CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF QUANTITATIVE DATA
4.2 PROFILES OF RESPONDENTS
4.2.1 Profiles of Principals
The following tables, 4.2(a) to table 4.2(o) below show the principals’ biographical information and tables 4.2(k) to 4.2(o) show the cross tabulations on the same data.
Table 4.2 (a) Gender of Principals (n=33) Gender Frequency Percent
Male 14 42%
Female 19 58%
Total 33 100%
Table 4.2(a) shows that the position of principal at the level of the current GET in this region was dominated by women who constituted 58%. This is in contrast to both the national patterns where management positions have historically been dominated by men. For example, according to Wolpe, Quinlan and Martinez (1997: 198):
Historically, women have been awarded very few promotion posts compared to men. The data from the years 1987 to 1991 for the African departments show that 8% of all female teachers held the position of principal. In 1994, statistics for teachers of all race groups showed only four percent of female teachers held the position of principal compared to 11 percent of male teachers.
The situation in the table above could mean that, because of the changes that have been taking place with respect to gender equity there are districts in the Transkei region of the EC in which the number of female principals has begun to exceed that of men. Secondly, Transkei is the region, where, according to Ngubentombi (1988: 255) a commission of inquiry had recommended that in primary schools “inclusion of more women teachers in the promotion lists to principalship and vice principalship”. So in this situation the previous attempts by the Transkei government to promote women into senior positions and the current Gender Equity policy must have combined to produce this situation in this part of the EC. The views of respondents would be expected to vary according to gender. The preponderance of female principals in this sample would be expected to have an effect on how the IP would be viewed generally.
This is because the way females view and do things tends to differ from that of males.
For example, a study conducted by Shautz (1995: 1) in the province of Ontario, Canada involving 519 female school principals and administrators found that female principals tended to derive more personal satisfaction from their work than men;
exerted more control over teachers’ professional activities; and had a greater understanding of what was taking place in the classrooms than men. It would be expected that the fact that most of the principals were women would have an effect on the implementation of the IP.
Table 4.2(b) Principals’ Teaching Experience (n=33) Teaching experience Frequency Percent
1-5 years 0 0%
6-10 years 0 0%
11-15 years 4 12%
16-20 years 6 18%
0ver 20 years 23 70%
Total 33 100%
Table 4.2 (b) shows the majority of principals who participated in the IP had lengthy teaching experience. For example, 70 % had teaching experience of more than 20 years and 18% had teaching experience of between 16 and 20 years. They would thus be expected to have a major positive impact in supporting their teachers during the implementation of the IP. Although it is not always the case, it is usually expected that lengthy experience is accompanied by wide experience. One of the personal qualities that the principal must have in order to be able to implement the changes successfully is wide teaching experience, sound knowledge of educational management and good general knowledge of other disciplines (Westhuizen, 1996:
153). It may be that the more teaching experience a principal has, the higher the capacity to understand and implement changes. However, the situation at hand might contradict Westhuizen’s observation in that it involves many principals with teaching experience of between 16 and 20 years who underwent their teacher training during the 1980s. The 1980s were a period of protest and turmoil in South Africa when the collapse of the “culture of teaching and learning” in schools reached its climax (Christie, 1991). Such collapse was coupled with the erosion of professional attitudes on the part of teachers and loss of respect for the boundaries of time and space that led to irregular school attendance and poor ethics. Students were exposed to poor pedagogies such as rote learning in an authoritarian environment and undemocratic ways of teaching. Society under apartheid tended to be rigid. Blacks were to be educated to serve as cheap labour in a white ruled and dominated society, and teachers were not meant to produce creative and critical thinkers (Davis, 1991;
Christie & Collins, 1991). For this reason, those who qualified as teachers and principals during the 1980s through to 1994 may not have learnt how to operate in a
systematic, knowledgeable and well organized teaching and learning environment.
The schools under study belonged to the group of EC rural schools that suffered, and still continues in the new dispensation to suffer, setbacks in curriculum reform as a result of the problems mentioned. With this background, it is therefore unclear whether the teaching experience that the principals would bring into the teaching and learning situation during the implementation of the IP would be of much use and relevance for transformation. The IP is supposed to capacitate principals to transform teaching and learning in their schools in three years of intermittent in-service training, monitoring and support. I believe that the effects of years of poor quality of Black education under apartheid were deep and therefore any transformation process would take very long to achieve. For this reason, a lot more time than three years of in- service training, monitoring, support and money would have to be invested in the principals to transform them before they could be fully entrusted with the process of overseeing the transformation of teaching and learning in their schools. For the sustainability of any transformation of teaching and learning in the situation envisaged the education department should take over and enhance the transformation processes initiated by the IP in terms of training, monitoring and support, assuming that the expertise is available. Slavin, Dolan and Madden (1994: 4) with respect to Success for All, noted that the programme required a great deal of professional development done over an extended period of time.
The views of the principals and teachers about the extent to which the IP helped the principals to improve their schools and to implement a transformation agenda will be discussed in the next chapter.
Table 4.2(c) Highest Positions held before Principalship (n=33)
Position Frequency Percent
Deputy principal 9 27%
Head of Department 7 21%
Teacher/educator 17 52%
Total 33 100%
Table 4.2(c) shows that 27 % of the respondents had been deputy principals before being appointed as principals, 21% had been heads of departments and a large percentage, 52 % had been ordinary teachers. This is very significant as it implies that the majority of principals, i.e. 52% had had no management experience whatsoever when they assumed the position of principalship as they had neither been HODs nor deputy principals. This could be attributed to the Employment Equity Legislation (1998) and the DoE fast tracking women into managerial positions as well as the initiatives taken by the then Transkei government mentioned above. Even though most of these principals would not have gone through the ranks, it means most of them had been promoted on the basis of long teaching service as shown in table 4.2 (b) above. The existing principal corps was unlikely to have been well suited to guide the process of transformation but, on the other hand, was in need of training such as IP offered.
Table 4.2(d) Experience as Principal (n=33)
Years of Experience Frequency Percent
1-5 years 6 18.2%
6-10 years 9 27.3%
11-15 years 7 21.2%
16-20 years 5 15.2%
over 20 years 5 15.2%
Missing 1 3.0%
Total 33 100%
Table 4.2 (d) shows that a large percentage of principals, 78.9% had experience of more than 5 years as principals and 51% had experience of more than 10 years when the IP started. The table shows that 18.2% had experience of between 1 and 5 years, 27.3% had experience of between 6 and 10 years, 21.2% had experience of between 11 and 15 years, 15.2% had experience of between 16 and 20 years and 15.2% had experience of over 20 years.
Whereas this could indicate accumulation of education management knowledge, the relevance of that experience for education transformation and change management in
the new SA dispensation remains a question. However, knowledge of the physical, technical conditions and environment of the school or knowledge of the communities around the school would be a strong basis for the implementation of the IP. One of the reasons given by principals, according to Westhuizen (1996: 147), for why they often do not succeed in implementing the changes was lack of administrative knowledge and inadequate leadership. The fact that 51% of the principals had experience of more than 10 years meant that most of them had the necessary administrative knowledge and experience in terms of the number of years of service.
However, education management in the 1970s and 1980s occurred under very authoritarian models of leadership characterised by non-participatory decision-making approaches and the suppression of critical thinking. Consequently, some of this experience might be an obstruction to transformation. Some experienced principals could, for example, have a negative attitude towards the new education policies which they might perceive as enforcing a new way of doing things as will b seen in the next chapter. Underlying this negativity could be insecurity as the desired changes could be viewed by the older principals as a negation of all the “experience” they believe themselves to have accumulated over time.
It might be assumed that some of these subjects would welcome or reject transformation as a radical departure from the previous political dispensation. Those critical of the very system that they were forced to operate under as education managers in the past, would be likely to welcome the IP as an alternative approach to education. It is those who identified with the previous authoritarian system who were most likely to resist transformation.
Table 4.2(e) Capacity as Principal (n=33)
Capacity Frequency Percent
Acting 2 06%
Permanent 31 94%
Total 33 100%
Table 4.2 (e) shows the majority of principals (94%) was employed in a permanent
likely to give the principals confidence in taking decisions and implementing innovations. A principal who was in an acting capacity would find it difficult to take final decisions regarding the IP as s/he would probably feel that s/he did not have the mandate to do so and might not be the one who would have to implement them in future.
Table 4.2(f) Principals’ Age Group (n=33) Respondents’ Age
Group
Frequency Percent
Less than 25 years 0 0%
26-35 years 1 3.0%
36-45 years 14 42.4%
46-55 years 11 33.3%
56-65 years 7 21.2%
Total 33 100.0%
The age group of 36 to 45 years seems to be the best for a country to invest in terms of training because principals belonging to this age group still have a lot of contribution to make to the profession. This can, to a large extent, also be said with regard to the age group of 46 to 55 years. That most of the principals were in these age groups was important. It implies that even if they were to be promoted to higher levels (Education Development Officers) they would still be of benefit to teacher development and be able to use the knowledge and skills acquired from the IP for the benefit of the schools long enough before their retirement at age 65.
Looked at from the position of the IP, investing in the training of principals who are close to retirement would be a waste of resources as they would soon leave their positions without having had enough time not only to put to practice the new management skills but also to share them with other staff members immediately below them.
Table 4.2(g) and table 4.2(h) present principals’ academic and professional qualifications respectively.
Table 4.2(g) Principals’ Highest Academic Qualifications (n=33) Academic level Frequency Percent
Matric 23 69.7%
Bachelor’s degree 6 18.2%
Honours degree 4 12.1%
Masters degree 0 00%
Doctors’ degree 0 00%
Total 33 100%
Table 4.2 (g) shows that most respondents, 69.7%, had matric as their highest academic qualification, while 18.2% had a bachelor’s degree and 12.1% had an honours degree.
Matric was a basic requirement for doing a three-year and later four-year teacher qualification at the primary and junior secondary school level (the current GET level).
The fact that nearly three quarters of the principals only had matric implied that most did not have an adequate academic qualification for teaching. This qualification was grossly inadequate for principals. Although this study did not particularly seek to examine the relationship of academic training to job performance it seems fair to speculate that the very low levels of academic qualification amongst these principals would in the first instance have contributed to the poor delivery of quality education and secondly have militated against the success of IP.
In the Transkei region of the EC post-matric students from poor families who could not afford to go to university ended up in colleges of education where they automatically qualified for a bursary on admission. In addition, most of the students who went to the colleges of education usually did not gain admission to the university as they had not obtained matric exemption. Therefore, if one combines the poor quality of the schools from which they attained their matric and the fact that most of
matric qualification of this cohort of principals. The consistently low matric pass rates of the Eastern Cape as shown in chapter 1 table 1.1 seems to reflect this legacy.
The quality deficit reflected by this legacy of poor quality at the lower and senior primary as well as junior has a negative impact at the senior secondary level. In addition, this legacy of poor quality would be expected to have a negative effect on the implementation of an intervention such as the IP.
Table 4.2 (h) Principals’ Professional Qualifications (n=33) Prof. Qualification Frequency Percent
PTD 4 12.1%
PTC 13 39.4%
JSTC 4 12.1%
STD 9 27.3%
SSTD 2 06.1%
PGDE 1 03.0%
Total 33 100%
Table 4.2 (h) shows that most (39.4%) of the principals had PTC as their highest professional certificate, 27.3% had STD, 12.1% had PTD, and 12.1% had JSTC, 6.1%
had SSTD and 3.0% had PGDE. A professional qualification is gained after special training for professional service. PTC used to be the old two-year professional qualification that was taken after the Junior Certificate. This was discontinued in the 1980s. The PTD qualified one to teach in the primary school and was done after passing matric. It involved 4 years of training as a teacher. A person who teaches at the primary school, secondary school or college of education level without a professional teacher qualification is regarded as professionally unqualified.
Cross tabulations were used to show the relationships between variables.
• gender and age,
• gender and teaching experience,
• gender and experience as principal
• gender and academic qualifications
• gender and professional qualifications
Thus, tables 4.2(i) to 4.2 (g) show the cross tabulations on principals’ data.
Table 4.2(i) Gender by Age group (n=33) Age-group
Gender Less 25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 Totals Percent
Male 1
3.0%
8 24.2%
2 6.1%
3 9.1%
14 42.4%
Female 5
15.2%
10 30.3%
4 12.1%
19 57.6%
Total 1 13 12 7 33 100
Table 4.2 (i) shows that females constituted 57.6% of whom 15.2% were in the 36-45 age group, while 30.3% were in the 46-55 age group and 12.1% were in the 56-65 age group. In terms of the IP it would seem judicious to invest resources on the 36-45 age group of the working force to enhance capacity. At the same time, the 46-55 age group, which constitutes the majority of females, is also worthy of investing in, since they still have many years of service to offer. Males formed 42.4% of the teaching force of whom 3.0% were in the 26-35 age group, 24.2% were in the 36-45 age group, 6.1 % were in the 46-55 age group. Most of the male principals below age 55 (33.3%), like their female counterparts below 55 (45.5%) would still have many years of service to offer and therefore the IP resources spent on them would be of much use for education for many years to come.
Table 4.2(j) Gender by Teaching Experience (n=33) Teaching Experience