Dynamics of middle tier support in the South African education system: contextual and institutional influences
This report thus frames the middle tier as a pivotal enabling formation within education structures.
About
This research forms part of broader work being conducted by the Learning Generation Initiative to engage with how a stronger middle tier can positively influence education outcomes, including teaching and learning - a key evidence gap in current education policy research. The empirical data collected for this work builds on LGI’s analytical framework, which situates middle-tier impact on education outcomes in two primary areas – instructional leadership and education management – and considers the institutional and organisational factors that influence how the middle tier fulfils these roles. Importantly, institutional and organisational factors are often mediated by contextual realities, including socio-historical, economic and political dynamics. These contextual dynamics are often not included in the existing research on the middle tier, and while they can be difficult to analyse, they are crucial elements influencing how the middle tier operates and impacts education outcomes in diverse settings. Please refer to Section 3 for a full description of the framework and the elements that comprise each of these areas.
Objectives
This report thus frames the middle tier as a pivotal enabling formation within education structures. The middle tier of South African provincial school systems has equally been caught up in the process of structural and political transition. It has been critical to balance equity and redress on one hand with ensuring sufficient capacity within an expanded public education system on the other. In the first decade of democracy, provincial governments were given significant latitude, within national standards, to determine the criteria for recruiting middle-tier personnel and structuring middle-tier operations. Over time, this resulted in qualification mismatches that undermined the legitimacy of middle-tier personnel in schools while also minimising the strength and relevance of the support that middle-tier structures could offer to teachers, schools and school leaders (De Clerq, 2002; Narsee, 2007).