governing teacher education colleges in south africa

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their mission and goals. 27 As Cohen and March have pointed out “although organisations
can often be viewed as vehicles for solving well-defined problems and as structures within
which conflict is resolved through bargaining, they are also sets of procedures through
which organisational participants arrive at an interpretation of what they are doing while
doing it. 28 [My emphasis] Furthermore, college governors face the challenge emanating not
only from the elusiveness of purposes, but also from the ambiguity of power they hold and
the ambiguity of what is perceived as successful governance. 29
Although the larger general purpose of teacher education institutions arise from the nature
of higher education and may remain quite constant, specific aspects of it and the means of
achieving them are dynamic and need constant review and study by the institutions.
Depending on the context, they may focus on Preset or Inset or even integrate both
elements. 30 Within the South African context, the specific goals of colleges of education
may for example include: (i) the production of efficient classroom teachers for all levels of
the education system; (ii) the development of the spirit of enquiry and productivity in
teachers; (iii) providing adequate intellectual and professional background for teachers to
enable them to adapt to a changing world; (iv) professional development in education; and
(v) instilling in teachers commitment to the teaching profession. This is because under
apartheid teachers became de-professionalised, inefficient, uncritical, and lacked
adaptability and commitment to the teaching profession.
In general, teacher education colleges in South Africa have been associated with training
conceptualised as the imparting of vocational skills as opposed to the academic function of
advancement or production of knowledge, seen as a prerogative of university faculties. As
such, they are seen as an extension of high schools. Haygens recalls the time where this
attitude towards colleges of education was overtly expressed:
As you know, you know most of our colleges are governed like schools and I'm
not talking about the D.E.T ex-department alone that is also true of all the other
departments of this country even in white education… in the old white
education, they referred to a college like N.K.P. in Pretoria as the “Three Lilies
27 Earl V Pullas & Leslie Wilbur, Principles and values for College and University Administration -
Toward the Improvement of the Learning Environment (New York: Philosophical Library, 1984),p.11.
28 Michael D Cohen & James G March,"The processes of choice", Marvin W Peterson (ed.), op cit,
p.61.
29 M D Cohen and J G March, "Leadership in an organized anarchy", in Marvin W Peterson (ed.), op
cit, p.238.
30 Akinade O Sanda, "Sustaining academic and managerial efficiency and effectiveness in
polytechnics and colleges of education", in A O Sanda (ed.),Understanding Higher Educational
Administration in Nigeria (Ibadan: Fact Finders International Ibadan, 1991), p.118.
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