Abstract
D.Ed.
At present parents, learners and staff from various cultures, faiths, interests,
language needs, learning and cognitive style needs have admission to the same
schools. Apart from this, the manner in which a Christian principal manages the
school and his management behaviour are to a large extent determined by his
belief framework. This, however, presupposes that the Christian principal should
be knowledgeable about the various cultural groups in order to display a positive
attitude towards these groups.
At the same time it is true that each child, regardless of race, colour, faith,
culture, sex, age, belief and ethnic origin can be admitted to any school of his/her
choice (Botha, 1990 : 41; Bouwer, 1995 : 48; Bray, 1998 : 18). The Christian
principal should seriously consider the mission, code of conduct and ethos of his
school for all learners to feel welcome. Living by one's beliefs has become a
sensitive matter and should be approached with care within a new education
system.
Perhaps a principal should adapt his management strategy with a diversity of
language, faith and culture in public schools in order not to give offense to people
who are different-minded. This, however, does not imply that the Christian
principal should remain silent about his faith, for he should rather act with wisdom
and insight in order to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ (compare Romans 1 :
16). This is just one of the many problems confronting a Christian principal in
public schools which gave rise to the motivation for this research.
In an effort to overcome the above problems, the following aims were formulated
for this study as an inquiry into ; the degree to which the management skills of the Christian principal are
influenced by Scriptural principles (traditional management values);
the attitude required to realise in practice the understanding of the will of God
in order to display the personality traits which are given to the reborn Christian
by the Spirit of God and which are related to traditional management values; specific personality traits required from a Christian principal in accordance
with the will of God in order to manage effectively; and
educators' experience and opinions of specific management values (moral
values) in educational management, in order to determine whether principals
whose management approach rests on Scriptural principles can indeed
manage effectively in public schools.