From moving schools to sinking schools: narratives of stakeholders of schools in decline.

Abstract

There is a significant amount of research focusing on ways to improve schools; however, this research does not seem to make attempts to understand the causes of the decline in schools. This results in a scarcity of literature regarding the causes of school decline. Some of the reasons for this scarcity could be the sensitivity of this phenomenon, and unwillingness of declining schools to expose themselves to scrutiny. The study reported in this thesis attempted to hold a bull by its horn through engaging with stakeholders of these schools. The study employed social realism and general systems theories to understand the structural, cultural, and agential mechanisms influencing school decline, and also to explore how stakeholders could imagine schools in decline as moving schools. The theoretical framework of the study was therefore made up of these two theories (Archer’s social realism theory and general systems theory). Methodologically, the study employed narrative inquiry. The study targeted five secondary schools in the Umlazi District of KwaZulu-Natal. Two stakeholders per school were purposively selected to participate in the study. Narrative interviews and artefact inquiry were used to generate field texts (data). Field text analysis occurred at two levels: narrative analysis and analysis of narratives. The study revealed multiple mechanisms (structural, cultural and agential) that influence decline in the sampled schools. These include, but are not limited to, stakeholder role confusion, toxic behaviours dominating the school culture, and the constrained agency of teachers and principals. The study concluded that schools in decline cannot turn themselves around or rescue themselves from decline but require external intervention that is multi-pronged to address different causes of decline. This intervention may come from stakeholders such as the SGB foundation, community stakeholders, well-performing schools, and subject advisors. The study then produced a model for intervention for schools in decline. This model sets out forms of external intervention that are desired by stakeholders in declining schools and is termed the internally desired external intervention model (IDEI).