Stakeholder views of educational governance after a change in ownership of independent schools

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dc.contributor.advisor Beckmann, Johan L.
dc.contributor.coadvisor Du Plessis, Andre
dc.contributor.postgraduate Breedt, Elizabeth
dc.date.accessioned 2022-06-22T13:28:31Z
dc.date.available 2022-06-22T13:28:31Z
dc.date.created 2022-09
dc.date.issued 2022
dc.description Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2022. en_US
dc.description.abstract Independent schools became part of South Africa in 1994. The new educational system contributed to the freedom of the choice of language medium of education as well as the freedom of religion in education. In the last 10 years, many independent schools have become part of corporate companies which have invested in small, sometimes poor, independent schools including them as part of a larger business organisation. This corporate company investment has resulted in a change from educational governance to corporate governance in these schools. One of the concerns relating to this change is that the focus of governance could move from educational development to the increase of profit. The purpose of this study was to understand the views of some stakeholders when their schools changed from not-for-profit governance to a profit-driven governance. The primary question addressed was: What are the views of stakeholders in formerly independent not-for-profit schools of governance after a change of ownership to a listed organisation? A multiple case study design was used. Semi-structured interviews were used to try to understand how the stakeholders viewed this change. The King III Report (2009) presented certain characteristics of good governance: responsibility, accountability, fairness and transparency. These characteristics were used as a conceptual framework to obtain sufficient information on how different stakeholders viewed the change in governance. The stakeholders mentioned changes that were not anticipated beforehand and the differences in experiences regarding the different stakeholders were inevitable. This thesis recommends that changes from not-for-profit governance to profit-driven governance need to be planned, monitored and supervised very carefully. Governors need to know and acknowledge that a school is a community. Compassion and empathy need to be shown to all stakeholders of the school. Attention needs to be given to communication with stakeholders, especially the teachers and parents. Relationships of trust take time to develop and need to be established between stakeholders. The psychological effect of a transformation like this on all stakeholders, including the children and their families, needs to be addressed. Key words: Independent Schools, Governance, Corporate Governance, Stakeholders. en_US
dc.description.availability Unrestricted en_US
dc.description.degree PhD en_US
dc.description.department Education Management and Policy Studies en_US
dc.identifier.citation * en_US
dc.identifier.doi https://doi.org/10.25403/UPresearchdata.20109224 en_US
dc.identifier.other S2022
dc.identifier.uri https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/85908
dc.identifier.uri DOI: https://doi.org/10.25403/UPresearchdata.20109224.v1
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher University of Pretoria
dc.rights © 2022 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
dc.subject UCTD en_US
dc.subject Independent Schools en_US
dc.subject Governance
dc.subject Corporate Governance
dc.subject Stakeholders
dc.title Stakeholder views of educational governance after a change in ownership of independent schools en_US
dc.type Thesis en_US


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