5.3 Discussion of themes emerging from data
5.3.3 Process of school development planning
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strategic environment. Prestridge (2013) espouses the significance of the systems tools in the process of providing leadership and direction to stakeholders in schools. The systems tools empower the leaders with the skills for identifying the root causes and dealing with the assumptions that affect the decision-making. Research on the role of principals in school reform suggests that they have great influence in providing on ongoing leadership and support for school development (Blase & Blase, 1999; Blase & Kirby, 2000; McLaughin &
Talbert, 2001; Kola & Selesho, 2012). The reductionist approaches to school development are inadequate to deal with the challenges and complex nature in which schools are located, particularly the South African school system which is divided into diverse categories due to inherited backlogs (Ono & Ferreira, 2010; Mathews & Jones, 2008). The following discussion is linked to the strategic planning, which is an activity that is performed by leadership of organisations collaboratively with stakeholders.
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the assumptions of a simplistic and linear approach (SDPI; 1999). School development planning is undertaken to give direction to the work of the whole school in order to ensure that learners receive quality education in terms of both their holistic development and their academic achievement (Broadhead & Cuckle, 2002; SDPI, 1999). The key activities in the process of school development planning are the audit of the development needs, the prioritisation of key performance areas, the setting of goals and plans for addressing the identified development key areas (McNamara & O'Hara, 2008).
The process of school development requires an understanding of the interconnections of the school as a system. With the use of the systems tools one can uniquely portray the influences between the different sub-systems and show how they link and connect with each other to illustrate their interdependence. The basic process of school development planning is presented in all the TESM manuals that were used to assist principals in conducting strategic planning. There were two documents that were used for training principals between the periods 2000 to 2006 as an era of school development. One of them was solely entitled
‗School Development Planning‘, which was issued to every school for reference during the training sessions conducted on IQMS and Whole School Evaluation. The other was the Towards Effective School Management (TESM) manual No 2 which was also focused on school development planning and its process.
During the process of engagement between the principals and the researcher the principals were also introduced to the Soft Systems Methods and the seven stage process as advocated by Checkland. During those sessions as indicated in the study by Mchunu (2006) and (Mntambo (2009), the principals were trained on the use of all the steps in the seven stage soft systems methodology. In soft systems methodology there are unique system tools that are used to identify the first stage of where the school is. These tools include the rich picture, the iceberg tool, the influence diagram, the CATWOE process and also all the stages of the soft systems methodology. The rich picture portrays what is happening in a problematic situation as presented by means of the views of stakeholders. The iceberg tool shows how we need to understand issues by taking a look at all the angles, considering the deep issues as compared to events on the surface. The influence diagram shows the value of looking at how different factors have a bearing influence on each other. The most popular and easy to use tool in strategic planning is SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
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Threats). The complexity of the school phenomena needs principals who are capacitated with an understanding to handle the interconnections, the involvement of the stakeholders in dealing with complex schooling issues and the messy human activity that prevails in such contexts (Senge, 1999).
The whole process of engaging in school development planning was presented by the principals of schools as they recalled how it benefitted the school. Mrs Denison is very explicit about the way the school needs to develop the curriculum as part of their identified priorities. The enrolment that the school has does not allow the school to broaden its curriculum by additional streams such as commerce. Nevertheless, the principal is positive about expanding the scope of the school to include such areas as commerce when the situation has changed. Mrs Denison goes to the extent of clarifying to the stakeholders, who are the parents the value of science stream. However they are keen to introduce the commercial discipline into the school, inspite of the difficulty of shortage on enrolment that justifies additional subjects.
The business of the school is conducted by analysing all aspects of the school. We clarify to the community the priorities and needs in order to develop the school systems. The curriculum is based on one stream which is science; we are keen on introducing Commercial studies in order to balance the curriculum. The SGB formulates the business plans which are for raising funding for a laboratory (Mrs Denison).
In a different vein, Mr Jokozela, raised the issue of looking at the school as a system. He spells out the role of the systems thinkers in terms of analysing the concepts as part of the engagement in strategic planning.
The way the school is seen as a system. It assists us in understanding the concepts, analysing the implementation of school development. There are quarterly and yearly checks on how people are succeeding. It improves the functioning of all the stakeholders involved, and how to attract the donors outside to see how you are performing as a school. The system clearly clarifies where you want to be and to check whether you are in line with the vision (Mr Jokozela).