Abstract
M.Ed.
The crisis of leadership in historically black schools is deepening. Those who
occupy positions of authority seem to be powerless and merely drifting. This
demonstrates Gramsci's morbid symptoms of the interregnum, in which the old
authority is dying and the new is waiting to be born.
Schooling is taking place within an untidy maze of rudderless and often
unpredictable interactions. This not only renders schooling asunder but also the
fabric of the society in which it takes place.
Despite the COLT campaigns, schooling for the disadvantaged masses remains a
fragile and vulnerable plant that needs constant and sensitive nurturing in an
unrewarding environment. The disintegration of the teaching — learning
environment bodes ill for the future of our children.
These problems demands that school management systems should move
towards a paradigm that empowers teachers through shared governance. The
growing complexity of the whole educational enterprise gives weight to this
need.
The aim of this investigation was to probe whether teacher empowerment
through participatory management would contribute to the restoration of the
culture of teaching and learning. This provided an opportunity to analyze the
conditions that contribute to the lack of commitment by both learners and
teachers, and feelings of powerlessness by principals. The findings of this research highlighted among others the following:
Participatory management schools are characterized by democratic climates
in which decision-making takes place through interactive dialogue and cooperation
amongst teachers and the principal.
Organic governance structures promotes active involvement rather than
exclusivity during the decision making process.
Empowering principals find authority in their personal, interpersonal and
professional competencies rather than in formal positions.
The relocation of the principal's leadership from the apex of the
organizational pyramid to the centre of the network of school relationships
makes them function as change agents.
The challenge facing principals demands that they must change from being
implementors of other people's ideas to innovators, from compliance officers
to risk takers, from bureaucratic managers to collaborative colleagues
For our school management system to survive the premature arrival of change,
they must, as learning organizations, engage in lifelong learning in which leaders
become teachers and teachers become leaders.