Schools as learning organisations for educators in post-apartheid South Africa: An education law and policy perspective

Schools as learning organisations (hereinafter referred to as SLOs) for educators should be regulated and guided by education law and policies to ensure that educators acquire the required knowledge, skills and values. This study provides answers to the following research questions: (i) How do the South African education law and education policies regulate and guide SLOs? (ii) How are the South African education law and education policies that regulate and guide SLOs translated into practice? Research on SLOs has often focused more on non-legal and non-policy aspects. This study intends to close this research gap. A review of existing literature and the analysis of educational law and policy sources was conducted which is underpinned by the three SLOs’ dimensions of the Marsick and Watkins model. The two main findings are: (i) There are sufficient education law and education policies that regulate and guide SLOs in South Africa. (ii) The existing education law and education policies that regulate and guide SLOs for educators have not yet been successfully translated into practice. This study provides educators, school management team members and officials of the Department of Basic Education with recommendations that they can use to enable schools to become SLOs.