Outonomie van skoolhoofde in publieke skole in Gauteng

Abstract

School autonomy is defined as a form of self-management and self-regulation, where the principal can make decisions that benefits the school and the school environment. Autonomy deals with the freedom of decision-making, without any influence from external parties. This study will focus on the amount of autonomy the principal has, and if there is autonomy in the role of the principal, what pressure from external parties influences this level of autonomy. Principals are instructed according to certain policies and protocols, and in this study, we will determine what freedom the principal has to make decisions that do not appear in the policies and protocols, and also what the consequences will be for the decisions. Who is held accountable and responsible for the decisions made, and what is the extent of this responsibility and accountability? The school is an organization that must become self-governing, and so we will determine whether the principal has the freedom to apply self-management in the school and make autonomous decisions. The experiences of the principal during decision-making and self-management were investigated as a phenomenon, to analyze and discuss the experiences as they occur, in order to answer the research questions to the study. At the end of the study, it was found that autonomy in the decision-making process of the principal does occur but is limited by various role players and legislation. It has been recommended that adequate training must be provided to principals, and that legislation must be updated continuously, so that all situations (especially situations that recently occured in schools) are defined in legislation, so that guidelines can be given to the principals for dealing with these situations. Furthermore, it was recommended that the DBE should put guidelines in place to promote the autonomy of the principal, as each school is unique, and not all decisions made can be defined generically in guidelines and legislation.