability and determine teacher competence?
• Does IQMS facilitate professional development and school improvement?
The largely quantitative data from the two questionnaires are presented and analyzed.
The questionnaire allow for open-ended responses and this allows the researcher to merge the quantitative and qualitative data. This is then followed by the presentation and
analysis of the qualitative data obtained through interviews. An analysis and discussion of both questionnaires and interview data follow formulated in terms of the analytical framework outlined in Chapter 2 using a thematic approach. A summary of the main findings from the data is integrated into a section entitled, ‘Emerging trends and patterns’. With regard to policy analysis, the document study as well as the critical concerns of the study, namely, the tension between accountability and professional development, an account of emerging trends and patterns from the literature review together with the main findings are presented.
Data presentation and analysis in this chapter are guided by the central aim of
this study which is to examine the tension between the IQMS as a tool for monitoring accountability on the one hand and its role of enhancing teacher professional
development. [It should be borne in mind that the two are not mutually exclusive.]
4.1.1 PRESENTATION OF QUANTITIVE DATA
In presenting the quantitative data, the researcher has made use of both descriptive and inferential statistics. In order to make the data more comprehensible, the data are organized and summarized using frequency distributions and bar graphs followed by a factual description of the data. In certain instances, inferential statistical techniques are used to show links between questions and relate responses in Annexure C and D.
4.1.2
PRESENTATION OF QUALITATIVE DATAThe qualitative data presented below was gathered from open-ended questions in questionnaires as well as semi-structured interviews conducted with national, provincial and district department officials. The interviews are used as a secondary data gathering tool in order to triangulate the data gathered by means of the questionnaires as well as to provide ‘thick description’ of both the underpinning principles of the IQMS and the way its is implemented in schools. The thick description alluded to here refers to impressions, perceptions, views and opinions of the informants interviewed in this project.
The data gathered is presented thematically using verbatim quotation in order to ensure that the voices of the informants and not just that of the researcher are heard. Further, when informants made similar points the data are quantified. The identity of the
informant is protected, however, and with regard to principals and educators the nature of the institution where the informant is based is given.
4.1.3 ISSUES UNDERPINNING THE DATA ANALYSIS
Neo-liberal texts, particularly the work of Hayek and monetarist theorist like Friendman herald the origins of the neo-liberal conspectus. The underpinnings of the neo-liberal project was to inject the competitive nature of ‘the market’ into what is seen as a stifling , inefficient and expensive public sector ( Thrupp and Willmott 2003:15). This study focuses on the social ontology that underpins the quazi-marketization of education and offers the argument that a contradiction underpins all education policies that have readily adopted the rhetoric of the so-called free market.
The attitude towards the evaluation of educators is significantly influenced by the national government. This attitude may be influenced by the economic context and the
drive for efficiency. There could be a resultant tension between accountability and professional development in the IQMS policy and this is what an analysis of the data is meant to uncover.
The other point to be made, using an argument from Critical Theory, is that Hayek takes to task the socialist vision of a collectively planned and advanced economy and says this is a fatal conceit. Yet for Marx any good order must be a product of conscious collective purpose. Hayek adopts the extreme counter-position to Marx.16 The market must be given a free reign and one must not intervene. This study argues that this cannot be and among other things problems and situations that can be confronted and addressed or removed (ecological problems, poverty, people development and so on) would be ignored. This is one of the main concerns in the debate on the accountability versus the development purpose of teacher evaluation. If the IQMS is used to underscore accountability, it may ignore teacher development and other formative aspects of appraisal.
Clarke et al. (2000) argue that a central issue in the managerialization of public services has been the concerted effort to displace and subordinate the claims of professionalism.
It can no longer be assumed that professionals know best; rather it seeks to legitimize and seeks to extend the ‘right to manage’ and is sometimes composed of discourses that present distinctive versions of ‘how to manage’ (9).
Whether the IQMS which embodies some of the principles of managerialism displaces teacher professionalism is also under examination in this study. The argument being put forward in this study is that the natural home of managerialism is the corporate capitalist organization and not the school. The IQMS with its supposedly mechanistic orientation should not aim be a teacher evaluation system that is inextricably underpinned by managerialism but should be redefined under more socially and politically informed lines.
NPM tends to occlude complex social, economic and political changes and focus on activity and occupation. A typical characteristic of NPM is to give attention to outputs and performance rather than inputs. Performance management presumes that the performance of activities can be made transparent to the public’s gaze on a continuous
16 Alvesson and Deetz 2000 offer a comparison of the differences in the ideology of Hayek with his emphasis on market capitalism and the Marxist vision of ‘collective purpose’.
and sustainable basis through audit. Information of the workings of an organization is provided by the objectification of performance through the use of performance
measurement. IQMS is a system which reinforces performance management by linking teachers’ pay to performance. CMS counter-poses the use of NPM in education. This study uses CMS as a critical guide to challenge social inequality or the market and managerial reform as they are reflected in South African educational policies like the performance-orientated IQMS policy. This is done through detailed analyses of the data presented.