School traditional leadership partnership in Alfred Nzo East Education District: a case study of three secondary schools notorious for school violence

Traditional leaders who played an essential role in muting the idea of the construction of schools in their communities are finally placed at the periphery in school governance by the School Management Teams and School Governing Bodies in South Africa. Most relevant literature studies on partnership with traditional leaders have been done in local government, police, and public administration. The purpose of the study was to analyse the effects of availability of a school-traditional leadership partnership to the quality of governance in rural secondary schools under the authority of the headman or chief. This was a qualitative case study of the Alfred Nzo East Education District, which made use of a case research design. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Data analysis adopted theoretical prepositions and a thematic analysis approach. This study revealed that exclusion of traditional leaders in governance of schools located in rural communities under their authority caused learner violence that is resolved only by traditional leaders Principals deliberately marginalise traditional leaders through government policy by means of Inter-Governmental Relations (IGR) and departmental policies which provide space through Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (QLTC) and School Safety structures. Policies such as IGR, QLTC, and the safety of schools’ programmes promote school traditional leadership partnership for schools located inrural communities. Therefore, only departmental monitoring of implementation of these policies can eliminate such violence. The study concludes that both the violent learners and their parents in rural schools continue to be loyal to their traditional leaders (chiefs/headmen) and regard their decision to be final even during times of misunderstandings. The study recommends that principals of secondary schools located in rural communities under chiefs/headmen should involve them in the school governance from onset, for uninterrupted delivery of quality education.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Zululand

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Mdunjana, Hopewell Mziwakhe

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Kutame, A. P.
• Mncube, D. W.
• Ngidi, T.

Licence

• https://uzspace.unizulu.ac.za/bitstreams/fda7859a-f602-43b6-a793-1a49777cde4b/download