Resulting from the manner in which decisions were taken at the school was a lack of trust among the school's population that denied opportunities to assist one another in areas that might have helped improve the school's academic performance. As already stated, the principal did not trust the HoDs on a claim that the decision to promote them was carried out while he was 'displaced'. In turn, the HoDs found it difficult to trust a principal who was of the view that their promotion had rested on the DP, and had gone on to make such a view known to the teachers. Also conveying lack of trust at the school were the teachers and students. The lack of trust meant that teachers were not confident enough to display their vulnerability and approach one another for assistance on matters related to teaching, subject knowledge or classroom discipline.
The same could be said about lack of student participation in class. The low rate of participation, either by answering questions or asking them, gave the impression that students were afraid to expose their 'ignorance' in case they got laughed at or ridiculed.
The lack of trust also saw people keeping a distance from one another and teachers claiming they could not instill discipline on students for fear of retaliation, as stated above. An equal distance existed between students, particularly between students
CHAPTER 6
SCHOOL CULTURES FOR GOOD ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN HISTORICALLY DISADVANTAGED AFRICAN TOWNSHIP SECONDARY
SCHOOLS: PRINCIPLES AND EMERGENT THEORY
Deductions drawn from the school cultures presented in the previous two chapters provided principles that were concluded as framing school cultures that have the potential of enabling good academic performance in HDATSS. The principles are discussed below under two headings, namely, the 'Communo-societal eclecticism';
and 'Context engagement and representvity'. The principles, in turn, provided a framework against which a theory on school cultures that have the potential of enabling good academic performance in HDATSS was generated. Of note about the theory is that it does not correspond to any of the school culture models accessed through the literature reviewed in this study. Instead, the theory comprises of features descriptive of more than one of the models.
An advantage of drawing deductions from fmdings in this study is that this helped overcome the limitations of the case study methodology regarding generalisability.
This was of concern considering that only two schools comprised the sample in this study. What was considered to be generaiisable about the deductions is that they were drawn from a comparison of cultures of schools of varying academic performance, with the school of poor academic performance providing a counter case. Further offering generalisability about the deductions is what Hesketh (2004) refers to as 'generalizations as hypothesis'. What this means is that conclusions arrived at in this manner provide hypotheses that may be confirmed or disconfirmed by further research, as recommended in the concluding chapter.
Also of value about the deductions that were drawn in this study is that they provide thick descriptions which, unlike the thin descriptions of quantitative studies, have good capacity for informing practice. This was of particular relevance in this study considering that it was aimed at findings that would help inform the formation of school cultures which in this case refers to school culture that have the potential of
enabling good academic performance in HDATSS. Also of value about the deductions is that, in addition to offering practice informing 'thick descriptions', they offer explanations on what is potentially enabling about the underpinning principles in relation to the academic performance of HDATSS.
Table 6 below, provides a graphic representation of the differences between the cultures of the sample schools and which provided the basis for the principles underpinning the emergent theory.
Table 8: Comparisons between the sample schools' academic performance, school cultures, and school leadership
Academic performance
FUNDISEKA Good
UMZAMO Poor
PHYSICAL, MATERIAL AND HUMAN RESOURCE ATTRIBUTES
Socio-economic backgrounds School location
School 'age'
School physical size Student enrolment Average class size Teacher qualifications
Poor Township 20 years 26 classrooms
Poor Township 20 years 25 classrooms (including a converted library)
1,200 45
Met the minimum REQV 13 requirement
600 30
Met the minimum
REQV 13 requirement
UNDERSTANDINGS ON SCHOOL GOALS, MEMBER ACTIONS AND INTERACTIONS, AND UNDERPINNING VALUES, BELIEFES AND ASSUMPTIONS
Values, goals & assumptions
Behavioural understandings and norms
Leadership
Effects
Shared & consensual Holistic development Internally determined Clear
Integrated
Common & consensual Disciplined
Hard work Rule-following Issue-based Respect
Varied intra- and extramural activities Extended professional responsibilities Inclusivity
Genuine collegiality Ratified
Diffused
Organic emergence Diversified
Serving Integrating Belonging Ownership Security
Fragmented Restricted development.
Externally determined Ambiguous Fragmented Fragmented Ill-disciplined Minimal exertion Rule-breaking &
truancy Ritual Conformity Restricted intra &
extramural activities
Restricted profess.
responsibilities Exclusivity Contrived collegiality Contested Hierarchical Imposed Restricted Self-focused Fragmenting Alienation Alienation Insecurity
Trust Distrust Integration Fragmentation Enthused effort Lethargy/apathy
The theory that was generated from the deductions that were drawn from the findings in this study was that the school cultures that are most likely to enable good academic performance in HDATSS are those that are communo-societal. In addition, for this combination to be enabling for theses schools, it needs to be pro-communal or what Tonnies (1974) would refer to as 'pro-gemeinschaft'. This label is used in this study to describe cultures that are predominantly communal in nature but which also incorporate some 'gesellschaft' or societal features, as was the case at Fundiseka but not at Umzamo.
PRO-COMMUNALrTY/GEMEINSCHAFT
The ensuing discussion is on what was deduced to be potentially enabling for the academic performance of HDATSS with respect to school cultures that are
predominantly communal in nature. The discussion incorporates the advantages of incorporating societal features into the communality.
To arrive at a good understanding of the enabling capacity of pro-communality or pro-gemeinschaft for the academic performance of HDATSS it was important to begin by delving into the meanings of both the gemeinschaft and gesellschaft concepts. Tonnies, the originator of the concepts, was of the view that social order is determined by two forms of human wills: 'the underlying, organic or instinctive driving force' which he referred to as the gemeinschaft and the 'deliberate, purposive, and future (goal) oriented' which he then referred to as the gesellschaft (Truzzi, 1971:
145). The former is a feature of groups that cluster around essential wills.
Membership in such groups is therefore self-fulfilling. The latter, on the other hand, consists of groups in which membership is sustained by some instrumental goal or definite end. Further differentiating the two groups from one another is that social order in the former group is maintained through the consensus of wills resting on
harmony developed by, and ennobled by, folkways, mores and/or religion. On the other hand, social order for the latter is maintained through a 'union of rational wills'.
Such wills rest on convention and agreement, are safeguarded by political legislation and find ideological justification in public opinion (op cit).