Transforming the school into a learning organisation : challenges for school principals and educators

D.Ed.One of the central themes that permeate the concept of learning organisations is its focus on individual and collective learning. Learning organisations are characterised as organisations that are capable of creating learning cultures, where acquisition of skill and knowledge is seen as an investment in tomorrow. Individual learning is promoted at personal, interpersonal and professional levels. Collective learning is promoted through conversation, inquiry and relationship building on collaborative cultures. This research focuses on how school principals and educators can transform their schools into learning organisations. This research concentrated on Black schools due to the enormous problems that exist in these schools. Use was made of a two-phase methodology namely the quantitative and the qualitative methods to elicit the perceptions of educators with regard to the school as a learning organisation. In relation to the quantitative method, a structured questionnaire consisting of 88 items was administered to 100 educators, with a return of 74,3%. After two successive factor analyses of the responses the 88 items were reduced to two factors only, namely: a collaborative culture consisting of 74 items, with a Cronbach-alpha reliability coefficient of 0,971; and educator commitment consisting of 13 items with a Cronbach-alpha reliability coefficient of 0,749. The two factors, namely collaborative culture and educator commitment were then used as parameters for the qualitative individual and focus group interviews. Thus the merging of the two traditional methodologies, namely the qualitative and quantitative paradigms, enriched the research. The researcher used one individual interview and two focus group interviews to elicit the opinions of educators concerning the concepts collaborative culture and educator commitment. The responses of the participants were coded and analysed. Eight themes emerged from the analysis namely: personal mastery; mental models; shared vision; team learning; systems thinking; reflection; dialogue; and leadership/management (iv) Categories related to these themes were also identified. The direct quotes of the respondents were transcribed and these together with the themes and categories were discussed in relation to relevant research literature. The results of the data analysis showed that the learning organisation is built around collaborative cultures and educator commitment. There was congruence between the literature review, the structured questionnaire and the individual and focus group interviews in that the themes that make up a learning organisation were personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, systems thinking, reflection/inquiry, dialogue and leadership/management. The recommendations that are provided in this research are based on the eight themes identified in the individual and focus group interviews, on the findings from the literature review as well as from the findings from the structured questionnaire. Although eight themes were identified these themes are closely related and interactive. The research was concluded with a chapter on the findings, results and recommendations, as well as possible areas that needed further investigation