Características del aprendiz de la era digital

The only question asked is “Which factors inhibit school management teams to enact the moral purpose of the school?” While acknowledging the need to take increased responsibility to articulate and share moral purpose, SMTs note that the increasing complexity of the South African education system is posing a number of inhibiting threats and challenges. Based on their research in two schools, Van Deventer and Kruger (2003) argue that lack of discipline; low educator morale and other educational problems contribute to poor matric (grade twelve) results and other weak educational outcomes. In line with this, the research has found that the key challenge in the Limpopo schools for those involved in the cultivation of moral purpose is learner discipline or learner behaviour problems. This challenge emerged strongly in my findings, with SMTs indicating that even though they try their best to raise the standard of performance for all learners, there are always learners who sit there and threaten the nourishment of that moral purpose.

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The frustrations and helplessness of the members of the SMTs and teachers are that there are different children that are beyond “repair” when it comes to issues of discipline, they feel that these are the children they can’t influence. The Western Cape Education Department’s manual titled A Practical Guide to Understanding and Managing Learner Behaviour espouses:

Learner behaviour problems have, for years, been a major concern for educators, administrators and parents. More than ever before, educators are faced with critical problems in their classroom, and are confronted with unacceptable learner behaviour and threatening situation (WCDoE, 2007).

My findings further suggest that, in most respects, the source of problematic learner behaviour is the influence of drugs and alcohol. The use of drugs and alcohol by teenagers is increasing, and this is one of the external factors that impinge on classroom behaviour (DoE, 2008b). The increase in substance abuse leads to unruly conduct in the classrooms and an increase in learner absenteeism. Therefore, unacceptable learner behaviour and absenteeism are crucial factors that negatively impact on effective teaching and learning in schools, and ultimately impact on learner achievement. There was also the possibility that most learners in the rural schools came from either child-headed households or homes where there is abuse by adults (DoE, 2008b). Discipline is an important element of the school and classroom management as it ensures good classroom practice and creates a conducive atmosphere for the achievement of higher achievement standards for all learners within the school.

There is a need, therefore, to prioritise the needs of learners whose behaviours are as a result of them being traumatised by home life or from a psychological challenge of coming to school hungry. While acknowledging the need to work harder and take responsibility to ensure a culture of positive behaviour of learners by engaging robustly with factors that cause disciplinary problems, SMTs indicated that parents should also

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play an active role to establish discipline and purposeful environment in which effective teaching and learning can take place. In this sense, the research reports that participants are frustrated by the lack of parent support and involvement and complain about the invisibility of parents in their schools. According to Squelch and Lemmer (1994), parent involvement is the participation of parents in a wide range of school-based and home-based activities to improve their children’s education. They further claim that the benefits of parent involvement include improved school performance, reduced drop out rates, a decrease in delinquency, and a more positive attitude towards the school. It implies support given to school which can take the form of cooperation, which leads to participation and partnership.

However, this research finds that the SMTs and teachers miss parents’ cooperation, participation and partnership required to maintain daily discipline in schools. Within Limpopo schools, this lack of parent support and involvement is caused by the presence of illiterate parents and dysfunctional families. These two factors emerged strongly as factors that fail the SMTs to address issues of learner discipline. Therefore, this research validates the findings of Bush et al. (2008) who identified ‘disinterested and/or illiterate parents and/or dysfunctional families as major factor(s) that inhibit South African principals to overcome the problems from the schools’ contexts and to build on the supportive factors. Illiteracy, perhaps due to the legacy of apartheid education, appeared to be a critical factor hampering parents’ involvement because the majority of undereducated or uneducated parents become totally disinterested in their children’s education.

Another aspect arising from the findings which is linked to parent support is the arrogance of some parents because they are affluent and demanding. SMTs and teachers are increasingly faced with parents who, due to their affluent background, demonstrate arrogance towards them. They threaten to sue teachers who take on the responsibility to

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discipline their misbehaving children. I consider the findings of this research to be a true reflection of what is transpiring in most of the schools. Another issue arising from the findings is linked to teacher related problems. Principals indicated that they are confronted with challenges of frequent absenteeism by teachers in their schools.

In line with this observation, the Advance Certificate in Education (ACE) manual for School Management and Leadership espouses that these teachers are often late and sometimes absent because of personal problems (DoE, 2008b). It seems that the absenteeism of teachers is due to an increased number of teachers suffering from chronic diseases. The manual for School Management and Leadership elucidates that some teachers are often late or sometimes absent because they are unwell because of sickness or have a disease such as HIV AIDS or are abusing substances such as alcohol or drugs (DoE, 2008b). All of these factors whether considered singly or collectively bring to the fore that the context in which moral purpose is expected to flourish is characterised by numerous factors that requires school managers to offer support to teachers who are struggling with personal problems.

The teachers’ lack of commitment and/or laziness also emerged from this research as a challenge facing school management teams. The lack of commitment or laziness on the part of the teachers further serves as a crucial barrier to delegation. The SMTs indicated that when duties are delegated to teachers, teachers keep on postponing the execution of those duties. Therefore, giving duties or responsibilities to teachers who are not committed can be viewed by principals as risky because at the end of the day they have to account to the stakeholders and the Department of Education. This general tendency of indolence betrays the value of effective delegation. Van Deventer and Kruger (2003:119) state that the value of effective delegating is that “The delegating process may be viewed as a developmental process as it provides subordinate staff members with an increasing amount of work to be performed, and also gives in-service management training”. It can

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be argued that the majority of our school teachers don’t view delegation as a developmental process, and their resistance may be due to the fact that they see delegation as a subtle way by principals to increase the amount of work they have to perform.