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<strong>MENTAL</strong> <strong>HEALTH</strong> <strong>STRATEGIES</strong> <strong>FOR</strong> <strong>DEVELOPING</strong> INSTITUTIONAL<br />
EFFECTIVENESS IN A COLLEGE<br />
by<br />
Cornelia Petronella Haasbroek<br />
THESIS<br />
submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree<br />
DOCTOR EDUCATIONIS<br />
in<br />
PSYCHOLOGY OF EDUCATION<br />
in the<br />
FACULTY OF EDUCATION<br />
at the<br />
UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG<br />
Promoter: Prof C P H Myburgh<br />
Co-promoter: Prof M Poggenpoel<br />
March 2006
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS<br />
I hereby want to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to<br />
My Higher Power, my Creator, who sustained me on my journey<br />
“Here, ons Here,<br />
Hoe wonderbaar is u Naam oor die hele aarde,<br />
Wat is die mens dan<br />
Dat u aan hom dink, die mensekind dat u na hom omsien?<br />
U het hom net `n bietjie minder<br />
As `n hemelse wese gemaak<br />
En hom met aansien en eer gekroon,<br />
U laat hom heers<br />
Oor die werk van u hande…” (Psalm 8:2,5 - 7)<br />
and<br />
my mentors, Professor Chris and Professor Marie, who guided me on my<br />
journey and helped me to discover the old, old truth in myself, and assisted<br />
me to grow wings to my story…<br />
and<br />
Silence Truth and the human beings she served, who facilitate my journey on<br />
earth to make it a purposeful, meaningful and joyful experience.
TABLE OF CONTENTS<br />
OPSOMMING i<br />
ABSTRACT iv<br />
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1<br />
1.1 ORIENTATION 1<br />
1.2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE COLLEGE<br />
SECTOR IN SOUTH AFRICA<br />
3<br />
1.3 PRESENT MILIEU: TRANS<strong>FOR</strong>MING THE<br />
COLLEGE SECTOR IN SOUTH AFRICA<br />
7<br />
1.4 PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RESEARCH<br />
PROBLEM<br />
12<br />
1.5 RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVES 15<br />
1.6 PARADIGMATIC PERSPECTIVE 15<br />
1.7 DEFINITIONS OF OPERATIONAL CONCEPTS AND<br />
TERMS<br />
19<br />
1.8 RESEARCH DESIGN 23<br />
1.9 RESEARCH METHOD 23<br />
1.10 RESEARCH ETHICS 24<br />
1.10.1 The participant as a person 24<br />
1.10.2 Human rights 25<br />
1.10.3 The ethic of justice, fairness and objectivity 25<br />
1.10.4 Competence 26<br />
1.10.5 Integrity 26<br />
1.10.6 Sensitivity 26<br />
1.10.7 Confidentiality 27<br />
1.10.8 Demarcation of roles 27<br />
1.10.9 Communication 27<br />
1.10.10 The danger of coercion 28<br />
1.11 RESEARCH STEPS 28<br />
1.12 CHAPTER CONTENT CLASSIFICATION 29
1.13 CONCLUSION 30<br />
CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHOD 31<br />
2.1 INTRODUCTION 31<br />
2.2 RATIONALE 32<br />
2.3 RESEARCH PARADIGM 35<br />
2.4 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD 39<br />
2.4.1 Conceptualising and formalising research objectives 39<br />
2.4.2 Obtaining permission from authorities to conduct the<br />
study<br />
39<br />
2.4.3 Sampling 42<br />
2.4.3.1 Selection of the site 43<br />
2.4.3.2 Selection of the participants for the interviews 44<br />
2.4.3.3 Selection of the participants for the naïve sketches 45<br />
2.4.4 Phase 1: Exploration and description of the lived<br />
experiences: data collection methods<br />
46<br />
2.4.4.1 Phenomenological interview 46<br />
2.4.4.2 Naïve sketches 51<br />
2.4.4.3 Observations and field notes 53<br />
2.4.5 Analysing and interpreting of results 54<br />
2.4.6 Literature control 56<br />
2.4.7 Dissemination of findings 56<br />
2.5 MEASURES TO ENSURE TRUSTWORTHINESS 57<br />
2.5.1 Truth value 59<br />
2.5.2 Applicability 61<br />
2.5.3 Consistency 63<br />
2.5.4 Neutrality 65<br />
2.6 CONCLUSION 66<br />
CHAPTER 3 LIVED EXPERIENCES OF<br />
INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS<br />
3.1 INTRODUCTION 67<br />
67
3.2 REALISING OF THE SAMPLE 67<br />
3.2.1 Interviews 68<br />
3.2.2 Naïve sketches 69<br />
3.3 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 71<br />
3.4 FINDINGS 72<br />
3.4.1 Theme 1: Multiple realities on a continuum of<br />
institutional effectiveness with pockets of<br />
effectiveness<br />
75<br />
3.4.2 Theme 2: Factors promoting institutional<br />
effectiveness<br />
78<br />
3.4.3 Theme 3: Factors impeding institutional effectiveness 92<br />
3.4.4 Theme 4: The silence voice 129<br />
3.5 CONCLUSION 135<br />
CHAPTER 4 THE STORY OF SILENCE TRUTH 140<br />
4.1 INTRODUCTION 140<br />
4.2 THE STORY OF SILENCE TRUTH 142<br />
4.3 CAST OF PLAY 149<br />
4.4 CONCLUSION 150<br />
CHAPTER 5 <strong>MENTAL</strong> <strong>HEALTH</strong> <strong>STRATEGIES</strong> <strong>FOR</strong><br />
<strong>DEVELOPING</strong> INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS<br />
5.1 INTRODUCTION 152<br />
5.2 RATIONALE <strong>FOR</strong> <strong>MENTAL</strong> <strong>HEALTH</strong> <strong>STRATEGIES</strong> 155<br />
5.3 AIM OF <strong>MENTAL</strong> <strong>HEALTH</strong> <strong>STRATEGIES</strong> 161<br />
5.4 THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS UNDERPINNING<br />
PROPOSED <strong>MENTAL</strong> <strong>HEALTH</strong> <strong>STRATEGIES</strong><br />
163<br />
5.4.1 Strategy for enforcing promoting factors for<br />
institutional effectiveness<br />
173<br />
5.4.2 Strategy for searching meaning 180<br />
5.4.3 Strategy for letting go of the past 184<br />
152
5.4.4 Strategy for becoming authentic 187<br />
5.5 CONCLUSION 198<br />
CHAPTER 6 ASSESSMENT AND CONCLUSION 202<br />
6.1 INTRODUCTION 202<br />
6.2 RESEARCH SUMMARY 203<br />
6.3 FINDINGS 205<br />
6.3.1 Research outcome: explore and describe lived<br />
experiences of institutional effectiveness during<br />
transformation<br />
205<br />
6.3.2 Research outcome: recommend mental health<br />
strategies for personal and systemic growth to<br />
develop sustainable institutional effectiveness in the<br />
college sector<br />
207<br />
6.4 LIMITATIONS 208<br />
6.5 RECOMMENDATIONS 209<br />
6.6 CONCLUSION 210<br />
BIBLIOGRAPHY 212<br />
APPENDIX<br />
Appendix A: Example of invitation letter for<br />
participation - naïve sketch<br />
236<br />
Appendix B: Example of naïve sketch 238<br />
Appendix C: Example of invitation and letter of<br />
consent - qualitative interview<br />
240<br />
Appendix D: Example of transcribed interview 242<br />
Appendix E: Letter of consent<br />
Appendix E: List of exercises for individual and group<br />
capacity building activities<br />
248<br />
250
LIST OF FIGURES<br />
Figure 2.1: Conceptual framework of the study 34<br />
Figure 3.1: Gestalt of multiple realities of institutional<br />
effectiveness<br />
138<br />
Figure 5.1: Gestalt of mental health strategies 162<br />
LIST OF TABLES<br />
Table 2.1: Stages and activities of the research<br />
process<br />
Table 2.2: Measures to ensure trustworthiness<br />
Table 3.1: Profile of participants involved in the<br />
interviews<br />
Table 3.2: Profile of participants involved in the naïve<br />
sketches<br />
Table 3.3 Summary of themes and categories 73<br />
Table 5.1: Summary of proposed mental health<br />
strategies<br />
40<br />
58<br />
69<br />
70<br />
199
i<br />
OPSOMMING<br />
Hierdie studie is genoodsaak vanweë onderwystransformasie van die kollegesektor<br />
wat gebaseer is op ideologiese gelowe en `n historiese agtergrond wat gekenmerk is<br />
deur apartheid en kolonialisme. Die huidige aansprake van oneffektiewe kolleges<br />
wat gemaak is in die afwesigheid van longitudinale data, het verder daartoe bygedra<br />
dat indringende navorsing oor hierdie probleem gedoen moes word. Dit wil voorkom<br />
of onderwystransformasie gelei word deur ideologie en nie deur `n versigtige analise<br />
van die transformasie, of die beleid teenstrydig is, al dan nie. Baie transformasie-<br />
inisiatiewe misluk omdat die belangrike rol wat deur menslike kapitaal gespeel word,<br />
geïgnoreer word.<br />
Die navorsingsdoelwitte was om:<br />
• die belewenisse van deelnemers van die effektiwiteit van instansies<br />
gedurende transformasie te verken en te beskryf; en<br />
• geestesgesondheidstrategieë vir persoonlike en sistemiese groei vir<br />
volhoubare effektiwiteit in die kollegesektor aan te beveel.<br />
Die doelwitte van die studie begunstig die gebruik van die kwalitatiewe<br />
navorsingsparadigma om `n digte beskrywing van die belewenisse van die<br />
effektiwiteit van instansies gedurende transformasie weer te gee.
Die vernaamste temas wat deur die navorsingsbevindinge geïdentifiseer is, is:<br />
ii<br />
• Veelvoudige realiteite van die effektiwiteit van instansies op `n kontinuum met<br />
“pakkies” van effektiwiteit.<br />
• Faktore wat die effektiwiteit van instansies bevorder is:<br />
o die kultuur van onderwys, opleiding en leer;<br />
o leerderondersteuning en omgee; en<br />
o personeelondersteuning en omgee.<br />
• Faktore wat die effektiwiteit van instansies belemmer is:<br />
o ontoereikende bestuur van die transformasieproses;<br />
o ontoereikende bestuur van menslike kapitaal (personeel en leerders);<br />
o ontoereikende bestuurstyle, sisteme en prosedures; en<br />
o die stil stem as `n sentrale tema.<br />
Die storie van Stille Waarheid is `n narratiewe metafoor wat uit die belewenisse van<br />
die deelnemers, teorie en die belewenisse van die navorser tydens die ondersoek<br />
gekonstrueer is. In die studie word uiteengesit hoe die storie van Stille Waarheid as<br />
`n instrument gebruik kan word om geestesgesondheid te implementeer om mense<br />
en sisteme in staat te stel om nuwe stories gedurende angswekkende transformasie<br />
te skep.
iii<br />
Die voorgestelde geestesgesondheidstrategieë wat gebaseer is op die<br />
navorsingsbevindinge en teorie gaan verder as die plig om die onderwyspraktyk<br />
slegs te beskryf en te verstaan. Die studie het verder daarin geslaag om die<br />
volgende geestesgesondheidstrategieë te formuleer:<br />
• `n Strategie om die faktore wat effektiwiteit van instansies te bevorder te<br />
versterk.<br />
• `n Strategie vir die soeke na betekenis.<br />
• `n Strategie om van die verlede weg te breek.<br />
• `n Strategie om outentiek te word.<br />
Die studie is afgesluit deur aan te dui dat eksterne transformasie nie effektief kan<br />
wees as interne gedrewe transformasie dit nie gekomplimenteer nie. Interne<br />
gedrewe transformasie moet gerig word deur die konfrontering en hantering van<br />
vrees deur die outentieke stem te vind en te beoefen.
iv<br />
ABSTRACT<br />
This research study was essential because of educational reform of the college<br />
sector. This sector was based on ideological beliefs and its historical background<br />
featured by apartheid and colonialism. The present claims of colleges’<br />
ineffectiveness in the absence of longitudinal data also necessitated this research<br />
study. Educational transformation seems to be guided by ideology and not by a<br />
careful analysis whether policies are counterintuitive. Many transformation initiatives<br />
fail because the vital role part played by human capital in educational and training<br />
institutions is ignored.<br />
The objectives of the study were to:<br />
• explore and describe lived experiences of institutional effectiveness during<br />
transformation; and<br />
• recommend mental health strategies for personal and systemic growth to<br />
develop sustainable institutional effectiveness in the college sector.<br />
The objectives of this study favoured the qualitative research paradigm to reach a<br />
dense description of the lived experiences of institutional effectiveness during<br />
transformation.
The major themes that were identified by the research findings were:<br />
v<br />
• Multiple realities of institutional effectiveness existed on a continuum with<br />
pockets of effectiveness.<br />
• Factors promoting institutional effectiveness were:<br />
o the culture of teaching, training and learning;<br />
o learner support and caring; and<br />
o staff support and caring.<br />
• Factors impeding institutional effectiveness were:<br />
o inadequate management of the transformation process;<br />
o inadequate management of human capital (staff and learners);<br />
o inadequate management styles, systems and procedures; and<br />
o the silence voice as a central theme.<br />
The story of Silence Truth, a narrative metaphor, was constructed from the<br />
participants’ real life experiences, theory and the researcher’s experience when<br />
conducting the study. The study illustrates how the story of Silence Truth can be<br />
used as a mental health strategy implementation tool to enable people and systems<br />
to create new stories in the conditions of frightening transformation.
vi<br />
The proposed mental health strategies based on its research findings and theory<br />
took up the duty to go beyond simply describing and understanding education<br />
practice. The study further succeeded to formulate the following mental health<br />
strategies:<br />
• A strategy for enforcing promoting factors for institutional effectiveness.<br />
• A strategy for searching meaning.<br />
• A strategy for letting go of the past.<br />
• A strategy for becoming authentic.<br />
The study concluded by indicating that no external driven transformation can be<br />
effective, if it is not complemented with internal driven transformation. Internal driven<br />
transformation should be aimed at confronting and dealing with fear by finding and<br />
exercising one’s authentic voice.
1.1 ORIENTATION<br />
1<br />
CHAPTER 1<br />
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND<br />
When comparing South Africa with developing countries, South Africa can be proud<br />
of its high participation rates at all levels of the school system. But that does not<br />
imply that South Africa can be proud of its public school system. Taylor, Diphofa,<br />
Waghmarae, Vinjevold and Sedibe (1999:35) acknowledge that the efficiency of<br />
public schooling in South Africa “must be one of the lowest in the world”. The White<br />
Paper on Education and Training (1995) states the necessity of quality improvement<br />
of education and training services to bring South Africa inline with international<br />
trends. Educational transformation in the post-apartheid era is therefore aimed at<br />
redressing the decline in quality performance in schools and colleges (Steyn,<br />
1996:134).<br />
In his foreword, the former minister of education, professor Kader Asmal, urges all<br />
South Africans to join in developing the country’s education system as part of his<br />
Tirisano Call to Action (Department of Education, n.d.:2 - 3). Asmal (Department of<br />
Education, 2001:1 - 2) describes the college system as “ineffective, outdated, poorly<br />
led and badly structured”, as well as “simply not designed to encourage growth or<br />
development”. In his foreword, he puts the challenges for meeting the social,<br />
economic, training and educational needs of the country.
2<br />
An audit done by Pretorius (2000a:2) of South African technical colleges indicates<br />
that “…technical colleges are poor value for money often providing inadequate and<br />
outdated skills training…”, “40 % of learners failed their exams”, “…the sector was<br />
fragmented and inefficient, with too many small, weak institutions…”, “85 % of the<br />
former technical colleges were historically disadvantaged…”.<br />
The findings of the audit confirm the seriousness of ineffective provision of technical<br />
and vocational education and training in South Africa. Fielding, Belfield and Thomas<br />
(1998:487) accentuate that learner failure and drop out from education and training<br />
are important sources of ineffectiveness that have serious consequences for<br />
education success and resource allocation. Chetty (1993:23) questions the affect of<br />
high repetition levels on learner and educator performance and queries if repetition is<br />
adding value to learner achievement.<br />
Before the college sector can address the social, economic, training and education<br />
needs of the country, it first needs to address its ineffectiveness as stated by Asmal<br />
(Department of Education, 2001:1). This study accepts the challenges for<br />
institutional effectiveness, growth and development in order to provide in the person<br />
power needs of the country. Institutional effectiveness as experienced by staff and<br />
learners during transformation is the focus of this study. In order to comprehend<br />
colleges and the negative qualities ascribe to them, it is necessary to understand the<br />
historical background and present context of the college sector in South Africa.
3<br />
1.2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE COLLEGE SECTOR IN SOUTH<br />
AFRICA<br />
Colleges are one of the four entities making up the Further Education Training Band.<br />
The other entities are senior secondary schools (Grades 10, 11 and 12), industrial<br />
trainers and private sector education and training providers. The Further Education<br />
and Training Band provides for programmes between Levels 2 and 4 as defined by<br />
the National Qualifications Framework and offers multiple entry and exit points<br />
(Sedibe, 1998:278).<br />
A literature review (Haasbroek, 1998; Kraak & Hall, 1999) calls attention to the<br />
negative perceptions associated with the college sector. Haasbroek (1998:10)<br />
reflects on the college sector as the abused stepchildren of the South African<br />
Education and Training System. Kraak and Hall (1999:17) perceive technical<br />
colleges to be neglected in terms of management information systems in the South<br />
African education landscape. They (Kraak & Hall, 1999:22) ascribe this state of<br />
affairs to the facts that:<br />
• Further Education and Training institutions (especially colleges) exist on the<br />
margins of General Education and Training (General Education and Training<br />
Band) and Tertiary Education and Training (Higher Education Band); and<br />
• colleges become differentiated institutions due to the racially defined financial<br />
support and lack of effective social development strategies during the<br />
apartheid era.
4<br />
The former minister of education, Asmal, supports the belief that the apartheid era<br />
created a technical college sector that is “built to support a world that no longer<br />
exists” in which “the aspirations of the majority of our people were not considered …”<br />
(Department of Education, 2001:1). The apartheid legacy is thus regarded as the<br />
culprit for the perceived poor state of affairs ascribed to the college sector. Maharaj,<br />
Naidoo and Pampallis (1995:9) point out that the inequities in the provision of<br />
education and training during the apartheid era resulted in the deep crisis in the<br />
education system through massive resistance by black educators and learners.<br />
The historical development of the college sector in South Africa is linked also to the<br />
colonialising of Africa (Ashley, 1989; Mungazi & Walker,1997; Vilakazi,1998). Ashley<br />
(1989:67) stresses the impact of apartheid and colonialism on the South African<br />
education system as “characterised by domination and the lack of a common national<br />
unity and purpose” and “resulted in a divided, unequal and unstable education<br />
system which has been the site of some of the worst violence and intimidation of<br />
recent times”. Mungazi and Walker (1997:122) assert that “…the development of<br />
Africans as a group who were educated to serve the needs of the colonial status<br />
quo”. Vilakazi (1998:78) alleges the nature of the colonial encounter and racism as a<br />
“Master-Servant relationship, with the West being the Master, and Africa the<br />
Servant”.<br />
Van der Walt (1991:166 - 172) holds that education and training presented in the<br />
early years of the Cape of Good Hope settlement succeeded in inoculating the<br />
colonialist social relationship of master and servant. As the settlement slowly<br />
changed from a refreshment post to a colony and started moving to the interior of the
5<br />
country, the settlers increasingly regarded the blacks in the interior as a source of<br />
cheap labour. The settlers believed that these blacks had to be mobilised for the<br />
development of the settlers’ first world economy. In the period up to 1910, blacks<br />
came to see themselves as inferior to whites, also as a result of the education they<br />
received in schools. Especially in mission schools, handicrafts and manual work<br />
formed part of the curriculum.<br />
According to Van der Walt (1991:166 - 172), the period between 1910 and 1948 was<br />
featured by labour unrest and consistent efforts of the prime ministers Botha, Smuts<br />
and Hertzog to protect white labour by effectively excluding all non-whites from<br />
artisan training. However, after 1948 technical and vocational training was<br />
encouraged for blacks to improve the economies and infrastructures of the<br />
homelands. In 1954, Bantu Education was centralised under a single state<br />
department. Efforts were made to introduce the same forms of differentiated<br />
schooling and training as for whites into these separate schools for blacks. Doctor<br />
HF Verwoerd’s words to the effect that blacks could not aspire to any other but the<br />
lowest occupations of manual labour in the white areas of the country resulted in the<br />
rejection of the Department of Bantu Education and its successor the Department of<br />
Education and Training. The history of education and training in South Africa came<br />
to be associated with inferior education for non-white South Africans perpetuating the<br />
system of apartheid.<br />
During the middle and late 1990s the abolition of apartheid resulted in new legislation<br />
that aims at transforming the education and training system in the post-apartheid<br />
South Africa. In light of the historical background of the colleges in South Africa, it is
6<br />
apparent that transforming the sector is a major challenge for all role players and<br />
stakeholders, so much more in the presence of globalisation. Welch (1998:172)<br />
points out that education institutions are not immune against the effects of economic<br />
globalisation and that institutions are pressed to become more efficient. He stresses<br />
that individuals and societies demand better economic rates of return on the<br />
investments they make with regard to education and training.<br />
The national and international discourse of transforming technical colleges seems to<br />
be the business of the day. Various role players and stakeholders (Chisholm,<br />
1999:87; Jansen, n.d.:56; Pretorius, 2000b:1; Selingo 1999:A28; Welch, 1998:157)<br />
express different opinions with regard to the process to be followed in making the<br />
Further Education and Training institutions more effective.<br />
A theme that emerged from the literature (Collins, 2001; Selingo, 1999) is if merging<br />
of institutions is the answer for redressing the claims of the sector’s ineffectiveness.<br />
Collins (2001:11) points out in their study they found that merging of companies does<br />
not turn ineffective institutions into effective ones. Lessons from overseas indicate<br />
that merging technical colleges may result in dreadful outcomes as colleges may lose<br />
their identity “Under pressure from the governors and legislators to heighten their<br />
academic rigor, technical colleges in Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, and a few other<br />
states are having an identity crisis…the mergers signify something else: the death of<br />
technical education” (Selingo, 1999:A28).
7<br />
The next section will brief the reader on the attributes of the transformed college<br />
sector based on merging of South African institutions as envisaged by Asmal<br />
(Department of Education, 2001).<br />
1.3 PRESENT MILIEU: TRANS<strong>FOR</strong>MING THE COLLEGE SECTOR IN<br />
SOUTH AFRICA<br />
Section 29(1)(b) of Chapter Two of the Constitution of South Africa stipulates,<br />
“Everyone has the right to further education, which the state, through reasonable<br />
measures, must make progressively available and accessible.” (Constitution of South<br />
Africa, 1996:13, Meyer, 1998a:4). With the presentation of the Further Education<br />
and Training Bill (Hansard, 8 October 1998:2651) before the National Council of<br />
Provinces the effectiveness of the apartheid system was queried in order to lay the<br />
platform for the new system. It was stressed that graduates from technical colleges<br />
struggled to find employment or create self-employment or to continue and succeed<br />
in the higher education system. The Bill, later the Further Education and Training Act<br />
(Hansard, 8 October 1998:2651), formed the ideological basis for transforming the<br />
Further Education and Training system into a high quality and responsive system that<br />
offers diversified programmes.<br />
The struggle for employment opportunities and/or furthering of studies put challenges<br />
both to the Further and the Higher Education Bands. Brown (n.d.:61) points out that<br />
changes in the nature of the employment market require the ability from the labour<br />
force to be flexible and adaptable to utilise state of the art technology. Rapid
8<br />
changes in the labour market may produce qualifications that overnight become<br />
redundant.<br />
Transformation of the Further Education and Training sector necessitates elimination<br />
of the historical division of state and state-aided colleges (Department of Education,<br />
2001:1). It should be acknowledged that the impact of new education policy and the<br />
resulting transformation of the Further Education and Training sector is a complex<br />
and time-consuming task because it “…is mediated by deeply embedded, historically<br />
engendered organisational practices and approaches developed over time and<br />
situated in and conditioned by local contexts and wider political and economic<br />
developments” (Chisholm, 1999b:89).<br />
International debates point towards avoidance of taking responsibility for education<br />
reform initiatives. In the Unites States of America (USA) it is a continuous debate<br />
whose responsibility education issues is, such as should school reform be a national<br />
priority and the rationale underpinning such a decision (Wagner, 1996:40).<br />
Bureaucracy of the education system seems to be not only a problem related to the<br />
South African education system. Nathan and Myatt (1998:286) question the<br />
presence of the same kind of bureaucracy towards the end the century as the one<br />
the century commenced with when referring to secondary schools in Boston’s<br />
unsuccessful endeavours to become autonomous institutions. Enslin and<br />
Pendlebury (1998:266 - 267) argue that although some contributors support the new<br />
policies, other stakeholders and role players are concerned about theoretical flaws,<br />
implicit political betrayals and unfilled values and beliefs.
9<br />
From the literature (Hirsch,1997:24) it appears that tension between policy makers<br />
and practitioners represented by researchers/academics exists. Hirsch (1997:24)<br />
advocates that each side has to be blamed for the failing relationship between policy<br />
makers and education researchers. Policy makers are to be blamed for not taking<br />
cognisance of research findings and researchers for not disseminating their research<br />
findings. In South Africa it appears that this same sort of tension exists between our<br />
country’s academics and policy makers with regard to the new education reform<br />
initiatives. It seems that some academics are cynic towards the new education policy<br />
plans that are aimed at transforming the education sector.<br />
From the South African literature (Chisholm, n.d.:55; De Villiers, 1997:80; Jansen,<br />
n.d.:57 & Mehl, 1994:11) it appears that education transformation in South Africa is<br />
regarded not to be the ultimate solution for the advancement of teaching and<br />
vocational training. It is perceived to add existing bureaucracy and managerialism of<br />
the sector “Far from breaking down the division between the academic and<br />
vocational, it has contributed to the new managerialism and bureaucratisation of<br />
teaching and learning” (Chisholm, n.d.:55). De Villiers (1997:80) points out that the<br />
new one integrated education department does not erase the problems experienced<br />
and caused by former apartheids fragmented systems, because it is the same people<br />
who run the system. Jansen (n.d.:57) argues that policy forethought is needed to<br />
ensure sustainable education transformation in South Africa “Ordinary bureaucrats<br />
face constant pressure from political heads to respond to the multiple crisis pervading<br />
the education system, without the long-term policy deliberation essential for deeper<br />
transformation in the nation’s schools”. Mehl (1994:11) points out that education<br />
systems will not change as long as we only focus on changing the “shape, size or
10<br />
colour of the incumbent bureaucracy” and fail to realise that a school is a<br />
professional organisation.<br />
Fortunately not all academics sketch such a depressing picture. Fisher, Hall and Jaff<br />
(1998:6) are of the opinion that the new policies present South African colleges with<br />
a chance unique in their past namely, to develop into centres of novelty and growth,<br />
with a new and improved standing and responsibility in society. McCaffray<br />
(1998:138) is of the opinion that colleges in the international arena can add value to<br />
the perplexing contemporary societies as they can make an exceptional and powerful<br />
contribution by their co-ordinating function.<br />
The Department of Education’s strategic plan for 2002 to 2004 (Department of<br />
Education, 2002: 32) stipulates that one of the strategic objectives for the programme<br />
for Further Education and Higher Education is to guarantee a systemic and<br />
excellence solid vivacious private Further Education and Training sector.<br />
Performance indicators for this programme include gazetting new regulations, and<br />
the registration and regulation of colleges.<br />
The policy plan for the new Further Education and Training sector consists of 50<br />
Further Education and Training colleges. The process commences in 2001 in<br />
accordance with section 4 of the Further Education and Training Act, No 98 of 1998.<br />
By means of Provincial Gazettes Extraordinary No 149 of 2 August 2001 and No 182<br />
of 11 September 2001 the Member of the Executive Council responsible for<br />
education in the provinces published notices to elicit comments from interested<br />
persons regarding the intention to declare technical colleges as public Further
11<br />
Education and Training institutions, as well as to elicit comments regarding the<br />
merger of specific declared Further Education and Training institutions into merged<br />
Further Education and Training institutions and eventual exercised his power to<br />
decide to appoint single councils for the identified clusters of institutions. By doing so<br />
the Minister of Education succeeded in<br />
• levelling the playing fields so that state and state-aided colleges are declared<br />
as Further Education and Training institutions; and<br />
• legitimating colleges to merge with each other into large, multi-site institutions.<br />
Asmal (Department of Education, 2001:16 - 20) identifies seven characteristics that<br />
will distinguish transformed colleges from the “old” and still “present” system. These<br />
are:<br />
• Large, multi-site Further Education and Training colleges.<br />
• Greater authority.<br />
• A quality assurance framework.<br />
• Specialised niche and multi-purpose colleges.<br />
• Open and distance learning.<br />
• Articulation and collaboration with higher education.<br />
• Student support services.<br />
The features of Asmal’s large, multi-site Further Education and Training colleges,<br />
include “strong, visionary leadership, as well as trained and effective staff” that will be<br />
“required to lead, manage and sustain these colleges” (Department of Education,<br />
2001:16). According to Kraak and Hall (1999:22) one of the specific systemic<br />
problems of the Further Education and Training sector at this point in time is low staff
12<br />
morale resulting in poor work ethics. These authors ascribed staff problems such as<br />
low morale, a low work ethic and low professional self-esteem to especially the<br />
unfavourable working conditions in the college sector and an authoritarian<br />
management culture that put emphasis on the racial and gender divisions within the<br />
specific sector.<br />
Haasbroek (2000:175) identifies the features of autonomous Further Education and<br />
Training institutions to include confidence in their potential to become self-managing<br />
institutions that embrace a “self-help” ethic. From South African literature (Kraak &<br />
Hall 1999:164 - 167; Haasbroek 2000:174) and policy documents (Department of<br />
Education, 2001:10) the assumption can be made that human capital is recognised<br />
as a vital factor in transforming the sector, but no reference is made to the manner in<br />
which human capital can be developed in order for institutions to become effective.<br />
1.4 PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RESEARCH PROBLEM<br />
Diphofa, Vinjevold and Taylor (1999:1) stress that schooling systems all over are<br />
considered to be in catastrophe and enhancement and transform of these institutions<br />
are high on the programme of politicians, academics and education bureaucrats.<br />
According to Levin and Riffel (1997:17) we require an improved knowledge both of<br />
what schools at present do and of what they might logically do better in future.<br />
Knowledge of such a nature should be originated by a solicitous study.<br />
Miller (1999:A17) points out that research conducted in the past in South Africa that<br />
focused on effectiveness of reform initiatives, was not adding any value to the school
13<br />
reform initiatives. Research on the effectiveness of reforms was often scrawny, open<br />
to doubt, or absent. Kraak and Hall (1999:3) summarise the Further Education and<br />
Training discourse as lacking research interest; in so far that research in this sector is<br />
“noticeably absent”. The Human Sciences Research Council (1996:1) highlights that<br />
at present very little qualified data on formal and non-formal education resources at<br />
technical colleges are available.<br />
Research agendas in the South African context often focus on policy aspects where<br />
it was tended towards what should be. Research of an exploratory nature such as<br />
which models might best represent specific principles, or an evaluative nature such<br />
as which models work best under explicit circumstances have been quite uncared for<br />
(Diphofa, Vinjevold & Taylor (1999:5). Muller agrees with Diphofa, Vinjevold and<br />
Taylor by implicitly stating that in South Africa there is no established educational<br />
research community to speak of “…only a minuscule pool of research data to draw<br />
on…most of it ideologically suspect…” (1998:219). An example in the South African<br />
context is donor interventions that add another complicating factor with regard to the<br />
education reform discourse. According to Taylor, Diphofa, Waghmarae, Vinjevold<br />
and Sedibe (1999:16) the absence of longitudinal data often results in education<br />
reforms guided by ideology and not by a careful analysis whether policies are<br />
counterintuitive to their own aims. Political influences and short-term donor<br />
interventions let school reform initiatives to be tailored or, more typically, overturned<br />
before their effects become apparent.<br />
Against this background education research that focuses on education<br />
transformation initiatives is vital to add value to policy and decision-makers reform
14<br />
debates, as well as to assist the implementers of policy plans with strategic<br />
information. Scientific research can ease the current tension between policy makers,<br />
academics and implementers and direct the South African education discourse in a<br />
constructive manner.<br />
The post-apartheid era requires Further Education and Training institutions to face<br />
unique challenges in becoming effective, self-managing institutions. In order to deal<br />
with these challenges, institutions should be responsive and flexible, as well as<br />
prepared to learn from previous experiences. Understanding the real life<br />
experiences with regard to institutional effectiveness during transformation can<br />
become a powerful agent to capacitate staff and learners, and promote and sustain<br />
institutional effectiveness.<br />
In the absence of relevant research and the yearning for growth and development in<br />
the Further Education and Training sector to satisfy the training and economic needs<br />
of the country, an investigative, explorative study can make a significant contribution.<br />
Exploring the experiences of staff and learners and describing factors that promote or<br />
impede institutional effectiveness during transformation can facilitate sustainable<br />
change in these institutions. Mental health strategies aimed at capacitating individual<br />
persons and the system can facilitate personal and systemic growth in striving for<br />
effectiveness and becoming eventual institutions of excellence. The fundamental<br />
question that should be answered by such a study should then be: “How can<br />
institutional effectiveness, within a particular Further Education and Training<br />
institution during transformation, be promoted?”
15<br />
1.5 RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVES<br />
This study employs the qualitative research paradigm to explore and describe the<br />
experiences of institutional effectiveness during transformation. Factors promoting<br />
and/or impeding institutional effectiveness can be identified and strategies can be<br />
proposed that are grounded in the findings to facilitate personal and systemic growth<br />
for sustainable development.<br />
The objectives of the study are to:<br />
• explore and describe lived experiences of institutional effectiveness during<br />
transformation; and<br />
• recommend mental health strategies for personal and systemic growth to<br />
develop sustainable institutional effectiveness in the college sector.<br />
1.6 PARADIGMATIC PERSPECTIVE<br />
The paradigmatic perspective refers to the assumptions and/or beliefs the researcher<br />
used in the study. These assumptions can be regarded as the criteria that are used<br />
by the researcher in the selection and conceptualising of the research problem that<br />
include the meta-theoretical, theoretical and methodological assumptions. In this<br />
section the assumptions, commitments, suppositions and beliefs as suggested by<br />
Mouton (1996:174) are reported for scientific communication purposes.
• Metatheoretical assumptions<br />
16<br />
The researcher is of the opinion that human capital is very much neglected by<br />
politicians and designers of the new institutional South African landscape for Further<br />
Education and Training in South Africa. The importance of acknowledging the<br />
human factor in a holistic manner in successful institutional reform initiatives appears<br />
to be absent as observed by national and international experts (Evans, 1996; Kotzè,<br />
Myburg, Roux & Associates, 2002).<br />
Evans (1996:9) is of the opinion that school reform initiatives “failed to fully realize<br />
the improvements they promised, and many staff development programs have<br />
developed teachers’ cynicism more than their expertise”. He ascribes the failure of<br />
initiatives to designers that ignored the “flux and complexity in and around<br />
organizations” and “overlooks the vital realities of context, human psychology and the<br />
process of change”.<br />
The researcher is of the opinion that successful initiatives aimed at promoting<br />
institutional effectiveness in education settings takes into account the living realities<br />
of the people involved during transformation processes; the human psychodynamics<br />
and people’s lived experiences of their world of work. For this reason the researcher<br />
associates with Kotzè, Myburg, Roux and Associates (2002:11 - 12) that the focus on<br />
the scientific value of paradigms and bodies of knowledge or the doctrinal truths of<br />
faith systems should be on the effects it have on people in real life. “How do they<br />
work? Who benefits? Who suffers? Who has a say and who is silenced?”. The
17<br />
focus of this study is therefore on constructing the truth by understanding the<br />
experiences of institutional effectiveness during the transformation of Further<br />
Education and Training.<br />
In the context of the study the concept “human” are used to indicate the holistic being<br />
of a person on biological, cognitive, personality, environmental and sociocultural level<br />
(adopted from Halonen & Santrock, 1996:505). In this study special attention is<br />
given to his/her feelings, understandings, behaviour and choices he/she makes while<br />
experiencing transformation of his/her teaching, training and learning place that is a<br />
particular Further Education and Training institution (adapted from Fitz-enz, 2000;<br />
Kotzè, Myburg, Roux & Associates, 2002).<br />
This study goes beyond describing the living experiences of people during<br />
transformation by developing mental health strategies to promote the mental well-<br />
being of people during transformation. Mental health strategies are tactics designed<br />
by this study grounded in its findings to assist people during the transformation of a<br />
Further Education and training Institution to cope with the associated stress,<br />
understand and find meaning in their lived experiences, to develop resilience and to<br />
become self-reliant.<br />
• Theoretical assumptions<br />
The study is mapped out by the realities of the context of the people involved, human<br />
psychology and the process of change. The study acknowledges the real teaching,<br />
training and learning world of people during an institutional change process. Basic
18<br />
human psychology and the response to change form the basic theoretical<br />
background to this study.<br />
The study contributes to school reform initiatives by deriving from systems thinking<br />
and strategic approaches to school development, aiming at producing second order<br />
change in a college. Evans (1996:5) points out that first order change is focussed on<br />
improving the efficiency or effectiveness of what already is being done, while second<br />
order change goes beyond by also focusing on changing the beliefs and perceptions<br />
of the people involved. Wessels and Kotzè (2002:128 - 139) argue that change is an<br />
“emotion-laden” concept and dualistic in nature, categorising people in the work<br />
place. Evans (1996:17) emphasises that if change is not meaningful to one, one will<br />
not accept the losses and discontinuities of change. Focussing on the experiences<br />
of people during the process of change and the meanings they attached to it can add<br />
value to sustainable development initiatives.<br />
• Methodological assumptions<br />
The study follows a qualitative research design to explore, understand and describe<br />
the living realities of staff members and learners with regard to institutional<br />
effectiveness within a particular Further Education and Training institution during<br />
transformation. For this reason the phenomenological interview (Kvale, 1983:174 -<br />
179) is the primarily data collecting instrument for the study to discover the truth from<br />
the real life stories of the persons involved with regard to their experiences of<br />
institutional effectiveness during transformation. Chapter Two provides an in-depth<br />
discussion for employing a qualitative research paradigm, design and method, as
19<br />
well as demonstrating how this study adheres to rigour in research through<br />
trustworthiness. In paragraph 1.10 it is explained how the study does justice to the<br />
post-modern principles of “logic” and “justification”.<br />
1.7 DEFINITIONS OF OPERATIONAL CONCEPTS AND TERMS<br />
To ensure a common understanding and frame of reference, working definitions for<br />
the following key concepts and terms are hereby given.<br />
• College<br />
A college is a secondary education and training institution that offers technical<br />
subjects and other vocational-orientated subjects such as business studies, utility<br />
studies, and skills courses.<br />
• Develop<br />
“Develop” means the act to cause growth for becoming more advanced in order to<br />
make progress (Pearsall, 1999:391 & 18).<br />
• Capacitate<br />
In this context it is used as a synonym for empowering that is the process of giving<br />
power and/or authority to people in order to strengthen and build confidence, moral<br />
and self-esteem among staff members to enable them to become competent in order
20<br />
to successful and legitimately accomplish their tasks with job satisfaction (Pearsall,<br />
1999:467 & 206).<br />
• Experience<br />
Experience can be defined as an event or occurrence that leaves an impression on<br />
an individual (Pearsall, 1999:501). Epston and White (1992:78 - 79) argue that it is<br />
not possible for persons to have a “direct knowledge of the world; that an objective<br />
description of the work is not available to us” and “our experience of the world is all<br />
that we have, and this is all that we know”. “The best that we can do is to interpret<br />
the experience of others; that is, the expressions of their experience as they go about<br />
the business of interpreting it for themselves”. The term “experience(s)” as used in<br />
this study refers to interpreting the expressions of participants’ experiences as they<br />
tried to interpret it for themselves.<br />
• Feeling<br />
Feelings can be described as emotional states and/or reactions that are instinctive<br />
and/or intuitive and can be distinguished from reasoning and/or knowledge (Pearsall,<br />
1999:520 & 466).
• Further Education and Training<br />
21<br />
Further Education and Training included courses offered within the Further Education<br />
and Training Band as recognised by the South African National Qualifications<br />
Framework Levels 2 - 4 (Human Sciences Research Council, 1995:20).<br />
• Human capital<br />
Human capital is defined in this study as the combination of factors that include the<br />
traits one brings to the job, one’s ability to learn and one’s motivation to share<br />
information and knowledge (Fitz-enz, 2000:xii).<br />
• Institutional effectiveness<br />
Institutional effectiveness can be defined as the success of an institution in producing<br />
a desired or intended result or outcome (adapted from Pearsall, 1999:456). Legotlo<br />
and Teu (1998:8) states that “There are number of ways to define effective<br />
schools…(and)…for a school to be labelled effective or ineffective, depend on the<br />
criteria used to measure effectiveness.”, words such as “effective”, “excellent” and<br />
“good” are synonyms. McCaffray (1998:138) is of the opinion that “Institutional<br />
effectiveness, like beauty, is often in the eye of beholder” and that college<br />
effectiveness is measured by different people differently and include pass rates,<br />
placing rates in the workplace, ability to attract private sector support, state of the art<br />
equipment and facilities, qualification levels of staff, and relevancy of programmes<br />
offered.
• Meaning<br />
22<br />
Meaning in the context of this study can be explained as the worthwhile quality<br />
and/or significance and/or worth a person attached to an experience (adapted from<br />
Pearsall, 1999:863).<br />
• Strategies<br />
Strategies can be regarded as tactic plans that are designed carefully to achieve long<br />
term and/or specific outcomes beyond the immediate action (adapted from Pearsall,<br />
1999:1418 & 1457).<br />
• Technical College<br />
A technical college is a secondary education and training institution that offered<br />
technical subjects or applied technical subjects (theoretical and/or practical) within<br />
the Further Education and Training Band.<br />
• Understanding<br />
In this study the term “understanding” means the perception and/or judgement of the<br />
situation by a person when making an opinion about a specific state of affairs<br />
(Pearsall, 1999:1562 & 764).
1.8 RESEARCH DESIGN<br />
23<br />
The study follows a qualitative research paradigm (Mouton, 1996:36 - 40;<br />
Schurink,1998b:239 - 251) to explore, understand and describe a particular Further<br />
Education and Training institution in its natural setting, a college, during<br />
transformation. Triangulation is achieved through employing various data gathering<br />
methods (De Vos, 1998b:359) namely, individual phenomenological interviews and<br />
naïve sketches regarding perceived institutional effectiveness. The qualitative<br />
research phenomenological interview is the major data collection tool used in this<br />
study to gain a phenomenological understanding of the research topic (Kvale,<br />
1983:174 - 179; Willis, 1999). Guidelines for implementing the qualitative research<br />
interview and interpreting the data as stipulated by Kvale (1983:171 - 196) are<br />
employed. The research design and methodology are explored in more detail in<br />
Chapter Two.<br />
1.9 RESEARCH METHOD<br />
The research takes place in two phases. In the first phase the lived experiences of<br />
institutional effectiveness during transformation are explored and described. In the<br />
second phase mental health strategies for personal and systemic growth to develop<br />
sustainable institutional effectiveness are recommended. Chapter Three reflects<br />
Phase 1 and Chapter Five reflects Phase 2. Chapter Four symbolises a bridge<br />
between the two phases.
1.10 RESEARCH ETHICS<br />
24<br />
Traditional principles of research conduct covered the following areas of ethical<br />
concern:<br />
• protection of participants from physical and psychological harm;<br />
• deception;<br />
• loss of privacy; and<br />
• informed consent for protection of researchers.<br />
These principles are now extended to include the community, voice, reciprocity and a<br />
relationship that is built on the sacred (Denzin & Lincoln, 2001:xxv).<br />
In the quest for assuring that the basic national and international ethic principles of<br />
behaviour are respected and honoured by the researcher, the ethical principles as<br />
summarised by the South African Medical Research Council (MRC, 2002:5 - 6) are<br />
valued by this study as follow.<br />
1.10.1 The participant as a person<br />
Autonomy of the participants were assured by giving interested persons such as staff<br />
members and learners through their representative bodies the opportunity to<br />
participate out of free will in this project. An open invitation was given to interested<br />
persons of the three academic faculties, support services, skills development<br />
facilitator, international bursary student job placement officer, and the learner<br />
representative serving on the college council. The purpose and the nature of the
25<br />
research process were explained by a written invitation (see Appendixes A and C).<br />
Participants were asked to give informed written consent for participation in the study<br />
(see Appendix C).<br />
1.10.2 Human rights<br />
The human rights of the participants were honoured by being transparent and<br />
respectful to the participants and the data revealed by them. Gaining permission by<br />
the college’s governing body and management and assuring confidentiality of the<br />
individuals involved and making the findings accessible to them, attained this<br />
principle.<br />
1.10.3 The ethic of justice, fairness and objectivity<br />
The agenda of the research was discussed verbally and in writing to the participants<br />
(see Appendixes A and C). In case of any enquiries with regard to the research<br />
process and/or the researcher’s conduct, contact details of the responsible university<br />
authorities were given prior to data collection. Audiotape recordings of the data<br />
collection interviews, and access to the transcriptions of the audiotapes and the final<br />
findings were given to the participants on request. It was explained that the<br />
audiotapes had to be verified by an independent coder. Confidentiality of the<br />
participants was respected throughout the research process by making use of coding<br />
for verifying purposes and destroying the tapes on completion of the study.<br />
Participants were not requested to write their names on the naïve sketches (see<br />
Appendix B).
1.10.4 Competence<br />
26<br />
It was stated verbally and in writing prior to data collection that the research study<br />
was done by a DEd candidate of the University of Johannesburg (former Rand<br />
Afrikaans University) (see Appendixes A and C). Contact details of the supervisors<br />
were given to the participants prior to data collection in case of any enquiries or<br />
creditworthiness checks.<br />
1.10.5 Integrity<br />
Integrity was honoured by this study through:<br />
• being honest with regard to the agenda and process of the research;<br />
• stating the student status of the researcher;<br />
• giving interested parties a fair chance to be involved in this study out of free<br />
will; and<br />
• assuring access to the findings after completion.<br />
1.10.6 Sensitivity<br />
Throughout the research process the researcher attempted to be sensitive for<br />
cultural and managerial differences between the researcher and the participants.<br />
The participants’ unique interaction with and their interpretation of their living realities<br />
were valued and respected by the researcher.
1.10.7 Confidentiality<br />
Confidentiality of the participants was respected in the following ways:<br />
27<br />
• invitation letters outlined measures to respect confidentiality (see<br />
Appendixes A and C);<br />
• written informed consents from participants were gained prior to the<br />
interviews (see Appendix C);<br />
• no names were mentioned in analysing and interpreting the data and report<br />
writing;<br />
• codes were used by the researcher to identify sources; and<br />
• audiotapes were destroyed after completion of the project as agreed on with<br />
the participants.<br />
1.10.8 Demarcation of roles<br />
Mutual understanding of the roles, interests and expectations of the study were<br />
assured by following a transparent process in:<br />
• sharing with the participants the research agenda and method employed;<br />
and<br />
• discussing the research expectations.<br />
1.10.9 Communication<br />
Open two-way communication was respected throughout the research by explaining<br />
verbally the necessary information to the participants and confirming important
28<br />
information in writing (see Appendixes A and C). The findings of the study were on<br />
request available to the participants.<br />
1.10.10 The danger of coercion<br />
The human being as the major contributor to this study was valued by:<br />
• respecting the choices for participation or not participation made by potential<br />
participants;<br />
• following a transparent process;<br />
• honouring open two-way communication verbally and in writing between the<br />
researcher and the participants;<br />
• honouring the autonomy and confidentiality of the participants;<br />
• respecting the principles of research conduct throughout the research<br />
process;<br />
• allowing participants to terminate or withdraw from the research process<br />
whenever they wish without penalising them; and<br />
• discussing potential benefits and disadvantages with them.<br />
1.11 RESEARCH STEPS<br />
The research process consists of the following steps:<br />
Step 1: Conceptualising the research theme.<br />
Step 2: Developing the research question.<br />
Step 3: Gaining permission to conduct the research from authorities.<br />
Step 4: Piloting the research question.
Step 5: Finalising the research question.<br />
Step 6: Collecting the data.<br />
29<br />
Step 7: Analysing and interpreting the data.<br />
Step 8: Verifying coding of the data by an independent coder.<br />
Step 9: Controlling the research findings with the literature.<br />
Step 10: Developing mental health strategies.<br />
Step 11: Conclusion and assessment of the study.<br />
Step 12: Dissemination.<br />
1.12 CHAPTER CONTENT CLASSIFICATION<br />
The thesis consists of different chapters dealing with the research process, findings,<br />
literature review for control purposes, and recommendations. Conceptual maps are<br />
used for figurative explanations and tables are used to condense information when<br />
needed. The contents of the different chapters are:<br />
• Chapter 1: Introduction and background.<br />
• Chapter 2: Research method.<br />
• Chapter 3: Lived experiences of institutional effectiveness.<br />
• Chapter 4: The story of “Silence Truth”.<br />
• Chapter 5: Mental health strategies for developing institutional effectiveness.<br />
• Chapter 6: Assessment and conclusion.<br />
• Bibliography.<br />
• Appendixes: Examples of a letter for permission, a transcribed interview, a<br />
naïve sketch used in the study and exercises.
1.13 CONCLUSION<br />
30<br />
In this chapter the reader is briefed on the background and present milieu of Further<br />
Education and Training in South Africa, the research strategy and the research<br />
problem statement, the research aims and steps, as well as the manner in which the<br />
research principles is honoured by this study. The chapter is concluded with the<br />
chapter content of the imminent chapters.
2.1 INTRODUCTION<br />
31<br />
CHAPTER 2<br />
RESEARCH METHOD<br />
In Chapter One, the reader was introduced and orientated with regard to Further<br />
Education and Training institutions, in particular the college sector in South Africa.<br />
Chapter One reflected the unique challenges facing the college sector and<br />
transformation thereof to meet the economic and social demands of South Africa.<br />
Reference was made to the education discourse that was lacking acknowledgement<br />
of human capital during education transformation to facilitate and sustain<br />
development in education institutions.<br />
Allusions were made in Chapter One that the interpretation of the nature of scientific<br />
inquiry as used in this study was searching for the truth by:<br />
• exploring and describing people’s lived experiences of institutional effectiveness<br />
during transformation; and<br />
• understanding and gaining insight in the complexity of human dynamics during<br />
transformation from an insiders view. This chapter’s purpose is to attest the<br />
research paradigm within the context of the study.
2.2 RATIONALE<br />
32<br />
The historical background of the college sector in South Africa, as well as the<br />
transformation and reconstruction drive in the education and training field since<br />
1994, necessitate research to inform transformation models for sustainable<br />
development. It has to be stressed that differences between education institutions<br />
are great in terms of variants that include aspects such as capacities, resources,<br />
leadership and management, culture, relationships inside the education institution<br />
and with the outside environment. Taylor, Diphofa, Waghmarae, Vinjevold and<br />
Sedibe (1999:17) stress that discovering a master plan for school improvement is<br />
“…an elusive holy grail” and therefore it is better to regard change as a “…guided<br />
journey…”.<br />
Nedeble, as quoted by Bak (1998:(i)), stresses that the “greatest challenge of the<br />
South African revolution is the search for ways of thinking, ways of perception, that<br />
will help to break down the closed epistemological structures…”. According to Bak<br />
(1998) these closed structures limit and compromise insight that necessitates<br />
education reform initiatives and they include:<br />
• silences that have developed in education discourse;<br />
• disjuncture and tensions between policy and practice; and<br />
• disenchantment between ideals and constraints within the “real world”.<br />
The significant contribution made by this study is that staff and learners were given<br />
the opportunity to raise their voices and by doing so, break the silence regarding their<br />
lived experiences of institutional effectiveness during transformation as challenged by<br />
academics (Ashley, 1989; Haasbroek, 1998; Kraak & Hall, 1999; Taylor, Diphofa,
33<br />
Waghmarae, Vinjevold & Sedibe, 1999) and policy makers (Department of<br />
Education, 2001). The real life experiences of institutional effectiveness as described<br />
by staff and learners as explored by this study, can promote understanding and<br />
insight for the transformation journey by the college sector. Value is added to the<br />
education discourse by developing mental health strategies that can guide the<br />
transformation process to ensure the well-being of education institutions’ human<br />
capital and facilitate sustainable development.<br />
The study concerned a single case exploration and description, nonetheless the<br />
lessons learnt and knowledge gained from this in-depth research can:<br />
• promote insight to ease the tensions between policy and practice;<br />
• inform policy making and decision-taking activities when mapping out<br />
sustainable development choices for transforming the education sector in<br />
South Africa;<br />
• create sensitivity for human dynamics during transformation; and<br />
• acknowledge human capital as fundamental to successful education reform<br />
initiatives.<br />
A detailed description of the research paradigm, objectives, and methodology, as<br />
well as the ethical considerations used by this study will be given in the following<br />
sections.<br />
Figure 2.1 provides an explanation of conceptualising the study by illustrating the<br />
study’s context.
34<br />
Figure 2.1: Conceptual framework of the study<br />
POLITICI<br />
LEGEND<br />
Different faculties within the college.<br />
Claims of ineffectiveness.<br />
Responses to claims as informed by real life experiences.<br />
ACADEMICS<br />
Transformation of the further education and training sector.<br />
HUMAN<br />
CAPITAL<br />
Human capital and lived experiences of institutional effectiveness during<br />
transformation.
2.3 RESEARCH PARADIGM<br />
35<br />
According to Mouton (1996:28) the central theme for scientific enquiry is motivated<br />
by exploring “…‘true’ or at least ‘truthful’ knowledge…”. The main intention of all<br />
research is to “…arrive at results that are as close to the truth as possible…” that are<br />
the most valid results likely. Mouton (1996:36 - 37) entitles the highest levels of<br />
science complexity as methodological paradigms. He distinguishes three paradigms<br />
namely quantitative, qualitative and participatory action. The selection of a particular<br />
paradigm is subject to the collections of research methods and techniques, as well<br />
as the assumptions and values underpinning the specific circumstances.<br />
In this study, the researcher wished to explore, understand and describe experiences<br />
of institutional effectiveness of staff and learners of a Further Education and Training<br />
institution during transformation. The primarily aim of the research was to reach a<br />
dense description of the experiences of participants to promote institutional<br />
effectiveness of a particular Further Education and Training institution namely, a<br />
college within its natural setting. The objectives of the study were to:<br />
• explore and describe lived experiences of institutional effectiveness during<br />
transformation; and<br />
• recommend mental health strategies for personal and systemic growth to<br />
develop sustainable institutional effectiveness in the college sector.<br />
Schurink (1998b:243) argues that in the case of the qualitative research paradigm,<br />
scientific enquiry for the truth is founded in the participants’ accounts of meaning,
36<br />
experience and/or perceptions. The qualitative researcher is therefore concerned<br />
with:<br />
• understanding rather than controlled measurement;<br />
• naturalistic observation rather than controlled measurement; and<br />
• the subjective exploration of reality from the perspective of an insider and not<br />
from an outsider, as the case with quantitative paradigms.<br />
Therefore, the objectives of this study favoured employing the qualitative paradigm<br />
as the study explored, understood and described real life experiences of institutional<br />
experiences and thus the truth of implementers (staff) and beneficiaries (learners) of<br />
the transformation of a college in its natural setting; and a dense description of the<br />
participants’ experiences of institutional effectiveness during transformation. College<br />
staff and learners have to teach, train and learn and live on a daily basis with real life<br />
experiences of institutional effectiveness during education transformation.<br />
According to Denzin and Lincoln (2001:xxiv) post-modern and post-structural<br />
challenges questioned the “assumptions that had organised ‘history’ in each of its<br />
colonizing moments”. In this new area, qualitative researchers do “more than to<br />
observe history; he or she plays a part in its construction”. Real life experiences of<br />
institutional effectiveness told and/or untold by the participants, as well as mental<br />
health strategies to develop institutional effectiveness, can create self-reliance,<br />
cultivate a self-help ethic and add value to human life.
37<br />
Miller (1999:A18) adds another valuable contribution that qualitative research makes<br />
to scientific knowledge to inform transformation debates by explaining/answering the<br />
“Why?” question. Qualitative studies can both disclose valuable theories for<br />
quantitative investigation and help elucidate things that statistics cannot, such as the<br />
reason(s) why a particular reform works and in what conditions.<br />
Today there seems to be an increased consciousness that development should take<br />
place together with active participation of the communities 1 involved. Rahman, cited<br />
by De Vos, Schurink and Strydom (1998:18), encapsulates the significance of<br />
community involvement as follows “…people want to stand up, take control over what<br />
they need to work with, do things themselves in their own search for life and move<br />
forward, supporting each other”. Rahman (De Vos, Schurink & Strydom, 1998:18)<br />
continues by stating that researchers are no longer supposed to have the right to<br />
dominate elucidating the social world, but rather to empower research participants to<br />
know and unravel their own situation and problems, become conscious of their own<br />
potential and recover their own sense of dignity to take joint action for their<br />
development. Sustainable development can only take place through people’s self-<br />
growth and mobilisation and never when the state or outsiders take the initial<br />
responsibility for commencing and implementing growth. If state agencies or<br />
international organisations take such liability, people will anticipate them to deliver<br />
instead of mobilising their own assets and taking their own decisions.<br />
Although the study was not in the strict sense participatory research in nature, it is<br />
trusted that the findings of this study can be used to stimulate participation between<br />
1 It needs to be noted that in this study the “community” is defined as the staff and learners on<br />
“grassroots level” of a single college within the Further Education and Training Band.
38<br />
policy makers and policy implementers; through enhancing understanding and insight<br />
of human complexities during transformation on grass roots level. College learners<br />
can even use the findings to position them in the post-apartheid era. Sehoole<br />
(1999:61) is of the opinion that studies of this nature create a new challenge to<br />
students to no more run by demands based on resolutions, but to slot in with<br />
institutions on transformation issues that are based on research. Students are<br />
therefore placed ”…not only as consumers of knowledge but also as producers of<br />
knowledge” (Sehoole,1999:61).<br />
It needs to be added that the study was contextualised within the specific setting of a<br />
single college within the Further Education and Training Band. The aim of the study<br />
was not to generalise the findings, but rather to reach an in-depth understanding of<br />
the experiences of institutional effectiveness in a natural setting (an insider view); a<br />
dense description. Fouché and De Vos (1998:125) point out that contextual studies<br />
enable the “researcher to develop insights, ideas, questions and hypothesis” with<br />
regard to the research topic. Knowledge generated by this study will be used to<br />
recommend mental health strategies to develop institutional effectiveness.<br />
From the above it can be concluded that the objectives and values of the research<br />
study substantiated the use of the qualitative research paradigm. The study was a<br />
dense description that explored, explained and described lived experiences of<br />
institutional effectiveness in a natural setting during education transformation. The<br />
following sections discuss the research design and method used by this study in<br />
more detail.
39<br />
2.4 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD<br />
Mouton (1996:107) stresses that the research design flows from the research<br />
problem with the aims of taking research decisions and conducting the study in such<br />
a way (research method) that validity of the results are maximised. The research<br />
design outlines the process that needs to be followed step-by-step. Table 2.1<br />
reflects the stages and activities of the research process used in this study. It has to<br />
be noted that the research study had two phases namely, Phase 1: the lived<br />
experiences of institutional effectiveness and Phase 2: mental health strategies for<br />
developing institutional effectiveness that were informed and grounded by the first<br />
phase’s findings.<br />
2.4.1 Conceptualising and formalising research objectives<br />
The reader is referred to Chapter One, Chapter Two sections 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 and<br />
Figure 2.1 for a detailed explanation on conceptualising and formalising of the<br />
research problem and research objectives.<br />
2.4.2 Obtaining permission from authorities to conduct the study<br />
To ensure that ethics are honoured, and due to the sensitivity nature of the research,<br />
care was given to ensure that clear guidelines were set and approved by applicable<br />
authorities before commencement of the research. This was done to ensure that<br />
involved authorities had a clear understanding and gave informed consent prior to
Table 2.1: Stages and activities of the research process<br />
40<br />
STAGES ACTIVITIES FOLLOWED<br />
CONCEPTUALISATION • Literature study<br />
• Attending conferences<br />
• Participating in education discourse<br />
• Conducting/participating in education research<br />
• Working in a Further Education and Training<br />
institution<br />
• Defining key concepts<br />
<strong>FOR</strong>MALISATION OF RESEARCH<br />
OBJECTIVES<br />
• Conducting literature study<br />
• Meetings with education and research experts<br />
AUTHORISATION <strong>FOR</strong> STUDY • Presenting<br />
authorities<br />
proposed study to education<br />
• Writing of letters and proposals to institutional<br />
governing structures and ethical committee of<br />
university<br />
DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH<br />
INSTRUMENTS<br />
• Compiling and piloting instruments (interview<br />
question and naïve sketches)<br />
• Reviewing of pilot instruments<br />
• Peer reviewing of instruments<br />
SAMPLING • Defining the research population<br />
• Selecting a college<br />
• Selecting participants<br />
DATA COLLECTION • Conducting interviews<br />
• Collecting naïve sketches<br />
• Making field notes<br />
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION<br />
OF THE DATA<br />
• Coding of data<br />
• Reduction of data<br />
• Conducting literature control study<br />
• Formalising findings<br />
• Recommending mental health strategies<br />
• Reaching final conclusions<br />
DISSEMINATION OF FINDINGS • Publishing of findings
41<br />
the study. Consent facilitates accessibility, co-operation, as well as establishes a<br />
mutual agreed ethical framework when conducting a study. Strydom (1998a:24)<br />
accentuates the importance that research rules and behavioural expectations about<br />
the most correct conduct should be accepted. Authorisation for conducting this study<br />
was obtained in writing from the following authorities:<br />
• Governing council from the college (see Appendixes E).<br />
• Management committee from the college (see Appendixes E).<br />
• Ethical committee from the University of Johannesburg (former Rand<br />
Afrikaans University).<br />
The researcher undertook that ethical guidelines as stipulated by the Medical<br />
Research Council would be honoured (see Chapter One, section 1.10) when<br />
conducting the research.<br />
The college authorities (see Appendix E) added the following rules for the researcher<br />
to adhere<br />
• to obtain in her personal capacity permission from participants;<br />
• to obtain permission from head of departments for involving staff and/or<br />
learners;<br />
• time given to the research should be outside the specified 35 working hours<br />
per week for staff members;<br />
• no infringement of faculties’ management and/or administration; and
• when questionnaires were to be used, these activities:<br />
o should be after hours;<br />
42<br />
o should have no cost implications for the college; and<br />
o strict adherence to confidentiality of all staff and learners involved in the<br />
study.<br />
2.4.3 Sampling<br />
Sampling in this study was done on three different levels namely, by:<br />
• selecting the research site;<br />
• selecting the participants that participate in the interviews; and<br />
• selecting the participants that participate in the naïve sketches.<br />
Purposive sampling was used in this study. Strydom and De Vos (1998,198)<br />
describe purposive sampling as a sample that is collected of elements that contain<br />
the most characteristic, or typical qualities of the population that is founded wholly on<br />
the judgement of the researcher. According to Randall, Cooper and Hite (1999:11)<br />
education research today demands “…an adequate exploration of the philosophical<br />
bases and cultural values that underlie the pursuit of truth and knowledge”.<br />
Therefore the following account of the sampling procedure is given for audit tracking<br />
purposes.
2.4.3.1 Selection of the site<br />
43<br />
The research agenda and qualitative research paradigm dictated that the college<br />
selected for this study had the following features. These features served as the<br />
selection criteria:<br />
• a legitimised Further Education and Training institution; and<br />
• an institution targeted for education reform as stipulated by law in accordance<br />
with section 4 of the Further Education and Training Act, No 98 of 1998 and<br />
provincial gazettes extraordinary.<br />
The particular college was a technical college established in the 1960s with the<br />
specific purpose for providing theoretical and practical technical training for one of<br />
the government’s departments. Although the rendering of services was primarily<br />
informed by technical training for the former government, the college developed as<br />
time went by. A business faculty and lifelong learning faculty were added to make<br />
the college more accessible for the business sector and private learners. This was<br />
vital to sustain the college after the political changes that resulted in the change of<br />
government in 1994.<br />
Government declared the college as a Further Education and Training institution and<br />
targeted this specific college to merge with other colleges to become one college<br />
(Further Education and Training Act, No 98 of 1998 and provincial gazette extra<br />
ordinaries numbers 149 and 182). During the time of the study significant changes<br />
happened to the particular college such as:
44<br />
• its status was changed from a college to that of a campus of a new merged<br />
college with multi-sites spread over a geographical area;<br />
• the particular campus served as the head office of the merged college;<br />
• its name was changed;<br />
• there was a time lapse before a new name was found for the particular<br />
geographical setting;<br />
• two names were allocated to the geographical setting indicating the campus<br />
and the head offices as two different entities;<br />
• some staff was redeployed or in the process of being redeployed; and<br />
• a new chief executive officer was appointed (affirmative action appointment)<br />
to head the merged college and he took office in the former college’s (now<br />
campus) rector’s office.<br />
Although the education institution where the study was conducted is referred to as<br />
the “college” in this thesis, it is acknowledged at present as a “campus” of a merged<br />
college. The study was done during the transitional period of a former college<br />
becoming a campus of a new merged college with multi-sites.<br />
From the above description it can be concluded that the specific college/campus<br />
satisfy the selection criteria.<br />
2.4.3.2 Selection of the participants for the interviews<br />
The aim of qualitative research is to reach a dense description of the lived<br />
experiences of the participants (Schurink, 1998e:240 - 241). To enable the
45<br />
researcher to reach such a dense description, purposive sampling of participants for<br />
interviews was done. Care was taken to select participants coming from different<br />
cultural and institutional positions to ensure that voices were generated from<br />
different/alternative backgrounds (Strydom & De Vos, 1998:198). The following<br />
aspects were taken cognisance of when selecting participants for interviews: age,<br />
gender, home language, lecturing versus non-lecturing staff, and staff versus<br />
learners.<br />
Non-lecturing staff was included because these voices are regarded in the literature<br />
as “…trusted voices…and are assumed to be more objective”. (Jackson, 1995:6).<br />
Learners were included as the viewpoints of students on their schools’ strengths and<br />
weaknesses are often noticeably discerning. Learners’ viewpoints on school<br />
improvement initiatives are hardly ever sought for because educators have a tough<br />
time hearing their concerns (Wagner, 1996:43). By including learners in the sample,<br />
an opportunity was created for the learners’ voices to be heard.<br />
2.4.3.3 Selection of the participants for the naïve sketches<br />
Naïve sketches are much more feasible in terms of costs, time and manpower when<br />
comparing it to interviews (Fouché,1998:156). No sampling was done in this case.<br />
All staff members appointed or learners enrolled by the college were given the<br />
opportunity to participate in the research. By doing so, the researcher attempted to<br />
create the opportunity by giving a voice to everybody who wished to do so and as<br />
such enforced the richness and quality of the study as echoed by Lincoln (2001:115)<br />
“…the extent to which alternative voices are heard is a criterion by which we can
46<br />
judge the openness, engagement, and problematic nature of any text”. Naïve<br />
sketches were distributed through formal institutional structures to reach potential<br />
participants.<br />
2.4.4 Phase 1: Exploration and description of the lived experiences: data<br />
collection methods<br />
The choice of method needed for collecting of data, is dependant on multiple factors<br />
that should be taken into account such as among other the formulation of the<br />
problem, the methodological preferences and the nature of the research<br />
phenomenon (Mouton, 1996:127). The study’s qualitative paradigm required<br />
traditional qualitative research methods. For triangulation purposes,<br />
phenomenological interviews and naïve sketches were used by this study. Field<br />
notes and observations were used to reflect other important information and/or<br />
record events when conducting the study. The next sections describe the use of the<br />
research method for Phase 1: Exploration and description of the lived experiences of<br />
institutional effectiveness in more detail.<br />
2.4.4.1 Phenomenological interview<br />
Interviewing is regarded as the most common method of data collecting and can be<br />
regarded as the “universal mode of systematic enquiry” (Schurink, 1998d:297).<br />
According to Denzin, as quoted by Schurink (1998d:300), the aim of un- and semi-<br />
structured interviewing is to vigorously enter the worlds of people and to make those<br />
worlds explainable from the standpoint of a theory that is founded in behaviours,
47<br />
languages, definitions, attitudes and feelings of those studied. In their later work,<br />
Denzin and Lincoln (2001:xxxiv) proclaim that discourse proofs that cultural<br />
considerations are reflected by persons’ created accounts of events. These<br />
accounts have power, meaning and social value. Although they admit that the<br />
interview has become a “taken-for-granted feature of our mediated, mass culture”,<br />
they still claim that the interview “is a negotiated text, a site where power, gender,<br />
race, and class intersect”. They state that a “feminist interviewing ethic” redefines<br />
the interview situation to be called an “active interview” where interviewers and<br />
participants carry on a conversation about mutually relevant issues (Denzin and<br />
Lincoln, 2001:xxxv).<br />
Kvale (1983:174 - 179) identifies twelve aspects that characterise the<br />
phenomenological interview used in qualitative research. These aspects can be<br />
summarised as follows:<br />
• Central to the life-world of the participant.<br />
• Attempt to understand the meaning of the phenomena relating to the participant’s<br />
life-world.<br />
• The interview is qualitative.<br />
• The interview is descriptive.<br />
• The interview is specific.<br />
• The interview and process are presuppositionless.<br />
• It focuses on certain themes.<br />
• It is open for ambiguities.<br />
• It is open for changes.<br />
• It depends on the sensitivity of the interviewer.
• The interview is conducted in an interpersonal interaction.<br />
48<br />
• The process may be a positive experience.<br />
The interview as employed by this study can be described as qualitative,<br />
phenomenological, in-depth, face-to-face and semi-structured, aimed at promoting an<br />
active social interaction between the researcher and the participant with regard to<br />
his/her real life experience(s) of institutional effectiveness (the research agenda).<br />
Schurink (1998d:300) stresses that the disadvantages of un- and semi-structured<br />
interviews are:<br />
• time consuming;<br />
• a vast amount of data are collected; and<br />
• the interviews should be conducted by the researchers themselves.<br />
Despite these disadvantages, interviews were used as the primary data-collecting<br />
instrument. The following process was followed.<br />
• Preparation<br />
Only one question was formulated to introduce the general theme of the study on<br />
which information was needed namely: “How do you experience the effectiveness of<br />
this institution?/Hoe ervaar jy die effektiwiteit van hierdie instansie?” The interviewee<br />
was then motivated by not leading prompts to disclose information freely (Schurink,<br />
1998d:301). The interviews were conducted in English and Afrikaans according to
49<br />
the language preferences of the interviewee. These two official languages were the<br />
languages of instruction at the time of conducting the study at the college.<br />
The introductory question and audiotape recording equipment were tested prior to<br />
the study by conducting a pilot interview to ensure that the data collected were of a<br />
high quality. The pilot interview assisted the researcher to evaluate her interview<br />
technique for research purposes before the actual commencement of the study, for<br />
example, usage of leading questions, reflecting important information, and not getting<br />
involved in clinical and/or therapeutic processes.<br />
• Building the relationship<br />
To ensure access and co-operation, as well as honouring the research principles of<br />
ethics the necessary consent was obtained from the authorities and the participants<br />
prior to the interview process (Strydom, 1998a:24). This was done by group and<br />
individual presentations and in writing. The researcher showed respect during her<br />
contact with the participants by being honest with them with regard to the research<br />
agenda, the status of the researcher, and appreciating their knowledge, their “being-<br />
here” and willingness for sharing their experiences with her (Schurink, 1998d:301 -<br />
308).<br />
Care was given to make the participants feel safe and comfortable, especially with<br />
regard to audiotaping the interviews (Schurink, 1998d:302). Although none of the<br />
participants refused participation on grounds of the audiotape recording, many<br />
expressed their uneasiness about the specific procedure. Their uncomfortable
50<br />
feelings decreased after a while. All the participants enjoyed listening to the audio-<br />
tape (play back) once the individual interview was finished. Playback of the<br />
recording was deemed necessary to validate the quality of the recording (Schurink,<br />
Schurink & Poggenpoel, 1998:329). Some of the participants indicated that it was an<br />
enriching experience for them to listen to their voice during the playback of the<br />
interview.<br />
• Conducting the interviews<br />
The interviews were conducted at the college’s student support offices that were the<br />
most convenient office space to ensure a comfortable and secure place for the<br />
interviewees. This office space was free of disturbances and the office atmosphere<br />
was conducive for interviewing purposes (Schurink, Schurink & Poggenpoel,<br />
1998:318). Scheduled appointments were made to ensure that the time and date<br />
were convenient for the interviewees and no infringement on college activities<br />
occurred.<br />
• Termination<br />
The interviews were terminated in the following cases:<br />
o In case of natural data saturation where the interviewees indicated that they<br />
could not make any new contributions.<br />
o When the scheduled time was depleted.<br />
o When the participant indicated that he/she was getting tired through giving<br />
verbal and/or non-verbal clues.
51<br />
Care was given to debrief the participants after the interviews (Schurink, 1998d:305).<br />
They were given the opportunity to reflect their experiences of sharing their real life<br />
experiences of institutional effectiveness. Appreciation was showed by thanking<br />
them and allowing them to re-enter the process if they wished to do so at a later<br />
stage.<br />
The interviewing process for the gathering of data was terminated when data<br />
saturation occurred and the independent coder confirmed data saturation. According<br />
to Glaser and Strauss (Schurink, 1998d:304) the data saturation point is reached<br />
when no further data are being found whereby the researcher can find new features<br />
of the given category. As the same case in point are repeat over and over again the<br />
researcher becomes scientific certain that a category is saturated.<br />
2.4.4.2 Naïve sketches<br />
Naïve sketches as used in this study can be described as semi-structured, open<br />
ended schedules/questionnaires (Fouché, 1998:152 - 153&160). A one-page<br />
schedule was compiled and participants were asked to submit information with<br />
regard to their gender, age, home language, post-level and faculty (see Appendixes<br />
A and B). After completing the biographical data, they were asked to reflect their<br />
experiences of institutional effectiveness as follows:<br />
• Hoe ervaar u die effektiwiteit van hierdie instansie?/How do you experience<br />
the effectiveness of this institution?<br />
• Motiveer asseblief u antwoord/“Please motivate your answer.
52<br />
Once again the naïve sketches were prepared in Afrikaans and English that were the<br />
languages of instruction at the time of conducting the naïve sketches. Staff members<br />
were free to duplicate the questionnaires in case of a shortage.<br />
The participants were thanked and asked to place the completed naïve sketches in a<br />
marked container at the student support offices before or/on a specified date<br />
(Fouché, 1998:155). To protect the privacy and confidentiality of the participants,<br />
participants were not asked to write their names on the naïve sketches and they<br />
returned their sketches in person by placing it in a container that was accessible.<br />
Please refer to the Appendix B for an example of the naïve sketch that was employed<br />
by this study.<br />
The naïve sketch was piloted prior to the data collection phase (Fouché, 1998:158).<br />
This was done to ensure that the naïve sketch served it purpose namely, to reflect in<br />
written format participants’ experiences with regard to institutional effectiveness.<br />
The naïve sketch was used as a data collection tool for the following reasons by this<br />
study:<br />
• to create the opportunity for all the staff members and learners to participate<br />
in the study so their voices could be heard;<br />
• for practical and logistical reasons because it was cost and time saving;<br />
• a vast number of participants could be reached; and<br />
• to complement the interview for triangulation purposes.
2.4.4.3 Observations and field notes<br />
53<br />
Observations are usually recorded in the form of field notes. Field notes are not only<br />
summaries of events, but also comprehensive copies of what happened during the<br />
fieldwork (Schurink, 1998:285). Especially during the data collection stage, notes<br />
were made of critical events to enrich the data and derive meaning from the<br />
occurrences. Field notes are indicated as such in Chapter Three. According to<br />
Schurink (1998:285 - 286) these notes consist of three elements namely:<br />
• Observational notes<br />
Observational notes reflect what happened in detail by giving an account of the who,<br />
what, when, where and how (Schurink, 1998:285). These types of notes can be<br />
regarded as representations of happenings that do not provide any interpretation of<br />
occurrences.<br />
• Theoretical notes<br />
Theoretical notes differ from observational notes in so far that the researcher makes<br />
notes in a systematic way to obtain meaning from the observational notes (Schurink,<br />
1998:286). The researcher tried consciously to recognise patterns by looking for<br />
similarities.
• Methodological notes<br />
54<br />
Methodological notes can be regarded as reminders, directions and significant<br />
remarks for use by the researcher.<br />
2.4.5 Analysing and interpreting of results<br />
According to Denzin and Lincoln (2001:xxxvii), it is practice for qualitative<br />
researchers to study spoken and written records of human experiences. These<br />
records include transcribed talk and written narratives of experiences. There are<br />
different ways to analyse and interpret text. Arguments concerning the differences<br />
between empiricism and constructivism confuse the process. Denzin and Lincoln<br />
(2001:xxxvii) argue that it should be remembered that documentary materials (text)<br />
are “situated constructions” and “not transparent representations of social life” when<br />
analysing and interpreting qualitative material. For audit purposes the following<br />
account is given of the manner in which the data were analysed and interpreted.<br />
After the interviews were transcribed and the texts were checked for accuracy, the<br />
approach of Tesch (Creswell, 1994:154 - 155) that consisted of eight steps was<br />
adapted and used as a guideline for analysing the data. These steps assisted the<br />
researcher to systematic analyse unstructured data collected by the interviews and<br />
naïve sketches. After analysing the data, it was handed to an independent coder for<br />
validating the emerged themes. A consensus discussion between the researcher<br />
and independent coder followed after the independent coder analysed the data as
55<br />
well. Tesch’s approach (Creswell, 1994:154 - 155, Poggenpoel 1998:343 - 344)<br />
consists of eight steps and can be summarised as follows:<br />
• Get a sense of the whole. Read through all the transcriptions carefully and<br />
make notes of interesting ideas.<br />
• Choose one transcription. The shortest, but also the most interesting, and/or<br />
the top of the pile. Use this script and scrutinises it by asking questions such<br />
as “what is this about?” Write your hypothesis in the left margin.<br />
• Repeat above step for all the scripts. Conceptual maps using different colours<br />
were created for each script to identify emerged topics.<br />
• After completing the list of topics, they were clustered/categorised into major<br />
topics, unique topics and leftover topics.<br />
• These lists of topics were cross-checked with the scripts to identify any new<br />
categories of topics and/or topics that emerged from the scripts. Colour<br />
coding was used to abbreviate the topics.<br />
• Topics were then clustered into categories under the most descriptive<br />
wording. A conceptual map was used to indicate the interrelationship(s)<br />
between topics.<br />
• The abbreviation for the different topics in each category was finalised and<br />
alphabetised.<br />
• A preliminary analysis was conducted for each category.<br />
• Recoding of the data was done when needed to ensure refining of the data.
2.4.6 Literature control<br />
56<br />
A literature study was conducted for the following reasons (De Vos, 1998c:115;<br />
Strydom, 1998b:180):<br />
• conceptualisation of the research problem;<br />
• informing the planning and executing of the study;<br />
• to expose or clarify the relationships between concepts; and<br />
• to suggest possible relationships.<br />
The findings of the study were controlled against relevant literature in order to search<br />
for broader meaning by comparing the results and the inferences drawn from the<br />
data to theory.<br />
Chapter Five describes Phase two that proposes mental health strategies grounded<br />
in the findings of the study and controlled against literature. The mental health<br />
strategies are founded in the research findings (Phase one) and supported by<br />
literature.<br />
2.4.7 Dissemination of findings<br />
The findings of the study are published as a doctoral thesis within the regulations of<br />
the university and in an accredited journal. However, it should be reminded that this<br />
study forms part of the journey in looking for sustainable education transformation<br />
models. Denzin and Lincoln (2001:xxxix) reiterate that the processes that “define the
57<br />
practises of interpretation and representation are always on-going, emergent,<br />
unpredictable, and unfinished”.<br />
The thesis includes a narrative metaphor, The Story of Silence Truth. The narrative<br />
metaphor created the opportunity for the researcher to insert her voice and<br />
disposition into the written text. By doing so, the possibility was realised for the<br />
researcher to explore insights from the unique situated position of being the<br />
researcher in a particular context as explained by Hermes (1998:163).<br />
Scientific rigour is needed to ensure credible research that is believable. The next<br />
section will deal with the measures as applied by this study to ensure the<br />
trustworthiness of the study.<br />
2.5 MEASURES TO ENSURE TRUSTWORTHINESS<br />
Guba’s model (Poggenpoel, 1998:348) to ensure validity and reliability in qualitative<br />
research is well accepted in the qualitative research community, because it is<br />
“comparatively well developed conceptually”. For audit tracking purposes the<br />
aspects that are relevant to trustworthiness according to Guba’s model (Schurink,<br />
Schurink & Poggenpoel, 1998:331; Poggenpoel, 1998:348 - 351) and adopted by<br />
this study are hereby explained. Table 2.2 provides a summary of the measures to<br />
ensure trustworthiness.
58<br />
Table 2.2: Measures to ensure trustworthiness<br />
MEASURES <strong>STRATEGIES</strong> ACTIONS<br />
Truth value Credibility • Prolonged field experience<br />
• Time sampling<br />
• Reflexivity<br />
• Triangulation<br />
• Member checking<br />
• Authority of the researcher<br />
• Structural coherence<br />
• Referential adequacy<br />
Applicability Fitting/Transferable • Nominated sample<br />
• Demographics of the respondents<br />
• Triangulation<br />
• Dense description of results with direct<br />
quotations from participants<br />
Consistency Dependability • Step-wise replication<br />
• Code-recode during data analysis<br />
• Dense description of research<br />
methodology<br />
• Triangulation<br />
• Peer examination<br />
• Dependability audit<br />
Neutrality Confirmability • Confirmability audit<br />
• Triangulation<br />
• Reflexivity (field notes)
2.5.1 Truth value<br />
59<br />
According to Schurink, Schurink and Poggenpoel (1998:331) truth value is about<br />
research confidence; “whether the researcher has established confidence in the truth<br />
of findings for the subjects and the context in which the research was undertaken”.<br />
Poggenpoel (1998:349) asserts truth value is generally obtained from the recognition<br />
of human experiences as they are lived and perceived by participants.<br />
Credibility is the strategy used to ensure truth value and is achieved through this<br />
study by:<br />
• Prolonged field experience<br />
The researcher was appointed as a student counsellor at a Further Education and<br />
Training institution and was sensitised for the context in which teaching, training and<br />
learning took place. Prior to this appointment she was involved in education<br />
research with regard to policy, planning, school reform initiatives and technical and<br />
vocational training.<br />
• Time sampling<br />
The researcher was involved in a close relationship with the participants especially<br />
during the transformation process as she was serving as chairperson and/or<br />
secretary of tasks teams for the merged college.
• Reflexivity<br />
60<br />
The researcher took formal and informal notes from her involvement in counselling<br />
and task team activities during the transformation process.<br />
• Triangulation<br />
Two different data collection instruments were used for triangulation namely,<br />
interviews and naïve sketches. Field notes supported these activities.<br />
• Member checking<br />
Member checking was done on a regular basis with the study promoters and<br />
independent coder. The researcher discussed the process and findings with<br />
colleagues who had education expertise for peer group evaluation.<br />
• Authority of the researcher<br />
The researcher is well qualified in terms of her formal training and experience in a<br />
variety of disciplines including mental health, education and research of which she<br />
received institutional, national and international recognition.
• Structural coherence<br />
61<br />
The well-structured research method, interview techniques, management of data and<br />
member checks and in-depth discussion of findings were used to eliminate<br />
inconsistency. A control literature study was done to support the findings and/or<br />
identify dissimilarities. In the case of dissimilarities, the information was further<br />
unpacked in search for uniqueness. In Phase 2 the mental health strategies for<br />
developing institutional effectiveness were grounded in the findings of the first phase<br />
and controlled against literature.<br />
• Referential adequacy<br />
Referential adequacy is established by attaching the following documents:<br />
o Appendixes<br />
- example of letter of consent;<br />
- example of the naïve sketch; and<br />
- example of transcribed interviews.<br />
o Participants’ direct quotations are used as evidence of the findings in Chapter<br />
Three.<br />
2.5.2 Applicability<br />
With reference to Schurink, Schurink and Poggenpoel (1998:331) applicability is the<br />
extent to which the findings can be used in other circumstances and situations or
62<br />
with other groups; it is the ability to generalise the findings to other and even larger<br />
populations. Applicability is a contentious topic in the qualitative research discourse.<br />
Some researchers are of the opinion that the ability to generalise the findings of a<br />
qualitative study is not the responsibility of the researcher, but rather of the person<br />
who wants to transfer the findings to another context (Poggenpoel, 1998:349).<br />
Applicability used by the qualitative researcher as typified by Guba (Poggenpoel,<br />
1998:349), is “referring to fittingness, or transferability”, “when the findings fit into<br />
contexts outside the study situation that are determined by the degree of similarity or<br />
goodness of fit between the two contexts”.<br />
Applicability can be achieved by employing fitting/transferable strategies such as the<br />
following.<br />
• Nominated sample<br />
The selection criteria were defined for the study and care was taken to ensure that<br />
the selected college adhere to the set criteria (see paragraph 2.4.3.1). Purposive<br />
sampling was used to select the college according the selection criteria and to select<br />
the participants for the interviews.<br />
• Demographics of the participants<br />
To ensure that alternative voices (Lincoln, 2001:115) could be heard, participants<br />
coming from different age, gender and cultural groups were selected to participate in<br />
the interviews.
• Triangulation<br />
63<br />
To oppose flaws that might be overseen by the purposive selection of the<br />
participants for the interviews, the naïve sketches provided an opportunity to all staff<br />
and learners to participate in the research. This was done through an open invitation<br />
for participation distributed through institutional formal structures.<br />
• Dense description of results<br />
A dense description of results that includes direct quotations from the interviews and<br />
naïve sketches is presented in the research study.<br />
2.5.3 Consistency<br />
Consistency of a study is achieved when the findings are found to be consistent if the<br />
request for information were duplicated with the same participants or in an alike<br />
situation (Schurink, Schurink & Poggenpoel, 1998:331). Consistency is well<br />
acknowledged as a trustworthiness tool for the reliability and validity of quantitative<br />
research. However, for the qualitative researcher consistency creates difficulties for<br />
appropriateness because “If one assumes there are multiple realities, the notion of<br />
reliability is no longer as relevant” (Poggenpoel, 1998:350).<br />
Despite the question of relevancy, this study attempted to achieve consistency<br />
through honouring a dependability audit consisting of the following elements.
64<br />
• Step-wise replication of the research method<br />
Care was taken to ensure a dense description of the research method for replication<br />
purposes. This will enable researchers to duplicate the study or to use the research<br />
findings with the necessary care.<br />
• Dense description of research methodology<br />
A dense description of the research design, findings and literature control study is<br />
provided to offer a conceptual, analytical and interpretative framework for repeating<br />
the research.<br />
• Triangulation<br />
Triangulation was achieved by using interviews and naïve sketches as data<br />
collection methods. Field notes supported these methods.<br />
• Peer examination<br />
Peer examination that served as member checking were achieved by regular<br />
discussions between the researcher and study promoters, the independent coder<br />
and colleagues.
• Code-recode procedure<br />
65<br />
Recoding was done as suggested by Tesch’s model (Creswell, 1994:155-156,<br />
Poggenpoel, 1998:343-344).and by the services rendered by the independent coder.<br />
2.5.4 Neutrality<br />
Schurink, Schurink and Poggenpoel (1998:331) state that neutrality is the level to<br />
which the findings are an outcome of only the participants and circumstances of the<br />
research and not of other prejudice, stimuli and perspectives. Neutrality can be<br />
achieved by a confirmability audit, triangulation and reflexivity by the researcher<br />
using field notes. Poggenpoel (1998:350) echoes the qualitative researcher’s<br />
viewpoint on neutrality that the emphasis should be on the neutrality of the data and<br />
not that much on the neutrality of the researcher. Confirmability should be the<br />
condition for neutrality. Neutrality was achieved through the strategy of confirmability<br />
by the following actions.<br />
• Confirmability audit<br />
Audiotape recordings were made of the interviews and checked against the<br />
transcribed versions to confirm the accuracy of the transcriptions. Direct quotations<br />
formed the transcribed versions and the naïve sketches were included in the study.
• Triangulation<br />
66<br />
Triangulation was achieved by using interviews and naïve sketches as data<br />
collection methods.<br />
• Reflexivity (field notes)<br />
Field notes and observations were used to reflect important information and to record<br />
events when conducting the study.<br />
2.6 CONCLUSION<br />
Chapter Two motivates the choice of the qualitative research paradigm that was<br />
used by the study. In this chapter the underlying values, research design and<br />
method employed by this study were explained and motivated. Strategies to ensure<br />
trustworthiness were discussed to authenticate the study in terms of its validity and<br />
reliability.<br />
The next chapter will deal with the findings, followed by the narrative metaphor as a<br />
creative translation that serves as a bridge for linking the results with the<br />
recommended mental health strategies founded in the study’s findings.
67<br />
CHAPTER 3<br />
LIVED EXPERIENCES OF INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS<br />
3.1 INTRODUCTION<br />
In the previous two chapters the reader was introduced and orientated with regard to<br />
Further Education and Training institutions, in particular the college sector, as well as<br />
the research design and method as used by the study. Chapter Two pointed out that<br />
the primarily aim of this research study was to reach a dense description of lived<br />
experiences of institutional effectiveness during transformation, as well as the<br />
formulation of mental health strategies for sustainable development initiatives.<br />
In this chapter a dense description of the participants’ lived experiences of<br />
institutional effectiveness during transformation is given. The findings are supported<br />
by quotes from the interviews (transcriptions), naïve sketches and field notes. A<br />
literature control study is conducted in search for comparisons and/or uniqueness.<br />
For the sake of clarity, the reader will first be briefed on the study’s realisation and<br />
analysis of the data, before a dense discussion of the emerged themes will be given.<br />
3.2 REALISING OF THE SAMPLE<br />
Necessary authorisation was given to conduct a study in the particular college as<br />
described in the previous chapter. The college was selected by purposive sampling
68<br />
that justified the selection criteria as set out in Chapter Two. The selected college<br />
was a legitimate Further Education and Training institution and was targeted to<br />
merge with other colleges to become a new college with multi-sites.<br />
3.2.1 Interviews<br />
The interview process was terminated when data saturation (Schurink, 1998d:304)<br />
occurred and was confirmed by the independent coder. The descriptive guidelines<br />
for the qualitative interview as set out by Kvale (1983:171-196) and Tesch’s<br />
approach (Creswell, 1994:154-155) were used to ensure sound methodological<br />
practice. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed word-for-word. The type<br />
out version together with the naïve sketches and field notes constituted the data<br />
material for subsequent analysis and interpretation in searching for meaning. This<br />
enabled the researcher to gain insight in the participants’ real live experiences with<br />
regard to institutional effectiveness. The saturation of information after the eleventh<br />
interview did not necessitate further interviews.<br />
Table 3.1 provides a profile of the participants involved in the interviews. From the<br />
table it is observed that participants from different cultural groups, age groups and<br />
institutional positions participated in the interviews.
Table 3.1: Profile of participants involved in the interviews<br />
69<br />
NON WHITE WHITE<br />
MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE<br />
LECTURING STAFF* 2 1 2 2<br />
NON-LECTURING STAFF 0 0 1 0<br />
LEARNERS** 3 0 0 0<br />
TOTAL PER SUBCATEGORY 5 1 3 2<br />
TOTAL 11<br />
Lecturing staff* was coming from the three academic faculties namely, theoretical engineering studies,<br />
practical engineering studies and business studies, representing post levels 1 and 2.<br />
Learners** were coming from two of the academic faculties namely, theoretical engineering studies<br />
and business studies.<br />
3.2.2 Naïve sketches<br />
Nineteen (19) naïve sketches were completed and returned. It appeared from Table<br />
3.2 that the returned naïve sketches included participants from different age groups<br />
and cultural backgrounds.<br />
A feature of Table 3.2 is that the majority of participants who did return the naïve<br />
sketches were 50 years and older. Reasons may be that these people had the<br />
emotional maturity, experience and social responsibility for completing and returning<br />
the sketches: “The majority of teachers at this institution are not very young and have<br />
been in the teaching profession for a long time. Most of them are dedicated and<br />
enjoy their work in spite of small salaries and almost no possibility that the situation<br />
will improve” (quote from a naïve sketch). According to Fouché (De Vos, 1998:152)
70<br />
the openness of the questions and the responses might require in-depth thought from<br />
the participants.<br />
A further feature of Table 3.2 is that the staff component that responded had<br />
Afrikaans as the mother language. This feature reflected the staff profile at the time<br />
of the study, namely mainly white and Afrikaans-speaking (observation note).<br />
Table 3.2: Profile of participants involved in the naïve sketches<br />
AGE<br />
CATEGORIES IN<br />
YEARS<br />
LECTURING<br />
STAFF*<br />
NON-<br />
LECTURING<br />
STAFF<br />
25-<br />
FEMALE MALE<br />
26-35<br />
36-49<br />
50+<br />
25-<br />
26-35<br />
36-49<br />
50+<br />
1(A***) 5(A***) 2(A***)<br />
1(A***) 1(A***) 2(A***) 1(A***) 2(A***)<br />
LEARNERS** 1(S***) 2(T***) 1(NS***)<br />
TOTAL PER<br />
SUBCATEGORY<br />
1 3 2 5 2 1 1 4<br />
TOTAL 19<br />
Lecturing staff* was coming from the three academic faculties namely, theoretical engineering studies,<br />
practical engineering studies and business studies, representing post levels one, two and three.<br />
Learners** were coming from two of the academic faculties namely, theoretical engineering<br />
studies and business studies.<br />
(A***)=Afrikaans as home language, (NS***)=Northern Sotho as home language, (T***)=Tsonga as home<br />
language, (S***)=Setswana as home language<br />
In the next section the reader is briefed on the data analysis and interpretation.
71<br />
3.3 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION<br />
After the interviews were transcribed and the texts were checked for accuracy,<br />
the approach of Tesch (Creswell, 1994:154-155) that consisted of eight steps<br />
was used as a guideline for analysing the data that consisted of the<br />
transcribed versions of the audiotape recordings and the naïve sketches.<br />
These steps assisted the researcher to systematically analyse the<br />
unstructured data collected by the interviews, naïve sketches and field notes.<br />
A consensus discussion between the researcher and independent coder<br />
followed after the independent coder also coded and analysed the data.<br />
Analysis and interpretation of data go hand-in-hand. Data analysis may<br />
precede data interpretation, or it may be done simultaneously when the<br />
researcher look for meaning and connotations (De Vos & Fouché, 1998:203).<br />
Interpretation is done in two ways:<br />
• Searching for meaningful conclusions by interpreting the relations<br />
within the study and its data.<br />
• Searching for broader meaning by comparing the results and the<br />
inferences drawn from the data to theory.<br />
The emerged themes from analysing and interpreting the data will be<br />
discussed in the following sections.
3.4 FINDINGS<br />
72<br />
In this section the findings, themes that emerged during the analysing and<br />
interpreting of the data are reflected and contextualised within the literature. The<br />
reader is first briefed on the four themes that emerged. After the brief, the individual<br />
themes are discussed in detail and supported by direct quotes from the scripts<br />
(transcribed versions of the audiotape recordings and naïve sketches) as evidence.<br />
References will be made to theory to find a broader meaning. Table 3.3 provides a<br />
summary of the themes and categories that emerged from the data. Figure 3.1 at the<br />
end of the chapter is a chart to enable the reader to conceptualise the major themes<br />
that emerged from the data and to reflect its dynamic and interlinked nature. The<br />
particular conceptual map positions mental health strategies that will be described in<br />
Chapter Five as an integrated part within the context. It illustrates how the strategies<br />
may influence the system partly, and in a holistic manner.<br />
The four themes that emerged from the data are as follows:<br />
• Theme 1: Multiple realities on a continuum of institutional effectiveness with<br />
pockets of effectiveness.<br />
Participants experienced multiple realities of institutional effectiveness. Institutional<br />
effectiveness was experienced to be on a continuum ranging from ineffective to<br />
effective varying in different degrees with “pockets” of effectiveness within time<br />
dimensions.
73<br />
Table 3.3: Summary of themes and categories<br />
THEMES CATEGORIES<br />
1) Multiple realities on a<br />
continuum of institutional<br />
effectiveness with pockets<br />
of effectiveness<br />
2) Factors promoting<br />
institutional effectiveness<br />
3) Factors impeding<br />
institutional effectiveness<br />
4) The silence voice<br />
Culture of teaching, training and learning as reflected by<br />
Quality and Commitment, Relevant, Flexibility, Accommodating<br />
learners with diverse backgrounds, Partnerships, Competitive<br />
Edge and Well-equipped facilities.<br />
Learner support and caring as reflected by Holistic learning,<br />
and Being there, Skills to survive in life and Leadership<br />
Training.<br />
Staff support and caring as reflected by Acceptance of Cultural<br />
diversity and Caring.<br />
Inadequate management of transformation process as<br />
reflected by Ignorance, Incorrect emphasis, Equity<br />
questionable and Budget constraints.<br />
Inadequate management of human capital (learners) as<br />
reflected by Support, Leadership, Life skills, Study guidance,<br />
Selection, Induction, Discipline, Inconsequence, Motivation,<br />
Expectations, Enrolment, and Alignment.<br />
Inadequate management of human capital (staff) as reflected<br />
by Lack or purpose and meaning, Negative feelings, Lack of<br />
interest in well-being, Staff not supported by management,<br />
Lack of trained staff, Lack of training, and Lack of professional<br />
recognition/professional abuse.<br />
Inadequate management styles, systems and procedures as<br />
reflected by Lack of procedures, Carelessness, Security,<br />
Communication problems, Rigidity, and Problem solving.<br />
Not listening, Preventing voices to be heard as reflected by<br />
Manipulation, Creating fear, Telling people to be silent, and<br />
Lack of feedback.
• Theme 2: Factors promoting institutional effectiveness are:<br />
74<br />
o culture of teaching, training and learning;<br />
o learner support and caring; and<br />
o staff support and caring.<br />
• Theme 3: Factors impeding institutional effectiveness are:<br />
o inadequate management of the transformation process;<br />
o inadequate management of human capital (staff and learners); and<br />
o inadequate management styles, systems and procedures.<br />
• Theme 4: The silence voice.<br />
A central theme that emerged throughout the results was the presence of the silence<br />
voice and/or the voice that could and/or should not be heard. This formed the core<br />
theme of the study informing mental health strategies.<br />
It should be noted that these themes were systemically interwoven with each other<br />
and with the broader whole. Continuous interchange occurred with each other and<br />
with the broader whole due to the dynamic, systematic and undulated nature of the<br />
context in which it occurred.
75<br />
The themes, evidence from the scripts (transcribed versions of the audiotape<br />
recordings and the naïve sketches) and field notes and how it relates to theory will be<br />
discussed separately.<br />
3.4.1 Theme 1: Multiple realities on a continuum of institutional effectiveness<br />
with pockets of effectiveness<br />
Participants indicated multiple realities with regard to their experiences of institutional<br />
effectiveness. These experiences varied from dissatisfactory to excellent, and<br />
appeared to be incongruous as it varied between individual experiences and within<br />
time dimensions: “Dit varieer…” (it varies); “…the effectiveness is definitely above-<br />
average. Some aspects are however reason for concern”; “So I think the<br />
effectiveness of this college also comes from the effectiveness of their departments,<br />
certain departments…”; “…sekere dinge is redelik goed…” (certain things are fairly<br />
good); “Daar sal nog baie aandag gegee moet word voordat al die afdelings se<br />
effektiwiteit op standaard is” (A lot of attention should be given before all the<br />
divisions’ effectiveness is on standard); “Al die strukture is daar, maar word nie altyd<br />
geïmplementeer nie” (All the structures are there, but are not always implemented);<br />
“Nie altyd ten volle effektief nie” (Not always fully effective); “…And I believe that if<br />
that is where we are going that is the only medicine to get our college right. Investing<br />
in student but through a certain programme or a system like this system…we are like<br />
a tree, and a tree bears fruits and I think the fruits are the students. It is either the<br />
fruit comes out to be nice and clean for example a banana. A banana would come<br />
out to be nice and yellow and sweet. But if the tree which is baring the banana is not<br />
right, the banana won’t come out right or the orange won’t come or the apple…”;
76<br />
“Effektief Verskaf opleiding” (Effective Provides training); “…EXCELLENT…”; “Very<br />
good”; “WELL ORGANISED”; “PRAGTIGE instansie met baie potensiaal…”<br />
(BEAUTIFUL institution with lot of potential); “excellent and quality education”; “As<br />
ondergemiddeld” (As below average); “NIE BAIE GOED NIE” (NOT VERY GOOD);<br />
“Nie bevredigend nie” (Not satisfactory); “50/50“; Effektiwiteit: Uit puntestelsel<br />
1 - 7, 4 “ (Effectiveness: On point scale 1 - 7 4<br />
).<br />
These differences could be ascribed to the various departments within and across<br />
the faculties: “…hang af van vak/area/persone betrokke” (depend on the<br />
subject/area/persons involved). It appears that these differences can be ascribed to<br />
the following:<br />
o Management styles: “…wat nie so effektief bestuur word nie…” (not managed<br />
effectively); “asook belangstelling aan bestuur se kant” (as well as interest<br />
from management’s side).<br />
o Subjects taught: “moeilikheidsvlak + hulpbronne beskikbaar + benutting”<br />
(difficulty level + resources available + utilisation).<br />
o Involvement of staff: “Sommige persone is drywers en ander is volgers” (some<br />
persons are drivers and other are followers)<br />
o Staff allocation: “aantal personeel” (number of personnel)<br />
o Marketing activities: “…sekere departement/fakulteite nie bemark word<br />
nie…”(certain departments/faculties not marketed).<br />
o Tempo of functioning: “funksioneer op verskillende tempo’s + kriteria” (function<br />
on different tempos + criteria).
77<br />
The heterogeneous nature of the sample (see Tables 3.1 and 3.2) might as well<br />
contributed to the different realities experienced by the participants as they were<br />
coming from:<br />
o Staff and learners.<br />
o Lecturing and non-lecturing staff.<br />
o Differences in the seniority of the participants.<br />
o Different cultural backgrounds.<br />
o Different age and gender groups.<br />
From a postmodernist viewpoint (Freedman & Combs, 1996:22) multiple realities<br />
imply relativism; the exceptions interest more than rules, differences more than<br />
similarity, because it is about examining meaning. At the same time there seems to<br />
be pockets of experienced institutional effectiveness varying within and between the<br />
different faculties of the college. Mouton (1996:5-6) refers to these pockets as<br />
“stocks of knowledge” that have the following characteristics:<br />
• Internal consistency that causes integration within a system of beliefs.<br />
• It is collective in nature.<br />
• It has a historical or traditional dimension as it has developed and changed<br />
over time.<br />
It appears from the findings that different worlds (pockets of excellence within a<br />
continuum of effectiveness) exist within the bigger world of the college. Senge,<br />
Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:13) state that profound changes in<br />
how people think, what they believe, and how they see the world are tricky to reach<br />
through conformity.
78<br />
Multiple realities thus signify different meanings that persons give to their<br />
experiences. How the different experiences about institutional effectiveness had<br />
come to be; how the experiences were constructed, and stories told and choices<br />
made by the participants and their effects they had on the participants, needed to be<br />
further explored to gain insight and understanding of the phenomena (Freedman &<br />
Combs, 1996:35).<br />
Further exploration in the following sections will be done according to factors<br />
promoting and/or impeding institutional effectiveness to gain insight in the<br />
experiences and meaning attached to these experiences.<br />
3.4.2 Theme 2: Factors promoting institutional effectiveness<br />
Responses indicative of institutional effectiveness that emerged when analysing the<br />
data can be categorised under the following headings:<br />
• a culture that is conducive for teaching, training and learning;<br />
• learner support offered by the institution; and<br />
• an informal network offering support for staff members.<br />
In the next sections these headings will be described in more detail.
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• Culture of teaching, training and learning<br />
The quotes give evidence that a climate conducive for teaching, training and learning<br />
existed within the college: “…arbeids- en studentevrede op die oomblik. Dis goeie<br />
klimaat vir opvoeding” (work and student peace at the moment. This is a good<br />
climate for education); “…this is a very very nice institution and I think I think I am<br />
very fortunate to be studying at such an institution…”; “The quality of education<br />
provided here is of high standard”.<br />
From this study’s findings it appears that the college has a positive image as created<br />
by learner feedback “…the responses we get from the students…”: echoed<br />
acknowledgement, appreciation and gratitude for the good work done at the college.<br />
Quotes that maintain this statement are “…I recognise this institution as the best one<br />
to me. There is no way that I can forget the good job that the campus has done for<br />
me”; “…and I can just say…is Simply the Best!!!!”; “…come back and thank their<br />
lecturers for all the courage and even the learning…”; “…studente praat met groot<br />
agting van baie lektore…” (students talk with huge admiration of many of the<br />
lecturers).<br />
When unpacking the data on a second level, these positive lived experiences can be<br />
ascribed to the following factors:
o Quality and commitment of staff<br />
80<br />
The following quotes provide evidence of the quality and commitment of staff: “Baie<br />
goeie mensemateriaal vorm die basis van die kollege” (very good human material<br />
forms the basis of the college); “…the best lecturers that you can ever look for…”;<br />
“…the commitment of staff in teaching and learning is of a high standard…they are<br />
attending their lessons every day…and they are every day there…and…there are<br />
classes when they are supposed to be there…”.<br />
o Relevant training<br />
The following quotes offer proof of the relevant training offered by the college:<br />
“…they train student according to the needs of the companies…”; “…type of subjects<br />
that makes it very easy and comfortable for them (learners) to cope”; “…almal<br />
bevestig dat wat hulle hier geleer het baie relevant is in hulle werksomgewing…” (all<br />
confirmed that what they learned here is very relevant in their working environment).<br />
o Flexibility of training according to learners’ needs<br />
The following quotes present evidence of the flexibility of training according to<br />
learners’ needs: “…if you able to use your hand you can go to the workshops use<br />
your hand and start a career, if you are able to use your brains but you were just<br />
short of the correct subjects you can come here…”; “…individuele onderrigstudente.
81<br />
Hy is nie `n groepstudent nie…” (individual training students. He is not a group<br />
student…).<br />
o Accommodating learners with diverse backgrounds<br />
The subsequent quotes provide evidence of accommodating learners with diverse<br />
backgrounds: “People with different attitudes, backgrounds, people with different<br />
domestic problems, different cultures, whatever. We are at least in a position to work<br />
that out…”.<br />
o Partnerships and networking<br />
The next two quotes provide evidence of the college’s partnerships and networking:<br />
“…by the number of Partnerships we form with Industrial and Corporate<br />
Companies…”; “…world’s leading companies like…and others which also puts up our<br />
standards…”.<br />
o Competitive edge<br />
The next quote gives proof of the college’s competitive edge: “…this is also<br />
challenging other companies to follow the same path which could gives us a more<br />
better advantage in the FET field”.
o Well-equipped training facilities<br />
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Well-equipped training facilities are illustrated by the following citation: “…you get the<br />
workshop area…eh…which one could be proud of…”.<br />
Since 1994 effort and money are invested in South African schools to establish a<br />
culture conducive for teaching and learning. The Sunday Times’ Top Schools Project<br />
(Garson, 1998) is an example of such a project. In 1998 the criteria for the Sunday<br />
Times Top Schools included academic achievement, school improvement, the ways<br />
schools were preparing learners and staff for a changing South Africa and a<br />
changing world, and if schools were creating opportunities and conditions to<br />
maximise teaching, training and learning.<br />
According to Hansen and Childs (1998:14-15) a school where people like to be is<br />
characterised by “…a climate of support and encouragement, of warmth and<br />
acceptance…”. The Paredes’s (1991:3) study indicated conditions for learner<br />
learning as the most strongly related to learner achievement. Noddings (1999:583)<br />
emphasises the vital role teaching, training and learning can play if learners<br />
experience the learning situation as a place to which they can bring and find some<br />
meaning. In such an environment schooling will no longer be experienced as a<br />
required deed.
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Another dimension of the college that was valued by the participants was learner<br />
support that was offered by the college. This category that emerged from the data<br />
will be described in more detail in the following section.<br />
• Learner support<br />
From the data it appears that learner support created a feeling amongst the learners<br />
that the institution cared about their learners and was interested in their well-being:<br />
“…they really cares about their students, they are really interested to see us being<br />
leading top management company and successful in life”; “This student support<br />
system I think it is one of the sport one of the departments, I think that’s a drive for<br />
the college…”; “I think it really produces very good students in this case yes… I<br />
highly rate it as a first class institution so far…”.<br />
This study’s findings as described in this section emphasise the valuable role that<br />
learner support plays in the holistic learning experience of learners, not only for<br />
academic achievement, but as well for developing the learners to become successful<br />
citizens.<br />
From this study’s findings it appears that learner support that was formally introduced<br />
in October 2000 at the college (observation note) contributes to a holistic learning<br />
experience that was appreciated amongst staff and learners and contributes to<br />
positive experiences in the following ways.
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o Creating opportunities for a holistic learning experience to be<br />
successful<br />
The next citations illustrate the creation of opportunities for a holistic learning<br />
experience for learners to be successful: “…kan jy die mens in geheel as `n heel<br />
mens maak…” (can you make the human in total a total human); “…wil hom<br />
regmaak vir die arbeidsmark en sorg dat hy `n gebalanseerde mens by jou kan<br />
uitstap…” (want to prepare him for the work market and take care that a balanced<br />
person walks out from you); “…so ek wil haar leer om haarself te ken `n ‘life skill’ te<br />
ontwikkel…haar menswees in die binnekant ook ontwikkel…” (I want to teach her to<br />
know herself to develop a life skill…to develop her human being from the inside);<br />
“…daai riglyn gee van gedissiplineerdheid, stiptelikheid en daai tipe van ding…” (that<br />
guideline of discipline, punctuality and that type of thing); ”…give me the opportunity<br />
to complete my practical training…”; “They would be here studying here and gaining<br />
certain experience and then going from here to there where they want to go in the<br />
first place with the extra knowledge…”; “…groot bydrae gelewer om hulle (learners)<br />
te laat inburger in nuwe werksomgewing…” (huge contribution made in helping them<br />
(learners) to settle in new working environment).<br />
o “Being-there” for the learners<br />
“Being-there” for the learners can be categorised in two sub groups namely, activities<br />
that focus on academic support and activities that focus on emotional and/or physical<br />
support.
Academic support:<br />
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“…some lecturers asking us if you have problems or sort of how are things even<br />
though we don’t go to them…”; “they will assist you willingly…”; “…actually advance<br />
students with this cover of programmes for for starters…”; “…would go an extra mile<br />
to be assistance to students…it is all about taking the guy out of his difficulties, lots of<br />
it”; “…`n student wat werklik `n probleem het en daar is `n paar van jou vry periodes<br />
wat jy hom kan help…” (a student that really has a problem and there is a number of<br />
your free periods that you can help him); “…tussen daai en daai tyd kan jy kom vir<br />
ekstra klasse en dan maak ek die deur oop vir `n ou” (between that and that time<br />
can you come for extra classes and I open the door for that chap).<br />
Emotional and/or physical support:<br />
“Die basis is alreeds gelê by ondersteuningsdienste, want ons ken die probleme van<br />
ons studente, ons weet wat hulle wil hê…” (The foundation is already laid by support<br />
services, because we know the problems of our students, we know what they want);<br />
“…have problems there’s always someone who is there to talk to cause so you do<br />
not experience stress”; “always go to someone who is always there for you and if<br />
when you are sick there is a sort of clinic for you…”; “…students get advices here<br />
they get help they get a psychological help…”; “…working with students with lots of<br />
problems and difficulties as much as it is…”.
o Financial support<br />
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The next quotation provides evidence of financial support: “Even though I had a<br />
financial problem the management at this campus they make a point that I go on with<br />
my studies…”.<br />
o Skills to survive in life<br />
The next two quotes provide evidence of the category “Skills to survive in life”: “…you<br />
know helping them how to survive in the in the corporate world or in the industry or in<br />
the world out of school and which will help them…”; “…trying to make out of them<br />
(learners) responsible people…”.<br />
o Leadership training<br />
Leadership training offered by the college is well illustrated by the following citation:<br />
“When it comes to the social responsibility of students I think student support has<br />
taught me a little bit of on how to care and to be responsible of the people you<br />
lead…the student support they always give me a wake up call to also put emphasis<br />
and to contribute to the development of students that I lead. You know it gives me<br />
challenge because that I knew something is going on about students and I needed<br />
something, when we did something…”.
87<br />
Gaziel (1997:316) suggests on the ground of their research findings that effective<br />
schools values should be first focused on academic achievement, second on school<br />
improvement and teamwork and third on the creation of an orderly environment.<br />
Kovacs (1998:10) reminds that against the backdrop of global competition one of the<br />
strategies to prevent learner failure is learner support, assessment and curriculum<br />
flexibility and articulation. According to Kovacs (1998:10) experience proves the<br />
significance of one-to-one-orientated instruction and assistance; sufficient evaluation<br />
of students’ strengths and weaknesses; a flexible curriculum; pathways and<br />
articulation between different levels and career guidance.<br />
Ensuring education quality and relevance will remain central issues into the 21 st<br />
century according to Papadopoulos (1995:498). Papadopoulos (1995:498) argues<br />
that it is important to satisfy young people’s needs by assisting them to cope with<br />
their personal lives, to function effectively in modern technology and information<br />
flooded societies as workers, parents, consumers, citizens and in their other different<br />
social roles. Terhart (1998:440) argues that schools must not only teach but also<br />
educate children and young people in a moral and ethical way.<br />
From the data another category of support that emerged was that of an informal<br />
support network amongst staff members. This category will receive attention in the<br />
next section.
• Staff support and caring<br />
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A category that emerges from the data was the informal structure that staff created to<br />
render mutual support through unconditional acceptance and spontaneous caring.<br />
This informal network between staff members weaves a community of care that in<br />
some manner counteracted negative life experiences with regard to institutional<br />
effectiveness. From the study’s findings it appears that these informal groups were<br />
present in the college and were glued together by the acceptance of cultural diversity<br />
and an informal network of care.<br />
o Acceptance of cultural diversity<br />
Acceptance of cultural diversity is illustrated by the next quote: “…we could assure<br />
the people in the other race group that we are really people of the same commitment<br />
as the other people and who care about the other people and who really respected<br />
other people and who liked to co-operate with the other people and for that reason I<br />
see there is a real big move from the staff side to to accept the the transformation<br />
process whereby they have to mix with the other race group”.<br />
o Caring amongst staff members<br />
The next citations give evidence of the caring amongs staff: “Daar heers `n<br />
ontspannende atmosfeer tussen kollegas. Almal is vriendelik en ondersteunend…”<br />
(There is a relaxed atmosphere between colleagues. All are friendly and supportive);
89<br />
“…wat vir my baie positief is, is `n onderlinge vertrouensverhouding met<br />
kollegas…daai ‘caring’ waarvan ons gepraat het…” (what is very positive to me, is<br />
the trust relationship between colleagues…that caring we talk about); “…en met hulp<br />
van mekaar kan ons dit nogal regkry…” (and with help from each other we can<br />
somehow get it right).<br />
Lamude, Scudder and Furno-Lamude (1992:608) find that support groups serve as<br />
useful means for reducing educators’ burn out. It appears that the staff members<br />
succeeded in building a multicultural work environment to accept its particular<br />
responsibility for realising particular common goals by giving support to each other<br />
(Le Roux & Beckman, n.d.:43).<br />
Informal networks in organisations play a very interesting, but influential role with<br />
regard to organisational effectiveness. Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and<br />
Smith (1999:16) recognise that the function of internal networkers or “community<br />
builders” is real, but problematic to spell out because it fits in much more into the<br />
informal institution’s social networks than it does to the hierarchy. Ironically, their<br />
lack of hierarchical authority is what makes them effective. Hubbard (1999:28)<br />
concurs by stating these informal network groups can be far more influential and<br />
unified than their formal complements and can either promote or impede the<br />
institution in reaching towards its goals and objectives.<br />
When Gilmour (1998:37-38) reconceptualises school effectiveness, he includes four<br />
areas that constitute a new view for effective schools. These four areas are based<br />
on a drive to a holistic approach to school effectiveness, focal points for research and
90<br />
change initiatives. These domains for institutional effectiveness, as developed by<br />
West and Hopkins (Gilmour 1998:37-38), include the following areas as focal points<br />
that serve as an integration between the promoting factors of institutional<br />
effectiveness and assisting in identifying areas of concern that were partly addressed<br />
by the participants as promoting factors.<br />
• Student experiences that include:<br />
o Self-awareness and self-esteem.<br />
o An ability to form relationships and assume social responsibility.<br />
o A concept of themselves as learners.<br />
o Induction into a broad range of human experience.<br />
o Citizenship.<br />
• Student achievements as realised by:<br />
o A wide range of opportunities according to the needs and interests of the<br />
learners.<br />
o Promoting realistic high levels of individual achievement.<br />
o Reflecting the expectations of other role-players and stakeholders (for<br />
example, employers).<br />
• Educator school development as achieved by:<br />
o A high level of professional mastery.<br />
o Partnerships.<br />
o A culture that promotes job satisfaction and motivation.<br />
o An environment that respond to innovations and is empowering.
91<br />
• Community involvement as indicated by:<br />
o Recording of strategies for working in partnerships.<br />
o Using education market markers.<br />
o Developing specific policies and programmes.<br />
o Developing the school itself as a community.<br />
When comparing the data with regard to factors promoting institutional effectiveness,<br />
it can be concluded that the college was effective in the following areas, namely to<br />
provide a meaningful learning experience by creating a conducive climate for<br />
teaching, training and learning and to promote learner achievement through a learner<br />
support system as described above. Form the staff side they were able to create an<br />
informal network of caring and acceptance of cultural diversity.<br />
When analysing the debates of the national assembly (Hansard, 16 March 1999:378)<br />
it appears that these findings are inline with political aspirations for prospect schools<br />
in future. It is clearly stated that the transformation of schools is much more than just<br />
a movement towards a new system of education management. It has to do with<br />
school excellence and classroom practice.<br />
Other pockets of institutional effectiveness as identified by the description of lived<br />
experiences support partnerships and the use of some education market markers.<br />
The new skills development strategy offers Further Education and Training<br />
institutions the opportunity to access training contracts to become more responsive
92<br />
to industry’s needs (Hansard, 22 April 1998:983). It appears from the findings that<br />
the college succeeded in doing that.<br />
If the findings are compared to the other domains for institutional effectiveness, as<br />
developed by West and Hopkins (Gilmour 1998:37-38) it seems that the college only<br />
partly succeeded in the community involvement area. The college seems to be<br />
unsuccessful in the area of educator and institutional development. Taylor, Diphofa,<br />
Waghmarae, Vinjevold and Sedibe (1999:18) are of the opinion that a frequent<br />
problem is that many schools load their development plans. This is done because<br />
they cannot distinguish between development and maintenance plans.<br />
Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:10), explicitly state that it is<br />
important to look at both promoting and impeding factors. According to them<br />
nourishing any profound change process requires a fundamental shift in thinking. An<br />
understanding of the nature and catalysts of development processes are needed.<br />
Additional to that it is imperative to appreciate the forces and challenges that impede<br />
progress, and to work out strategies for dealing with these challenges effectively.<br />
A dense description of lived experiences as supported by participants’ quotes as<br />
evidence, is given in the next section of factors impeding institutional effectiveness.<br />
3.4.3 Theme 3: Factors impeding institutional effectiveness<br />
It appears that factors impeding institutional effectiveness centre around inadequate<br />
management aspects such as inadequate management of the transformation
93<br />
process and of human capital, as well as inadequate management styles, systems<br />
and procedures. In this section inadequate management aspects will be discussed<br />
in more detail and supported with quotes from the participants.<br />
• Inadequate management of the transformation process<br />
Participants indicated that the transformation process should be managed properly.<br />
“Die effektiwiteit van hierdie oorgangsproses sal verskriklik goed bestuur moet word”<br />
(The effectiveness of this cross over process must be managed extremely good).<br />
Hubbard (1999:20) indicates the importance of the effective management of the<br />
change process during acquisition to prevent negative affects on institutional human<br />
capital. If managed poorly these changes can produce a multitude of negative<br />
feelings that can affect employees’ perceptions towards the new institution,<br />
procedures, culture and management.<br />
From the data it appears that the drivers of the transformation process did not honour<br />
the above-mentioned transformation leadership dimensions for institutional<br />
effectiveness. The findings reflected participants’ feelings of uncertainty, frustration,<br />
stress, fear and negativity: “Lektore is onder geweldige spanning agv onsekerhede<br />
buite hulle eie beheer (samesmelting, regstellende aksie, verplasings, N4 - N6 wat uit<br />
die FET band gaan verdwyn wat poste in gedrang bring” (Lecturers are under severe<br />
stress because of uncertainties out of their own control (merging, affirmative action,<br />
transfers, N4 - N6 what will disappear from the FET band with implications for posts);<br />
“…al die dreigemente en vrese by party mense…” (all the threats and fears of some<br />
people; “…so die mense is dalk alreeds onseker, hulle is dalk reeds negatief…” (so
94<br />
the people are maybe already uncertain, they are maybe already negative); “Die<br />
omstandighede is baie verwarrend met die ‘merging’, dit veroorsaak baie stres…”<br />
(The circumstances are very confusing with the merging, it causes a lot of stress);<br />
“…dit maak dit baie frustrerend” (it makes it very frustrating); “…en dan die ‘merging’,<br />
wie gaan skei en wie nie, jy stres jou uit…” (and then the merging, who is going to<br />
separated and who not, you stress yourself out).<br />
When unpacking the data on a deeper level, it seems that ignorance, incorrect<br />
emphasis, equity and budget constrains appeared to be problematic for the<br />
participants.<br />
o Ignorance<br />
The next quotes offer evidence of ignorance: “…and so to make people aware what<br />
they think about the college is not is not what is actually happening here. Because<br />
most of the people think as if I don’t know that you are a failure or something…”;<br />
“People think that that if you go to a college it means, it means that you cannot make<br />
it at a university or technikon. It means that you cannot make it in life…”; ”…they<br />
think that if you go there (college) you are doomed…”; “…if a person goes to a place<br />
and then he does not succeed you always blames the institution…”.<br />
o Incorrect emphasis<br />
The following quote offers evidence of incorrect emphasis placed: “FET-instansies<br />
doen lankal nie meer die werk waarvoor hulle oorspronklik daar daargestel was nie,
95<br />
naamlik die teoretiese opleiding van vakleerlinge” (FET institutions do not function<br />
according to its original purpose, namely the theoretical training of apprentices).<br />
o Equity<br />
Equity seems to be questionable as illustrated by the following citations: “…the<br />
process was very slow and when the equity was suppose to be done it has been<br />
done with people who do not yet have the expected expertise, what about<br />
qualifications so that they always feel inferior and they are always left behind in terms<br />
of the transformation process. One could argue that as long one feels inferior in<br />
terms of qualifications one will not come in and then take a role in the transformation<br />
process…”; “…I am not yet satisfied with the practical application of the Employment<br />
Equity Act in the true sense of it…from the previously disadvantaged group we are<br />
still running short. Because whenever there is post, even when if it is a temporary<br />
post is not make advertised, is not advertised internally here. You see people being<br />
grabbed by hand and then being brought into the college still coming from the same<br />
race group which really do not address what you call the legacy of the past.”<br />
o Budget constraints<br />
Budget constraints is illustrated by the following quote: “…as jy by die ‘budgets’ en<br />
goed kom, daar’s nie genoeg geld nie…” (when you come to budgets and stuff, there<br />
is not enough money).
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These findings are quite disturbing as it may indicate failure of the transformation<br />
process. According to Carman (2002:52) and Hubbard (1999:27) trust is vital for<br />
success during transformation processes and is either destroyed or built by decision-<br />
taking practices and relationships. Trust according to Hubbard (1999:27) is one of<br />
the key elements of the psychological contract between the institution and its<br />
employees and serves as an agreement that neither party will take advantage of the<br />
other.<br />
According to the study’s findings it appears that college management could not<br />
succeed in building trust among staff to create and sustain a climate for optimal<br />
change. It appears that a climate of uncertainty, frustration, stress, fear and<br />
negativity was instead created that signalled failure. Hubbard (1999:27) is of the<br />
opinion that decisions affecting schooling can have a considerable effect on how an<br />
educator is perceived by colleagues, students, parents, and the community. For that<br />
reason people should be involved in decisions that affect them because the individual<br />
will be held responsible. The effective leader should also build sound and long-term<br />
relationships. Sound relationships are vital because they build trust, which creates<br />
the “lubrication and lucidity for change. Trust is also the “emotional glue” according<br />
to Hubbard (1999:27) that sustains the culture through changes that appear<br />
intimidating and unfair. Before a leader can concentrate on improvement he or she<br />
must be sensitive for the fragile balance between threat and challenge or else face<br />
the risk of failure. Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:9) introduce<br />
an answer to how this maybe achieved by moving the focus away from change and<br />
recognising learning capabilities.
97<br />
In comparing the findings with theory, it seems that the leaders of the transformation<br />
neglected to deal with institutional bereavement processes and were unsuccessful in<br />
communicating and sharing new institutional values and goals as it will be explained<br />
in the next paragraphs.<br />
From observation notes it is identified that the drivers of the transformation process<br />
neglected to deal with professional bereavement. At the time of the study,<br />
celebrations were conducted to celebrate the “birth” of the new merged college. The<br />
agenda of these celebrations excluded farewell rites of the “old” entity. According to<br />
Nias (1993:150) abolishing the old entity without honouring the past may result in a<br />
professional bereavement crisis with associated loss of meaning.<br />
O’Brien (as quoted by Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith, 1999:13)<br />
underlines how important it is that mutual values need to be established for profound<br />
change to take place: “What people pressuring for management to ‘drive’ cultural<br />
change don’t understand is: A value is only value when it is voluntarily chosen.”<br />
Sukati (2000:131) accentuates the vital role played by transformational leadership for<br />
school effectiveness. Identifying and articulating a vision, fostering the acceptance of<br />
mutual goals, providing support, capacity building and culture building are some of<br />
the dimensions critical to attend by leaders of transformation processes. None of the<br />
participants referred to any institutional values, although a vision and mission and<br />
institutional core values were identified for the merged college by the managing team<br />
(observational note). A possible reason for the silence voice with regard to<br />
institutional values maybe that it was not yet internalised by the participants.
98<br />
From the above it appears that the management of the transformation process was<br />
not effectively done when analysing the meaning and associated feelings the<br />
participants gave to the transformation process, namely uncertainty, frustration,<br />
stress, fear and negativity. These subsist against the background of the lack of<br />
shared institutional purpose and values, budget constraints and the way equity was<br />
implemented (or not implemented). These may endanger institutional effectiveness<br />
severely, and even oppose promoting factors as described in paragraph 3.4.2.<br />
Carman (2002:6) called this type of reform bully-based reform. Bully-based reform<br />
occurred in cases when the force seems to be top-down on the system from the<br />
politicians, who at the same time allocate insufficient funds to support the<br />
transformation. This has a negative impact on the efficacy of the educators, as well<br />
as the feasibility of the idea. Prinsloo (2000:145) points out that transformation must<br />
be applied with due regard to ability, objectivity, fairness, and then to the need to<br />
redress the imbalances of the past.<br />
The manner how the transformation process was managed seems not to be the only<br />
impeding factor. In the next sections a dense description is given of the<br />
management of the college’s human capital and the management styles, systems<br />
and procedures that emerged as additional impeding factors. Words of advice by the<br />
participants are echoed and the description is supported by participants’ quotes.
• Inadequate management of human capital: learners<br />
99<br />
Although it appears from the previous sections that a climate conducive for teaching,<br />
training and learning and learner support and informal network for staff support were<br />
presented, these might not be enough to uphold institutional effectiveness. In this<br />
section participants’ responses and theory are given to highlight shortcomings with<br />
regard to the management of human capital that were impeding institutional<br />
effectiveness.<br />
In this section challenging areas were reverberated from participants with regard to<br />
the management of learners. These areas might oppose the good work that was<br />
done and might encourage learners’ failure. It seems that various aspects were<br />
covered by the participants ranging from learner support, life and study skills, learner<br />
expectations and motivation, learner discipline, to management systems and the<br />
relevance and alignment of the training offered at the college.<br />
Participants are of the opinion that learners should be recognised as the most critical<br />
stakeholder of the college. A word of advice from one participant highlights the<br />
importance of learners being the college most critical stakeholders: “…should not<br />
ignore them. Because if they disappear, then our reason for being here also<br />
disappear”; “…I feel very strongly that we should not ignore them or avoid them<br />
(learners), but we should take care of them…”.
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This section deals in particular with the participants’ experiences with regard to the<br />
institution’s inability to adapt to its environmental changes in dealing with its most<br />
critical stakeholder, the learner.<br />
o Learner support<br />
It appears that more attention should be given to the student support division in order<br />
to address the students’ needs: “…I am worried from my side on the student support<br />
side. It would seem that although a lot is done, but it will seem that the office itself is<br />
not given the necessary support by the management of the institution”; “…that as<br />
time goes on with the new CEO the support service will get a position which it<br />
deserve…it is an essential service because there is no one in on earth who can be<br />
educated if he is not happy…“; “We really do need the support services because that<br />
is the place wherever where whenever we have problems we can go in and then be<br />
helped immediately”; “…ons sê ons hef op maar op grondvlak dan doen ons niks…”<br />
(we say we uplift but on grass root level we do nothing); “So they (learners) must be<br />
looked after. What I mean by say ‘look after’ I mean not actually spoilt. But at the<br />
same time I say ‘spoilt’ as they should be spoilt by giving them hell of knowledge and<br />
ideas about what they are doing. They must must have them, keep them on a track.<br />
Because you see students are like a train which is on a track. So to make sure that,<br />
that train is is is ok or it is right…”.
o Leadership<br />
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The quest for leadership is illustrated by the following citations: “…it is also<br />
developing good leadership structures for our students...we are also grooming<br />
champions which I call the leaders of tomorrow…”; “So we should I think have<br />
programmes for the SRC…”.<br />
o Life skills<br />
Students should be given skills to survive in the world of work and everyday life:<br />
“They (learners) do get opportunities, but they are not getting in a position to hold<br />
onto these opportunities because they do not have the knowledge how to hold onto<br />
this opportunities…”; “…but it is also important not only to enrol but to groom…to<br />
enrol students which are to groom so it is also important not only to compete in<br />
numbers, but to compete in quality…”; “When I say groom I mean giving the<br />
students, and giving them the correct knowledge or education, prepare them for the<br />
field in which they are in or going to be in the future. You know grooming them for<br />
their employees, for the future and for not only grooming them for the workplace, but<br />
also grooming them for them to believe in themselves…”; “Die student wat sukkel<br />
met `n geskeide pa of `n geskeide ma of die student wat sukkel met `n babatjie…dit<br />
bied die instansie nie” (The student who struggles with a divorced father or a<br />
divorced mother or the student who struggles with a baby…that the institution does<br />
not offer).
o Study guidance<br />
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Study guidance before commencement of studies was regarded as essential:<br />
“…meer hulp aan studente gegee word voor aanvang van hulle kursus.<br />
Studiemetodes ensovoorts” (more assistance for students prior course<br />
commencement. Study methods etcetera.).<br />
o Selection of learners<br />
Selection and placement of students in particular study courses deserved more<br />
attention: “…moet ons ons keuring beter doen…” (must do our selection better); “Die<br />
een ou sit sy tyd en mors en die ander ou het dit wel nodig” (The one chap sits and<br />
wastes his time and the other chap needs it).<br />
o Induction courses<br />
Introduction of induction course prior to the commencement of studies to promote<br />
successful learning: “…en daarom sê ek ook `n beginkursus…omtrent twee weke<br />
induksie vat...” (and therefore I also say a commencement course…apparently two<br />
weeks an induction take.)<br />
o Learners’ discipline<br />
Dealing of learners with discipline problems was a great area of concern: “…I still<br />
have a serious problem concerning the discipline in the college of the learners…the
103<br />
rules are there…learners do not adhere to rules and nothing is happening to them…”;<br />
“…playing dice during day time, during college hours, in the college ground…”;<br />
“looking at the way in which the learners are abusing drugs of different sorts…”; “The<br />
question of absenteeism of learners is a very serious problem which drags the results<br />
of this campus down”.<br />
o Inconsistency<br />
Inconsistency in dealing with learners was problematic: ”…nie konsekwent wees nie,<br />
oor studentesake wil ek amper …oor dieselfde boeg gooi…” (inconsistency, student<br />
affairs seems to be the same tune).<br />
o Learner motivation<br />
It appears from the data that learner motivation was influenced by various factors<br />
including weariness and unrealistic prospects: “…werk ook saans as kelners by<br />
restaurante en is dan gewoon nie in staat om die volgende dag te konsentreer nie.”<br />
(work during nights as waiters at restaurants and are not able to concentrate the next<br />
day); “…wat nie op skool bevredigend vorder nie, en word dikwels aangeraai om<br />
‘Tech’ toe te kom…” (unsatisfactory progress on school level and then recommended<br />
to come to ‘Tech’), “…die vraag wat ek my afvra is ek effektief as `n ou nie wil leer<br />
nie…al probeer ek wat kan ek nie effektief wees nie, want hy wil nie” (…the question<br />
that I ask myself can I be effective if a chap doesn’t want to learn…it doesn’t matter<br />
what I do, I cannot be effective, because he doesn’t want to).
o Learner expectations<br />
104<br />
Learner expectations seem to be problematic: “…en al sy hoop sit op die N6-<br />
sertifikaat. Baie min besef dat hulle in die meeste gevalle NOOIT by `n NTD sal<br />
uitkom nie…” (put their hope on the N6 certificate. Most of them do not take<br />
cognisance that they will NEVER achieve a NTD).<br />
o Enrolment<br />
The enrolment system appears to be unsatisfactory: “Baie kan verbeter word met<br />
inskrywing van studente” (A lot can be improved with the enrolment of students);<br />
“…inskrywings…`n mens staan in toue toue toue…” (enrolment, a person stands in<br />
queues queues queues).<br />
o Relevance of learning<br />
Another category that emerges is the tendency of teaching and training to become no<br />
longer practical orientated and relevant: “…wat glad en geheel nie praktykgerig is<br />
nie” (not focussed on practice); “Because the training can be good, but irrelevant<br />
from the needs of companies, which may leave many of our students at home after<br />
completing their training”; “…dit glad nie inpas met die privaatsektor is nie…ons doen<br />
donkie-afrigting…” (it is not in pace with the private sector…we do donkey training);<br />
“Die studente kan hulle nie altyd self help nie, want jy’s gedruk vir sillabus, so jy’s<br />
gedruk vir tyd…(The students cannot always help themselves, because you are<br />
pressed by syllabi, so you are pressured by time); “Dokumente word nou gedoen wat
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nou nie eintlik meer van waarde is nie…” (Documents are at present done that have<br />
no more value).<br />
o Alignment of courses<br />
According to Carman (2002:222) the alignment of the curriculum is a significant<br />
requirement for success. From the data it appears that alignment needed urgent<br />
attention: “Praktiese opleiding is `n baie groot leemte want hulle gaan saam met<br />
akademiese opleiding” (Practical training is very much lacking because they go<br />
together with academic training); “Onderling is daar geen samewerking nie, nie<br />
tussen die lektore en vakke nie” (Mutual there is no co-operation, not between the<br />
lecturers and the subjects).<br />
These findings indicate the need for following a holistic approach to learner<br />
development. This need is in line with literature (Fevre, Rees and Gorard, 1999;<br />
Perkins, n.d.; Wagner, 1993) that emphasises educators must consider the<br />
competencies needed by learners to become active citizens. This implies that school<br />
transform initiatives should redefine the purpose of teaching, training and learning.<br />
Wagner (1993:24) is of the opinion that systemic change should not be impulsive<br />
reaction to outsiders, but a systemic reflection that is based on the needs of global<br />
citizenship, knowledge, and learners’ needs and concerns. Butt (1994:26) reflects<br />
that advantageous features of education and training need to include multi-skilling,<br />
recognition of prior learning and the need for mobility within the system. Fevre, Rees<br />
and Gorard (1999:117) unambiguously state that policies aimed at investing in<br />
human capital that are ignoring insights from the social theories are doomed to fail.
106<br />
AFETISA (2001:3), in a document of concern to its Gauteng members about the<br />
reorganisation of Further Education and Training, advocates developing and<br />
ensuring learner support services in Further Education and Training institutions as a<br />
key activity to be accorded its fair place in their institutions. From the learner side,<br />
the South African Colleges Student Association was established in 1997 to give a<br />
voice to college learners and to attempt national recognition of the technical college<br />
sector by the Department of Education” (Bot, 1997:15).<br />
Perkins (n.d.:26) is of the opinion that education institutions’ effectiveness is related<br />
to the institution’s sensitivity in meeting the psycho-educational needs of learners<br />
coming from diverse socio-economic settings. South African youth is faced with a<br />
variety of problems and barriers that they need to overcome in order to complete<br />
their schooling. These include unsuitably qualified educators, English as the (only)<br />
medium of instruction, need for guidance, social problems, cultural barriers, lack of<br />
opportunities, limited job opportunities, and financial problems (Van Zyl, 1997:237-<br />
255). Carman (2002:168) accentuates that learners seek to satisfy basic needs in<br />
order to self-actualise that is difficult in the conventional education system. An<br />
effective institution is the kind of school where learners are offered the opportunity to<br />
break the “vicious cycle of failure”. Institutions cannot be effective if they are not<br />
sensitive and offer learner support in various areas. Fashola and Slavin (1998:377)<br />
emphasise the importance of school plans that make provisions for at risk learners.<br />
Special challenges that the college sector has to deal with are the misconceptions<br />
and self-fulfilling prophecies of academic failure regarding technical training.
107<br />
Historical reasons as well created mistrust of non-white learners regarding technical<br />
and vocational training in South Africa “…often technical schools, and also technical<br />
colleges, are seen as ‘a proper place’ to send ‘problem children’ or a child who has<br />
either a learning or discipline problem…Previously there was a seemingly negative<br />
attitude which the black young person had…” (Human Sciences Research Council,<br />
1996:8). Vocational preparation in the international arena is regarded with low status<br />
and image that are transferred to the Further Education and Training curriculum<br />
(Halliday, 1999:53).<br />
Wallis (1999:80-81) accentuates the role played by well designed and presented<br />
courses to produce a specially made skill portfolio to meet the needs of the world of<br />
work. Riddle (1999:216) suggests education reform requires a multidisciplinary<br />
approach involving the inputs from economists, educationists and politici. Education<br />
reform initiatives should be sensitive towards the complexity of relationships inside<br />
and outside the school (Riddell, 1998; Gewirtz, 1998). Stephens (1990) states that<br />
different factors of political, economic and demographic origin combine together to<br />
create a climate conducive for change and teaching, training and learning.<br />
A word of warning by Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:14)<br />
stresses that transformation also refers to the ability the institution has to adapt to the<br />
changes in its environment. Change means different things to different people. It<br />
may refer to external changes in technology, customers, competitors, market<br />
structure, or the social and political environment. It may also refer to internal change,<br />
for example, how the organisation adapts to changes in the environment. The
108<br />
ageless question that needs to be answered is if the internal changes will keep track<br />
with the external changes.<br />
All of these aspects are closely linked and have an undulated effect on the broader<br />
context. For example, the issue of learner discipline and enrolment as the case with<br />
the other mentioned aspects are interwoven into the broader context guided by the<br />
purpose of education. Sonn (1999:10) states that discipline is not only about<br />
controlling unwanted behaviour. Discipline should be regarded in the broader<br />
context of the school and aspects such as the purpose of education, leadership and<br />
management should be taken into consideration.<br />
From the findings it appears that although the basis for student support is well<br />
acknowledged and appreciated, a lot still needs to be done in order to promote<br />
institutional effectiveness. An integrated approach that is aimed at promoting holistic<br />
learning is vital for success.<br />
In the next section attention will be given to the inadequate management of staff and<br />
how they experience it.<br />
• Inadequate management of human capital: staff<br />
A further category that emerged was the inadequate management of the staff and the<br />
influence that inadequate management styles, systems and procedures had on the<br />
staff. It is disheartening to observe the meanings that participants gave to<br />
management practises ranging from loosing their meaning and interest in the
109<br />
workplace to feelings of dissatisfaction, negativity, stagnation, lost of productivity,<br />
mistrust, frustration, desperation, conflict, anger and infringement of their human<br />
rights. These signals of unfair treatment may result in institutional dysfunction and<br />
loss of integration within the newly merged college, causing serious harm to<br />
institutional relationship by putting the institution’s integrity in dispute.<br />
The participants’ experiences are given under the following emerged categories.<br />
o Lack of purpose and meaning<br />
Lack of purpose and meaning is illustrated by the following: “…as daar `n `n `n meer<br />
openlikheid is, meer `n defnitiewe doel agter my werksaamhede dat ek weet<br />
waarvoor ek werk en hoekom doen ek dit…” (if there is more openness, a more<br />
definitive purpose for my work so that I know for what I am working and why I am<br />
doing it); “…want jy voel nie meer lus om te wil nie…” (you don’t want to will any<br />
longer).<br />
o Dissatisfaction, negativity, lack of co-operation, lost of interest, stagnation and<br />
lost of productivity<br />
The next citations provide evidence of this category: “…ek dink dit kan nogal `n<br />
redelike faktor wees van ongelukkighede onder personeel” (I think it can be<br />
somehow a reasonable factor of staff dissatisfaction); “…want jy weet gelukkige<br />
werkers lewer gelukkiger produksie en as jou werkers gelukkig is dan dink ek jy het<br />
kwaliteit werkers ook” (because you know satisfied workers render satisfactory
110<br />
production and when your workers are happy then I think you have quality workers);<br />
“Baie keer dan geniet jy jouself, want jy’s in die onderwys…En dan weer jy’s `n<br />
donkie…en moet net nie inisiatief vat nie…” (Lots of times you enjoy yourself,<br />
because you are in the education. And then you are a donkey again, and must not<br />
take initiative); “…en dan begin jy gedagtes kry om op `n ander plek te gaan werk en<br />
en dis nie lekker nie”; (and then you get thoughts to work for another place and and<br />
that is not nice); “Dis nie meer daai op en wakker lopery nie, jy weet daai gereelde<br />
vriendelikheid en goed nie…“ (It is no more lively walk around, you know that regular<br />
friendliness and stuff); “…wat jou begin krap waar dit nie moet krap nie, dit maak jou<br />
negatief en dan meen ek dan raak die werksomstandighede nie meer lekker nie” (it<br />
starts to scratch where it is not supposed to scratch, it makes one negative and then I<br />
mean the work environment is becoming not nice anymore); “…laat `n ou nie lekker<br />
voel nie…dit maak `n ou negatief…`n ou moet positief bly…maar hoe? (it let a chap<br />
feel not nice…it makes a chap negative…a chap should stay positive…but how?);<br />
“As hulle nie hulle koppe geswaai word om nou positief te raak nie en hulle<br />
samewerking kry nie, dan gaan jy nie jou junior lektore ook nie kan swaai nie en dat<br />
hulle ‘flippen’ opgewonde kan wees en `n bietjie ‘smile’ op die gesig hê…” (If they<br />
cannot change their heads to become now positive and give their co-operation, then<br />
you won’t be able to change your junior lecturers and that they can become flipping<br />
excited and a smile on the face); “…die groot frustrasie, word negatief. Jy stel nie<br />
meer belang in jou werk nie…jy stagneer net” (the huge frustration, become<br />
negative. You loose interest in your work…you just stagnate); “…nou wil die ouens<br />
nie meer deurnag sit en merk nie, hy sal nou net werksure werk…”; (now the chaps<br />
are not willing to mark through the night, he will only work during work hours); “…sou<br />
jy dit gekanselleer het om die kollega te help…” (you will have cancelled it to help
111<br />
your colleague); “Dit het begin nou `n lelike negatiewe ding raak…” (It has become<br />
now an ugly negative thing); “Jy kan nie, mense kan nie van jou verwag om te<br />
stagneer nie en jy het die wil om verder te gaan, maar jy kan nie regtig nie…” (You<br />
cannot, persons cannot expect from you to get stagnated and you have the will to<br />
carry on, but really you cannot).<br />
o Frustration, desperation, mistrust, conflict, anger, infringement of human rights<br />
The next recordings provide evidence of this category: “Jy raak gefrustreerd, en dan<br />
uit desperaatheid…” (You become frustrated and then out of desperation); “…so `n<br />
bietjie ligte woorde gehad…maar ek was baie ongeskik met hom” (so we had a bit of<br />
light words…but I was very discourteous with him); “…dit kort nie baklei nie, wat bo<br />
en al totaal onnodig is en jy is op daai stadium as gevolg van die frustrasie waarmee<br />
jy moet saamlewe…” (it needs no fighting; that is unnecessary and you are on that<br />
point due to the frustration that you have to live with); “…jy word gekrap deur die<br />
bestuur en dit maak konflik…” (you are scratched by management and that makes<br />
conflict); “…daar is altyd oorlog aan die gang…Gewoonlik die ou wat eerste by die<br />
kantoor uitkom wen. Die ou wat tweede kom, jy kom en kry maar net jou vonnis…”<br />
(war is always occurring there. Usually the chap that get to the office first wins. The<br />
chap that comes second, you come and just get your sentence); “Ek is `n ‘fighter’, ek<br />
sal aanhou en aanhou totdat ek kry…so jy maak of breek `n plek” (I am a fighter, I<br />
will keep on and keep on until I get…so you make or break a place); “…hoekom wil jy<br />
vanmore weer baklei…” (why do you want to fight again this morning); “So jy word<br />
die heeltyd met die wortel gelok en dan sodra jy die wortel hap word dit uit jou mond<br />
gehaal en word daar vir jou gesê so hou jou bek, sit op jou tak, maar intussen tyd is
112<br />
die wortel vir jou belowe en hap jy en sodra jy gehap dan word jy geskop en dit<br />
veroorsaak wantroue ook…” (So you are attracted by the carrot and if you bite then<br />
the carrot is taken from your mouth and you are told to keep your mouth shut and to<br />
sit on your branch, but in the mean time the carrot is promised to you and when you<br />
bite and when you have bite into it, then you are kicked and that causes mistrust<br />
also); “Ek dink ons is nie mense regtig nie…ons weet nie wat is ons wetlik reg nie…”<br />
(I don’t think that we are really humans, we don’t know our legal rights); “…daar word<br />
apart as sulks met `n lektor gepraat nie…daar word direk aangeval…” (there is no<br />
separate talks with a lecturer, you are attack directly).<br />
When analysing the data on a second level, it appears that the following factors<br />
played an important role in the experiences of the participants when it came to the<br />
management of the staff.<br />
o Lack of interest in the well-being of staff<br />
The next quotes provide proof of this category: “…human resource section there<br />
were somehow an ignorance…looking after the interest of employees”; “…if I have to<br />
suggest the support service is one of the most essential service which we all need<br />
staff members and learners, contractors and non-contractors”; “Motiveringsnorme<br />
word swak/verkeerd en in die meeste gevalle glad nie gebruik nie” (Motivation norms<br />
being used poorly/wrongly or in most cases not even used); “…ons kry nie meer<br />
geleentheid as om as `n personeel as as `n korps…” (we do not have the opportunity<br />
to as a staff as a corps); “…hulle dit wil wegvat, mag dit daar bly, want dit hou die<br />
ouens nog positief …ek voel so `n eindjaarfunksie is …om dankie te sê…” (they want
113<br />
to take it away, may it stay, because it keeps the chaps positive…I feel that such an<br />
end of the year function is…to say thank you).<br />
o Lack of co-ordination and co-operation between departments<br />
The next quote provides evidence of this category: “…I don’t believe that triple S<br />
Student Support Service is the only person to carry the burden. I believe that<br />
everybody is suppose to put an end on pulling the burden. Because the students<br />
benefit all of us and they get benefits as well as from all of us”.<br />
o Staff are not supported by management<br />
This category is illustrated by the following quote: “Even though poor staff members<br />
go and report to the ma…to their leaderships in writing the disciplinary form, filling<br />
them in …but not enough is done…”.<br />
o Lack of trained staff<br />
The next quotes provide evidence of this category: “Van die probleme ontstaan as<br />
gevolg van die feit dat daar nie genoegsame bekwame opgeleide personeel is nie”<br />
(Of the problems occur due to the fact that there are insufficient trained personnel);<br />
“Personeel is ook gereeld besig om hulle eie werk en die van `n kollega te doen<br />
aangesien dié op verlof is…plaas addisionele druk op die persoon…sekere sake kry<br />
dan nie sou gou aandag…minder tyd te spandeer om oplossings vir probleme te<br />
vind” (Personnel often busy to do their own work and of a colleague because (s)he is
114<br />
on leave…place additional pressure on the person…certain issues does not get<br />
immediate attention…lesser time spent to find solutions for problems); “So hulle is<br />
die ouers in daai sisteem, en dan word jy aangestel waar dit nie noodwendig die<br />
regte ou vir die job is nie…” (so they are the parents in that system and you are<br />
appointed no matter if it is really the right chap for the job).<br />
o Lack of training<br />
Lack of training is well illustrated by the following: “Die besigheidsingesteldheid van<br />
SENIOR Bestuur moet benut/afwentel na laer vlakke…” (The business orientation of<br />
SENIOR Management should be used/spiralled down to the lower levels); “…to our<br />
management, I feel that it is time that they give young ones a fair opportunity. They<br />
must put young personnel staff on training…”; “let them share their experience with<br />
the young generation. Send them on courses, and give them time to face new<br />
challenges”; “Staff handling the Public need better training”; “…die onderwyser moet<br />
dan ook opgelei word om studente in spesifieke ekskursies in te stuur…” (the<br />
educator must be trained also to steer the students in specific excursions);<br />
“Meetings (all aspects) need some attention”.<br />
o Lack of professional recognition and or professional abuse<br />
The next citations provide evidence of this category: “…want hulle begin ons nie<br />
meer professioneel hanteer nie…ons word soos studente gehanteer…” (they start<br />
handling us not professionally anymore, we are handled like students); “Voorstelle<br />
van P1-lektore word dikwels afgeskiet en dan later as voorstelle van senior personeel
115<br />
aanvaar” (Suggestions from P1 lecturers often get shot down and later get accepted<br />
as coming from senior staff); “Lyk asof senior personeel bedreigd voel indien P1-<br />
lektore iets goeds doen” (Seems that senior staff feel threatened when P1 lecturers<br />
do something good); “Toerusting van senior personeel word altyd opgegradeer en<br />
dan kry P1 personeel hulle ou goed” (Equipment of senior staff are always upgraded<br />
and then P1 staff received their old stuff); “…lektore vir senior personeel moet vra<br />
om `n oproep vir hulle te maak. Daar kan geen privaatheid van gesprekke oor die<br />
telefoon gemaak word nie” (lecturers must ask senior staff to make a call on their<br />
behalf. There is no privacy of telephonic discussions); “..word dopgehou asof hulle<br />
(P1-lektore) nooit werk nie” (being watched as if they (P1 lecturers) never work);<br />
“Waarom die diskriminasie?” (refer to the use of telephones and implementation of<br />
rules between departments) (Why the discrimination?); “Dan werk dan is so iets ook<br />
nie effektief nie as jy nie na daardie persoon teruggaan nie en sê dankie vir die<br />
wenk…” (Then it work then is not so effective if you do not go back to that person<br />
and say thank you for the tip); “Gee erkenning aan mekaar se talente, dis `n bate vir<br />
die kollege” (Give recognition for each other’s talents, it is an college asset).<br />
From the literature (Bohmer & Mentz, 1994; Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth &<br />
Smith, 1999; Talbert, 1992) review it appears that emphasis is placed on building<br />
capacity among staff to create and sustain transformation processes. The reader will<br />
be briefed on some of these viewpoints. Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and<br />
Smith (1999:15) state that in thoughtful change there is learning. The organisation<br />
does not just embark on something new; it first builds its capacity for doing things in a<br />
new way, and by doing so, ensures that capacity is built for sustainable development.<br />
This concurs with the findings of national and international studies by Talbert
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(1992:15) and Bohmer and Mentz (1994:98) on schools striving for excellence and/or<br />
“healthy” schools. These schools’ characteristics mirror a culture that supports and<br />
promotes professional growth and innovation portraying a sense of solidarity<br />
amongst the staff.<br />
Another viewpoint is that of Taylor, Diphofa, Waghmarae, Vinjevold and Sedibe<br />
(1999:19). These authors argue the vital role played by democratic governing styles<br />
through embracing motivation and values that enable staff to react to a diverse and<br />
changing environments. The institution as reflected by its motivation and values<br />
acknowledges the growing multiplicity of the student and parent populations and<br />
stands for equality in matters of ethnicity, culture, class and gender. Such<br />
institutions are devoted to democratic forms of governance. In the field of<br />
economics, it is watchful for the difficulties of the information age and the need for<br />
workers to be responsible, intelligent, and flexible in adapting to changing, and<br />
competing circumstances.<br />
According to Taylor, Diphofa, Waghmarae, Vinjevold and Sedibe (1999:19)<br />
institutional purpose is related to institutional culture that has a profound influence on<br />
institutional functioning and relationship. An institution has a specific quality, defined<br />
by the degree to which its workers feel dedicated to a joint vision, and the worth of<br />
their relationships with one another in working towards achieving that common goal.<br />
For any institution to be effective, it needs a vision and sense of teamwork amongst<br />
its workers.<br />
A study by Mosogo and Van der Westhuizen (1997:201) confirmed studies that<br />
authoritarian modes and individualistic approaches to school management are
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entrenched behaviour patterns also in South Africa. Educators’ contribution<br />
deprivation is present across the full range of management activities. Educators’<br />
human rights were infringed for many years when looking at the international history<br />
of educator’s rights. Educators were very much subject to the “employment at will”<br />
doctrine that provided no protection against unfair labour practices (UEA Online). De<br />
Groof, Legotlo, Malherbe and Potgieter (n.d.:15) accentuate that education must give<br />
effect to human rights and first of all education must ensure that human rights are<br />
upheld in all its structures, institutions and processes. These authors are of the<br />
opinion that education must first get its own house in order.<br />
Van Zyl and Pieterson (1999:77) found in their study that the following factors relate<br />
to high levels of stress under educators: an atmosphere of inadequate autonomy,<br />
inadequate recognition and limited opportunities to be innovative. It should be<br />
remembered that colleges provide teaching and training for adult learners too, that<br />
brings with it higher demands in coping with learner resistance and educator burnout<br />
and associated stress as indicated by the research study’s findings by Lamude,<br />
Scudder and Furno-Lamude (1992:608).<br />
Unfair labour practices can have negative implications for transformation processes<br />
by having the opposite effect of the desired outcome “Callous or unfair<br />
treatment…can send shockwaves through the entire group in a very negative manner<br />
by turning those not directly affected against the acquirer” (Hubbard, 1999:29).<br />
Carman (2002:167-168) is of the opinion that the way staff is treated will eventually<br />
transfer to the lecturing room. It is therefore essential for any institution to treat their<br />
staff with the necessary respect, keep their well-being at heart and give them the
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recognition they deserve. The unhappiness of staff created by a lack of support and<br />
interest in their well-being will eventually transfer to their learners as featured in their<br />
learner relationship. Staff must be cared for and looked after by finding a balance<br />
between productivity and humanity. According to Carman (2002:167-168) education<br />
psychology teaches us that educators will find that same balance in working with<br />
their learners. Education leaders have to model for their staff the conduct that is<br />
needed for an effective institution.<br />
Jaques as cited by Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:390)<br />
presents another reason for negative life experiences with regard to institutional<br />
effectiveness: “…many organizations, people flail and flounder because they do not<br />
have clearly defined boundaries for their job, authority, and their careers”. Therefore<br />
the value and dignity of people performing at every level of the institution are not<br />
recognised. Selaledi’s (1999:270) research findings indicated that the following<br />
elements create an atmosphere for educator professional growth and development:<br />
administrative responsibility, classroom autonomy, structures promoting collegial<br />
teamwork and feedback that seems to be absent in this study as suggested by its<br />
findings.<br />
In the South African education context the abdication of responsibilities is debated in<br />
the senate’s proceedings as reflected by the following quotes: “They (headmasters)<br />
absolute lack the leadership qualities, they lack the required personal skills and in<br />
many cases they lack the administrative ability, but even worse, they lack motivation.<br />
They are unable to motivate their staff…”; “There are people who will do anything in<br />
life to abdicate their responsibilities…”; “Apartheid has come and gone but that
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school has found another crutch to lean on. They found another reason not to do<br />
anything” (Hansard, 8 June 1995:1580).<br />
Destroying the professional integrity of staff and staff initiative may be injurious to the<br />
institution on medium to long term by putting it on a self-destroying path. Carman<br />
(2002:21) is of the opinion that what he calls ”recognition density” is a powerful tool to<br />
keep the institution in line with its vision and mission. According to Carman<br />
(2002:21) people can be motivated by any number of incentives such as money,<br />
respect, enhanced authority, and recognition. Effective schools have people who are<br />
self-starters and take the initiative. These types of people can be regarded as assets<br />
in the organisation and serve as internal motivators. Without recognition the<br />
institution cannot align itself around its goals and vision.<br />
Against this background, it is astonishing how the college staff managed to take care<br />
and support their learners in the absence of perceived management support for<br />
themselves. It might as well be that the experiences of lack of support accentuated<br />
how important support and care are for success. This in itself maybe the reason why<br />
some lecturers take the decision to take care of their learners, they “decided to<br />
believe in a child who could not get that type of support from anyone else? Literally<br />
hundreds of children would feel loved and valued and possibly begin to experience<br />
success…” (Carman, 2000:23).<br />
Mutual support amongst the staff seems to play an important role to keep caring<br />
intact as described in the previous section. However, it is questionable how long<br />
student support on this level could be maintained and sustained. It appears that it is
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only a matter of time before the lack of management support to the staff will become<br />
detrimental to the learners. Above data suggests negative experiences, staff<br />
questioning the meaning and purpose for their being at the college and the absence<br />
of management role models for caring and productivity. Over time these may be<br />
detrimental to the rendering of support and sustaining a climate conducive for<br />
teaching, training and learning.<br />
From the findings it appears that not only the management of human capital is an<br />
area of great concern, but as well as inadequate management styles, systems and<br />
procedures that signalled institutional dysfunction.<br />
• Inadequate management styles, systems and procedures<br />
From the responses it appears that not only the management of staff, but<br />
management styles, systems and procedures were taxing areas for many of the<br />
participants: “…veral wanneer dit kom by by sekere aspekte van die bestuur…”<br />
(especially when it comes to certain aspects of the management); “transparency is<br />
daar nie…” (no transparency); “…daar `n gebrek is aan die bestuur van basiese<br />
dinge, die koördinasie …” (there is a lack of management of basic stuff, the co-<br />
ordination); “…daar gaan geld en tyd en goeie mense verlore omdat daar nie goeie<br />
bestuur is…” (there is loss of money and time and good people because there is not<br />
good management); “…swak bestuur of deur die attitudes and houdings en die<br />
negatiwiteit deur dit miskien net deur dit reg te stel…” (poor management or through<br />
the attitudes and the negativity and through just maybe correct it); “…die hand of die<br />
leiding moet geneem word…deur die bestuur van die instansie om sulke stelsel te
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implementeer” (the hand or the lead must be taken by the institution’s management<br />
to implement such a system); “…bestuur besig is om te doen, hulle wil<br />
ongelukkigheid hê, hulle wil hê dinge moet nie lekker loop met die lektore nie…”<br />
(management busy doing, they want unhappiness, they want things not to run<br />
smoothly for the lecturers).<br />
The experiences of the participants can be summarised under the following emerged<br />
categories indicating various awkward areas. It appears that these caused lived<br />
experiences of institutional ineffectiveness resulting in feelings of frustration, stress<br />
and anger.<br />
o Lack of procedures<br />
The lack of procedures is illustrated by the following quotes: “There are many policies<br />
but very few procedures and house rules for conducting matters…”; “…with the new<br />
CEO…there is going to be a real move, a real shift of paradise whereby it seemed<br />
that the man is very much committed and did not disadvantage anybody, but to see<br />
that policies are implemented at the college”.<br />
o Carelessness<br />
Carelessness is illustrated by the next citations: “…that shows that people do not<br />
actually recorded down what they are suppose to do and make follow ups of what<br />
they are suppose to do…”; “not enough is not being done in taking actions in<br />
wherever….”; “…it could be four weeks before any action is taken”; “Telephone
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manners of telephonists leaves much to be desirable”; “Handling of clients<br />
sometimes wanting”.<br />
o Security<br />
The problem with security is illustrated by the following quotes: “Sekuriteit is baie<br />
swak en heelwat ongewenste besoekers beweeg deur die hoofhek” (Security is very<br />
poor and many unwanted visitors move through the main gate); “…die sekuriteit by<br />
die hek. Ek weet nie hoekom betaal hulle die mense daar nie” (the security at the<br />
gate. I don’t know why they pay the people there).<br />
o Communication problems<br />
The next citations provide evidence of this category: “…information is kept by a<br />
person and is not available to others…”; “…multiple requests for the same info…”;<br />
“Kommunikasie is dikwels nie bevredigend nie.” (Communication is often<br />
unsatisfactory).<br />
o Rigidity<br />
Rigidity seems to be problematic as follows: “Reёls kan nie rigied wees vir alle<br />
instansies nie want markte verskil baie en funksionaliteit word benadeel…” (Rules<br />
cannot be rigid for all institutions, because markets do differ a lot and functionality are<br />
impeded); “Die “Fet”-wet” belemmer ook die ontwikkeling vir die kollege omdat die<br />
fokus op ‘skoolidees’ moet wees!” (The FET Act hinders the development for the
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college because the focus must be on school ideas!); “…mense van die vyftigerjare,<br />
hulle het baie rigied grootgeword...dis asof die ou mense terugtrek en sê dis too fast<br />
too fast…jy mag nie vorentoe gaan nie, want dan is jy slimmer as hulle…” (…people<br />
of the years fifty, they grew up very rigid…it is if the old people pull back and say too<br />
fast too fast…you are not allowed to move forward, because then you are cleverer<br />
than they…).<br />
o Problem solving (internal)<br />
The next citations provide evidence of this category: “…besluitneming, nie<br />
konsekwent wees nie…“ (inconsequent decision-taking); “Die effektiefste oplossing<br />
word ook nie altyd aanvaar nie en daar word van langdradige prosesse gebruik<br />
gemaak om sake op te los” (The most effective solution most often is not accepted<br />
and tedious processes are used to find solutions for issues); “Daar is nie tyd om oor<br />
probleme te praat nie” (There is no time to speak about problems).<br />
o Problem solving (external Department of Education)<br />
The category is illustrated by the following quotes: “…word gerem deur<br />
veralgemeende besluite vir kollegas vanaf die Dept v (Departement van)<br />
Onderwys…” (slowed down by generalising of decisions for colleagues by the<br />
Department of Education); “…maar die GDO (Gauteng Departement van Onderwys)<br />
belemmer heelwat! Baie besluite word deur hulle gehanteer en antw kom net nie!”<br />
(but the GDE (Gauteng Department of Education) hampers a lot. Many decisions<br />
being handled by them and answers just do not come).
o Inadequate management systems<br />
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Inadequate management systems seem to be problematic as illustrated by the<br />
following recordings: “REKENAARSTELSEL ONVRIENDELIK EN STADIG.<br />
FINANSIЁ LE STELSEL BAIE ONGEBRUIKSVRIENDELIK” (COMPUTER SYSTEM<br />
UNFRIENDLY AND SLOW. FINANCIAL SYSTEM NOT VERY USER FRIENDLY);<br />
“…daar is baie plek vir verbetering vir veral stelsels…” (there is many place for<br />
improvement especially the systems); “Hoekom vorms…hoekom gebruik ons `n<br />
mens nie direk die rekenaar nie?…dis nie vir my baie slim nie. Hier is hoeveel<br />
rekenaars wat hier rondstaan…” (Why forms, why don’t we not use the computer<br />
direct?…that’s not for me very clever. There are so much computers standing<br />
around); “Daar’s honderde en honderde papier waarmee daar gewerk moet<br />
word…jy mors tyd en papiere raak weg en papiere lê op almal se lessenare en<br />
niemand weet wat gaan daar aan nie…” (There are hundreds and hundreds of paper<br />
that you have to work with, and you waste time and papers get lost and papers lie on<br />
everybody’s desks and nobody knows what is happening there).<br />
o Inadequate management styles<br />
The next quotes provide prove of this category: “Oopdeur-beleid word verkondig<br />
maar ondeursigtige en outokratiese bestuurstyle word gevolg” (Open door policy is<br />
voiced but management styles that are autocratic and not transparent are followed);<br />
“…die hiërargiese sisteem…daar is heeltemal te veel seniors heeltemal te veel…”<br />
(the hierarchical system, there are too many seniors, too many); “…daar’s te veel
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koningsposte en goed, sodra hulle daarvan ontslae raak dan kan dit beter gaan met<br />
almal…” (there are too many kings’ posts and stuff, when they get rid of them then it<br />
will get better for everybody).<br />
The report of the task team on education management development (Department of<br />
Education, 1996:66) highlights the importance of effective management structures.<br />
The task team indicates that great care should be taken to make certain that<br />
institutional structures are functional. These structures should be properly planned<br />
and supported by hierarchical levels that are purposeful to the required tasks.<br />
The credibility of an institution that gives technical and technological training is<br />
questioned against the background of the above quotes. Collins (2001:13-14) is of<br />
the opinion that the use of correct technology is vital for effective education<br />
institutions as they lead the way in preparing the employee market for tomorrow.<br />
This finding is in line with the finding of Taylor, Diphofa, Waghmarae, Vinjevold and<br />
Sedibe (1999:31). They find that communication seems to be a huge problem in the<br />
education system. According to these authors only one in five documents reached<br />
its intended target signalling high levels of inefficiency within the education system.<br />
Interesting to note that documents seem to get lost between the principal’s office and<br />
the staff room, and not that many between the departmental offices and principals’<br />
offices.<br />
Poor communication styles result in the downfall of many institutions according to<br />
Hubbard (1999:39). Communication is regarded as the keystone of managing
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expectations. The management can have the most stylish transformation plan but if<br />
its objective is not communicated to the workers the positive effect can be lost.<br />
In the study done by O’Connor and Clarke (1990:49) it was found that educators in<br />
Australia experienced high levels of work stress that was related to the daily hassles<br />
of coping with the amount of work, issues with the schools’ organisation and the<br />
employing system’s matters. Peel and McCary III (1997:705) states that education<br />
reform has proved to be a very tough task for educators especially in the light of<br />
preparing learners for life in the 21 st century. We have to find and converse new<br />
ways of undertaking schooling: “We must not blow an uncertain trumpet”.<br />
From the above descriptions the assumption can be made that the management<br />
systems and procedures signify institutional dysfunction. Characteristics of a strict<br />
conservative style of education as described by Smith (1995:5) are to some extent<br />
internalised in the college’s management style as follows:<br />
• Management attempt to shape, control and evaluate the behaviour and<br />
attitudes of their staff in accordance with a firm set of standards.<br />
• They emphasise obedience, respect for authority, work, tradition and<br />
preservation of order.<br />
• Verbal give-and-take between the management and staff is discouraged.<br />
• Management is in charge, make most of the decisions and issue the orders.<br />
• Questioning of management’s authority is discouraged.<br />
• Punishment is acceptable as means to enforce rules and standards.<br />
• Management is lacking praise and often demonstrate aloofness.
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Steyn (1998:131) points out that the principal’s new role in decentralised school<br />
management is based on a form of power that is facilitative in nature. Changing the<br />
management style in the light of above can be most tricky, especially against the<br />
historical background of colonialism and apartheid.<br />
A profound question asked by Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith<br />
(1999:13-14) as informed by Argyris from Harvard is “ …why then do people in<br />
organisations continue cling to the belief that only the top can drive change?” A<br />
possible answer to this question according to these experts may be that in itself this<br />
belief allows workers to continue to hold the management responsible for whether or<br />
not change happens. On the one hand this belief might be disempowering, but on<br />
the other hand it offers a handy plan to maintain the status quo.<br />
Lacking from the participants’ life stories about institutional effectiveness is the<br />
motion for taking co-responsibility for “fixing” their situation. Education that is based<br />
on democratic principles will enable people to make wiser choices, because they<br />
know that they will have to answer for those choices they made (Rambiyana, Kok &<br />
Myburgh, 1996:193).<br />
Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:9) used Argyris from Harvard<br />
as an similar example “(Argylis)…has shown how management efforts to improve<br />
internal communications-like employee surveys, focus groups, and ‘360 feedback-<br />
can give people anonymous ways ‘to tell management what is wrong’ without<br />
assuming any responsibility for improving matters”. The opinion survey thereby<br />
cleverly support the belief that management is the cause of problems and only
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management has the ability to deal with them. A reason for lacking self-responsibility<br />
maybe the “silence voice” that might be hushed as explained in the next section.<br />
Within the education scenario Reiger and Rees (1993:20) as far back as 1993<br />
proclaim that educators want responsibility that will increase the effectiveness of an<br />
institution. Educators want greater self management in education to increase their<br />
effectiveness in the organisation. Motivational values and effectiveness depends<br />
considerably on the level to which educators are given responsibility in their place of<br />
work.<br />
It should be remembered that contextual factors limit educators’ efficacy that relates<br />
to teaching effectiveness. “Teacher efficacy is defined as a belief that any teacher is<br />
severely limited by external or contextual factors…Teacher efficacy has been<br />
significantly related to teaching effectiveness and has been negatively affected by<br />
teacher stress” (Paese & Zinkgraf, 1991:308). The study by McKinney, Sexton and<br />
Meyerson (1999:484) confirms previous findings that educators’ efficacy beliefs are<br />
key factors to take cognisance of when initiating and sustaining education change.<br />
When considering the findings against Carman’s (2002:138) leadership position the<br />
findings of this study may point to the absence of capacity-based leadership in the<br />
college. College managers seemed not to be sensitive for needs of their staff as<br />
such. These types of managers and managing styles cannot be described as<br />
capacity-based leaders/leadership styles because they don’t value capacity building<br />
and relationship. Capacity leadership is about stimulating productivity through<br />
relationships by building capacity among staff. Managers tend to focus on shortages
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or weaknesses and use critical feedback approaches to push average staff to higher<br />
levels. Capacity-based leaders are outcomes related, but sensitive to the needs of<br />
their workers.<br />
Against the backdrop of a lack of co-responsibility in a conservative authoritative and<br />
dysfunctional college management structure, the next theme that emerged from the<br />
data may provides possible reasons for staff not asserting themselves.<br />
3.4.4 Theme 4: The silence voice<br />
In this context “silence voice” means hushing the articulation of opinions, and/or<br />
feelings and and/or thoughts, and/or infringing the right to be heard. The silence<br />
voice is a central theme that emerged throughout the data and forms the cornerstone<br />
of the mental health strategies that will be discussed in Chapter Five: “…one could<br />
not even argue it…”; “…dit sal nie genoem word nie…”(it must not be mentioned);<br />
“…en nou begin hulle daardie eie seggenskap weg te vat…” (and now they started<br />
to take that own voice away); “…`n SRC-ou het meer sê as ek, `n lektor, en toe sê<br />
hulle hulle wil dit nie indirek so sê nie maar ja…” (a SRC chap has got more say<br />
than me being a lecturer and then they say they don’t want to say it indirectly but<br />
yes); “…en ek hoef nie `n woord te sê nie…” (and I don’t have to say a word);<br />
“Hoekom moet jy stilbly as `n sisteem nie reg hardloop nie?” (Why have you to keep<br />
quiet it a system is not running right?); “…wanneer hulle voor bestuur kom kan hulle<br />
nie praat nie…” (when they get in front of management they cannot talk).
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Interesting categories that emerges from the data were the manner how<br />
voices were hushed in the following manners:<br />
• not listening;<br />
• preventing voices to be heard through manipulation, creating fear and<br />
telling people to be silent; and<br />
• lack of feedback.<br />
The next sections will support these categories with citations.<br />
o Not listening<br />
From the responses it appears that the participants felt that on verbal and non-<br />
verbal level they were not heard: “…hoor hulle nie wat `n mens sê nie” (they<br />
do not listen to what a person says); “Daar word nie geluister nie (No<br />
listening); “…bestuur moet ook net baie kere net luister wat die lektore<br />
verlang…” (management must also often just listen what the lecturers need);<br />
“…kan ek jou gedragskode sien dat jy nie eintlik wil hoor wat ek vir jou te sê<br />
het nie…” (I can see through you code of conduct that you do not really want<br />
to hear that I want to say to you); “Ek meen as `n ou na iemand toe kom as<br />
iets hom pla al voel jy dis gering, luister…” (I mean if a chap goes to<br />
somebody if something is bothering him although you feel it is little, listen).
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o Preventing voices to be heard through<br />
Manipulation: “…just to immediately take a student from the college after qualifying<br />
for N6 without acquired the experience outside that student will always feel like a<br />
student even if he is now an employee and will never ever challenge any anything<br />
even if he is feeling dissatisfied…”; “…en weet net genoeg, weet wat jy moet weet<br />
EN baie keer sê hulle ook vir jou dis reg en ek voel dis verkeerd…” (and just know<br />
enough, know what you have to know AND often they say to you that is right and I<br />
feel that is wrong),<br />
Creating fear: “…en dan wil niemand daaroor praat nie, want dan is hulle so bang…”<br />
(nobody wants to talk it over, because they are then so afraid); “Die ander wil nie<br />
ondersteun nie want hulle is bang, want hulle kan hulle pos verloor, of hulle kan<br />
drama kry of iets” (The others do not want to support because they are afraid,<br />
because they can lose their post, or they get drama or something); “…is ek nie `n ou<br />
wat stilbly nie en ek sê my sê, maar my kanse is goed dat hulle vir my kan sê raait<br />
ons wil nie baie met jou dinge hier te doen hê nie gaan….toe of…toe of of hhhh ons<br />
het nie meer jou dienste nodig nie…jy sien `n ou soos ek moet eintlik heeltemal<br />
stilbly…” (I am not a chap that keeps quiet, I say my say, but my changes are good<br />
that they can say to me raait we do not want to be involved with your things here, go<br />
to… or to… or hhhhwe don’t need your services any longer…you see a chap like me<br />
must shut up), and
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Telling people to be silent: “…word daar vir jou gesê so hou jou bek…” (you are told<br />
to keep your mouth shut).<br />
o Lack of feedback<br />
An interesting category that emerges is that it appears that two way communication<br />
was not honoured: “…dan hoor ek nooit as dit opgelos is nie” (I don’t hear if it is<br />
resolved); “Niemand het nog ooit terugvoer gegee nie” (Nobody has ever given<br />
feedback).<br />
It appears that although voices were hushed, it was only a matter of time before it<br />
would explode: “And it doesn’t mean when people are quiet that people are happy.<br />
Quiet means people are bottled up and one day they are going to explode”; “hulle<br />
praat nie meer saggies oor goed nie, hulle sê sommer goed…” (they don’t talk softly<br />
over stuff, they just say things); “…dit maak `n ding dat `n ding begin bars…en ek<br />
voel net daardie tipe van woorde en dit het ek nog nie hier gevind nie…” (it makes<br />
that a thing a thing starts to burst and I feel that that type of words I did not find it<br />
here yet).<br />
An startling category that emerges from the data was that the interviews served as a<br />
platform for the silence voice to be heard: “…it was helping me, to what can I say, to<br />
waste out some of the things I have wanted to discuss…it is helpful because I know<br />
that some one out there is going to consider what I say…”; “Ek wil vir jou baie dankie<br />
sê. Dis `n plesier net solank ons êrens kom” (I want to thank you very much. It is a<br />
pleasure if we just get somewhere).
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A unique experience was the response given by one participant for inviting him and<br />
letting him participate in the research. It appears that the interview served as<br />
instrument for installing confidence and trust in him: “…Thank you for giving me this<br />
opportunity…for confidence and trust in me…”.<br />
Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:9) accentuate that joint<br />
commitment to change develops only with communal willingness to build mutual<br />
aspirations. People start discussing ”undiscussable” subjects only when they<br />
develop the reflection and investigative skills that allow them to talk openly about<br />
difficult, conflictive issues without raising defensiveness. People start acknowledging<br />
and managing interdependencies and deeper reasons of problems only as they<br />
acquired the skills of systems thinking. It appears from the data that staff did not<br />
have shared aspirations and values (see previous sections), nor the skills to start<br />
discussing the “undiscussable” as explained in this section.<br />
Welch and Welch (2005:25) calls the ”…lack of candor the biggest dirty little secret in<br />
business. What a huge problem it is. Lack of candor basically blocks smart ideas,<br />
fast action, and good people contributing all the stuff they’ve got. It’s a killer.” He<br />
continues by describing the lack of candour to be not spiteful dishonesty, but the<br />
unwillingness of people to articulate with openness. They do not converse clearly or<br />
put forth ideas on the table to promote discussion. They just keep silent and withhold<br />
any commentary or criticism. It appears that they keep silent in order to make people<br />
feel better or to avoid conflict.
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An interesting feature of candour is that it can cause institutional discomfort and a<br />
great risk for a person who exercises candour is to be “killed”. “It is true that candor<br />
comments definitely freak people out at first. In fact, the more polite or bureaucratic<br />
or formal your organization, the more your candor will scare and upset people, and,<br />
yes, it could kill you…That’s a risk, and only you can decide if you’re willing to take it”<br />
(Welch & Welch, 2005:33). It appears from the data that this seems to be true for the<br />
participants. Some of them indicated that they were quite aware of the<br />
consequences if they dare to speak up, so they voiced their decision not to take the<br />
risk “to be killed”.<br />
Freedom of expression that amongst other include the right of speech is the most<br />
fundamental rights incorporated by the South African Bill of Rights (Constitution of<br />
the Republic of South Africa No 108 of 1996, paragraph 16 (1)(b):9). Wood<br />
(n.d.:233-234) highlights some of the human rights issues that are found to be<br />
problematic within in the education context of which the freedom of expression<br />
appears to be one. International and national case law (Wood, n.d.:233-234) indicate<br />
that courts were by and large divided and indecisive as to the political rights and<br />
personal freedoms of educators. The educators, while also being civil servants, were<br />
forbidden from acting unfavourably on their administration in any way. In recent<br />
times, not as long ago as in 1993, basic conditions of service for South African<br />
educators in the former Department of Education and Training stipulated “You may<br />
not adversely criticize the administration…” (Wood, n.d.:234).<br />
Since 1994 with the new South African political dispensation, human rights and the<br />
protection of exercising these rights are formulated. The Constitution of South Africa
135<br />
protects the right of speech. The Open Democracy Bills protects the “whistle-<br />
blowers” from “criminal or civil action and any form of disciplinary action” (Wood,<br />
n.d.:234). It is understandable against this background that educators for historical<br />
reasons will not exercise with comfort their right of freedom of speech and education<br />
bureaucrats will attempt to limit staff to exercise their rights to freedom of expression.<br />
In the case of educators who begin to exercise these human rights, they may<br />
become a thorny issue for education management to deal with.<br />
These silence voices pose a challenge to the proposed mental health strategies.<br />
Facilitating candour on an individual level is very risky and opposed by the system’s<br />
management. On the other hand is the lack of candour very detrimental to personnel<br />
well-being and institutional mental health.<br />
3.5 CONCLUSION<br />
This chapter gives a dense description of the life experiences of institutional<br />
effectiveness. The reader is first briefed on the realisation of the sample. Reference<br />
is made to theory to make meaningful conclusions about the findings within a broader<br />
context and within the education context.<br />
The major themes that emerged from the data are:<br />
• Theme 1: Multiple realities on a continuum of institutional effectiveness with<br />
pockets of effectiveness.<br />
• Theme 2: Factors promoting institutional effectiveness are:<br />
o a culture of teaching, training and learning;
136<br />
o learner support and caring; and<br />
o staff support and caring.<br />
• Theme 3: Factors impeding institutional effectiveness are:<br />
o inadequate management of the transformation process;<br />
o inadequate management of human capital (staff and learners); and<br />
o inadequate management styles, systems and procedures.<br />
• Theme 4: The silence voice as a central theme.<br />
From the findings it appears that management of the transformation process, human<br />
capital, management styles, systems and procedures constituted negative life<br />
experiences about institutional effectiveness. From the literature control study these<br />
experiences and the meanings attached to them by the participants put a survival<br />
threat to the institution as signalled by theory.<br />
These negative experiences seemed to be counteracted at the time of the study by a<br />
climate that is conducive to teaching, training and learning, as well as an informal<br />
network of support consisting of acceptance of cultural diversity and caring. On the<br />
medium- to long-term it is questionable if the status quo could be maintained and<br />
sustained by the silence voice. The data suggest that tension is building up in the<br />
system and it may “explode”.<br />
A conceptual map (see Figure 3.1) is included to enable the reader to conceptualise<br />
the interrelationship of institutional effectiveness and factors promoting and impeding<br />
effectiveness and to position mental health strategies against this context. Figure 3.1<br />
serves as a gestalt of the findings as described in this chapter. As illustrated by the
137<br />
figure against the transformation process, institutional effectiveness is experienced<br />
on a continuum ranging from ineffectiveness to effectiveness with pockets of<br />
effectiveness in between. Institutional ineffectiveness created by the impeding<br />
factors (inadequate management of the transformation process and of human capital,<br />
as well as inadequate management styles, systems and procedures) has a negative<br />
impact on human capital resulting in the lost of trust. On the other hand, institutional<br />
effectiveness created by the promoting factors (culture of teaching, training and<br />
learning, and human capital support) has a positive impact on human capital<br />
resulting in caring. The silence voice is central to the different themes, as<br />
participants are not allowed to voice. Mental health strategies having understanding,<br />
meaning, mutual goals and shared values as keystones are aimed to give a voice to<br />
participants in order to enforce the promoting factors and to create resilience by<br />
transforming the negative energy created by the impeding factors.<br />
In the next chapters attention will be given to mental health strategies that are aimed<br />
to:<br />
• preserve and strengthen the promoting factors;<br />
• create resilience to deal with the impeding factors; and<br />
• rechannel destructive energy building up in the system.<br />
An eclectic approach will be used to strategise mental health on intrapersonal and<br />
systemic levels.
NEGATIVE IMPACT<br />
ON HUMAN CAPITAL<br />
138<br />
Figure 3.1: Gestalt of multiple realities of institutional effectiveness<br />
IMPEDING FACTORS<br />
Inadequate management of<br />
transformation and human capital, as<br />
well as inadequate management styles,<br />
systems and procedures.<br />
INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS CONTINUUM WITH POCKETS OF EFFECTIVENESS<br />
RESILIENCE<br />
TRANS<strong>FOR</strong>M NEGATIVE ENERGY<br />
<strong>MENTAL</strong> <strong>HEALTH</strong> <strong>STRATEGIES</strong><br />
INTRAPERSONAL AND SYSTEMIC LEVELS<br />
UNDERSTANDING,<br />
MEANING, MUTUAL<br />
GOALS & SHARED<br />
VALUES<br />
EN<strong>FOR</strong>CING<br />
PROMOTING FACTORS<br />
• Culture of teaching, training &<br />
learning.<br />
• Human capital support.<br />
POSITIVE IMPACT ON<br />
HUMAN CAPITAL
139<br />
In order to facilitate understanding and meaning and to bridge the findings with the<br />
recommended strategies, the next chapter will serve as a narrative metaphor in the<br />
form of the story of Silence Truth.
4.1 INTRODUCTION<br />
140<br />
CHAPTER 4<br />
THE STORY OF SILENCE TRUTH<br />
We do not really mean, we do not really mean,<br />
That what we are going to say is true.<br />
Because a story is a story, and you may tell it as your imagination and your being and<br />
your environment dictate; and if your story grows wings and becomes the property of<br />
others, you may not hold it back. One day it will return to you, enriched by new<br />
details and with a new voice.<br />
(Mandela, 2002:7)<br />
Chapter Four takes on the challenge of creative translation. The chapter is the<br />
construction of a story like composition in the form of a narrative metaphor. The<br />
story’s content is derived from the lived experiences of institutional effectiveness by<br />
the participants (findings) and theory, as well as the researcher’s experiences when<br />
conducting the study.<br />
Symbolic expressions, like metaphors of which the story of Silence Truth is an<br />
example, play important roles in language and thought because it contributes to the<br />
construction of meaning (Ortony, 1993:2). The story of Silence Truth is a narrative<br />
metaphor about the college sector’s history in South Africa and educators and<br />
learners’ lived experiences of institutional effectiveness during education<br />
transformation in South Africa. The metaphor as used in this chapter is a
141<br />
construction of multiple realities that can be regarded as “…advantage in educational<br />
contexts…” and “…a necessary future of them” (Ortony,1993:6).<br />
The story of Silence Truth can serve as an important tool to facilitate understanding<br />
and meaning, as well as to bridge the past with the present. New acquired<br />
knowledge brought about by using the story of Silence Truth to generate new<br />
metaphors can enrich the future with strategies to facilitate mental health in<br />
educational institutions within a social context. The manner how the story of Silence<br />
Truth can be used as a facilitating and fun tool will be explained in the next chapter.<br />
Epston and White (1992:80) define a story as a “…unit of meaning that provides a<br />
frame for lived experience. It is through these stories that lived experiences are<br />
interpreted. We enter into our stories, we are entered into stories by others, and we<br />
live our lives through these stories”. Stories give us the sense that our lives are<br />
changing and can serve as the medium to release us to become truly authentic<br />
beings that we really are meant to be (Epston & White, 1992:81).<br />
Stories are divine spiritual means that assist us to give meaning to frames of lived<br />
experiences, because “Stories construct beginnings and endings; they impose<br />
beginnings and endings on the flow of experience” (Epston & White, 1992:80).<br />
Stories therefore assist us to value our lived experiences.<br />
The researcher journeyed a spiritual sacred path when structuring the story of<br />
Silence Truth. The story’s units emerged from the participants’ real life experiences<br />
and the literature control, as well as the researcher’s experiences sharing their world
142<br />
with them. The researcher was astonished with feelings of energy, abundance, and<br />
sacredness when constructing the story that enabled understanding and meaning for<br />
experiences. These feelings emerged from the researcher’s experience of a<br />
relationship between the participants and the researcher. The relationship as<br />
experienced by the researcher was characterised by respect, appreciation and<br />
dignity.<br />
4.2 THE STORY OF SILENCE TRUTH<br />
Silence Truth was created many years ago, in the previous millennium by the higher<br />
powers. She was sent to earth with a very special assignment. She was so proud<br />
that she was created to help the human beings on earth by giving them the<br />
knowledge and resources to create a better world. The human beings on earth<br />
discovered technology and how it could assist them in adding quality to their lives.<br />
The human beings she served were not aware of her real name, so they called her<br />
“Technical College”.<br />
She thrived on earth and she became known for the marvellous job she was doing.<br />
The higher powers decided to acknowledge the good work she was doing. So they<br />
added another dimension to her task on Planet Earth namely, that of business skills<br />
for the human beings she served. The human beings accepted gladly the new skills<br />
she was offering them and they changed her name to “College”. She enjoyed<br />
serving the human beings and more human beings became acquainted with her.<br />
They described her as being excellent, simply as the best, the beautiful one.
143<br />
Then, one day she became aware that she was not the only “College” on Planet<br />
Earth. She belonged to a very big family and had a lot of family members, even with<br />
different names than her like, “Technical School” and “Secondary School”. She also<br />
discovered that some of her family members were not as happy as she was. Some<br />
of them were complaining about managing and marketing issues and that the human<br />
beings they served were not involved as her own. They were burdened in their<br />
tasks, as they were not allocated the resources that she had. Even the human<br />
beings they served were becoming increasingly unhappy about the whole situation<br />
and they became violent.<br />
Silence Truth and the rest of her family tried to make sense out of the confusion. So<br />
they decided to arrange a meeting with the higher powers. The higher powers<br />
explained to them that the human beings created the chaos through colonialism and<br />
apartheid. They promised Silence Truth and her family members that they would<br />
make a plan in order to address the problem.<br />
The higher powers argued and debated how they could address the sad situation.<br />
As they promised Silence Truth and her family members, they came up with a<br />
solution. They decided to send “Education Transformation” to Planet Earth. Silence<br />
Truth and her family members were very excited about the higher powers’ idea.<br />
They arranged festivals to celebrate Education Transformation coming to Planet<br />
Earth.
144<br />
Education Transformation decided to transform Silence Truth and her family<br />
members by merging them to become one. So “Merged College” was created and<br />
Silence Truth’s name was changed to “Campus”. As some time went by, Silence<br />
Truth discovered that Education Transformation was not really fulfilling her hopes<br />
and dreams. In fact, she felt that she was no longer thriving and she became aware<br />
of nasty things happening inside her and with the human beings she served.<br />
She felt that she was becoming ill and that she could no longer serve the human<br />
beings entrusted to her care in the same way as she did before. It felt that if she was<br />
stagnated. In human language she was suffering from major depression and<br />
suffered from feelings of confusion, frustration, stress, aggression, hopelessness,<br />
and meaninglessness. She became unmotivated, paralysed and silent and she felt<br />
that she did not want to “will” any longer. Education Transformation took her identity<br />
away and she grieved about her lost.<br />
Some of the higher powers became aware that things were not working out the way<br />
they planned it to be. It appeared that Silence Truth was becoming ineffective just<br />
like her other brothers and sisters before Education Transformation was sent to<br />
Planet Earth. Even some of the human beings were complaining that it was no<br />
longer nice to be with her, and some of them were thinking of going away. Others<br />
even started to fight with each other. They started to mistrust her. Some of them<br />
were questioning themselves if they were still human beings because it seemed that<br />
she was no longer interested in their well-being. For some it felt that she no longer<br />
recognised them as being her partners.
145<br />
So the higher powers decided to come to earth themselves to explore and gain an<br />
understanding about what was happening to Silence Truth and the human beings<br />
she served. They decided to send one of them to Planet Earth in the form of a<br />
human being, a wise woman, who they called “Query”. Query joined Silence Truth<br />
and the human beings she served for a while, before commencing her assignment.<br />
Query soon discovered that Silence Truth was thread together just like the case of a<br />
spider web. Silence Truth was made out of very fragile fibre networks. Query called<br />
the tiny threads “caring” and the bigger ones that formed strings to enforce these<br />
networks she called “climate conducive for teaching, training and learning”. Query<br />
tried to heal some of the hurts of Silence Truth and the human beings she served,<br />
while staying with them. Query supported and encouraged them to keep up the good<br />
work they were doing. By doing so she helped them to enforce Silence Truth’s<br />
fragile networks.<br />
At a later stage, she explained to them that she had a special assignment to<br />
complete. She had to explore and describe their lived experiences of effectiveness<br />
to try to understand what happened to them and what was causing their pain.<br />
Silence Truth and the human beings she served welcomed Query and were keen to<br />
assist Query with her special assignment.<br />
Query with the assistance of Silence Truth and the human beings she served<br />
discovered the following secrets:<br />
o Silence Truth still had pockets of excellence.
146<br />
o Silence Truth’s effectiveness was promoted by a culture of teaching, training and<br />
learning and support/caring among the human beings she served.<br />
o Silence Truth’s effectiveness was impeded by the way in which the human beings<br />
she served were managed, as well as the ways in which the transformation<br />
process was managed, and inadequate management styles, systems and<br />
procedures.<br />
It appeared that Education Transformation made a big mistake. He gave all his<br />
attention to developing Silence Truth and her family but in such a way that nothing<br />
was left to maintain them through the transformation period. Because he was in such<br />
a hurry to get things right, he neglected to build capacity and relationships. He forgot<br />
to share his aspirations and values with them. In his rush he even forget to bring<br />
along the magic glue that was called “trust” to sustain Silence Truth and the human<br />
beings she served.<br />
This left Silence Truth and the human beings she served with feelings of uncertainty,<br />
frustration, stress and fear. They became negative. It appeared that Education<br />
Transformation turned out to be a real BULLY! No wonder that Silence Truth and the<br />
human beings she served was flailing and floundering around. They started to blame<br />
Education Transformation and held him responsible for everything that went wrong.<br />
They declined any motions for taking responsibility to fix things themselves.<br />
But there was a very dirty secret waiting to be discovered that was really the top top<br />
top secret. The top secret was that nobody was allowed to voice thoughts, feelings<br />
and/or opinions. Candour was severely punished. The human beings were afraid
147<br />
that they would be sent away, or even killed. It felt for Silence Truth that she could<br />
burst or explode due to all the destructive energy building up in her system and that<br />
she had to carry inside her body. Query soon discovered that she would also be<br />
punished if she cracked the top secret. She made a spiritual decision that she would<br />
honour her special assignment, although she was quite aware that she had to make<br />
sacrifices in the process.<br />
However, Query, Silence Truth and the human beings she served were not aware<br />
that Query had to make the ultimate sacrifice when she cracked the top secret.<br />
Query was killed for doing so. Silence Truth and the human beings she served were<br />
shocked and traumatised by that event.<br />
But, our story had a joyful ending. Although Query was hurt by the ultimate sacrifice<br />
she had to make, she was not killed. She was transformed because she belonged to<br />
the higher powers. Query, Silence Truth and the human beings she served rejoiced.<br />
Query continued her assignment by suggesting healing remedies to the higher<br />
powers to enable Silence Truth to continue her work on Planet Earth as it was meant<br />
to be. These remedies were aimed at assisting Silence Truth to grow much more<br />
stronger networks and to deal effectively with factors that were impeding her<br />
functioning. She and the human beings she served found new ways of dealing with<br />
the destructive energies and even managed to transform them to positive forms of<br />
energy to enable them to bounce back at the forces that tried to harm them.<br />
The healing remedies assisted Silence Truth to grow stronger and stronger and then<br />
one day she rediscovered her voice. As Silence Truth started to speak again, a
148<br />
miraculous happening took place. The dark cloud of silence that unfolded her broke<br />
into a million pieces and she was filled with energy that enable her to find a new<br />
meaning and purpose for her being on Planet Earth. Silence Truth and the human<br />
beings she served, started to enjoy life on Planet Earth again. They sang with an<br />
open heart their unique song of empathy and appreciation as they danced the dance<br />
of the authentic beings. Their loving presence filled the universe, because they were<br />
part of the universe, they were the universe.<br />
The human beings that Silence Truth served thanked Query for assisting them to<br />
waste out their thoughts, to discuss the undiscussable with the higher forces and for<br />
installing feelings of confidence and trust in them. As time went by, Silence Truth<br />
and the human beings she served became truly the authentic beings that they really<br />
were meant to be. And as Silence Truth continued her journey on Planet Earth, her<br />
name was changed to “Sustainable Development”.<br />
Maybe this is real, maybe this is not<br />
maybe this is just a story, maybe this is not<br />
maybe this is true, maybe this is not<br />
But does it really matters?<br />
Why don’t you make it yours<br />
so it can grow wings<br />
and you can discover the old old truth in yourself?<br />
And let it free, set it free<br />
because it is meant to be shared<br />
and soon it will return to you<br />
enriching your life with purpose, meaning and joy.<br />
ARE YOU READY TO MAKE THE SACRIFICE?
149<br />
Thank you for reading and listening to our story. We do trust that<br />
o the higher powers will be with you;<br />
o you will rediscover the old old truth in yourself;<br />
o you become the authentic being that you are meant to be; and<br />
o your journey on Planet Earth will be purposeful, meaningful and joyful.<br />
Signed by<br />
Query, Query, Silence Silence Truth Truth and and the the human human beings beings she she served.<br />
served.<br />
4.3 CAST OF PLAY<br />
For clarity purposes the cast of play as used by the story of Silence Truth will by<br />
explained in this section.<br />
• Silence Truth<br />
Silence Truth is a symbolic name given to indicate the Further Education and<br />
Training institution, namely a college covered by silence as it was transformed from a<br />
technical college to a merged institution.
• The human beings she served<br />
150<br />
In the context of the story the human being she (Silence Truth) served indicate the<br />
staff and learners of the Further Education and Training institution.<br />
• Higher powers<br />
Higher powers as used by this story are the politicians, academics and/or other role<br />
players involved in education policy formulation and planning.<br />
• Query<br />
Query is the name given in the story to the researcher who investigated the lived<br />
experiences of institutional effectiveness during transformation of a Further<br />
Education and Training institution, namely a college.<br />
4.4 CONCLUSION<br />
West (1998:247) proclaims that in conditions of frightening change “…telling new<br />
stories and creating more of the self in the process…is a socially situated act…”.<br />
This chapter briefs the reader on the value of stories used as metaphors in the<br />
construction of meaning.<br />
The story of Silence Truth constructed as a story, a narrative metaphor that can be<br />
used to stimulate generative metaphors in social contexts. The next chapter will
151<br />
exemplify how the story of Silence Truth can be used as a mental health strategy<br />
implementation tool to enable people and systems to create new stories in the<br />
conditions of frightening change. The story of Silence Truth can be used to create<br />
understanding and to construct meaning to bridge the past, present and future to<br />
become authentic.
152<br />
CHAPTER 5<br />
<strong>MENTAL</strong> <strong>HEALTH</strong> <strong>STRATEGIES</strong> <strong>FOR</strong> <strong>DEVELOPING</strong> INSTITUTIONAL<br />
5.1 INTRODUCTION<br />
EFFECTIVENESS<br />
Now I am real. I am not just a name.<br />
I have a heart and a voice and a life story.<br />
(Cooper & Sawaf, 1997:XX)<br />
In the previous chapters the reader was introduced to the background and research<br />
methodology, as well as a dense description was given of the life experiences of<br />
constructed a symbolic bridge to assist the reader to link the findings with the<br />
strategies as proposed by this to make meaningful conclusions about the findings<br />
within a broader context and chapter institutional effectiveness during transformation.<br />
A literature control study was conducted with special reference to education and<br />
training settings. Chapter Four.<br />
The major themes that emerged from the data were:<br />
• Theme 1: Multiple realities on a continuum of institutional effectiveness with<br />
pockets of effectiveness.
153<br />
• Theme 2: Factors promoting institutional effectiveness are:<br />
o a culture of teaching, training and learning;<br />
o learner support and caring; and<br />
o staff support and caring.<br />
• Theme 3: Factors impeding institutional effectiveness are:<br />
o inadequate management of the transformation process;<br />
o inadequate management of human capital (staff and learners); and<br />
o inadequate management styles, systems and procedures.<br />
• Theme 4: The silence voice.<br />
From the findings it appears that the lack of candour, management of the<br />
transformation process, human capital, management styles, systems and<br />
procedures constituted negative life experiences. From the literature control study<br />
these experiences and their meanings attached to them by the participants, put a<br />
survival threat to the institution and are detrimental to the well-being of individuals<br />
and the institution.<br />
Masters (1999) highlights that education research should be driven by a clear<br />
purpose and a sense of duty to go further than simply describing and understanding<br />
education practice. Chapter Five’s proposed mental health strategies are taking up<br />
Master’s “duty” by going further than describing” participants’ experiences of<br />
institutional effectiveness during transformation. The proposed mental health
154<br />
strategies are about social and emotional intelligence to assist staff to play the life<br />
politics game to deal with their resistance to change in order to survive and to<br />
become authentic. Wildemeersch, Jansen, Vandenabeele and Jans (1998:263)<br />
define life politics as the “…consequences of the way in which we, as human beings,<br />
have the power to transform ourselves and our environment…we have to consider<br />
self-actualisation in the context of global interdependence”.<br />
The proposed mental health strategies that will be discussed in this chapter will be<br />
underpinned by ways to facilitate candour and resilience within the institution by<br />
capacitating individuals to become authentic beings to form an emphatic network of<br />
care and support. According to Goleman (1998:206) persons that are capacitated<br />
cultivate and maintain informal networks, are able to work with others in synergy<br />
towards shared goals and can create and sustain relationships. Promoting mental<br />
health in education and training institutions is essential to the well-being of the<br />
individuals and of the system as a whole. From the literature indications are found<br />
that proof the vital role played by mental health in school settings to examining root<br />
causes, designing ways to improve the school climate, and building positive<br />
relationships within the school environment (Squires & Kranyik, 1996:30).<br />
West (1998:247) proclaims that in conditions of frightening change articulating new<br />
stories and creating more of the self in the process is a socially situated deed. The<br />
story of Silence Truth, a narrative metaphor that was created by the construction of<br />
multiple realities in the previous chapter, will be used as an example how rhetoric
155<br />
can be used within a social context in a non-threatening way to<br />
• stimulate candour within the education environment; and<br />
• create understanding and meaning to promote resilience.<br />
According to Rutter (1995:85) resilience may be promoted when focus is placed on<br />
the interaction between people and their experiences and their cognitive processing<br />
thereof, or ways of thinking about their experiences and their concept of themselves<br />
as individuals. The next sections will deal with the strategies to encourage people to<br />
process their experiences in a meaningful way.<br />
5.2 RATIONALE <strong>FOR</strong> <strong>MENTAL</strong> <strong>HEALTH</strong> <strong>STRATEGIES</strong><br />
Collins (2001:11) found in their study of great companies that mergers are not the<br />
answer for turning ineffective institutions into effective ones. Mergers play almost no<br />
role in creating a transformation from good to noble; two mediocrities merged<br />
together never make one noble institution.<br />
Stonier (1994:6) indicates that research shows that there are a number of reasons<br />
why people resist change such as:<br />
• Reluctance to be confronted with new positions.<br />
• People have not the capacity to be open to new experiences.<br />
• Tendency to avoid pain, uncertainty and chaos associated with change.<br />
• Fear of the unknown.<br />
• Personal identity is locked into the pattern of the past and/or status quo.
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From the findings as described in Chapter Three, it appears that these may be true<br />
for the college under study.<br />
Senge (Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth & Smith, 1999:33) highlights the vital<br />
role played by people from a systemic point of view in making or breaking institutions.<br />
Organisations are products of the ways people in them think and interact and change<br />
of institutions cannot occur without voluntary change of its people:<br />
• To change organisations for the better, one must give people the opportunity<br />
to change the ways they think and interact.<br />
• No person, and/or increased training, and/or command-and-control<br />
management approaches can train or command other people to alter their<br />
attitudes, beliefs, skills, capabilities, perceptions or level of commitment.<br />
Vilakazi (1995:2) states that effective schools indicate a shift in thinking to whole<br />
school development that includes acknowledgement of the role of the educators.<br />
There should be a new understanding to realise that educators are members of a<br />
social system that have significant power.<br />
Senge (Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth & Smith, 1999:33) states that changes<br />
to make institutions better can only be achieved by changing the way people conduct<br />
their work. People should be given the chance to take part in these actions so that<br />
they will develop a lasting capability for change. In return the institution will get much<br />
greater levels of diversity, commitment, innovation, and talent. However, Senge<br />
(Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth & Smith, 1999:33) stresses that this cannot be
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achieved without the involvement, commitment and blessings of managers that direct<br />
a top-down approach initiative.<br />
When taking a bottom-up approach, spiritual revolution may induce change by<br />
creating conditions facilitating change once a critical mass is realised. De Villiers<br />
(1999:20) is of the opinion that in the previous centuries man created the Industrial<br />
Revolution to prevent his body from dying from hunger, now he creates for him a<br />
Spiritual Revolution because he is dying spiritually. Collins (2001:85) highlights the<br />
vital role people’s choices play when dealing with difficulties in life, also in their<br />
working environment. He continues by stating that a valuable lesson he learnt was<br />
from Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was a prisoner for eight years in the height of the<br />
Vietnam War: “What separates people, Stockdale taught me, is not the presence or<br />
absence of difficulty, but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life” (Collins,<br />
2001:85).<br />
It appears from the literature that negative experiences and the meaning attached to<br />
them as indicated by this study, may dissolve in certain “right” institutional conditions.<br />
Collins (2001:11) observed through their research findings that noble institutions<br />
gave slight attention to managing change, motivating people, or creating alignment.<br />
Under the right conditions, the problems of commitment, alignment, motivation, and<br />
change largely disappear.<br />
The question that surfaces is what are the “right conditions”? In this study it<br />
appeared that the “right conditions” might be the promoting factors of institutional<br />
effectiveness and an informal network of support that assembled feelings of
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acceptance and caring. Although it appears that institutional candour was prohibited,<br />
promoting candour in a non-threatening way and the acceptance thereof may prevent<br />
destructive energy from building up in the system.<br />
The proposed mental health strategies therefore should focus on stimulating candour<br />
and strengthening these informal networks to promote resilience. This may be<br />
achieved by assisting staff to identify and/or create understanding and give meaning<br />
to their life experiences, and to create (new) goals that are driven by (new) values<br />
that are “…just behaviors-specific, nitty-gritty, and so descriptive they leave little to<br />
the imagination”. These values served as “marching orders (for people) because<br />
they are the how of the mission, the means to the end-winning” (Welch & Welch,<br />
2005:17).<br />
When rephrasing the above statement, the proposed mental health strategies are<br />
about creating understanding and meaning, as well as (new) individual and<br />
institutional purpose(s)/goals/values by confronting people’s thoughts, feelings and<br />
behaviour. Most probably the strategies will induce and install (new) mutual and<br />
individual values to drive behaviour, promote resilience and transform destructive<br />
energy through stimulating and honouring candour. The challenges are to:<br />
• create understanding and meaning for establishing resilience; and<br />
• align individual and institutional goals (purpose of being).<br />
The psychological theories underpinning the mental health strategies draw heavily on<br />
the humanistic outlook and the principles of existential therapy in searching for<br />
meaning. A humanistic outlook represents a phenomenological standpoint “…which
159<br />
stresses the importance of our perceptions of ourselves and of our world in<br />
understanding personality; this worldview emphasizes that, for each individual, reality<br />
is what the individual perceives…stresses a person’s capacity for personal growth,<br />
freedom to choose one’s own destiny, and positive qualities” (Halonen & Santrock,<br />
1996:547). Existential therapy aims at directing and probing clients’ view of the world<br />
by establishing “deep and binding relationship” and “…allowing clients to see that<br />
they share in the difficulties and experiences that arise in trying to deal with the<br />
freedom that is part of being human…Existential therapists try to make their patients<br />
aware of the importance of free choice and the fact that they have the ultimate<br />
responsibility for making their own choices about their lives” (Feldman, 1996:585).<br />
Against this background some of the change axioms as defined by Carman<br />
(2002:12-14) are mindful and can be successful used when formulating mental health<br />
strategies in education and training settings. In conclusion they are adopted by this<br />
study as follows:<br />
• Creating (new) individual and/or shared institutional values<br />
Carman (2002:12-14) is of the opinion that weakness can be managed so the<br />
strengths can be free to develop and become so powerful they make the<br />
weaknesses beside the point. Strategies for achieving this are:<br />
o Honour the past by identifying the strengths and start building on them (what<br />
are we good at, especially proud of, or what makes this college a special<br />
place for learners?)<br />
o Challenge the present (Why do we do this?)
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o Envision the future, but allow changes to take place naturally over time.<br />
According to Carman (2002:12-14) it is essential to be tolerant enough to allow the<br />
vision to arise from the core beliefs.<br />
• Enforcing the value of acceptance and caring<br />
It is helpful to build the college by strengthening the family, the “us” concept, to build<br />
a culture where people feel valued and have a sense of belonging. This axiom is<br />
therefore aimed at increasing the level of intimacy, social and emotional intelligence.<br />
• Enforcing a cultural climate conducive for teaching, training and learning<br />
During institutional transitional periods, and the associated negative experiences,<br />
people can loose their reason for being at the workplace (Hubbard, 1999:25-26).<br />
Therefore, people need to be re-orientated with regard to cultural values for<br />
achieving the institutional goals.<br />
• Self-evaluation<br />
People are invited to monitor their and institutional effectiveness against individual<br />
and group goals on an ongoing basis. Wasley, Hampel and Clark (1997:694)<br />
research study’s findings indicate that faculty’s ability to engage in rigorous self-<br />
analysis directly related to institutional transform efforts for achieving effectiveness in<br />
terms of learner performance.
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5.3 AIM OF <strong>MENTAL</strong> <strong>HEALTH</strong> <strong>STRATEGIES</strong><br />
Against these change axioms the proposed mental health strategies are aimed to<br />
• stimulate candour;<br />
• preserve and enforce the promoting factors;<br />
• promote resilience to deal with the impeding factors on intrapersonal and<br />
systemic levels; and<br />
• transform destructive energy building up in the system.<br />
Figure 5.1 presents a conceptual map and diagrammatic explanation of the mental<br />
health strategies underlying the proposed strategies resulting from this study. The<br />
aims of the strategies are to empower individual staff members, to create candour<br />
and to build a network of support. The network of support is driven by<br />
understanding, meaning and mutual goals, shared values and the respect for<br />
candour. Through this support network resilience is created that redirect destructive<br />
energy created by the negative experiences of bully like reform initiatives. Individual<br />
staff members have a choice to join the network so that a critical mass can be formed<br />
over time.<br />
Conway and Calzi (1995/1996:46), informed by their consulting research activities,<br />
caution against too fast too impulsive capacitating as it may result in perplexity about<br />
roles and responsibilities and redirect the energies necessary to effect solution. They<br />
accentuate that any restructuring attempt must uphold a primary focus on enhancing
BULLY LIKE<br />
RE<strong>FOR</strong>M<br />
INITIATIVES<br />
REDIRECT<br />
DESTRUCTIVE<br />
ENERGY<br />
162<br />
Figure 5.1: Gestalt of mental health strategies<br />
NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES<br />
↕<br />
DESTRUCTIVE ENERGY<br />
REDIRECT<br />
DESTRUCTIVE<br />
ENERGY<br />
NETWORK OF SUPPORT<br />
UNDERSTANDING<br />
MEANING<br />
MUTUAL GOALS<br />
SHARED VALUES<br />
RESPECTING CANDOUR<br />
REDIRECT<br />
DESTRUCTIVE<br />
ENERGY<br />
NETWORK CONSISTS<br />
OF CAPACITATED<br />
STAFF MEMBERS<br />
REDIRECT<br />
DESTRUCTIVE<br />
ENERGY
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the teaching/learning process. Although Zigarelli (1996:103) stresses that no<br />
evidence was found that educators’ capacitating are related to learner performance,<br />
it has to be kept in mind that this study is not focussed on learner performance per<br />
se, but on creating mental health strategies to create and sustain personal and<br />
institutional well-being during education transformation.<br />
In wrapping up the mental health strategies’ intentions are comparable to Carman’s<br />
(2002:12) “axioms” that “mitigate the damaging effects of the bully, while shaping the<br />
institution for positive change.” According to Carman (2002:23) this can be achieved<br />
by establishing a workplace that is participatory, pleasurable, and rewarding with the<br />
aim of creating work satisfaction that inspire hard work, strong relationships, and<br />
higher academic achievement. He highlights the essential role humour play within<br />
the workplace.<br />
5.4 THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS UNDERPINNING PROPOSED <strong>MENTAL</strong><br />
<strong>HEALTH</strong> <strong>STRATEGIES</strong><br />
An eclectic approach will be used to strategise mental health on an intrapersonal and<br />
a systemic level. It needs to be noted that capacitating individuals and the system<br />
are enforcing each other. The strategies’ success is dependent on the interaction<br />
between these two rudiments. The definition of a system as defined by Napier and<br />
Gershenfeld (1993:295) is applicable to this study: “A system (is) a set of interrelated<br />
elements or units that respond in a predictable manner and where the nature of the<br />
interaction is consistent over time. Thus, a change at any point will eventually have<br />
an impact on the total system and upon its various subparts”. In this study the<br />
“elements”/”units” are regarded to be individual staff members. Therefore,
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capacitating the staff members will impact on the system and vice versa. Steyn<br />
(1999:206) points out that education transformation actions cannot bring about<br />
effective change if they do not focus on the people in the system that are regarded as<br />
the cornerstones to effective development and quality.<br />
The proposed strategies use small group activities as socially situated acts for<br />
inducing action and therefore change within the system as a whole, but also within<br />
individual staff members “…the predictable consequences of a particular action will<br />
yield an array of alternatives from which an effective response can be chosen” (Steyn<br />
1999:301). The exercises grouped as Appendix F are designed in such a way that it<br />
can be used individually, but also as small group activities.<br />
In the light of above described system theory, the researcher is confident that the<br />
mental health strategies that are proposed in this chapter, as informed by the findings<br />
of this study (Chapter Three), will capacitate staff in education and training settings<br />
on grassroots levels. The researcher trust that through the implementation of the<br />
proposed strategies, staff will be able to bounce back at negative life experiences<br />
(resilience) within their working environment and to transform destructive energy<br />
building up in a system during transformation, as well as on a individual level to<br />
become authentic.<br />
Over the last two decades a large number national and international research and<br />
literature are dealing with effective leadership and management styles, practices and<br />
systems in general and specific with regard to education and training settings<br />
(Carman, 2002; Cheng: 1993; Collins, 2001; Commonwealth Secretariat, 1993; De
165<br />
Groof, Heystek, Malherbe & Squelch, 2000; Haasbroek, 2000; Kraak & Hall, 1999;<br />
Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth & Smith, 1999; Sukati, 2000; Taylor & Vinjevold,<br />
1999; Welch & Welch, 2005). Leadership and/or management styles and practices<br />
aimed at promoting institutional effectiveness are well researched. Although this<br />
study acknowledges and endorses the fundamental role of leadership and/or<br />
management styles and practices, the purpose of this study is not to duplicate theory.<br />
Instead, this study aims at proposing mental health strategies grounded in its findings<br />
to assist individuals and systems when dealing with negative life experiences such as<br />
caused by bureaucracy within education and training settings during transformation<br />
processes. These strategies most probably will develop and/or sharpen mental<br />
health coping skills on intrapersonal and systemic levels to deal with management<br />
styles and practices causing negative experiences with regard to institutional<br />
effectiveness during education transformation processes.<br />
Maybe some readers will think that this standpoint is not viable in lieu of<br />
management theories. This belief is well grounded in theory, for example by Senge,<br />
Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:14) who states that one merely has no<br />
plan for escaping the cultural addiction to the legend of the hero-leader.<br />
However, the researcher believes strongly that “you need not to be the victim of your<br />
circumstances, but the creator of your own destiny”. To become the creator of your<br />
own destiny, also within your working environment, it is important to:<br />
• understand and give meaning to your life experiences;<br />
• make informed decisions based on understanding; and
166<br />
• drive and manage your behaviour by individual and shared institutional values<br />
to achieve personal and institutional goals.<br />
Understanding creates knowledge that enables a person to rewrite his/her life script<br />
by confronting intrapersonal and/or systemic and/or institutional beliefs and/or values.<br />
Meaning gives a person reason(s) for being, also in a working environment.<br />
In the literature (Collins, 2001:11; Freedman & Combs, 1996:11-12; Hill, 1976:11;<br />
Weis, 2003:122-133; Yanna, 1996:9; Zukav & Francis, 2001:32) compliance is found<br />
for becoming “a creator of your own destiny” by exercising authentic power. Being<br />
authentic enables a person to confront the leadership myth namely, that one is the<br />
“victim” of one’s working circumstances and leadership dictates one’s<br />
happiness/fulfilment even in the work situation. Collins (2001:11) takes the position<br />
that immensity is not a function of circumstance, but a matter of conscious choice.<br />
Freedman and Combs (1996:11-12), narrative therapists, declare that they learnt<br />
valuable lessons in their practice through the work done by the psychoanalytic<br />
expert, Erickson. Some of these lessons are that there are multiple possible realities<br />
and that people can re-author their lives. According to Yanna (1996:9) “You hold the<br />
remote control to the channels of energy what create both your attitude and your<br />
results in life”. Weis (2003:133) echoed Freedman and Combs’ (1996:11-12)<br />
account about their lessons that they learnt that you are able to change your future<br />
and there are tools for doing so. It is a matter of choice. If you choose not to, then<br />
you’ve become an active catalyst for your own deadly destination. People are<br />
sufferers of their own deeds, but they can choose to stop being sufferers at any time<br />
whenever they wish (Weiss, 2003:122). Hill (1976:11) strongly believes that all
167<br />
people live the life that they choose: “…It is logical that by giving every person the<br />
complete control over his thinking the Creator intended this to be a priceless asset,<br />
and it is precisely that, because the mind is the one and only means by which an<br />
individual may plan his own life and live it as he chooses”. Zukav and Francis<br />
(2001:32) echo Hill’s (1976:11) viewpoint that people create and use authentic power<br />
as part of their spiritual journey: “We are awakening to ourselves as the creators of<br />
our experiences, and our responsibility for what we create”.<br />
Changing the victim role is not only an individual undertaking, but is applicable to<br />
social systems such as education and training institutions. Vilikazi (1995:3) states<br />
that changing social systems like schools the emphasis should be on capacity<br />
building with regard to decision-taking practices. The main goal should be to perk up<br />
the institution’s capacity to create its own destiny through creating and supporting<br />
decision taking structures at all levels of the school.<br />
Ambrose (1996:25) is of the opinion that for schools to endure and flourish in<br />
changing times, educators must overcome serious organisational and contextual<br />
barriers that inhibit innovation in the schools. Ambrose (1996:25) continues by<br />
saying creative strategies are needed to stimulate creative thought and action. This<br />
seems to be true too for the South African education and training institutions as<br />
indicated by this study’s findings.<br />
Creative strategies to discover alternative multiple realities to facilitate understanding,<br />
meaning and alternative decision-taking are not thorny abstract schemes. In fact,<br />
Welch and Welch (2005:165) regard a strategy as ”a living, breathing, totally dynamic
168<br />
game. It’s fun-and fast. And it’s alive”. According to these authors strategies are not<br />
complex, because “In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a<br />
general direction and implement like hell.”.<br />
Welch and Welch (2005:172) are of the opinion that people have to make strategies<br />
real to become winners and “To do that, you need to debate, grapple with, wallow in,<br />
and finally answer questions”. For successful implementation of strategies people<br />
have to understand what they are doing, who are involved, how it is to be<br />
implemented and the time line.<br />
Continuous assessment is necessary to ensure successful implementation and<br />
achieving the desired outcomes. Morrice and Patterson (1995:28) are of the opinion<br />
that accountability methods are needed to trace effectiveness and set direction for<br />
the rendering of education services. Traditionally accountability measures were<br />
quantitative in nature. Currently there appears to be shift by including more<br />
qualitative methods aimed at self-assessment. Winter, Newton and Kirkpatrick<br />
(1998:399) conclude their research paper by saying that at a time when schools are<br />
focused by reform initiatives to improve learner outcomes, it is significant for both<br />
principals and educators to bond work values with school performance. Educators<br />
need to investigate seriously their normative frameworks that are underpinned by<br />
values, beliefs, and commitments.<br />
In striving for personal and institutional autonomy, it is essential that the goals and<br />
objectives as formulated by the self and the different faculties form the basis of
169<br />
assessment activities (Vroeijenstijn, 1990:34). BESA (1998:2) defines self-<br />
assessment as a “process of reviewing in a systematic way” the following:<br />
• What have been achieved?<br />
• What are the opportunities for further improvement?<br />
• The linkages between what is done and the results that need to be achieved.<br />
The different proposed strategies, as well as techniques to approach and implement<br />
these strategies will be discussed separately under the following headings:<br />
• Strategy for enforcing promoting factors for institutional effectiveness.<br />
• Strategy for searching meaning.<br />
• Strategy for letting go of the past.<br />
• Strategy for becoming authentic.<br />
Strategies will be discussed under the following headings:<br />
• Synopsis of applicable findings.<br />
• Theory underpinning applicable strategy.<br />
• Aim of strategy.<br />
• Proposed techniques for implementation.<br />
Please note that the strategies inform each other as they are focussed on creating<br />
understanding and meaning by stimulating candour and promoting resilience for the<br />
individual and/or the system as a whole. Dawes (1991:335) accentuates the<br />
important role people play in contributing to problems through the meanings people<br />
give without acknowledging the roles they play and the blame they place on the<br />
politicians, the system, the corporations, and the media. Johnson, Snyder, Anderson<br />
and Johnson (1993:15) highlight the interdependence between various factors such
170<br />
as the school system and its clients, and of work and professional development,<br />
relationship of work culture when assessing school outcomes.<br />
Although only four strategies are described in this chapter that are grounded in the<br />
study’s findings, the findings are so rich that a careful analysis of the data will result<br />
in many more strategies to be developed for addressing the sad situation.<br />
Addressing all the problematic areas as identified by this study will not be possible for<br />
logistical reasons. The focus of this study is on mental health strategies. The<br />
researcher regarded these four strategies as core aspects forming the basis of a<br />
mental health plan.<br />
For clarity purposes the use of the key concepts used in this chapter will be<br />
explained in more detail.<br />
o Candour<br />
Candour means the quality of being open and honest and not afraid of articulation<br />
(adapted from Pearsall, 1999:203).<br />
o Knowledge<br />
The study adopts Hart’s (2001:35) definition of knowledge. “Knowledge involves the<br />
development of systems of information instead of discrete pieces. Gaining<br />
knowledge means constructing patterns of information and implies the basic ability to<br />
use information” (Hart, 2001:35).
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“The way we know affects both what we know and ultimately who we are, our state of<br />
being and well-being. Our style of knowing may invite us to meet the world as a<br />
problem to be solved, as beauty to behold, or as a concept to categorize” (Hart,<br />
2001:65).<br />
o Understanding<br />
Hart’s (2001:87) definition for understanding is used by this study. “The word<br />
‘understanding’ means literally ‘standing among’. This implies crossing boundaries<br />
inherent in ‘standing apart from’ and moves toward intimacy and empathy. This<br />
opens the door to a richer perception that transforms information and, along with it,<br />
the self who is perceiving” (Hart, 2001:87).<br />
o Meaning<br />
“The meaning of meaning…is to set the pace of being. Meaning must not coincide<br />
with Being, meaning must be ahead of being. Meanings…are not transmitted by<br />
tradition…Individual meanings are unique, pertaining to a concrete, specific situation<br />
experience by a unique person…Meanings are not transmitted by anything, they<br />
have to be found, discovered, un-covered, either by oneself or with the help…”<br />
(Havenga Coetzer, 2003:62-63).
o Resilience<br />
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Resilience is the ability to withstand and/or recover from difficult conditions “to<br />
bounce back after being emotional bent, stressed or compressed” (adapted from<br />
Pearsall, 1999:1218).<br />
o Values<br />
“Values can be defined as universal meanings” (Havenga Coetzer, 2003:62) that<br />
serve as drivers for behaviour (adapted from Pearsall, 1999:1584).<br />
Most of the strategies include small group activities as proposed implementation<br />
techniques for the strategies. Informal small groups such as support and/or interest<br />
groups that assemble during breaks or after college hours can be used to facilitate<br />
candour and resilience, and it can be fun. Elskie (2004:3) is of the opinion that<br />
informal groups are created spontaneously from relationships such as when<br />
educators share similar problems, responsibilities, interests and passions.<br />
Tofte (1995:478) suggests social gatherings with the aims of getting people together<br />
and to know each other can make the transformation process a joyful experience.<br />
Napier and Gershenfeld (1993:320) are of the opinion that because small group<br />
activities are interactive elements of human systems, they have the power to inhibit<br />
system breakdown by recognising the nature of the multifaceted relationships in their<br />
system and acting with a consciousness of consequences. By asking hard
173<br />
questions, participants can get a true understanding of the multifaceted system in<br />
which they are caught up and learn to interfere in a positive manner.<br />
Roux and Kotzè (2002:146) regard questions as “generative actions”, because “they<br />
generate new possibilities as the seemingly impossible invites us to extent our<br />
possibilities”. Questions are powerful facilitating tools to invite candour “…when we<br />
dare to live…between what we know and what we do not know, between what can<br />
be said and what is not yet said. The more we expand the territory of the possible or<br />
the said, the larger the territory of the impossible becomes, or the more remains to be<br />
said” (Roux & Kotzè, 2002:146). The researcher developed lists of questions that<br />
maybe used to direct small group discussions and/or other small group activities.<br />
These exercises with questions can be used by a person independently for authentic<br />
capacitating. These lists are grouped as exercises at the end of the theses (see<br />
Appendix F: List of exercises for individual and group capacity building activities).<br />
The strategies will now be discussed under its headings as explained.<br />
5.4.1 Strategy for enforcing promoting factors for institutional effectiveness<br />
• Synopsis of applicable findings.<br />
The culture of teaching, training and learning, learner support, as well as the informal<br />
network of support resulted in feelings of appreciation, gratitude, as well as<br />
acceptance and caring. These are present in the presence of negative experiences<br />
with regard to management styles, practices and systems, the way human capital<br />
(learners and staff) is managed and the lack of candour.
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These findings concur with the study of Mwamwenda (1995:86). It was founded in<br />
the study that the positive relationship existing between educators, as well as people<br />
and activities that had a direct bearing on the work, related to job satisfaction<br />
amongst educators.<br />
Hubbard (1999:28-29) warns about the power situated within informal networks that<br />
can either strengthen or result in the total break down of an institution. Word of<br />
mouth can spread very quickly via the existing informal information channels with the<br />
outcome of “a mass psychological revolt against the perpetrator” creating many of<br />
the problems. Thus it is vital that the informal networks should be functional by<br />
adding value to personal and institutional well-being. In this case the findings<br />
implicated that the informal networks “glue” the institution together through a network<br />
of support creating feelings of acceptance and care. If one agrees with the notion<br />
stated by Meyer (1998b) that reality is socially constructed, it has to be<br />
acknowledged that cultural, social and psychological factors should be regarded as<br />
just as genuine as physical objects. Therefore strengthening factors that cannot be<br />
perceived by the senses is just as essential than focusing on and changing the<br />
physical realities in the working environment.<br />
• Theory underpinning applicable strategy<br />
According to theory, certain widespread misconceptions are present with regard to<br />
human capital such as the following.
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Welch and Welch (2005:117) confront the misconception that companies comprise of<br />
everything except human beings “…companies are not buildings, machines, or<br />
technologies. They are people.” Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith<br />
(1999:13) acknowledge the contribution made by thoughtful executives that they are<br />
aware that many top management initiatives are not effective and they often make<br />
matters worse. A common misconception is that effective leaders are occupying<br />
hierarchical institutional posts. However, Collins (2001:37) declares that effective<br />
leaders are all around us and can be found in situations where unexpected results<br />
exist but where no individual claims the credit. These appear to be applicable on the<br />
school setting as well. According to Meier (1998:359) “Good schools are filled with<br />
particulars – including particular human beings. And it is these human beings that lie<br />
at their heart, that explain their surprising successes. In fact, it is these particulars<br />
that inspire the passions of those involved and draw upon the best in each”.<br />
Indications for strengthening supportive networks and the positive effects it has on<br />
institutional effectiveness are well grounded in theory. These support networks<br />
assist people with self-motivation, self-discipline directing their behaviour because<br />
they share values and have mutual goals. Carman (2002:52-53) states that it is<br />
much more productive use of time to use the strengths of the high performers to set<br />
the performance standard, rather than to work with mediocrity. High performance is<br />
very much linked to common goals, shared values and support. Collins (2001:88-98)<br />
argues that investing time and energy to motivate people is a waste of effort. If you<br />
have the right people, they will be self-motivated. The key to success is to not de-<br />
motivate people. Newman (1998:294) argues the important role of shared values in
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education transformation. Changing educators requires discussions about the values<br />
underpinning everyday decisions educators and administrators make.<br />
Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:104) emphasise that the<br />
stronger the thoughtful change processes, the greater the need for coaching,<br />
guidance, and support. If the help available to people is insufficient, the<br />
effectiveness of the change initiative suffers and learning capabilities fall short to<br />
develop. Morrice and Patterson (1995:28) proclaim that working partnerships is one<br />
of the effective moves towards learning through communicating, interacting,<br />
experiencing, choosing and reflecting.<br />
Collins (2001:13) underlines the essential role of self-discipline for great<br />
performance. According to the author all institutions have culture while some have<br />
discipline. However, few institutions have a “culture of discipline.” In cases of<br />
disciplined people and disciplined thought, hierarchy and bureaucracy are not<br />
needed. Disciplined action, do not require excessive controls. The combination of a<br />
culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, results in the “magical alchemy<br />
of great performance”.<br />
Formal introduced mentorship programmes may not be successful. Employment<br />
equity legislation in South Africa demands from institutions specific mentorship<br />
programmes to transfer skills. Wingrove (2002:10) is of the opinion that in this formal<br />
mentorship relationship a mentor and the protégé can get stuck in multicultural views<br />
because cultural orientation may be unfamiliar or unacceptable or not appropriate in<br />
the evolving Africanised business environment.
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A softer and more acceptable approach is promoting informal mentorship relations.<br />
Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:129) use the example of Mike<br />
Rowe to explain the vital role of informal advisers directing each other in a working<br />
environment by establishing a culture of self-direction and team building. Senge,<br />
Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:129) use another example of O’Brien<br />
to point out the value of mentorship on an informal level for promoting growth and<br />
candour. “A mentor relationship involves two people - who may or may not report to<br />
one another - who pay special attention to each other’s development. Often, an elder<br />
will foster the growth of a younger person, but the great mentoring relationships are<br />
reciprocal. Either way, it’s an extraordinarily valuable asset”. Senge, Kleiner,<br />
Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:129) stress that if twenty percent of the people<br />
engaged in mentoring relationships, it will raise the thought and quality of discussion<br />
among the other eighty percent. The twenty percent will assist in creating a culture<br />
of thinking about more essentials.<br />
Lemmer (1996:114-115) is of the opinion that mentors are informal in nature referring<br />
to practical everyday wisdom that comes from years of experience that provides<br />
assistance for personal development within the working environment. In the South<br />
African education and training context Dreyer (1998:111) lists a number of benefits<br />
provided by a mentorship encapsulating personal and professional development and<br />
network development.<br />
Therefore, informal networks can give support and hope, as well as create and<br />
sustain institutional candour by creating a pressure valve for dealing with unfair
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practices. The informal networks can assist individuals by assisting them with<br />
understanding and meaning, as well as in assisting them with alterative possibilities.<br />
According to Collins (2001:250) the ideal is to strengthen freedom of choice and<br />
reducing blame.<br />
Collins (2001:85, 88-89) identified key points for institutional survival, effectiveness<br />
and greatness, emphasising the vital role played by candour and dealing with<br />
unfairness of everyday life. Amongst other these include:<br />
o Dealing with the realities of life by tackling the fierce facts of present realities,<br />
because life can be unfair sometimes to one’s advantage, sometimes to one’s<br />
disadvantage. What differentiates people is how they cope with the predictable<br />
difficulties of life.<br />
o Creating candour by being honest and diligent to determine the truth of your<br />
situation, the right decisions often become self-evident.<br />
o Establishing a culture conducive to candour. A basic task for an institution to<br />
become noble is to create a culture wherein people have the opportunity to be<br />
heard and, ultimately, for the truth to be heard.<br />
o Believing in oneself (the Stockdale Paradox) by retaining self-confidence and<br />
not giving up hope by having absolute faith that one can and will prevail in the<br />
end, while at the same time meet the most fiercest facts of one’s current<br />
reality.
• Aim of strategy<br />
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The study aims at promoting a culture for teaching, training and learning, as well as<br />
strengthening systemic informal networks to manage weaknesses so the strengths<br />
can be free to develop and become so powerful they make the weaknesses<br />
irrelevant as suggested by Carman (2002:13). (New) individual and mutual<br />
institutional goals underpin by shared values can achieve this aspiration.<br />
• Proposed techniques<br />
Proposed ideas for enforcing promoting factors for institutional effectiveness are<br />
small group activities such as small group discussions, and informal mentorship<br />
activities. These activities will assist in building a climate of truth and trust as a<br />
supportive atmosphere is created for voices to be heard. Collins (2001:88-89)<br />
suggests that a climate where the truth is heard involves four basic practices namely,<br />
the following.<br />
• Lead with questions, not answers.<br />
• Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion.<br />
• Conduct autopsies, without blame.<br />
• Build red flag mechanisms that turn information into information that cannot be<br />
ignored.
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Exercise 1 (see Appendix F) is an example of questions that can be asked during<br />
small group activities, mentorship, as well as in a person’s personal capacity to<br />
facilitate candour. This exercise will assist staff members to identify their goals,<br />
mutual institutional goals and shared values.<br />
Participating in small group activities by directing the group discussion by using<br />
Exercise 1 (see Appendix F) can contribute in the establishing of informal mentorship<br />
relationship activities to facilitate support and career growth. Informal mentorship<br />
can be offered for solutions if indicated as such by questions 12, 14 and 15 of<br />
Exercise 1 (see Appendix F).<br />
5.4.2 Strategy for searching meaning<br />
• Synopsis of applicable finding<br />
Participants revealed that the management of human capital of staff resulted in<br />
negative lived experiences and associated meanings ranging from loosing their<br />
meaning and interest in the workplace to feelings of dissatisfaction, negativity,<br />
stagnation, lost of productivity, mistrust, frustration, desperation, conflict, anger and<br />
infringement of their human rights. Wessels and Kotzè (2002:131) state that persons<br />
are disempowered by and fall victim to change. This takes place especially in<br />
institutions with a hierarchical management structure where the “victims’ voices do<br />
not matter”. This seems to be true for this case.
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• Theory underpinning applicable strategy<br />
Wessels and Kotzè (2002: 129) argues that the lonely voice should be heard as it is<br />
a requirement for making sense out of the environment and for adjustment and<br />
flexibility. Nias (1993:148) states that link to purpose and meaning are changes that<br />
interrupt the patterns of relationship upon which individuals or groups depend. These<br />
changes threaten their capability to experience life as meaningful, despite the<br />
rationality of these changes.<br />
Nias (1993:144) argues that the lonely voice is not only common to the South African<br />
education and training context. She uses the example of English “schools, as<br />
organizations, often see to discourage the development….of a common vocabulary<br />
with agreed meanings…consensus is based upon individual ideas which has not<br />
been modified through the contact with others’ perspectives, it soon breaks down,<br />
deepening practitioners’ sense that they have little to gain from talking to one<br />
another”.<br />
The lonely voice should be heard to make transformation processes successful.<br />
When “victims” of transformation processes are empowered by allowing them to<br />
voice, resilience is promoted. One off the most powerful tools to develop rhetoric and<br />
resilience in the workplace is through stories. Wessels and Kotzè (2002:126-127)<br />
are of the opinion that stories offer meaningful means to understand people’s<br />
workplace experiences, and how it affects their lives. If change fits in well with their<br />
career, workplace and preferred life stories, meaning and congruence follow.
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According to Hudson and McLean (1995:49) life is about authoring one’s life memoir.<br />
They explain it as an “autobiography unfolding, a never-finished sculpture, a life in<br />
progress with chapters of external achievement and accomplishment followed by<br />
periods of internal rearrangement and renewal”. The momentary destinations people<br />
reach are not as significant than their ability to manage and enjoy the journey itself.<br />
• Aim of strategy<br />
The aim of this strategy is to enable people to search for understanding and meaning<br />
by structuring and restructuring their stories of institutional effectiveness during<br />
transformation processes. The challenge of this strategy is to find a technique to<br />
implement the strategy on a non-threatening manner to enable the lonely voice to be<br />
heard.<br />
• Proposed technique for implementation<br />
The creative use of Silence Truth’s story can become a valuable tool for unlocking<br />
meaning and resilience. The Story of Silence Truth (Chapter Four) used as a<br />
narrative metaphor together with the associated Exercise 2 (see Appendix F) can<br />
stimulate the creation of new metaphors or “generative metaphors”. Schön<br />
(1993:138) argues that problem situations are arbitrated by the “stories” people tell<br />
about bothersome situations. In these stories people usually depict what is wrong<br />
and what needs to be put right. People can dictate the figures of speech, elaborate<br />
its hypothesis and investigate their suitability in the present situation.
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Schön (1993:158-160) continues by saying that the cognitive work of restructuring<br />
draws upon the richness of qualities and relations that are to be found in the concrete<br />
situation to form new descriptions. The associated Exercise 2 (see Appendix F)<br />
facilitates these processes of frame restructuring and metaphor generating as directly<br />
related processes. Participants may bring to the situation dissimilar and conflicting<br />
perceptions and descriptions of their concrete situation. In the context of a particular<br />
concrete situation, the participants have to work at the restructuring of their original<br />
descriptions by regrouping, reordering, and renaming essentials and relations. They<br />
have to select new qualities and relations from their observation of the concrete<br />
situations. Being involved in the process assist them to implant a new, coordinated<br />
description. Schön (1993:160) calls the cognitive work that is common to the<br />
integration of conflicting frames and generating metaphors, as well as the shared<br />
process involved “frame restructuring and frame coordination”.<br />
The generative metaphor can be used by persons in an individual manner to re-<br />
author their work-related stories, as well as part of small group activities when the<br />
exercise is used in a group setting. By structuring and restructuring the story of<br />
Silence Truth and by generating new stories, participants are empowered by<br />
understanding enabling them to discover meaning in their own situation and to find<br />
possible alternative solutions for problematic situations.<br />
What precious is when using narrative metaphors like suggested in the case of<br />
Silence Truth’ story to construct people’s stories, is that people can develop their<br />
selfconcept, give account for themselves of themselves and find and live alternative
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stories. Freedman and Combs (1996:16) argue that people can start reside in and<br />
live out their alternative stories with the results of solving their problems, they can live<br />
out new self-images, new possibilities for relationships and the best of all a new<br />
future. By telling their own stories, people give themselves an identity.<br />
Narratives can be used with success in education and training settings as explained<br />
by Hopkins (1994:3). According to this author the narrative suggestion relies on a set<br />
of meanings that will facilitate educators to view experience more understandingly as<br />
a source of learning in the living world of people. It will assist them to open<br />
themselves with ease, control and order, as well as to human diversity. Educators<br />
and learners can benefit by using narratives to make sense of teaching, training and<br />
learning. According to Hopkins (1994:xvii) it enables them to find meaning to lives,<br />
as well as in aiding life experience to give meaning to schooling. Narratives have<br />
great power to reduce confused and messy experiences.<br />
5.4.3 Strategy for letting go of the past<br />
• Synopsis of applicable finding<br />
From the findings of the study it is observed that people express their losses by<br />
referring to the nice place that existed before the merged college was installed.<br />
Participants articulated feelings and forms of behaviour such as lack of purpose and<br />
lost of interest, negativity, stagnation, lost of productivity, frustration, desperation,<br />
anger and conflict. These may indicate “symptoms” of “systemic depression”.<br />
According to the DSM-IV (1994:327) the criteria for a major depressive episode
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include amongst other lost of interest or pleasure, psychomotor retardation, and loss<br />
of energy. It appears that the staff struggled to come to terms with what was lost and<br />
belonged to the past.<br />
• Theory underpinning applicable strategy<br />
According to Nias (1993:149) grief is created when a person is dealing with<br />
conflicting desires. On the one hand people try to stick on to that which is lost and by<br />
doing so conventional meanings are kept. In order to break away from it, they have<br />
to construct new meanings so life can get a renewed purpose. People deal<br />
differently with their losses, they may try to deny it, forget it, and/or refuse to give<br />
outward expression to their sense of loss. If people are not assisted in dealing with<br />
their lost on a constructive manner, it may prohibits the continuation of a new life by<br />
stopping or directing into uncreative channels energy which is needed for the<br />
creating of new (“fresh”) meaning.<br />
Nias (1993:150) continues to explain that especially in the case of educators<br />
professional bereavement is very difficult as they are socialised into a personal<br />
respect and occupational need for control. Educators are therefore very susceptible<br />
to the threat of meaninglessness, with its associated chaos. She states that this<br />
crisis can be resolved by a reintegration of meaning whereby neither the past nor the<br />
lost are denied, but new meaning is redefined in terms of the present and the future.
• Aim of strategy<br />
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It is important that people share their experiences with each other to enable them to<br />
identify a “common loss” in preparation to find a “common goal” as they construct<br />
new meanings which will give life renewed purpose. The aim of this strategy is to<br />
assist staff to deal with their professional lost and to find new meaning as redefined<br />
by the present and future.<br />
• Proposed techniques for implementation<br />
Exercise 3 (see Appendix F) is a composition of questions to enable education and<br />
training institutions to deal with their losses during a merging process, and to find<br />
new meaning for the present and future. When assisting people to acknowledge the<br />
good and the bad of the past, they are given the opportunity to voice their<br />
bereavement. Rituals are very powerful tools to assist people to deal with their grief<br />
and to make peace with the past.<br />
By recognising and acknowledging professional losses and accepting grief as a<br />
natural process, staff can be assisted in letting go of the past and reaching out to the<br />
future that redefines their purpose in a new context. For example a symbolic funeral<br />
of the past that acknowledged the good and the bad through a funeral letter can be<br />
incorporated in the celebrations of a new entity. These rituals assist people to<br />
connect the past, present and future in a constructive manner.
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The story of Silence Truth and the generative metaphors, as well as the answers to<br />
Exercise 3’s questions (see Appendix F) and their associated meaning can be used<br />
as guidelines for a script/sketch of a play/drama. Willis (1999:107) is of the opinion<br />
that sketching stories of significant moments of practice carries dramatic qualities<br />
that vibrantly brings out the structure of the lived experience. Taylor (2000:1) argues<br />
that drama praxis can help people transform, act, and reflect upon the human<br />
condition. This process attained aesthetic understanding as functional and<br />
communication skills are developed and social habits refined (Taylor, 2000:4). The<br />
value of story drama and storying is that drama praxis has the splendid capacity of<br />
allowing people to face up to their own behaviours in action and scrutinise such<br />
behaviours from a variety of perspectives (Taylor, 2000:71).<br />
5.4.4 Strategy for becoming authentic<br />
• Synopsis of applicable findings<br />
In this particular situation the central theme that emerged from the data is that voices<br />
were hushed by example through manipulation and threats of punishment. These<br />
practices appear to endanger the emotional well-being of staff and of the institution<br />
by creating fear. This was done through strict conservative education management<br />
styles that were lacking effective transformation leadership qualities in an<br />
environment featured by dysfunctional systems and procedures. This is further<br />
assented by a subcategory that emerged from the data that signalled professional<br />
abuse practices denying professional integrity and recognition. The strategy for<br />
becoming authentic encapsulates all the other strategies. Together with the other
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strategies that stimulate candour and promote resilience, a strategy that promotes<br />
authentic capacity can be very risky for the person.<br />
The strategy to become authentic in itself entails questioning authority (Hart,<br />
2001:131). This strategy may increase the risk of professional and emotional<br />
abusive practices and does not necessarily improve institutional effectiveness.<br />
Bovens (1998:198) states that research does not indicate any relationship between<br />
voice and institutional performance. According to the author (Hart, 2001:131-132) no<br />
obvious relationship between voice and institutional performance could be<br />
recognised. This seems to become a catch-22 dilemma. The solution for this<br />
predicament is to be found in developing authentic capacity that is the “…capacity for<br />
ethical and intelligent choices and wise action…to overcome the intimidation of<br />
authority in order to dialogue and dance with it” (Hart, 2001:132).<br />
Questioning authority in education and training institutions may open further debate,<br />
criticism and resistance on all levels. Even the debates on the national assembly<br />
contested that a lack of authority in South African schools can signal the entrance<br />
into a state of emergency in education (Hansard, 2 June 1998:3581). Seedat and<br />
Nell (1992:191) are of the opinion that in bureaucratic institutions, managerial<br />
personnel increase their own authority by intensifying their subordinates’ uncertainty.<br />
For this reason programmes aimed at promoting emotionality and empathy is usually<br />
met with resistance. This happens from the perceived danger it poses to well-<br />
rehearsed internal scripts of authority, power and emotionality.
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Niehaus, Myburgh and Kok (1996:110) accentuate that the extent to which educators<br />
succeed in “holding their own professionally and personally” (coping strategies) is<br />
vital for their teaching and training, and their overall well-being and the well-being of<br />
their learners. Fitz-enz (2000:xiii) states that fulfilling work is its own reward for a<br />
person, no other forms of compensation can match up against it. The most<br />
significant issue is how fulfilled people are in their work. According to Fitz-enz<br />
(2000:xiii) no reward can restore the soul of a person who has spent his or her life in<br />
“mindless toil”. Fitz-enz (2000:xiii) argues that not even a modicum of economic<br />
comfort can prevail over the bitterness of such an experience.<br />
Against this background the strategy for becoming authentic is a very risky<br />
undertaking. This strategy implies that individuals have to make ultimate choices for<br />
living out their decisions and to pay the ultimate price for the choices they make,<br />
even so in their working environment.<br />
• Theory underpinning applicable strategy<br />
From the literature it appears that people are most willing to let their voices be heard.<br />
Wagner (1993:26) states that everybody longed for the request to become more<br />
involved and to have a voice. Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith<br />
(1999:205) argue that most managers and employees have the wish and capacity to<br />
put their ideas into actions. People get frustrated when their liberty to act and speak<br />
out is muffled.
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This study’s findings indicated a working environment infringing the psychological<br />
safety of a person. This can result in further destructive behaviour and the creation<br />
of a false working self and eventual total emptiness of the self: “If you don’t fulfil your<br />
own joy with your work-life plan, one day you’ll wake up in a special kind of hell,<br />
where everyone is happy but you” (Welch & Welch, 2005:334). One way how people<br />
can fulfil themselves is by exercising free choice. People satisfy themselves only in<br />
free decisions when they hug and realise the richness of their own beings and take<br />
responsibility for it (Du Toit, 2001:17). Du Toit’s (2001:17) view is concurred by<br />
Collins (2001:24) who suggests optimal institutional culture is to be built around<br />
liberty and responsibility. However, Bovens (1998:132) argues that responsibility<br />
does not always bring joy. Responsibility is accompanied with stress, anxiety, and a<br />
certain amount of self-sacrifice. In Vandermere’s (2005:166) narrative metaphor<br />
about reaching human potential, sacrifices form an integral part of ensuing a<br />
meaningful life. This may imply that the spiritual journey one chooses to undertake<br />
may be featured by psychological killings in looking for meaning: “And they know that<br />
without that (sacrifice) which the name stood for, they would have accomplish<br />
nothing, even their own names would have no meaning as life would indeed have no<br />
meaning.”<br />
Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth and Smith (1999:245-246) are of the opinion<br />
that without psychological safety people will not be able to negotiate and commit<br />
themselves. People do not have the self-assurance in themselves and others to<br />
confer difficult issues that may not have simple answers. In spite of how they are<br />
expressed, anxiety and fear affect people’s enthusiasm and willingness to commit to<br />
any transformational initiative. The fundamental boundaries that people are colliding
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with are the capacity for openness, the level of psychological safety and trust.<br />
Enhanced learning capabilities and psychological safety are the two basic providers<br />
for developing the capacity for openness.<br />
Emotional safety encourages frankness and risk-taking. Fear is blocking emotional<br />
energy that is needed for becoming authentic “…what holds us back from engaging<br />
in authentic dialogue is fear: fear of revealing our true feelings, or exposing our own<br />
vulnerabilities or putting ourselves at risk…”, because fear signifies the emotional<br />
state of not feeling emotional safe “Se comes from the Latin, meaning without, cure<br />
means fear. Secure means without fear, not afraid to express ideas, not afraid to ask<br />
questions” (Cooper & Sawaf, 1997:79).<br />
Cooper and Sawaf (1997:78-83) suggest in order to overcome fear a person needs<br />
to address fear on different levels, namely by authentic communication, congruency<br />
and honesty, as well as forgiveness that needs a strong, inner sense of alike human<br />
worth and emotional fitness.<br />
Authentic persons not only want to make their voice heard, they make their voice<br />
heard, also in cases of disagreement that require boldness. Cooper and Sawaf<br />
(1997:78) define courageous speech as authentic speech when you ”…want to give<br />
voice to heartfelt ideas and perspectives, and to have our voice heard by the powers<br />
that be…To look a leader in the eye and credibly deliver a sharply differing opinion or<br />
question…”.
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Authentic communication is also about listening with one’s ears, mind and heart:<br />
“…listening is a matter of paying deep, genuine attention, with eyes open and seeing,<br />
mind open and learning, heart open and feeling” (Cooper & Sawaf, 1997:78). De<br />
Klerk (1998:22) argues that emphatic listening is a difficult skill for educators because<br />
they are so familiar to lecturing or speaking to others that they often lose the ability to<br />
be good listeners. They are used to recommend their own spectacles or<br />
perspectives for everyone with whom they interrelate. Few educators develop and<br />
apply the skills of emphatic listening.<br />
The above cannot be achieved when people are not honest towards themselves,<br />
being true to themselves. They need to recognise and identify their true emotional<br />
feelings. They need to express it in an honest and congruent manner towards<br />
themselves and to others. They need to value the feelings of others, need to value<br />
congruency and they need to speak up when it’s not present (Cooper & Sawaf,<br />
1997:81-83).<br />
Another fundamental of authentic capacity is the ability to forgive. Forgiveness is<br />
about choices people make to either release or to obstruct emotional energy from<br />
flowing, to stay the victim of their circumstances or to become the creator of their own<br />
destiny. Cooper and Sawaf (1997:79) are of the opinion that through forgiveness<br />
people are able to change suffering caused by their mistakes and from being hurt by<br />
others into new forms of energy to enable them to move forward. Forgiveness<br />
depends on choice, and partly on compassion.
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According Du Toit (2001:27) free choice is one of the key elements of self-<br />
transcendence. Self-transcendence “means to be able to surpass one’s limitations<br />
and perceptions about one’s self-to live for a purpose higher than oneself. It is desire<br />
within a person, to give more of himself to others” (Du Toit, 2001:49). People can<br />
only give themselves if they have developed empathy from their own lived<br />
experiences: “The best way that we can do is to interpret the experience of others;<br />
that is the expressions of their experience as they go about the business of<br />
interpreting it for themselves…And to interpret the expressions (and thus the<br />
interpretations of others), we have to rely upon our own lives’ experience and<br />
imagination…’empathy’ is a critical factor in the interpretation or understanding of the<br />
experiences of others” (White, 1992:78-79). According to Hart (2001:89) empathy is<br />
one of the key elements needed to shape one’s understanding “The heart of<br />
understanding is cultivated through empathy, appreciation, openness,<br />
accommodation, service, listening, and loving presence”.<br />
Hart (2001:146) is of the opinion that a relationship with the self and others will flow<br />
natural from a process where awareness and toleration for the self and others are<br />
treasured. The degree of openness to experience awareness includes people’s own<br />
immediate sphere of perception and appreciation for others. An open heart,<br />
awareness of suffering, and deep compassion follow from awareness and<br />
appreciation. As people tolerate their own actions and openly and truthfully observe<br />
themselves they grow a tolerance for others.<br />
Therefore, transformation is very much linked to the choices people make. True<br />
transformation should originate within themselves, depending on the choices and
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actions they exercise and/or not exercise, their decisions and the sacrifices they are<br />
willing to make. True transformation gives the impression that it is a contradictory<br />
process that entails exercising free choice and the making of sacrifices (to sacrifice<br />
being the victim of circumstances). “Transformation is a movement toward increasing<br />
wholeness that simultaneously pushes toward diversity and uniqueness, becoming<br />
more uniquely who they are, and toward unity, recognising how much they have in<br />
common with the universe and even recognition that we they are the universe. In<br />
this way, self-actualisation and self-transcendence do not contradict one another;<br />
instead they form part of the same process” (Hart, 2001:150). However, the person<br />
should be prepared to take pain that is intrinsically part of the life package for living a<br />
meaningful life and growth. A person, who is not willing to risk pain, has to go<br />
without the many things in life that makes life alive, meaningful and significant (Scott<br />
Peck, 1978:142).<br />
This seems to be true for the working self in an education and training setting as well.<br />
Taylor, Diphofa, Waghmarae, Vinjevold and Sedibe (1999:22) state that the<br />
progressive plan sees professionalism amongst educators as fundamental to<br />
achieving its vision. That implies that educators must have the knowledge and<br />
confidence to make decisions about their learners and their needs that can be called<br />
occupational autonomy. Autonomy requires wisdom that steer an authentic life by<br />
continuously asking “…who we are and who we are becoming. Wisdom seeks self-<br />
knowledge through the heart of understanding turned inward. This unfolding<br />
revelation is a movement toward an authentic life” (Hart, 2001:126). Although<br />
programme 2 of the education department’s corporate plan for 2000 to 2004 is<br />
named “school effectiveness and teacher professionalism” (Department of
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Education,n.d.:12-16) no references are to be found to enhance professional<br />
autonomy other than enforcing existing bureaucratic practices.<br />
When scrutinising the literature on education autonomy it seems that tension exists<br />
between professional autonomy and institutional autonomy. De Groof (2000:206)<br />
assigns this tension to conflicting and one-sided definitions given to the phenomenon<br />
by different education role players and stakeholders. De Groof (2000:206) continues<br />
by pointing out that they are separate ideas, although aspects of the same reality that<br />
should be underpinned by co-responsibility.<br />
Institutional and professional autonomy within education and training settings and<br />
personal autonomy can be regarded as extremities that may incapacitate and create<br />
tension for the development of autonomy for education and training institutions and<br />
individuals. This can be ascribed to historical reasons because the extremely<br />
centralised and authoritarian nature of education administration and control in South<br />
Africa has not promoted educator empowerment. The apartheid system of education<br />
has served to disempower educators by preventing them form having a voice in basic<br />
aspects of education (Steyn & Squelch, 1997:5). This seems not only applicable for<br />
South Africa. Pryor (1998:225) points out the absence of a culture of critical<br />
reflective practises amongst educators in Ghana, West Africa that he attributes to the<br />
lack of professional development activities.<br />
International research findings indicated that a balance should be sought between an<br />
institution’s ability to preserve its distinctive character and to avoid abusive practices<br />
aimed at securing its vision and mission. Injustices may occur in the treatment of
196<br />
staff and learners. Educators may feel that their personal rights are better protected<br />
by institutions that have limited autonomy (Glenn, 2000:180).<br />
The accent on protecting individual rights more than collective rights is well in line<br />
with international education change trends such as in Eastern Germany “The ‘new’<br />
system emphasises individual responsibility, self-actualization, selectivity, and<br />
competitiveness whereas collectivity, unitarianism, subordination, security and caring<br />
that were strong underpinnings of the old system are de-emphasized” (Weiler,<br />
Mintrop & Fuhrmann, 1996:105).<br />
Mungazi and Walker (1997:170) conclude their arguments by stating that the idea of<br />
education reform is an underpinning necessity of national development when it is<br />
directed toward the development of the individual as a result of education innovation.<br />
These embrace the concepts of self and freedom of choice.<br />
In conclusion, external transformation processes can be successful once internal<br />
transformation processes within the person are realised. In education and training<br />
settings this seems to be proper for staff and learners. If staff becomes authentic,<br />
then it can ripple through to their learners: “The educator’s role includes helping to<br />
find the song that sings in the students and helping him to or her learn to sing it.”<br />
(Hart, 2001:127). If educators cannot find their own songs and learn how to sing it,<br />
how can the educators assist the learners in finding their songs?
• Aim of strategy<br />
197<br />
The aim for the strategy for becoming authentic, or not, is well captured by one’s<br />
answer to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s(1981:ix) existential question “If it were not for our<br />
inner knowledge that we are on this earth plane for a relatively short time, then why<br />
should we strive for perfection, for love and peace, if it were not for the desire to<br />
leave this place a little bit better, a little bit more human than when we entered it?”<br />
(Kübler-Ross 1981:ix).<br />
This strategy and the associated aim are dependent purely on individual choices<br />
people take and the sacrifices they are prepared to make in their own time and<br />
space. This belongs to the soul and cannot be forced by others or by external<br />
factors.<br />
• Proposed techniques for implementation<br />
The use of narratives can be very valuable in becoming authentic as people through<br />
narratives have the opportunity to construct and live out their new life stories to<br />
become the owners of their life stories and the creators of their own destinies.<br />
Narratives can add value to education and training settings in assisting educators<br />
and learners to become creative thinkers and to become authentic social<br />
accountable beings.<br />
In comparing the findings it seems that South African and America have a lot in<br />
common when relating to narratives within the school context: “Opportunities for
198<br />
narrative are systemically suppressed in the name of discipline and order. So the<br />
materials of schooling are prevented from delivering narrative meanings; this they<br />
often are not learned; they pass out of the conscious as waste material, undigested<br />
and unintegrated” (Hopkins, 1994:xvii).<br />
The story of Silence Truth can be used as a guide in assisting people to understand<br />
the candour phenomenon, and sacrifices that need to be made in becoming<br />
authentic. Exercises 4 - 6 (see Appendix F) create reflective opportunities to unlock<br />
authentic capacity. These exercises can be used independently and/or in mentorship<br />
and/or small group discussions.<br />
In summarising this chapter on proposed mental health strategies the reader is<br />
referred to Table 5.1 that gives a summary of the proposed mental health strategies,<br />
their aims and techniques for implementation.<br />
5.5 CONCLUSION<br />
Chapter Five deals with mental health strategies to capacitate individuals and<br />
education and training institutions to become authentic. In this chapter the<br />
approaches and strategies are justified in the study’s findings and theory. The<br />
strategies are:<br />
• The strategy for enforcing promoting factors for institutional effectiveness.<br />
• The strategy for searching meaning.<br />
• The strategy for letting go of the past.<br />
• The strategy for becoming authentic.
Table 5.1: Summary of proposed mental health strategies<br />
FINDINGS<br />
The culture of teaching,<br />
training and learning, learner<br />
support and the informal<br />
network of support resulted<br />
in feelings of appreciation,<br />
gratitude, acceptance and<br />
caring.<br />
Inadequate management of<br />
human capital (staff) resulted<br />
in negative lived experiences<br />
and associated meanings.<br />
<strong>STRATEGIES</strong><br />
Enforcing promoting factors<br />
for institutional effectiveness.<br />
Searching for (new)<br />
meaning.<br />
199<br />
RATIONALE<br />
To manage the weaknesses<br />
so the strengths can develop<br />
and become powerful.<br />
Create conditions for the<br />
lonely voice to be heard.<br />
AIMS<br />
To make weaknesses<br />
irrelevant and to create new<br />
individual and shared<br />
institutional goals<br />
underpinned by shared<br />
values.<br />
To gain understanding and<br />
meaning by structuring and<br />
restructuring stories of<br />
institutional effectiveness<br />
during transformation.<br />
PROPOSED TECHNIQUES<br />
<strong>FOR</strong> IMPLEMENTATION<br />
• Small group activities<br />
and discussions<br />
(Exercise 1 of Appendix<br />
F).<br />
• Informal mentorship<br />
activities (Exercise 1,<br />
questions 12, 14 and 15<br />
of Appendix F).<br />
The use of narrative and<br />
generative metaphors as part<br />
of self-reflection, small group<br />
activities and discussions<br />
(Exercise 2 of Appendix F).
200<br />
Table 5.1: Summary of proposed mental health strategies (continued)<br />
FINDINGS<br />
The lack of dealing with the<br />
past and what was lost<br />
create feelings of depression.<br />
Voices were hushed and<br />
endangered psychological<br />
safety.<br />
<strong>STRATEGIES</strong><br />
RATIONALE<br />
Letting go of the past Create conditions for grief<br />
and redirecting energy,<br />
finding new meaning<br />
redefined in the present and<br />
future.<br />
Becoming authentic. Create candour by becoming<br />
authentic.<br />
AIMS<br />
To identify a common loss<br />
and a common goal by<br />
constructing new meaning.<br />
To be prepared to make<br />
individual choices and<br />
sacrifices.<br />
PROPOSED TECHNIQUES<br />
<strong>FOR</strong> IMPLEMENTATION<br />
• Self and/or group<br />
reflection exercises<br />
(Exercise 3 of Appendix<br />
F).<br />
• Rituals (symbolic funeral)<br />
• Play/Drama (Chapter<br />
Four: The story of<br />
Silence Truth).<br />
The use of narrative and<br />
generative metaphors<br />
(Chapter Four: The story of<br />
Silence Truth and Exercises<br />
4 - 6 of Appendix F).
201<br />
The story of Silence Truth as reflected in Chapter Four, is used as an example of<br />
how narrative metaphors can be used as a tool to facilitate candour and resilience by<br />
promoting understanding and meaning. Chapter Five illustrates how the story of<br />
Silence Truth can be used to create ”generative metaphors” to give fresh meaning<br />
and to bridge the past, present and future in a meaningful way. The chapter includes<br />
exercises with generative questions that can be used independently and/or in<br />
mentorship, and/or in small group activities to generate new possibilities/alternatives<br />
in seemingly impossible circumstances for individuals and/or systems to escape<br />
from.<br />
This chapter on mental health strategies is concluded by Collins’ words (2001:210)<br />
“For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is meaningful life. And it<br />
is very difficult to have a meaningful life without a meaningful work. Perhaps, then,<br />
you might gain that rare tranquillity that comes from knowing that you’ve had a hand<br />
in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you<br />
might even gain the deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on<br />
this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered”.<br />
The next chapter will summarise and assess the study in meeting its desired<br />
outcomes.
6.1 INTRODUCTION<br />
202<br />
CHAPTER 6<br />
ASSESSMENT AND CONCLUSION<br />
The previous chapter briefs the reader on proposed mental health strategies that are<br />
grounded in this research’s findings and theory. The story of Silence Truth<br />
illustrates how narrative metaphors can be used to generate metaphors for<br />
promoting candour and resilience to reach understanding and to find fresh meaning<br />
during frightening transformation. Chapter Five includes exercises that can be<br />
associated with the story of Silence Truth to be used for stimulating candour on<br />
individual level, and/or mentorship and/or small group discussions.<br />
In this last chapter the reader is given a summary of the study, limitations of the study<br />
are discussed and recommendations made. In the summary attention will be given<br />
to the research problem, objectives, and the research method that were followed by<br />
this study. The findings and conclusions will be discussed against this background to<br />
ascertain if the study fulfilled its intention.<br />
The chapter reflects the richness of the study through its qualitative nature. It goes<br />
beyond its duty by not only describing lived experiences, but as well suggesting<br />
mental health strategies and by unlocking further research and development areas<br />
as revealed by its findings.
6.2 RESEARCH SUMMARY<br />
203<br />
Chapter One takes the reader on a journey to conceptualise the study within the<br />
South African context. The reader is briefed on the political need for education<br />
reform of the college sector based on ideological beliefs, historical background<br />
featured by apartheid and colonialism and the present claims of colleges’<br />
ineffectiveness. The journey takes the reader on a quick tour within the South<br />
African context including references to international trends.<br />
Chapter One highlights the lack of relevant education research as it applies to the<br />
college sector. It further stresses the negligence of recognising human capital within<br />
education and training institutions as pivotal elements for sustainable transformation<br />
when striving for institutional effectiveness. The objectives of the study were to:<br />
• explore and describe lived experiences of institutional effectiveness during<br />
transformation; and<br />
• recommend mental health strategies for personal and systemic growth to<br />
develop sustainable institutional effectiveness in the college sector.<br />
As indicated in Chapter Two, this study employed the qualitative research paradigm<br />
to explore and describe the experiences of institutional effectiveness during<br />
transformation. Mental health strategies were proposed that are grounded in the<br />
findings and theory to facilitate personal and systemic growth for sustainable<br />
development.
204<br />
The objectives of this study favoured the qualitative research paradigm as the study<br />
wished to explore, understand and describe real life experiences of institutional<br />
effectiveness during transformation of a college in its natural setting. A dense<br />
description of the participants’ experiences of institutional effectiveness during<br />
transformation was reached. Chapter Three gives a dense description of the<br />
emerged themes and their associated categories that were during a literature control<br />
study compared with theory for comparison and dissimilarities in searching for<br />
broader meaning and for specific reference to education and training.<br />
Real life experiences of institutional effectiveness told and/or untold during<br />
transformation enhance insight and understanding to create new meaning. Mental<br />
health strategies can promote candour, built resilience, promote individual and<br />
systemic well-being for self-reliance, to cultivate a self-help ethic and add value to<br />
human life by assisting people in becoming authentic.<br />
Chapter Four contains the very precious story of Silence Truth, a narrative metaphor<br />
constructed from the participants’ real life experiences, theory, and the researcher’s<br />
experiences when conducting the study, thus a real life story. The story of Silence<br />
Truth can be used as a mental health strategy implementation tool to enable people<br />
and systems to create new stories in the conditions of frightening transformation.<br />
Chapter Five includes proposed mental health strategies and suggestions how the<br />
story of Silence Truth, a narrative metaphor, can be used to create understanding,<br />
find meaning and to bridge the past, present and future, as well as to become<br />
authentic.
205<br />
The research study added value to education transformation as it significantly<br />
contributed to the future construction of sustainable development activities. The<br />
study assists in answering the “why?” question, why transformation in particular<br />
situations work or does not work, and what factors/circumstances promote and/or<br />
impede institutional effectiveness during transformation. Through the proposed<br />
mental health strategies this research took up the duty to go beyond simply<br />
describing and understanding education practice.<br />
6.3 FINDINGS<br />
The study’s richness as result of its qualitative nature elicits much more than the<br />
original desired outcomes intended. Therefore the research findings can make a<br />
valuable contribution to the education discourse in general and further education<br />
research. The research goals together with the applicable summary of the research<br />
findings will be discussed in the next section to justify that the findings met the<br />
desired research outcomes as contemplated by the first two chapters.<br />
6.3.1 Research outcome: explore and describe lived experiences of<br />
institutional effectiveness during transformation<br />
Institutional effectiveness is defined as the ability of an institution to meet its desire<br />
outcomes (Pearsall, 1999:456). The education discourse signals that people<br />
measured institutional effectiveness differently (McCaffray, 1998:138, Legotlo & Teu,<br />
1998:8). Therefore it was expected that participants’ responses indicated multiple<br />
realities. Institutional effectiveness was experienced to be on a continuum ranging
206<br />
from ineffective to effective varying in different degrees with “pockets” of<br />
effectiveness within time dimensions. The study met this desired outcome as it<br />
succeeded in identifying multiple realities of institutional effectiveness and could<br />
authenticate the differences of experience grounded in its findings.<br />
This study justified this research outcome as it succeeded in identifying factors<br />
promoting and impeding institutional effectiveness. The study goes beyond the<br />
original stated outcome by identifying the affects these factors had on human capital.<br />
The factors can be summarised as follows:<br />
• Multiple realities on a continuum of institutional effectiveness with pockets of<br />
effectiveness<br />
• Factors promoting institutional effectiveness were:<br />
o a culture of teaching, training and learning;<br />
o learner support and caring; and<br />
o staff support and caring.<br />
• Factors impeding institutional effectiveness were:<br />
o inadequate management of the transformation process;<br />
o inadequate management of human capital (staff and learners); and<br />
o inadequate management styles, systems and procedures.
207<br />
• The silence voice that was a central theme and was identified as the core<br />
theme for the study in formulating the mental health strategies.<br />
6.3.2 Research outcome: recommend mental health strategies for personal<br />
and systemic growth to develop sustainable institutional effectiveness<br />
in the college sector<br />
Due to the success in reaching the first outcome and the richness of the study, the<br />
research study was well situated to formulate mental health strategies grounded in its<br />
findings and in theory.<br />
The study succeeded to formulate the following mental health strategies.<br />
• A strategy for enforcing promoting factors for institutional effectiveness.<br />
• A strategy for searching meaning.<br />
• A strategy for letting go of the past.<br />
• A strategy for becoming authentic.<br />
Each strategy is discussed in Chapter Five under the following headings.<br />
• Synopsis of applicable findings.<br />
• Theory underpinning applicable strategy.<br />
• Aim of strategy.<br />
• Proposed techniques for implementation.<br />
A valuable contribution the study made was the construction of a narrative metaphor<br />
that may serve as a facilitation tool to generate new metaphors for implementing the
208<br />
above strategies. As the narrative metaphor is constructed from real life experiences<br />
and informed by theory it is much trustworthy and commendable as an<br />
implementation tool.<br />
6.4 LIMITATIONS<br />
Although the study succeeded in going beyond the stated outcomes, it needs to be<br />
noted that certain limitations of the study could have influenced the engagement and<br />
openness of the participants towards the study.<br />
Purposive selection was used to select the institution and the participants. Selection<br />
of participants for the interviews was done on grounds of culture diversity and<br />
institutional position. Although as a whole the sample included participants from both<br />
genders, different age groups, white and non-white race groups, staff and non-staff<br />
and learner components, this was not the case per subcategory.<br />
The proposed mental health strategies only do partially justice to the richness of the<br />
findings. Logistical reasons and the study’s focal points commanded attention to a<br />
small part of the study. Much is still to be said about the bigger picture and its related<br />
parts for example learner support, dysfunctional systems and procedures,<br />
professional versus institutional autonomy, transformation leadership qualities,<br />
curriculum development and alignment of courses.
6.5 RECOMMENDATIONS<br />
209<br />
The following recommendations are based on furthering the research and developing<br />
activities initiated by this study.<br />
• Quantitative surveys such as questionnaires that include open-ended<br />
questions based on the findings of the study can be used to further explore the<br />
lived experiences of various participants and institutions during transformation.<br />
The findings of this study can inform the development of questionnaire(s) to be<br />
used in quantitative surveys in a much more a feasible manner.<br />
• The exercises that are included in Chapter Five need to be piloted and refined<br />
for general use. Further development activities are needed to workshop these<br />
ideas.<br />
• The results can inform the development of personality and organisational<br />
assessment tools to determine the transformation status. These assessment<br />
tools can be used as diagnostic instruments to facilitate sustainable<br />
transformation. Knowledge gained by these instruments can inform policy<br />
makers and implementers of transformation with crucial information needed to<br />
drive the process forward.<br />
• The study revealed the lived experiences of institutional effectiveness during<br />
transformation in a number of its dimensions. Further research is much
210<br />
needed to explore these dimensions in much more depth to reach a richer<br />
understanding of the phenomenon.<br />
6.6 CONCLUSION<br />
Despite the limitations of the study, the study succeeded in going beyond its desired<br />
outcomes. It opens a world of understanding of lived experiences of institutional<br />
effectiveness during education transformation in a number of its dimensions. It<br />
further reveals opportunities to facilitate sustainable development through enhancing<br />
insight in the living realities of human capital during transformation of Further<br />
Education and Training institutions in South Africa. The study proposed mental<br />
health strategies to create and maintain the mental health well-being of individuals<br />
and the system during transformation.<br />
The study serves as a key to unlock opportunities for further research and<br />
development activities. The proposed mental health strategies as informed by this<br />
study aim at assisting individuals within education systems to become authentic, to<br />
make them real by giving them a name, a heart, a voice, a sense of responsibility, a<br />
life story and the skill to re-author their life script if and whenever they choose to do<br />
so.<br />
From this study it is clear that no external driven transformation can be effective, if it<br />
is not complemented with internal driven transformation. Internal driven<br />
transformation should be aimed at confronting and dealing with fear by finding and<br />
exercising one’s authentic voice.
211<br />
In conclusion the essence of the study is reflected by the words of Tobin Hart<br />
(2001:172) “Transformation…endows us with the force of creation and communion.<br />
In education, and in life in general, we activate the power of transformation simply by<br />
making a choice to open ourselves to the depths” of becoming what we are meant to<br />
be, to dance the dance of the authentic beings with a song in our hearts and on our<br />
lips while embracing the universe.
212<br />
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236<br />
Appendix Appendix AA<br />
A<br />
Example Example Example of of invitation invitation letter letter ffor<br />
f for<br />
or<br />
participation: participation: naïve naïve sketch<br />
sketch
Geagte Kollega<br />
237<br />
UITNODIGING TOT DEELNAME IN NAVORSING<br />
Ek is tans besig met die graad D.Ed aan die Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit. Die tema van<br />
my studie handel oor die bevordering van die effektiwiteit van Verdere Onderwys en<br />
Opleiding instansies vanuit `n psigo-opvoedkundige perspektief. Die Kollegeraad en<br />
Kampushoof het skriftelike toestemming verleen dat die studie gedoen kan word en dat<br />
personeel en studente betrek mag word by die ondersoek. Deelname is voorwaardelik<br />
naamlik dat die anonimiteit van die persone beskerm<br />
word, deelname nie met kollege-aktiwiteite inmeng nie, en dat die koste van die navorsing vir<br />
my rekening is.<br />
Kwalitatiewe navorsingsmetodiek word in hierdie studie aangewend wat bestaan uit vraelyste<br />
(narratiewe sketse) en onderhoude met van die personeel en studente. Vir<br />
kontroledoeleindes sal onderhoude op oudioband opgeneem en getranskribeer word,<br />
waarna die inligting deur `n onafhanklike kenner geverifieer sal word.<br />
Ek nooi u uit om aan die ondersoek deel te neem. Ek onderneem om u naam te beskerm<br />
deur anonimiteit te verseker. Dit sal gedoen word deur u naam nie bekend te maak nie en<br />
die oudiobande te vernietig nadat die navorsing voltooi is. Alhoewel u nie u naam op die<br />
vraelyste hoef aan te bring nie, word biografiese inligting van u verlang. Die inligting word vir<br />
kontroledoeleindes gebruik om te verseker dat personeel van verskillende posvlakke en<br />
kulturele agtergronde die geleentheid kry om aan die navorsing deel te neem.<br />
U is ter enige tyd welkom indien u dit sou verkies om u deelname te staak. U word verseker<br />
dat u onder geen verpligting staan om aan hierdie projek deel te neem nie.<br />
Indien u dit sou verkies is u welkom om myself en/of my promotors, professor Chris Myburgh<br />
en/of professor Marie Poggenpoel, te kontak indien u enige vrae of u gevoelens aangaande<br />
die studie wil bespreek.<br />
Na suksesvolle voltooiing van die studie sal `n kopie van die proefskrif aan die Kollegeraad<br />
en Kampushoof oorhandig word en die resultate sal op aanvraag aan u beskikbaar gestel<br />
word.<br />
U deelname aan hierdie studie word hoog op prys gestel. Ek vertrou dat u insig met<br />
betrekking tot die bevordering van Verdere Onderwys en Opleiding Instansies deur u<br />
deelname bevorder sal word. Deelname aan die studie is aksieleer deurdat u van selfassessering<br />
gebruik moet maak.<br />
U samewerking word baie waardeer en ek vertrou dat u deelname `n verrykende ervaring vir<br />
u sal wees. Die vraelyste sal aan u oorhandig word deur u afdelingshoofde waarna u die<br />
voltooide vraelyste in die gemerkte houer by die Student Support Centre kan plaas. Ek sal<br />
dit waardeer indien die vraelyste voor of op Maandag, 30 Junie 2003, ingehandig kan word.<br />
Connie Haasbroek 10 Junie 2003
238<br />
Appendix Appendix B<br />
B<br />
Example Example of of naïve naïve sketch<br />
sketch
239<br />
GESLAG/GENDER ……………… OUDERDOM/AGE……………………………<br />
HUISTAAL/HOME LANGUAGE …………………………………..<br />
POSVLAK/POST LEVEL ………… FAKULTEIT/FACULTY …………………..<br />
HOE ERVAAR U DIE EFFEKTIWITEIT VAN HIERDIE INSTANSIE?/HOW DO YOU<br />
EXPERIENCE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THIS INSTITUTION?<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
MOTIVEER ASSEBLIEF U ANTWOORD/PLEASE MOTIVATE YOUR ANSWER<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
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…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
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…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
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…………………………………………………………………………………………………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………..………..……………<br />
…………………………………………………………………………………..…………..…<br />
BAIE DANKIE/THANK YOU!<br />
PLAAS ASSEBLIEF DIE VOLTOOIDE VORM IN DIE GEMERKTE HOUER BY<br />
STUDENT SUPPORT CENTRE VOOR OF OP 30 JUNIE 2003/PLEASE PLACE THE<br />
COMPLETED <strong>FOR</strong>M IN THE MARKED BOX AT THE STUDENT SUPPORT<br />
CENTRE BE<strong>FOR</strong>E OR ON 30 JUNE 2003.
240<br />
Appendix Appendix C<br />
C<br />
Exa Example Exa mple of invitation and letter of of of consent:<br />
consent:<br />
qualitative qualitative interview<br />
interview
Geagte Kollega<br />
241<br />
VERSOEK OM TOESTEMMING VIR NAVORSING<br />
Soos aan u verduidelik is ek tans besig met die graad D.Ed aan die Randse Afrikaanse<br />
Universiteit. Die tema van my studie handel oor die bevordering van die effektiwiteit van<br />
Verdere Onderwys en Opleiding instansies vanuit `n psigo-opvoedkundige perspektief. Die<br />
Kollegeraad en Kampushoof het skriftelike toestemming verleen dat die studie gedoen kan<br />
word en dat personeel en studente betrek mag word by die ondersoek.<br />
Kwalitatiewe navorsingsmetodiek word in hierdie studie aangewend wat bestaan uit vraelyste<br />
(narratiewe sketse) en onderhoude met personeel en studente. Vir kontroledoeleindes sal<br />
onderhoude op oudioband opgeneem en getranskribeer word, waarna die inligting deur `n<br />
onafhanklike kenner geverifieer sal word.<br />
Ek nooi u uit om aan die ondersoek deel te neem. Ek onderneem om u naam te beskerm deur<br />
anonimiteit te verseker. Dit sal gedoen word deur u naam nie bekend te maak nie en die<br />
oudiobande te vernietig nadat die navorsing voltooi is. Alhoewel u nie u naam op die<br />
vraelyste hoef aan te bring nie, word biografiese inligting van u verlang. Die inligting word<br />
vir kontroledoeleindes gebruik om te verseker dat personeel van verskillende posvlakke en<br />
kulturele agtergrond die geleentheid kry om aan die navorsing deel te neem.<br />
U gee hiermee u ingeligte toestemming tot deelname aan hierdie studie. U is ter enige tyd<br />
welkom indien u dit sou verkies om u deelname te staak. U word verseker dat u onder geen<br />
verpligting staan om aan hierdie projek deel te neem nie.<br />
Indien u dit sou verkies is u welkom om my promotors, professor Chris Myburgh en/of<br />
professor Marie Poggenpoel te kontak indien u gevoelens aangaande die studie of die<br />
onderhoud met `n kundige wil bespreek.<br />
Na suksesvolle voltooiing van die studie sal die resultate op aanvraag aan u beskikbaar gestel<br />
word.<br />
U deelname aan hierdie studie word hoog op prys gestel. Ek vertrou dat u insig met<br />
betrekking tot die bevordering van Verdere Onderwys en Opleiding Instansies deur u<br />
deelname bevorder sal word. Deelname aan die studie is aksieleer deurdat u van selfassessering<br />
gebruik moet maak. Ek vertrou dat u deelname `n verrykende ervaring vir u sal<br />
wees.<br />
Geteken te Centurion op hierdie ………..…dag van …….…………………….. 2003.<br />
…………………………….. ………………………………<br />
DEELNEMER NAVORSER
242<br />
Appendix Appendix D<br />
D<br />
Example Example of of transcribed transcribed transcribed interview<br />
interview
243<br />
TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEW<br />
I: Hoe ervaar jy die effektiwiteit van hierdie instansie?<br />
P: As jy nou praat van die instansie bedoel jy in geheel of<br />
rondom die studentesake spesifiek?…Kom ek sê vir jou as in<br />
geheel, hhh dink ek daar is tekortkominge, hhhh veral<br />
wanneer dit kom by by sekere aspekte van die<br />
bestuur…(I:mm)…kommunikasie hhh georiënteer…hhhhhh<br />
beslis…(I:mm)… sal ek ek sê defnitiewe besluitneming, nie<br />
konsekwent wees nie.<br />
Hhh oor studentesake wil ek amper onder die hhhh oor<br />
dieselfde boeg gooi…Daar is nie konsekwensie nie en dan<br />
dink ek ook nie daar is `n redelike openlikheid<br />
‘transparency’ hhh is daar nie, is daar nie heeltemal nie<br />
…ek dink dit het nogal `n redelike invloed op `nnn op `nnn<br />
personeel, dat almal nie altyd weet wanneer wat gebeur,<br />
hoekom dit gebeur nie. Hmmm en ek dink dit kan nogal `n<br />
redelike faktor wees van ongelukkighede onder personeel.<br />
I: Ongelukkighede?<br />
P: Hmmm dat ek nie weet waar ek staan nie, dat ek nie weet<br />
wat van my verwag word nie. Hhmmm ek moet `n ding<br />
doen maar ek sien nie die doel agter die ding nie. Hhmmm<br />
so ek ek dink dat as daar `n `n `n meer `n openlikheid is,<br />
meer `n definitiewe doel agter my werksaamhede dat ek
244<br />
weet waarvoor ek werk en hoekom doen ek dit dan, dan dink<br />
ek kan `n mens meer effektief wees en ek wil amper sê<br />
gelukkiger…Want jy weet gelukkige werkers lewer gelukkiger<br />
produksie en as jou werkers gelukkig is dan dink ek jy het<br />
kwaliteitwerkers ook.<br />
I: Hoe sien jy kwaliteitwerkers?<br />
P: Aaaa …ek wil dit nogal sê, `n ou wat vir my kwaliteit werk<br />
gee het nie nodig om agter gestaan te word nie…(I:mm)…en<br />
jy gee jou beste en jy gee nie net jou beste. Ek dink jy gee jou<br />
alles, jou alles en jou beste vir die doel waarvoor jy hier<br />
is…(I:mm)…nie tydgebonde nie, maar ek wil amper sê<br />
kwaliteitgebonde…<br />
I: Kwaliteits?<br />
P: Werk…jy sorg dat alles wat jy vir jou student kan gee. Jy is<br />
nie tevrede met min van `n student nie, jy haal die meeste<br />
uit jou studente uit. Jy gee ook vir hom die meeste en ek<br />
dink jy jy jy werk nie net vir `n hoë gemiddeld of hhhh<br />
uitslag teen die einde van die jaar nie, ek dink jy sien die<br />
persoon as geheel…hhmmmm want wil hom regmaak vir die<br />
arbeidsmark en sorg dat hy `n gebalanseerde mens by jou<br />
kan uitstap…Ek dink dit vorm vir my nogal alles deel van `n<br />
kwaliteit…<br />
I: Jy het twee konsepte genoem, `n totale mens, hoe sien jy dit?
P: Hmmmm<br />
I: Wat is `n totale mens?<br />
245<br />
P: Weet jy ek dink baie keer as jy `n student by hhmmm…Kom<br />
ons vat `n student…as `n student by ons sien inkom dan<br />
kom hy in as as `n kind en ek wil hom hier oplei nie net<br />
akademies nie. Kom ons vat `n sekretaresse, sy moet nie net<br />
hier vir my akademies goed kan tik en vinnig kan tik en 60<br />
woorde per minuut kan tik nie, maar sy moet ook die etiek<br />
van menswees hhmmm ken. So ek wil haar leer om haarself<br />
te ken `n ‘life skill’ te ontwikkel, waarmee bitter min van ons<br />
studente hierby mee inkom ek wil vir haar, ek wil amper vir<br />
haar haar…menswees in die binnekant ook ontwikkel. Ek<br />
wil vir haar dat sy emosioneel sterk kan wees binne in<br />
haarself en dat sy mense reg kan hanteer en dat sy `n goeie<br />
waarde, jy weet `n waardestelsel oor haarself kan hê, oor die<br />
lewe kan hê en met die mense met wie sy in aanraking kom<br />
en dit saam met haar akademiese eeehhhh agtergrond kan<br />
ek `n gebalanseerde jong mens uitstuur…Ddddit vat meer as<br />
net `n sosio jy weet sosioemosionele ontwikkeling, maar ek<br />
dink dit vat ook ontwikkeling in…hhmmmm ek wil nie sê<br />
geestelik nie maar ek dink tog `n mens kan `n mens deur<br />
geestelik sterk te maak, kan jy die mens in geheel as `n heel<br />
mens maak…
246<br />
I: Baie dankie vir jou bydrae, is daar nog aspekte wat jy dink<br />
wat belangrik is rondom die effektiwiteit van hierdie<br />
instansie wat jy graag sal wil deel?<br />
P: …Nee ek dink nie…Ek dink as `n mens daai paar goed kan<br />
aanspreek dan kan `n mens `n redelike span span laat<br />
trek…(I:mm)…Ek dink wat ons reeds bereik het wat wwwwat<br />
wat vir my baie positief is is `n onderlinge<br />
vertrouensverhouding hmmmm met kollegas…hhmmm…<br />
(I:mm)...daai ‘caring’ waarvan ons gepraat het en dit dink<br />
ek het al redelik baie posgevat by ons. Dit werk uitstekend<br />
dat daar `n onderlinge-‘caring’ gevoel onder mekaar is en<br />
wanneer `n probleem sou opduik dan hmmmm ervaar die<br />
mense nie die probleem as as `n probleem nie, hulle ervaar<br />
dit eerder as hhmmmm wat sal `n mens nou sê as `n ding<br />
wat wat…(I:mm)…`n geleentheid wat ek moet reg hanteer<br />
en met hulp van mekaar kan ons dit nogal regkry…Dit dink<br />
ek het nogal posgevat en dit werk by ons …<br />
I: Ek is nou baie nuuskierig om te vra oor waar kom die<br />
‘caring ‘vandaan? Hoe het dit begin?<br />
P: Hhmmm…dit het begin deur `n spontane gebedsgroep wat<br />
ons in die oggende besluit het. (I:mm) Dit is totaal en al<br />
vrywillig…dit het begin met `n behoefte wat ons gehad het<br />
hhmmmm dat ons kry nie meer geleentheid as …(I:mm)…om<br />
as `n personeel as as `n korps hhmmm die aangesig van die<br />
Here te roep nie eeee en ek dit is nodig vir my…(I:mm)…is dit
247<br />
die fondament van elke instansie en eeee dit het begin as `n<br />
spontane groep met…`n klein groepie en die groepie het net<br />
begin ontwikkel en hy het gegroei met wonderlike resultate,<br />
baie wonderlik, waar ons nie net die die instansie se<br />
behoefte aanspreek nie, maar ons spreek ook persoonlike<br />
behoefte, kollega se behoefte aan of hy nou in die groep is of<br />
hy nie in die groep is nie…en…daar in daai groep het `n<br />
mens `n geborgenheid beginne voel en die mense het gevoel<br />
maar ek kan met `n stukkie seer daarna toe kom met `n<br />
kind se probleem…of `n probleem in my klassituasie of of `n<br />
eeee `n probleem buite die werksverband en dit is<br />
aangespreek daar het…met wonderlike resultate, baie<br />
wonderlike antwoorde op gebed het daar plaasgevind en ek<br />
dink daar het `n gevoel ontstaan van ek gee om so by so dat<br />
mense wat nie in die groep is nie al kom vra het sal julle vir<br />
my intree en ek dink daar…(I:mm)…dit het daar ontstaan<br />
in `n gevoel van, maar, daar is `n groep wat na ‘caring’ kyk<br />
en `n mens sal graag wil hê dat `n hele instansie so iets sou<br />
wou wou doen jy weet, (I:mm)…maar dis vrywillig jy sien…<br />
I: Baie dankie.
248<br />
Appendix Appendix E<br />
E<br />
Letter Letter of of consent<br />
consent
249
250<br />
Appendix Appendix Appendix F<br />
F<br />
List List of of exercises exercises for for individual individual and and group group<br />
group<br />
capacity capacity building building activities<br />
activities
1.<br />
2.<br />
3.<br />
4.<br />
5.<br />
6.<br />
7.<br />
8.<br />
9.<br />
10.<br />
11.<br />
12.<br />
13.<br />
14.<br />
15.<br />
16.<br />
17.<br />
18.<br />
19.<br />
20.<br />
251<br />
EXERCISE 1: DISCOVER MY AND/OR OUR PURPOSE<br />
What is the reason for me/us being here at the college?<br />
Why have I/we decided on this career path?<br />
Why have I/we decided to apply for this post(s)?<br />
How are my/our students doing academically?<br />
How are my/our students doing emotionally?<br />
How are my/our students doing when measuring against the national<br />
average?<br />
How are my/our students doing when measuring them against successful<br />
work placement?<br />
What can I/we do to assist my/our students on academic level?<br />
What can I/we do to assist my/our students on emotional level?<br />
What is making me/us ticking in my/our working environment?<br />
What can I/we do to bring fun to my/our working environment?<br />
How am I/we doing in relation to my work when comparing me/us against<br />
my colleagues?<br />
How does my work situation affect my personal and family life?<br />
How are my colleagues doing work related?<br />
What can I/we do to support my/our colleagues with their work?<br />
What can I do/we do to support/our colleagues in general?<br />
Are my values the same or different than that of my colleagues? Please<br />
explain.<br />
Are my work related goals the same or different than that of my<br />
colleagues? Please explain. Why? How?<br />
What have I/we learnt through participating in this exercise?<br />
Looking at my/our answers, should I/we take hard decisions and/or change<br />
our behaviour? Please explain. Why? How?<br />
THANK YOU <strong>FOR</strong> YOUR CONTRIBUTION AND <strong>FOR</strong> SHARING YOUR<br />
EXPERIENCES WITH US IN IDENTIFYING GOALS AND VALUES!
1.<br />
2.<br />
3.<br />
4.<br />
5.<br />
6.<br />
7.<br />
8.<br />
9.<br />
10.<br />
11.<br />
12.<br />
13.<br />
14.<br />
15.<br />
252<br />
EXERCISE 2: DISCOVER MEANING<br />
Read the story of Silence Truth without discussing it.<br />
Within small group discussions and/or on your own, answer the<br />
following questions. You may share your own interpretations of<br />
the story with each other and/or yourself.<br />
What did you experience when reading the story?<br />
What did you like and/or dislike about the story?<br />
What puzzled you?<br />
What stroked you?<br />
Who were the main characters of the story and could you<br />
identify with them with regard to your own environment? If so<br />
and if not so, how? why?<br />
What were the different stages/phases of the story?<br />
What were the primary thoughts, feelings and actions of the<br />
different characters during the various phases of the story?<br />
Can you construct your own story for your own situation?<br />
Can the group construct a group story incorporating group<br />
members’ different stories into one new story?<br />
do you feel about your story and the group’s story?<br />
Can you identify with your group’s story? How? Why?<br />
Are the new stories different? How? Why?<br />
What have you learnt through participating in this exercise?<br />
THANK YOU <strong>FOR</strong> YOUR CONTRIBUTION AND <strong>FOR</strong><br />
SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH US!
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EXERCISE 3: TO SAY GOODBYE<br />
Before the merger, the college was<br />
• good at?<br />
• proud of?<br />
Before the merger, the college was<br />
• not good at?<br />
• ashamed of?<br />
Why was the college a nice place to be at?<br />
Why was the college not a nice/bad place to be at?<br />
What have I/we learnt from our past experiences?<br />
What can I/we take from our past experiences to guide me/us<br />
in the future?<br />
Let me/we say thank you to my/our past, and the good and the<br />
bad, it brought me/us (symbolic rituals can be used with great<br />
success during this item).<br />
How do I/we the see the future for the new college?<br />
What do I/we want it to be based on our past experiences?<br />
Where do I/we want it to go based on our past experiences?<br />
Why am I/we are here today?<br />
How can I/we use today to link our past experiences with a new<br />
future and to make our institutional dreams come true?<br />
THANK YOU <strong>FOR</strong> YOUR CONTRIBUTION AND <strong>FOR</strong><br />
SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH US IN<br />
BUILDING A NEW FUTURE TOGETHER!
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EXERCISE 4: MY LIFE STORY<br />
Please allow yourself some quiet time in a quiet place where you find yourself safe<br />
and comfortable.<br />
Breathe in fresh air through your nose, keep it for three counts and breathe out<br />
air filled with all the hurts, anxiety and stress you may have experienced<br />
recently.<br />
Read through the questions listed in Exercise 5.<br />
Repeat step 2.<br />
Close your eyes and let your mind take you on your own journey leading you<br />
through your lived experiences. Do not stop the thoughts coming to your mind,<br />
give it free space to come and go as it wish.<br />
Write down and/or draw and/or paint your journey.<br />
Make it real by giving it form(s) and colour(s) and a name.<br />
Look at your writing and/picture. What story is it telling you? What is this story<br />
about? What thoughts and feelings does it unlock in you?<br />
Give your story a special name that has a special meaning to you.<br />
Would you like to change your story’s outcome? What would you like the last<br />
chapter to look like?<br />
What have you learnt from your story about yourself, about people, about life?<br />
What does it mean to you?<br />
What can you use from your story to guide you in future?<br />
What would you like the subsequent chapters to look like?<br />
Make it real by giving it form(s) and colour(s) and a name. Does it look different<br />
from the previous one?<br />
What must you do to enable you to change your life’s story to make your life on<br />
earth meaningful and joyful?<br />
What emotional and/or other prices do you have to pay to change your life’s<br />
story? It is worth it?<br />
Would you like to change the name of your story? Feel free to do so.<br />
Repeat step 2.<br />
With your eyes still closed thank your past and the present, and the good and the<br />
bad, it brought you.<br />
With your eyes still closed feel the power in yourself to create new meaning in<br />
yourself and to become what you are meant to be.<br />
Know that your Creator has given you all you need to live a purposeful driven life.<br />
You can repeat this exercise as often as you wish.<br />
THANK YOU <strong>FOR</strong> SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH YOURSELF IN<br />
CREATING YOUR OWN DESTINY
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EXERCISE 5: WHO AM I?<br />
Who are you?<br />
What are your strengths?<br />
What are your weaknesses?<br />
What are you ashamed of?<br />
What are you proud of?<br />
What are you the best in?<br />
What are you passions in life?<br />
What makes you ticking?<br />
What makes you secure?<br />
What drives your economic engine?<br />
What drives your social engine?<br />
What are your fears?<br />
What are your stress levels?<br />
What does your body tells you about your stress levels and<br />
yourself?<br />
Who is your mentor to assist you with your life’s journey?<br />
Are you a life mentor to somebody else? Who? Why? How?<br />
How do you feel about your past, the present and the future?<br />
Why?<br />
Give yourself a form(s), colour(s) and a name. Is that what you<br />
want yourself to look like, be like?<br />
If you are not satisfied, give yourself new form(s), colour(s) and<br />
a name. What do you have to change in yourself to become the<br />
new you?<br />
Why are you here today, who and where were you yesterday and<br />
who and where to you want to be tomorrow?<br />
THANK YOU <strong>FOR</strong> YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO YOUR<br />
OWN DEVELOPMENT!
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EXERCISE 6: BECOMING AUTHENTIC<br />
What is your purpose on earth?<br />
What are your offering, your gift you bring to the world?<br />
What do you love and care for?<br />
What do you hate and avoid?<br />
How do you express yourself – your thoughts, your feelings?<br />
Can you say “no” and stand by it?<br />
Can you say “yes” for life and all it entails?<br />
Are you able to receive love and care without feeling guilty?<br />
Do you still need to forgive yourself or some one else?<br />
Have you forgiven, but not yet set that person free?<br />
Are you a truth seeker?<br />
If you find the truth, can you give voice to it?<br />
Can you confront lies, even if it can “kill” you?<br />
Can you make and stand by your decisions out of your own free<br />
will? Or are you a puppet on a string?<br />
Do you take care of yourself by making time for yourself,<br />
exercise, follow a healthy diet, relax and rest?<br />
Do you make enough time for yourself, loved ones and work<br />
without feeling guilty that you are stealing time?<br />
Is your life meaningful?<br />
Do you live to work, or do you work to live?<br />
What are your unique qualities?<br />
What difference(s) do you make?<br />
USE THIS IN<strong>FOR</strong>MATION AS ROAD MARKERS ON YOUR<br />
JOURNEY <strong>FOR</strong> BECOMING AUTHENTIC