The expectations of parent members of school governing bodies regarding teacher workload in South African schools

Abstract

The South African Schools Act, No. 84 of 1996 (SASA), provides parents with opportunities to serve on the governing bodies of public schools. In this context, members of school governing bodies may hold unique sets of expectations, which may influence the type of education to which a school community aspires. This article reports on an investigation into middle-class, public primary school governing body expectations of teacher workloads from a South African labour law perspective (Minnaar, 2008). The expectations of parent members of school governing bodies were examined to determine whether they were aligned with or diverged from the law. The findings provided evidence that although governing body expectations of teachers were aligned with prevailing education labour law, the open-ended nature of such law, together with omissions and silences, allows legal space for individual and contextual interpretation and implementation and may consequently intensify the workloads of teachers.