Principals’ Perceptions of the Influence of Mandates on the Work Performance of Teachers

Abstract

The investigation on the perceptions of school principals regarding the influence of mandated change on the work performance of teachers is quantitative in nature and is contexualised in the Vhembe district of the Limpopo Province. At the time we conducted this research, most studies on mandates had involved the implementation of education policies and regulations, but the findings of these did not apply to the influence of these mandates on teacher work performance. After a search of studies on mandated change, we decided to approach our investigation from Gidden’s (2003) structuration theory and Ritzer’s (2008) model of micro-macro level mandates. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire that was distributed to 274 principals comprising the total population of secondary schools in the district and it was analysed using the SPSS 14.0 statistical programme to capture principals’ perceptions on the influence of mandated change on the work performance of teachers. From the statistical analysis, one theoretical factor emerged and this was named “the influence of mandated change processes on the phenomena that comprise the indicators of teacher work performance”. This factor formed the dependent variable and the various work performance indicators were used as independent variables. A constantly recurring finding was that there were two groups of school principals, one with a positive and the other with a less positive perception about mandated change processes. This article presents the results of this investigation.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n13p87