Caring as an aspect of school climate : implication for school effectiveness

M.Ed.The onset of democracy in South Africa was faced with many challenges with the improvement of the Matric results as one of the major areas. The Matric results have been a yardstick by which to measure the effectiveness of learning and teaching in schools. The first National Matric results during the democratic rule reflected a 53,4 % pass rate with Mpumalanga Province being the second lowest with a 38,2 % pass rate. It became dear that the Government of the day had to address the plight through its Provincial Departments of Education. A number of options on the improvement of results came to the forefront. The starting point was to transform the entire education system by replacing a traditional curriculum with the Transformational Outcomes Based Education which is known as Curriculum 2005 in the South African context. The success of Curriculum 2005 necessitated social mobilisation as an attempt to create awareness of the importance of resources, educator empowerment, leadership skills and above all the restoration of a Culture of Learning and Teaching in schools. The continuous reflection of fewer learners gaining exemption in Matric has been a matter of concern and an investigation to this plight has to be embarked on. This research project attempts to establish whether: a caring climate is a necessary condition for school effectiveness in the Mpumalanga Province; a web of caring relations can lead to effective schools; a connection of caring and power can render schools effective; establishment of a caring community can contribute to school effectiveness; and team work with an attitude of caring has a potential to enhance school effectiveness. In chapter two a literature study was undertaken to expose previous research findings on school effectiveness. Various factors underlying the notion of school effectiveness were interrogated in order to become a springboard for the new findings that would provide the guidelines for school effectiveness in Mpumalanga. The researcher paid particular attention to what constitutes a caring climate based on the existing literature. The design of the research instrument is discussed in chapter three. The instrument consisted of 105 open-ended items that were used to elicit educators' perceptions as to what constitutes an effective school. The items of the questionnaire covered these following areas: leadership; vision; motivational strategies; curriculum; resources; school culture; and school climate. The design is composed of three main sections. The analysis of responses from the three sections of the questionnaire were completed in chapter four. The two independent variables and three or more independent variables were exclusively compared against each other to establish the significance of the difference and the possible effect on school effectiveness. The validity and reliability of the collected data was also confirmed. The empirical findings have certain implications for the management in the Mpumalanga schools