The Role of School Management Teams in Cultivating Moral Purpose in Limpopo Secondary Schools

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, South African education system embraced a new educational paradigm that utilised school management teams (SMTs) to lead schools. Reflecting on this movement, I explore the capacity of these management teams to cultivate moral purpose in Limpopo secondary schools. Using qualitative paradigm, I investigated the school managers’ perceptions of moral purpose and how it can be nourished and translated into practice. Moral purpose was conceived as a relatively new concept to the majority of SMTs. Generally, those who were fully aware of their moral purpose understood it as a concept directed towards raising the level of learner achievement and improving school leadership. Such moral purpose is realised when the SMTs articulate the values of commitment, discipline and responsibility. The findings also enumerated a lack of parent involvement, learners’ discipline, and teachers’ lack of commitment to moral purpose as crucial factors that inhibit the sharing of moral purpose in schools.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2p633