Abstract
M.Ed. (Educational Psychology)
Education has always played an important role in the passing of knowledge and skills to its learners. This is no different in South Africa. However, South Africa has been plagued by large dropout rates once the learners pass their compulsory school age of 15 or Grade 9. These young South Africans are either unemployed or not in some form of education or training. While the country struggles with a skills shortage, there is a large group of youth that would be able to positively contribute to the growth of the country, but have not been given the necessary skills and knowledge to be able to contribute. The Department of Education has earmarked this as a target for intervention with the implementation of a 3-stream Technical and Vocational Education system planned for implementation in 2018. Education reform and policy change has always been key to educational endeavours, and is something all schools are required to deal with at a senior management level. The senior management team are highly active role players within a school, and play an important role in any change of curricula or policy. Thus, they are able to give valuable insights and perceptions on the topic.
The aim of this study was to explore the senior management team’s perceptions of the implementation of TVE in the senior phase of schooling. The research followed an interpretive paradigm through purposeful sampling of the senior management participants. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, and analysed by means of content analysis. Using Concerns-Based Adoption Model theory as the literature framework, and a qualitative research design, four main themes emerged. The first was the obtaining of a technical skill, which had the sub-themes ‘associated with high school’ and ‘for academic refuge’. The second theme was ‘lack of knowledge of the 3-stream programme’. The third theme was ‘benefits to the learners’, and the final theme was ‘dearth of infrastructure’, with the sub-theme ‘a supportive government’. Furthermore, valuable insights were gained into their perceptions of senior management of the implementation of TVE. The findings suggest that senior management members had a positive perception of the implementation of TVE, and viewed it as a system that could be beneficial to the learners; however, with a lack of documentation, a stigma that may still be attached to TVE and lack of infrastructure will hinder the implementation.