3. How does the existing resource demand influence the remote rural ECD school management?
5.2 Remote rural ECD schools’ responses to resource demand
5.2.6 Stakeholder involvement
ECD children. This is also in line with the Transformational Theory augmented by the Invitational Theory, in that; transformation of schools is a result of the school leaders inviting all stakeholders to participate in the transformation of the schools (Steyn, 2005; Warrilow, 2012). However, this donor participation was contradicted by Shizha and Kariwo (2011) who claim that the government must take the responsibility of ensuring that children and their families get support and protection, since it (government) signed the convention on education for all. This belief by Shizha and Kariwo could have worked if the government of Zimbabwe was financially upright; therefore, instead of waiting for the government, stakeholders need to collaborate and transform their schools.
What emerged was that the parents and the community are contributing to ECD resource supply. Data solicited show that the majority of the contribution to ECD learning came from the local communities and parents. Parents were responding positively to all requests from teachers through the children or during meetings. Parents made efforts in buying their children required items. The participants showed that parents were co-operating and had a passion for making their children‟s life at school safe and exciting. Community members were also volunteering to provide other equipment that were used for learning by the children. One of the deputy heads had this to say:
Parents are buying chairs and stationery like crayons, pencils, uniforms, snacks and other things.---- Other elders in the community helped in making drums….Our parents are very co-operative (Hlolwa School Deputy Head).
The school heads showed that they had no problem in getting teaching and learning materials from the parents and the community. Parents were hand making these materials from locally available materials. If children were told to bring finished articles from home, parents responded positively and sent the children with the articles. There was a good rapport between the parents and teachers while parents were being involved in the education of their children. They develop a sense of ownership. Schools revealed that they had a lot of these teaching and learning materials. This is what another deputy head had to say:
Parents also hand made some of the teaching resources. … We have things like mats, dolls, balls; rattles and other items; they are the parents who provide these. So we have quite a number of these resources for teaching that are even brought in by the community. We have a lot of these teaching and learning materials, the teachers only ask the children to bring these and the parents make them and children bring (Mande School Deputy Head).
Stakeholder involvement, as used by the school heads provides an approach to establishing and maintaining child-friendly schools by applying the principles of the Invitational Leadership Theory (Steyn, 2014). This notion of establishing and maintaining child-friendly schools, which all the participants in all the schools felt strongly about, is again substantiated by Haigh (2011) who aptly confesses leadership involvement in raising the needs of the followers and promoting dramatic changes of individuals, groups and organisations through democratic participation of stakeholders.
Parent and community involvement in the study site schools were supported by the Sub- Saharan African communities (Rose, 2010) when traditionally the Sub-Saharan African communities played an integral role in ECD education provision in a variety of ways, in particular by providing assistance and contributions in cash or kind. It is further supported by UNESCO (2010) acknowledging parents contributing through labour and materials to school construction and maintenance. Middle East and North America Organisation (2012) supported the initiative by parents hand making teaching and learning materials. Parents are expected to take part in the education of their children to promote local ownership and to provide and sustain quality child development (Rao & Sun, 2010; ARNEC, 2011; SEAMEO- INNOTECH, 2012). Taking this idea further, Udommana (2012) and MoWCD (2012) acknowledge the responsibility taken by parents in Myanmar, to manually make low cost, appropriate teaching and learning materials for their children using locally available resources that are child friendly.
During the interviews, participants acknowledged the important part played by teachers in resource mobilisation in schools. ECD teachers and the main stream primary school teachers were committing themselves in physically making teaching and learning materials. This was an initiative that teachers in the whole school embarked on in order to make the environment suitable for ECD teaching and learning. The ECD teachers were committed to work extra
time after dismissing the children, to prepare media for the following day‟s lessons. In this regard school heads were acknowledging over-commitment by all the teachers within a cohesive working group, to achieve quality implementation of the ECD programme. This is what one of the school heads had to say:
Our teachers here helped with the building of the climbers, the water tank at the outdoor play centre. I am happy because they are not the ECD teachers only who get engaged in planning and working for the ECD play centre. In fact, all the ECD teachers are females who cannot do constructions. The main stream male teachers are showing interest in assisting. The ECD teachers always take their time to gather materials from the environment needed for teaching. They also hand make some of the teaching materials as part of preparation for their lessons (Muzorori School Head).
Innovation by teachers is supported by Steyn (2010) and Warrilow (2012) where teachers are developing Organisational Citizenship Behaviours (OCBs) through the leader‟s influence, motivation, stimulation and consideration of individual teachers. School heads have opened the opportunities for cohesive team work, co-ordination and good working systems where teachers are not forced to work, but perform their duties (and even extra) autonomously to pursue the collective vision (Steyn, 2010). The TICs in the schools were making great sacrifices in order to make teaching and learning possible in the school. The position of the TICs gave them the obligation to closely supervise the ECD teachers giving them full autonomy to help in resource mobilisation. This emerged from what one of the school heads explained:
Our TIC is very supportive. He is working hard to refurbish the outdoor play centre which was destroyed by the termites. Even the teachers are supportive. Just recently another teacher said: ‘I am going to photo copy these papers with my money because it is part of my work’ (Mash School Head).
Sharing of leadership duties and the empowerment of the leadership team is supported by Cranston (2009) positing that the transformational leadership is an essential aspect of empowering the middle management with relevant skills and knowledge (deputy head and the TIC) to take care of other teachers in for instance, leading departmental initiatives,
coaching, monitoring and evaluating their teaching, mobilising resources for improved