School organisation development (OD): Learning from a success story in South Africa

Abstract

In concluding this dissertation I am reminded of Patton's (1990) contention that in order to decide what the appropriate unit of analysis is in a study, you need to decide what it is you want to be able to say something about at the end of the study. The unit of analysis of this study was the characteristics of and strategies for developing a successful school. At the end of this study, in relation to the South African education context, I wanted to say something about what a successful school looks like and, with special reference to school OD, how a school can become successful by examining Modderdam's success story (the case) in relation to TIP's school OD model (the intervention), international and local research on successful schools (the literature), and' current South African education policies and reform initiatives (national education reform). I was particularly concerned with saying something about the implications of this study for education reform in South Africa and, where possible, other contexts. These intentions were based on the two broad aims of this study which were: The nature of this study was illuminative and not scientifically absolute. Based on the principle of learning from success it endeavoured to deepen our understanding of what constitutes a successful school and how a school can become successful. The particular context is the South African education reform process. As such, it aimed to provoke insights rather than definitive answers in response to the aims of this study. The insights that have been generated by this study have manifested at different levels of 'depth'. Chapter eight discussed emerging insights which ranged from findings such as the striking similarity between the case study's successes and the twelve generic characteristics of a successful school based on the literature, to the contention that, unlike schools in a developed context, a school in the South African context cannot be the primary unit of change. Chapter nine consolidated these emerging insights into three key insights which have in some respects gone beyond the aims of this study by, for example, proposing a framework of core conditions for an enabling school level environment.