Aligning School Culture with National Department of Education Strategy in South Africa

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[Name of the Author]

[Name of the Faculty]

[Name of the Department]

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Abstract

School culture influences everything and everyone that is present in its perimeter. Most notably, it has deep impact on the abilities of students and their achievements. Once considered as a soft approach towards school improvement, enhancing the overall culture has attracted lots of attention and regarded as a crucial element to the institution success. Education transformation in South Africa has been driven in part by a need to redress inequalities and past inequities, and in part by pressures associated with South Africa's entry into the world of “free market economy”. It is not doubted that the economic, political, and social change in SA were rapid. However, it can be argued if it was fundamentally effective and efficient.

The purpose of conducting this research was twofold: first was to investigate the importance of establishing a suitable Strategy-Culture” alignment/fit that would promote learner achievement in the rural secondary schools in the Scottburgh circuit, Ugu District, Department of Basic Education KwaZulu-Natal and secondly, to examine the perceptions of various professional staff regarding pivotal dimensions (professional collaboration, affiliative and collegial relationships and efficacy or self-determination) of their school cultures in these schools. First aim has been addressed mainly by the literature review presented in chapter 2 which revealed that historically, organizational cultural context of South African schools has been ignored in all the policies passed after 1994. Mandates cannot change school culture and that the government's structural changes not enough and are superficial, they modernize instead of changing the schools' culture. The fundamental contribution is the guidelines for aligning school culture with the Department's strategy. The study has endeavored to include all aspects and challenges in this section for successful alignment.

The literature review revealed that since 1994 policies passed did not consider the organizational cultural context of South African schools, instead international political prerogatives were prioritized. Mandates cannot change school culture and that the government's structural changes not enough and are superficial, they modernize instead of changing the schools' culture. Causes of misalignment between school culture and the Department of Education Strategy were outlines. In a nutshell, the essence of the review is that management of change is not purely or only a strategic planning issue but it is also important to appreciate the role of culture in driving strategic change.

The second purpose mentioned above was ...