Browsing by Author "Kubheka, Vusumuzi Obed."

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Perceptions of the school management team in mentoring educators in a primary school in Mpofana circuit.
(2016) Kubheka, Vusumuzi Obed.; Bhengu, Thamsanqa Thulani.
Mentoring as an important management component might be easily done if it is carefully thought through and taken seriously and done by appropriate people such as the School Management Team. There is a danger that if mentoring process is not viewed as core to developing professional development of staff, it might end at the periphery of the SMT and proper support and continuity might lack. This study focused on the perceptions of the School Management Team in mentoring Post level one educators in a primary school in Mpofana Circuit. The study puts the SMT at the centre of mentoring process at school level and seeks to understand their experiences and perceptions regarding the manner in which they provide mentorship. This case study was informed by Transformational Leadership Theory and is framed within interpretive paradigm. Participants in the study were heads of departments, deputy principals and a school principal. Data was generated through the use of semi-structured interviews and documents review. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. It is anticipated that the findings will shed more insights about SMTs’ experiences and perceptions regarding their practices in providing mentorship to Post-level One educators.
Teachers’ understandings and practices of professional self-development: perspectives from thirteen teachers.
(2022) Kubheka, Vusumuzi Obed.; Bhengu, Thamsanqa Thulani.; Bayeni, Sibusiso Douglas.
This study explored teachers’ understandings and practices of professional self-development, drawing from the perspectives from thirteen teachers. My interest in this study arose from the reports of teachers’ poor participation in Continuing Professional Teacher Development (CPTD). While the Department of Basic Education required teachers to engage in Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) now known as QMS, where teachers could identify areas where they need to be developed, this hardly happened. The nature of the research problem placed the study within the interpretive paradigm and used qualitative research design. Two theories were adopted to underpin and guide this study. These were Self-Determination Theory and Transformational Leadership Theory. This study used snowball sampling where the focus was on teachers who might provide information necessary to answer my research questions. Semi-structured interviews and documents analysis were used to generate data from thirteen participants from four schools. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse data. The findings suggest that there is lack of understanding of professional self-development. Consequently, teachers in this study did not participate effectively in professional development through CPTD. Teachers engaged in workshops that were conducted for two or three days which proved to be ineffective for teachers. Various obstacles like lack of money, overloading, lack of time and lack of resources were identified as some of the stumbling blocks to teachers’ professional self-development. The findings also suggested that the support from the schools, as well as from the Department of Basic Education was inadequate. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that teachers and schools need to refocus their attention on teacher self-development, if the quality of education provided is to improve in any substantive way. Teachers need to seek a deeper understanding of this important aspect of their development. Once they obtain a clearer understanding of professional self-development, their development practices are likely to change and improve. Issues around allocation of sufficient time for serious engagements in professional self-development will happen easier when there is proper understanding of the need and the benefits of professional self-development. When duty allocation is done, provision for professional self-development will be made because there will be a clearer understanding of professional self-development.