The role of the educator as administrator and manager Author: Mushaikwa Ngonidzashe In this report I am going to write about

the role of an educator as manager and administrator amongst many other roles that she or he performs. These roles are mostly what I observed during my lesson observations which I did at two different schools in March and April and I will refer to these schools as school A and school B respectively. Apart from what I observed for two weeks at the two schools, the Norms and Standards for Educators as quoted in the Government Gazette [2000] identify seven duties performed by an educator as follows; a learning mediator, an interpreter and designer of learning programmes and materials, a leader, administrator and manager, she or he is a scholar, researcher and lifelong learner, she or he also participates in community issues, citizenship and pastoral issues, an educator assesses learning and is also a learning area or phase specialist. These roles are so intertwined within each other and educators engage with all these roles on daily basis so I am going to discuss these roles in detail under administrative and management roles and will merge them into some of the identified roles above since one cannot discuss one without including the other. The administrative roles which I observed are; marking the attendance registers, reporting on learners progress, class lists and mark sheets preparation, setting of question papers, planning lessons, attending meetings and departmental workshops and also administrator in her or his own right both in the classroom and in the whole school. Management roles include; time tabling, disciplinary procedures- in classroom and whole school, dealing with absenteeism, remediation, extra murals, management of cultural, language and diversity in the classroom, time management, group work management and assessment. Educators perform these roles daily, weekly, termly and yearly continuously. In March when I went to observe teaching and learning at school A, I found the teachers busy with control tests since it was towards the end of term one. These tests were set by subject teachers at the school and they were testing learners to evaluate how much retention has taken place in term one so as to plan for term two. I even helped a bit with marking of a Xhosa paper and was a full time invigilator at school A. Soon after these tests were written, the teachers got busy with marking and they were going to record marks on mark sheets of which I collected some samples from the school. After recording marks the teachers were going to write reports of individual learners commenting on performance of each learner throughout the term in order to discuss learners progress with parents. The mark sheets are available to the parents, the colleagues, the head of departments, the deputy principal and principal and anyone from the ministry of education or provincial education department.

In administering tests, exercises and projects a teacher is always assessing learners performance and behaviour in each lesson and notices any changes or concerns that she or he sees and share the concerns with colleagues. This role also involves assessing progress in all learning scenarios including group work, projects and even classroom displays. All these roles are performed to suit the learners phase. The teacher links the school learning to parents and other stake holders. He or she keeps records of attendance of learners at school and addresses disciplinary issues which if left unattended can disrupt learning this shows how intertwined the management and administrative roles are. At school A detention was being used a lot to discipline learners such that it did not seem effective and at one stage the principal had to call parents of two grade ten learners to help them sit with their sons whilst they were writing a test, one parent got into an altercation with her son who then tried to strangle his mother in front of teachers. In this instance, I thought the system is failing children because if there are no boundaries at home or at school, then who discipline such learners? At both schools, before any contact with learners, teachers attend morning meetings every day where they discuss important issues for that day, or any important events that are upcoming challenges that are being experienced and successes are shared in staff briefings or staff meetings and report any absenteeism of staff members so that the learners affected will be attended to by the teachers available. Registry at school A was done electronically daily but at school B learners went into their houses which were named accordingly and they had house masters, one per each house and two other staff members. There were house captains and group leaders to support teachers in maintaining discipline amongst learners they marked registers and did an attendance summary which was taken to administration after being cross checked by a member of staff. In houses, learners were informed of any important events of the day. Before any teaching and learning takes place in a classroom, an educator designs interprets the curriculum and plans his or her teaching and learning programme which suits the phase and grade of learners. An educator then plans the learning tools which are to be used in learning. She or he designs the timetable to link well with other subjects taught at the school by working in conjunction with other educators. Therefore an educator is a team player at a school setting, for example, if there is a sports tournament or a gala at a school educators assign each other with duties for organisation and the smooth running of such events. Work schedules are also designed as per subject guided by subject co-ordinators. She or he also sets the learning environment and activities which are appropriate to the phase and grade which she or he teaches. In the classroom an educator designs the seating plan of learners and this is done in order to maximise learning depending on the activities being performed. At school A the teachers had seating plans for learners whereby they seated them in columns and rows but had two or more grades mixed to avoid cheating. At school B, in my

mentors classroom, learners always had to seat in groups under their group leaders, boys and girls were mixed according to their houses though. In this way, group leaders maintained order and could book those who misbehave. The whole school i.e. at school B had blue cards for merits and demerits which all learners carry in their pockets and were to produce the cards if needed at any point and any teacher had access to these cards. Learners are awarded merits or demerits in academic performance and behaviour. The points that they earn from good go to their houses. Therefore, besides classroom administration, an educator also attends to the whole school and enforces school rules at school. Most teachers use work schedules but others use plans for teaching but all the lessons I observed flowed so well from introduction to conclusion and were taught within the one hour period at school B. A lot of interaction was happening between learners and between the teacher and learners. As a manager, an educators role involves time-tabling, this is done with the whole school, at school A, I did not see any timetable but they had forty minute periods and at school B, they were on a six, one hour long periods per day which they were trying out in order to implement it if it proves to be manageable and advantageous over the forty minutes periods. The school administrator was managing time at school B but individual teachers also manage time in their classes. They have to plan lessons that fit the allocated time thus the importance of budgeting on time when planning lessons. The activities should be done within the given time to enable the teacher to reflect after a lesson. At school A, issues of language and diversity were being done so well. All grades eight and nine learners did Xhosa and Afrikaans including English. However, the learners had negative attitude in especially Xhosa. The tests they wrote were quite relevant for beginners but no effort was put by especially coloured learners. At school B, English was the medium of teaching but learners also did Xhosa or Afrikaans. The learners interacted quite well at both schools. Critical outcomes 7 (CO7) in Life orientation aims at conscientising learners about the inter-relatedness of the world today so embracing diversity is good. At both schools learners mixed well especially at school B. I also observed that learners have background knowledge to topics taught but the teachers job is to help learners scaffold for new ideas or knowledge. Learners are very inquisitive concerning some about certain topics about life and an educator must be prepared to research if s/he is not sure rather than dismiss a learners questions, thus educators are life-long learners, and they do not just operate in isolation to the communities they serve but theirs is a symbiotic relationship with the communities. They represent the people in the community and whenever there are concerns about indiscipline of learners, educators work together with parents to find solutions, through meetings. There are known procedures to follow when requesting a meeting with a learners parent/guardian. Educators are community leaders in that they instil in learners the morals and values of the communities they serve. At school B, the

year teacher, parents and the grades eight and nine learners had a meeting on the 19th of April and in this meeting the educator informed the parents about the portfolios which their children are supposed to do in a year to conscientise parents about the homework that their children are given at school so that they can monitor and sign for it when it is done, in this way, the school is working together with parents to help learners succeed. The educator concerned also explained to parents about their assessment criterion and also showed the parents how their children performed in the first term tests and those that needed remedial help were also named with the aim of trying to work together with parents. There is a stars programme which is learners who are struggling academically at school B. They say their focus on learners is positive reinforcement. These are done by specialist teachers and also in conjunction with the educational psychologists. By the way school B is privately funded so it is well resourced and has volunteers coming to assist learners and the whole school. My mentor is doing a course in sports science with the University of the Western Cape and most of the teachers I spoke to were planning to further their education, thus an educator is a lifelong learner. In this era of information technology, there is need for teachers to continue studying and researching if not, she or he may discover that the knowledge which she/he has is absolute, hence an acknowledged quote from history states that: In terms of change, learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. Educators are therefore encouraged to undergo on-going professional growth especially nowadays when some well known facts have become absolute eg Pluto is no longer a planet. Potenza [2002] Educators also are guidance counsellors in that they advise learners about adolescent issues, peer pressure and its effects, about careers and career choices and also issues about sexual indulgence among teenagers and dangers of teenage pregnancies. These issues are not usually discussed at home sometimes because some learners do not have role models at home or parents are not learned enough to understand their childs strengths. At school, educators as loco-parentis discuss with learners especially in Life Orientation or other sessions these topics. There are also some topics for example sexual issues which parents do not discuss because in some cultures it is taboo to talk about sex and an educator comes in handy in these issues which affect teenagers especially pregnancy. Educators are emissaries for the government in that they conscientise learners about the bill of rights and what it entails and also about responsible citizenry. This means that educators must have besides pedagogical knowledge, skills, methods, procedures, principles and values that are related to the area of speciality they must also be knowledgeable in teaching life skills to learners. Educators must be seen to be promoters of democracy in the classroom and within the whole school they must aim at upholding the constitution of the country. Educators conscientise learners about societal problems like HIV/ AIDS and how to prevent infection, social problems

caused by drug and substance abuse and they empower learners about importance of self respect and respect of others. All the roles that I discussed can be summed up into the seven roles that I quoted from the Government gazette of 2000.

References; 1. Government Gazette (2000). The Norms and Standards for Educators. Republic of South Africa, Pretoria. No.20884, 4 February,2000. 2. Potenza, E. (2002),The seven roles of the teacher. The Teacher/M&G Media, http://ace.schoolnet.org.za/cd/ukzncore.2a/documentscore2a/curriculummatters.htm, February, 2002.