Experiences of educators in implementing developmental appraisal in Gauteng East primary schools

Abstract

The study explored the experiences of educators (principals, deputy principals, departmental heads, and teachers) implementing the developmental appraisal component of the Quality Management System in three selected primary schools in the Gauteng East district. Given that all educators, regardless of post levels, participate in implementing the developmental appraisal system, they all have differing experiences. This study sought to understand this assortment of experiences. To ensure a clear and focused study, four key research questions were carefully crafted: How do educators implement the developmental appraisal in selected primary schools in the Gauteng East district? Which factors enable educators to implement Quality Management System developmental appraisals? Which factors constrain educators from implementing Quality Management System developmental appraisals? How do educators overcome the factors that constrain the implementation of developmental appraisal in the selected primary schools? The policy implementation theory was employed to frame my understanding of and engagement with the educators’ experiences. I used the qualitative research approach for this study to understand and describe the experiences of educators in implementing developmental appraisal in their school contexts. In addition, a case study design was adopted to deeply understand the participating educators’ experiences. Data were collected using semi structured interviews and document analysis, and were analysed using thematic analysis, which involved searching for patterns in the data to classify and evaluate it. The findings of this study reveal that educators face both constraining and enabling factors when implementing developmental appraisals. It also identified the strategies applied by educators to tackle the constraining factors and proposed strategies to improve the implementation of developmental appraisal in schools. This study provides recommendations to the Department of Basic Education, school management teams, and teachers. The study could benefit the future development of policy.