Exploring South African primary school teachers’ experiences on the implementation of the school administration and management system.

Abstract

This study is an interpretive case study research of eight public primary school teachers who reflect on their experiences on the implementation of the South African School Administration and Management System (SA SAMS) at a public school in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa. The teachers’ experiences of the uses of the SA SAMS were conceptualised and broken into four emergent themes namely: training, time, resources and technical issues. Semi-structured interviews were used to generate data. The eight teachers, who were deemed to be rich data sources, were selected through non-probability sampling. The following research question framed the study: What are South African primary school teachers’ experiences of the implementation of the School Administration and Management System? Why do South African primary school teachers’ Experience the Implementation of the School Administration and Management System in the way that they do? Phenomenology was adopted as the theoretical framework for the study. The phenomenological concepts (lifeworld of teachers, intentionality, noema-noesis, bracketing) are vital for teachers to understand their experiences on the implementation of SA SAMS. The literature review highlighted the uses of Information Communications Technology (ICT) in developed and developing countries. The study revealed that teachers experienced stress, frustration and annoyance while implementing SA SAMS which was due to lack of training, lack of time, inadequate resources and technical issues. This study recommends that teachers implementing SA SAMS be given more technical support, undergo workshops for SA SAMS training, have better resources and time to complete the SA SAMS. The implementation of SA SAMS can be effective if teachers are given adequate support and training from the Department of Education.