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The polite young gentleman in this video is Dana White, president of the UFC, and apparently he has issues with reporter Loretta Hunt. Well, a profanity-laced YouTube tirade can probably fix that. [Language NSFW, obviously]
Hunt wrote a story on Sherdog.com accusing the UFC of banning managers and agents from backstage areas during events, which I guess is some kind of scandalous tragedy. White denied the whole thing in his own adorable way, calling the story "fucking retarded" and calling Hunt a "dumb bitch." Well then.
This video was scrubbed from a portion of his longer video blog (since taken down), but he manages an impressive 42 uses of some variation of the word "fuck" in just a few short minutes. Here's just a selection of comments he had for Loretta:
"fucking retarded story ... you fucking moron ... fucking dumb ... you don't know what the fuck you're talking about ... shut the fuck up ... whoever gave you that quote is a pussy and a fucking faggot and a fucking liar ... maybe you're the liar ... everything that comes out of your mouth is fucking stupid ... You fucking dumb bitch. Fuck you, Loretta Hunt."
White is the Vince McMahon-like leader of UFC, serving as both the business head and public face of MMA's biggest ongoing series. One blogger calls this his "Bissinger" moment, but for that to be correct someone would have to actually be shocked by this behavior. White was featured in the book "Six-Word Memoirs" with his entry: "Took a spectacle. Made it sport," but it sounds like he's regressing back to spectacle.
On the other hand, why can't someone put a camera on Roger Goodell and get him to say what he really feels about Chris Mortensen? Now there's your pay per view event.
White's incendiary comments are offensive and alienating [Cagewriter]
Dana White 's Buzz Bissinger moment [Watch Kalib Run]
UFC's White Calls Reporter a "F-ing Dumb Bitch" [SbB]
Some Managers, Agents Lose Backstage Pass [Sherdog]


text: Stephen Decatur High School students placed in the 6th Annual State of Maryland International Reading Association Council (SoMIRAC) High School Young Authors contest. Above, from left, are sophomore Jess Maddy, first; senior Holly Thiel, second; Creative Writing teacher Kim Patrick; senior Alexis Adelsberger, third; and sophomore Jonathan Phippin, second. The contest required a submission of an original story, essay, and/or poem. Maddy will go on to compete at the state level in late March. Submitted Photos

subset: commoncrawl


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The election of Pope Francis, previously Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has resurfaced a decades-old controversy surrounding the kidnappings of two Jesuit priests.
Bergoglio was a high-ranking official in the Society of Jesus of Argentina when a military junta was installed in the South American country in 1976. According to the Los Angeles Times, priests Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics were kidnapped in May of that year by the navy. "They surfaced five months later, drugged and seminude, in a field," the Times reported. A 2005 lawsuit accused Bergoglio of unspecified involvement in the abductions. Reuters explains that "the military government secretly jailed [Yorio and Jalics] for their work in poor neighborhoods."
According to "The Silence," a book written by journalist Horacio Verbitsky, Bergoglio withdrew his order's protection of the two men after they refused to quit visiting the slums, which ultimately paved the way for their capture.
Verbitsky's book is based on statements by Orlando Yorio, one of the kidnapped Jesuits, before he died of natural causes in 2000. Both of the abducted clergymen survived five months of imprisonment.
"History condemns him. It shows him to be opposed to all innovation in the Church and above all, during the dictatorship, it shows he was very cozy with the military," Fortunato Mallimacci, the former dean of social sciences at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, once said.
Those who defend Bergoglio say there is no proof behind these claims and, on the contrary, they say the priest helped many dissidents escape during the military junta's rule.
Per the Associated Press, "Yorio accused Bergoglio of effectively handing them over to the death squads by declining to tell the regime that he endorsed their work. Jalics refused to discuss it after moving into seclusion in a German monastery." Bergoglio discussed the incident with Sergio Rubin, his authorized biographer.
Both men were freed after Bergoglio took extraordinary, behind-the-scenes action to save them – including persuading dictator Jorge Videla's family priest to call in sick so that he could say Mass in the junta leader's home, where he privately appealed for mercy. His intervention likely saved their lives, but Bergoglio never shared the details until Rubin interviewed him for the 2010 biography.
Bergoglio testified about the matter in 2010 after twice refusing to appear in open court, but "his answers were evasive, human rights attorney Myriam Bregman said."


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Arshile Gorky was born Vosdanig Adoian around 1902 (there are conflicting accounts of his birth date) in the village of Khorkom, near Lake Van, in an Armenian province on the eastern border of Ottoman Turkey. As a teenager, Gorky witnessed the systematic ethnic cleansing of his people, the minority Armenians, by Turkish troops in 1915, which drove Gorky's family and thousands of others out of Van. These traumatic events culminated in the tragic early death of his mother from starvation in December 1919, during a winter of severe deprivation for the Armenian refugees. Gorky and his sister Vartoosh eventually immigrated to the United States in 1920, where he changed his name to Arshile Gorky (in honor of the famed Russian writer Maxim Gorky) and invented a new life for himself.
After living with relatives in New England, Gorky settled in New York City in 1924, and enrolled at the National Academy of Design and the Grand Central School of Art (where he also became an instructor). Despite having some formal art training, Gorky was essentially self-taught, and obtained most of his education through visits to museums and galleries and reading art books and magazines. By doing so, Gorky became familiar with avant-garde European art and embarked on a systematic study of its masters, most notably Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miró. To friends and colleagues who criticized his borrowings as having a lack of originality, Gorky stressed the importance of tradition and continuity, maintaining that an artist can mature only after having experienced a period of apprenticeship.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Gorky's prominent position in the New York art scene brought him into contact with several members of the Surrealist group, who had been forced to flee Europe during the Second World War. His close friendship with the poet and leader of the group, André Breton, made a deep and lasting impression on the artist. The Chilean-born painter Roberto Matta also contributed to the development of his mature style, encouraging Gorky to improvise and experiment with biomorphic forms, and introducing the artist to the Surrealist technique of automatic drawing, which he deftly mastered. In the numerous innovative landscapes that Gorky produced in the early 1940s, his abstract vocabulary embraced natural and organic forms, which he conveyed with an explosive, erotic energy.
Until his death in 1948, Gorky painted highly original abstractions that combined memories of his Armenian childhood, especially the gardens, orchards and wheat fields of his rural homeland, with direct observations from nature. A string of tragic events beginning in the mid 1940s, however, would leave the artist in both physical and emotional agony. A fire in his studio, a painful operation for rectal cancer, a debilitating automobile accident, and marital troubles led the depressed Gorky to commit suicide on July 21, 1948. Although his life was tragically cut short, the unique and impressive body of work that Gorky left behind made a profound impact on American Art, securing his reputation as the last of the great Surrealist painters and one of the first Abstract Expressionists.
This biography is sourced from arshilegorkyfoundation.org


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Potawatomi Shooting: Woman Shot in Milwaukee Bingo Casino by Boyfriend (VIDEO)
A Potawatomi shooting has resulted in one woman suffering a gunshot wound in her leg at the popular bingo casino in Milwaukee, according to reports.
Police are investigating the shooting, which is said to have occurred after the injured woman had an altercation with a man thought to be her boyfriend.
The incident reportedly led to a chaotic scene at the casino, with scared gamblers left screaming and running for cover.
The incident at Potawatomi Bingo Casino occurred at about 1:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, police said.
According to NBC News, a Milwaukee woman was inside the bingo casino gambling with her boyfriend when they got into a fierce argument. The argument escalated and the woman's brother tried to break things up, but eventually a gun was produced and a gunshot was fired with the woman being shot in the leg.
Authorities were called to the scene and the 23 year old woman was rushed to Froedtert Hospital. She has since been reported to be in a stable condition, and her injuries are not thought to be life threatening.
Police arrested the victim's boyfriend for the shooting, and he reportedly will be referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office in the coming days for possible charges in the shooting.
The bingo casino was closed temporarily after the incident to allow police to investigate the matter freely. However, the establishment was open again for business by 9 a.m. Sunday morning, reports have claimed.
The Potawatomi Bingo Casino is a gambling establishment that provides table games, slots, bingo, poker, off-track betting, six restaurants and a 500-seat theater. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Here is a video news report into the shooting incident:


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24 Jan Embankment grows team
Posted at 15:54h in Screen Daily by Andreas Wiseman 0 Comments
DDA's Sharon Lee joins sales outfit as licensing and marketing exec.
Former DDA account manager Sharon Lee has joined Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar's Embankment Films.
Lee will be responsible for sales to Asian markets; existing licensing and marketing executive Maite Villarino is responsible for sales and marketing to Spain and Latin America.
Prior to DDA Sharon held positions at Optimum Releasing and Metropolitan Film Export.
Tim Haslam said: "We are delighted to welcome Sharon to an exceptional team. With Sharon and Maite, our sales and marketing facility is enhanced by their diverse language skills and home grown knowledge base".


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CRS: Indian Gaming Regulatory Act: Gaming on Newly Acquired Lands, May 28, 2008
From WikiLeaks
About this CRS report
This document was obtained by Wikileaks from the United States Congressional Research Service.
The CRS is a Congressional "think tank" with a staff of around 700. Reports are commissioned by members of Congress on topics relevant to current political events. Despite CRS costs to the tax payer of over $100M a year, its electronic archives are, as a matter of policy, not made available to the public.
Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.
This report was obtained by Wikileaks staff from CRS computers accessible only from Congressional offices.
For other CRS information see: Congressional Research Service.
For press enquiries, consult our media kit.
If you have other confidential material let us know!.
For previous editions of this report, try OpenCRS.
Wikileaks release: February 2, 2009
Publisher: United States Congressional Research Service
Title: Indian Gaming Regulatory Act: Gaming on Newly Acquired Lands
CRS report number: RL34325
Author(s): M. Maureen Murphy, American Law Division
Date: May 28, 2008
- Abstract
- The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) (P.L. 100-497) generally prohibits gaming on lands acquired for Indians in trust by the Secretary of the Interior (SOI) after October 17, 1988. The exceptions, however, raise the possibility of Indian gaming proposals for locations presently unconnected with an Indian tribe. Among the exceptions are land: (1) acquired after the SOI determines acquisition to be in the best interest of the tribe and not detrimental to the local community and the governor of the state concurs; (2) acquired for tribes that had no reservation on the date of enactment of IGRA; (3) acquired as part of a land claim settlement; (4) acquired as part of an initial reservation for a newly recognized tribe; and (5) acquired as part of the restoration of lands for a tribe restored to federal recognition.
- Download


text:
XCB Protocol Implementation Macro Language
by Jamey Sharp
In this document, terms shall be used as follows.
A "field" is a unit of information in a real protocol request. Fields are never visible to programmers using XCB.
A "reply field" is a unit of information in a real protocol reply. Reply fields are directly visible to programmers using XCB.
A "param" ("parameter") is a unit of information passed to a protocol request wrapper function. It may or may not correspond to a field.
These macros desribe all data that comes from the X server.
Extension Support: BEGINEXTENSION and ENDEXTENSION
BEGINEXTENSION(X name, C name)
An extension's X name is the string used to identify it to the server (e.g. 'DPMS', 'SHAPE', 'XVideo'). The X protocol specification says that the X name of the extension "should use the ISO Latin-1 encoding, and uppercase and lowercase matter."
An extension's C name should be a valid C identifier which can be guessed easily from the X name: it will appear in some names visible to programmers using XCB.
VOIDREQUEST(name, 0 or more ?[#Request''Parameters''and Fields[PARAMs]])
Creates a function named [[XcbApi#XCBName][XCB<name>|XcbApi]] returning [[XcbApi#XCBNameCookie][XCBVoidCookie|XcbApi]] and accepting whatever parameters are necessary to deliver the given ?[#Request''Parameters''and Fields[PARAMs]] to the X server. Requests created with this macro do not expect a reply.
REQUEST(name, 0 or more ?[#Request''Parameters''and''Fields[PARAMs]], 1 or more ?[#Field''Declarations[FIELDs]])
Creates a function named [[XcbApi#XCBName][XCB<name>|XcbApi]] whose return result is an [[XcbApi#XCBNameCookie][XCB<name>Cookie|XcbApi]] and whose parameters are whatever is necessary to deliver the given ?[#Request''Parameters''and Fields[PARAMs]] to the X server. Declares the struct [[XcbApi#XCBNameCookie][XCB<name>Cookie|XcbApi]]. Creates a function named [[XcbApi#XCBNameReply][XCB<name>Reply|XcbApi]] returning a pointer to [[XcbApi#XCBNameRep][XCB<name>Rep|XcbApi]] which forces a cookie returned from [[XcbApi#XCBName][XCB<name>|XcbApi]], waiting for the response from the server if necessary. The ?[#Field Declarations[FIELDs]] must be quoted.
EVENT(name, number, 1 or more FIELDs)
Declares the struct [[XcbApi#XCBEventNameEvent][XCB<name>Event|XcbApi]] containing the given FIELDs. Also defines [[XcbApi#XCBEventName][XCB<name>|XcbApi]] equal to number.
EVENTCOPY(new name, new number, old name)
ERROR(name, number, 1 or more FIELDs)
Declares the struct [[XcbApi#XCBErrorNameError][XCB<name>Error|XcbApi]] containing the given FIELDs. Also defines [[XcbApi#XCBErrorName][XCB<name>|XcbApi]] equal to number.
ERRORCOPY(new name, new number, old name)
Request Parameters and Fields
These PARAM and FIELD macros may only appear within the second parameter to the ?[#REQUESTREQUEST] or ?[#VOIDREQUESTVOIDREQUEST] macros, and must always be quoted.
All of these macro calls must appear in the order specified by Appendix B (Protocol Encoding) of the X Window System Protocol specification, or the equivalent documentation for any extension. However, ?[#LISTPARAM[LISTs]] (including !LISTofVALUEs) are always grouped after any fixed-length section.
Information about padding bytes must be known, so you may need to specify it using the ?[#PADPAD] macro. However, in several cases this information can be inferred by the macros and thus can be omitted:
* After the last fixed-length field in a fixed-length request or reply.
* After the last fixed-length field in a variable-length request.
* Between each variable-length field and the next 4-byte aligned boundary in a request.
For extensions, this macro generates code to look up the major number and sets the minor number to the given value.
For the core protocol, this macro sets the major number to the given value.
Inserts the given number of padding bytes.
PARAM(type, name)
Defines a parameter with a field of the same type.
VALUEPARAM(bitmask type, bitmask name, value array name)
Defines a BITMASK/LISTofVALUE parameter pair. The bitmask type should probably be either CARD16 or CARD32, depending on the specified width of the bitmask. The value array must be given to the generated function in the order the X server expects.
Caution! No type-, value-, or bounds-checking is done on this array by XCB. The X server and your operating system may not catch errors either, leading to odd results if you're not careful.
LISTPARAM(element type, list name, optional length expression)
Defines a !LISTofFOO parameter. The length of the list may be given as any C expression and may reference any of the other fields of this request.
If the length is not given, then it is obtained in a language-dependent manner. In C, a ?[#LOCALPARAMLOCALPARAM] is automatically generated for
name_len immediately before the list parameter.
Note that requests like QueryTextExtents require a ?[#LOCALPARAMLOCALPARAM] for the length field, while others like InternAtom require a ?[#PARAMPARAM].
The recommended idiom for strings is to pass the length of the string into XCB, because it is much easier for callers to convert null-terminated strings to this style of counted strings than to go the other way around, and because requiring null-terminated strings as input could cause some valid protocol requests to be impossible to produce using XCB.
PARAM(CARD16, `name_len') LISTPARAM(char, `name', `name_len')_Example macro usage for strings with on-wire lengths._LISTPARAM(char, `path')_Example macro usage for strings without on-wire lengths._
LOCALPARAM(type, name)
Defines a parameter with no associated field. The name can be used in expressions.
This macro can be useful in conjunction with LISTs where you need to pass the number of items to the ?[#LISTPARAMLISTPARAM] macro, but in the protocol the list length is implicit in the request length.
EXPRFIELD(field name, expression)
Defines a field which should be filled in with the given expression. The field has no associated parameter. The name can be used in expressions.
This macro can be useful when the protocol requires an explicit field containing a value which is easily calculated from the information available.
In the core protocol, the only request that this is used for is QueryTextExtents, where the length of the string is implicit in the length of the request, with the exception that whether the string is odd or even length must be specified separately. This declaration expresses that:
EXPRFIELD(BOOL, `odd''length', `string''len & 1')
Historically, EXPRFIELD was also used to allow C-style null-terminated strings to be passed to XCB and converted to counted strings automatically. This usage is deprecated. See ?[#LISTPARAMLISTPARAM].
EXPRFIELD(CARD16, `name_len', `strlen(name)') LISTPARAM(char, `name', `name_len')_Deprecated example of converting a null-terminated string to a counted string._
ARRAYREPLY(field type, field name, length name)
Deprecated: use ?[#LISTFIELDLISTFIELD].
REPLY(type, name)
Deprecated: use ?[#FIELDFIELD]
Utility Macros
Header File Generation
HEADERONLY and SOURCEONLY
These two macros are deprecated. They're too language-specific to appear in generics.xcb, and XCB should be able to figure out where to put all declarations on its own anyway.
Code which should appear only in a header (.h) file or only in an implementation (.c) file may be enclosed in the HEADERONLY and SOURCEONLY macros.
XCBGEN and ENDXCBGEN
XCBGEN(header name)
The first line (aside from comments) of any XCB protocol implementation should contain a call to the XCBGEN macro, and the last line should contain a call to the ENDXCBGEN macro. The header name should generally be the base name of the source file, with all lowercase letters capitalized, and all other characters converted to underscores (""): for example, xcbconn.m4 uses XCB_CONN here.
XCBGEN automatically causes the header file to be #included by the implementation file.
Internal Macros
Transliterates lowercase characters to uppercase.
Transliterates the first character of the string to uppercase.
SPLIT(substring, string)
Split a string into a list of strings, at each point that the given substring appears.
JOIN(sep, string, ...)
Join a list of strings with a given string as separator.
MAP(macro, string, ...)
Applies the macro to each following string and returns the transformed list.
PUSHDIV and divert should never be called with any number except -1. Instead, save the return value of ALLOCDIV into a macro that is named for the contents of the diversion, and use that macro.
define(`FUNCDIV', ALLOCDIV)_Example of creating a new diversion._
Any use of
divert(0) should be replaced with POPDIV(), and the first call to divert before that should be replaced with a call to PUSHDIV. This ensures that the protocol description file can be used in a wide variety of ways, including those that want only the values of the macros and diversions created inside the file.
Returns a diversion number not currently in use.
Pushes the given diversion onto the diversion stack, switching to it in the process.
Pops the current diversion off the diversion stack, returning to the diversion which was in effect before the last ?[#PUSHDIVPUSHDIV].
Move line indentation to the right 4 spaces.
Move line indentation to the left 4 spaces.
Indent current line according to the current indentation level set by ?[#INDENTINDENT] and ?[#UNINDENTUNINDENT].
FUNCTION(return type and function name, params, body)
Declares a C function, placing the appropriate prototype in the header file and the complete function in the implementation file.
STATICFUNCTION(return type and function name, params, body)
Declares a static-scope C function. No prototype is placed in the header file, and the keyword static is applied to the function in the implementation file.
INLINEFUNCTION(return type and function name, params, body)
Declare a C function which should be compiled inline if possible. The function is placed in the header file and declared "static inline".
A future implementation of these macros should fall back to generating a regular function if inlines aren't supported by the compiler, but this isn't implemented yet.
TYPEDEF(old name, new name)
ENUM(type name, name list)
Declares a struct holding an XID, and a function to allocate new instances of this struct.
STRUCT(name, 1 or more FIELDs)
Typedefs a structure defined to contain the given fields so that it has the given name.
UNION(name, 1 or more FIELDs)
Typedefs a union defined to contain the given fields so that it has the given name.
Field Declarations
These declarations may be used in ?[#STRUCTSTRUCT], ?[#UNIONUNION], or ?[#REQUESTREQUEST] reply definitions.
FIELD(type, name)
Declares a field of the given type with the given name.
LISTFIELD(type, name, quantity)
Declares a list with the given name and containing the given quantity of elements of the given type.
If the given type is fixed-length, declares the [[XcbApi#XCBNameField][XCB<request><field>|XcbApi]] function.
If the given type has an iterator, declares the [[XcbApi#XCBNameFieldIter][XCB<request><field>Iter|XcbApi]] function.
Declares the [[XcbApi#XCBNameFieldLength][XCB<request><field>Length|XcbApi]] function.
ARRAYFIELD(type, name, quantity)
Deprecated: use ?[#LISTFIELDLISTFIELD].
These macros need to be documented.


text:
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South African Journal of Education
On-line version ISSN 2076-3433
Print version ISSN 0256-0100
S. Afr. j. educ. vol.29 n.1 Pretoria Feb. 2009
The perceptions of parents of their role in the democratic governance of schools in South Africa: Are they on board?
Vuzi Mncube
Lecturer in the Department of Education Policy Studies at Stellenbosch University. He has 16 years teaching and lecturing experience and his research interest focuses on education leadership, governance and management
I argue that parent participation in SGBs is an important ingredient in building democracy in the schooling system, as well as in the wider society of South Africa. At some schools in South Africa, parents are not yet playing their full role as governors mandated by legislation. Parents at some rural schools are reluctant to participate in the decision-making by School Governing Bodies (SGBs) as a result of their low educational level or of power struggles in SGBs. In some former model C schools, on the other hand, lack of participation is related to a level of education of parents in general, lack of education on parental involvement in school activities, a fear of academic victimisation' of their children, language barrier, and difficulty in attending meetings. This lack of involvement is at its highest in school governing bodies. It appears therefore that while representation and debate are theoretically open and fair, there are still factors that inhibit SGBs from operating democratically. Although the political control of apartheid has gone, issues related to full democratic participation have not been resolved.
In 1994 South Africa became a true democracy after decades of oppression and inequality. As part of the transformation process, the Department of Education (DoE) published a White Paper on Organisation, Governance and Funding of Schools (DoE, 1996) to foster democratic institutional management at school level. All stakeholder groups were to be accorded active and responsible roles to encourage tolerance, rational discussion and collective decision-making (Mncube, 2008; Republic of South Africa, 1996). The South African Schools Act 84, 1996 (SASA), which came into effect at the beginning of 1997, emanated from this White Paper. In terms of this Act, all public state schools in South Africa must have democratically elected School Governing Bodies (SGBs) comprising parents, learners, educators, non-teaching staff and school principal. Their functions include creating an environment conducive to teaching and learning, developing a mission statement for the school, promoting the best interests of the school, ensuring quality education for learners, safety and security of learners, deciding on school-uniform policy, disciplinary action and policy regarding determination of school fees.
This move was motivated by the need for greater democracy in education both nationally and internationally (Mncube, 2005, UNICEF, 1995; UNDP, 1993/4/5). According to international researchers listening to parents, encouraging their participation and giving them more power and responsibility (i.e. greater democratisation) all result in a better functioning school (Apple, 1993; Bean & Apple, 1999; Davies, Harber & Schweisfurth, 2002; Davies & Kirkpatrick, 2000; Harber, 2004; Moggach, 2006). Apple (2001) offers a powerful critique of the different strands in new right-wing thinking on education in America on neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism and authoritarian populism, and suggests that these ideologies work against democracy and social justice in society as a whole, as well as in schools. The role of parental involvement in education has been receiving greater interest. Epstein's model of parental involvement suggests that home/school communication should be a two-way communication and reflect a co-equal partnership between families and schools (Lemmer & Van Wyk, 2004). Furthermore, Epstein (1987) argued that educators, who work with parents understand their learners better, generate unique rather than routine solutions to classroom problems and reach a shared understanding with parents and learners. Moreover, parents who are involved develop a greater appreciation of their role (McBride, 1991). Parental involvement in education has been associated with a variety of positive academic outcomes including higher grade-points averages (Gutman & Midgley, 2000), lower dropout rates (Rumberger, 1995), fewer retentions and special education placements (Miedel & Reynolds, 1999), writing (Epstein, Simon & Salinas, 1997), Mathematics (Izzo, Weissberg, Kasprow & Fendrich (1999), and increased achievement in reading (e.g. Senechal & LeFevre, 2002). However, Grolnick, Benjet, Kurowski and Apostoleris (1997) questioned the feasibility of home/school partnerships. They argued that the adoption of such a policy is not beneficial for learners of lower socioeconomic status (SES) and that the involvement of parents does not diminish the gap in attainment between learners of different SES groups (Feuerstein, 2000; Lareau, 1987). Epstein (1991) raised questions about the presumed positive relationship between involvement and achievement, concluding that gains are higher on some achievement tests, but not mathematics tests. Epstein claims that gains in achievement may occur only in subjects in which parents feel confident about their ability to support their children's learning.
Much information remains unknown about how parents decide to be involved or not in their children's education. In the next section I attempt to address this gap of what the cause is of parental reluctance to take part in school activities.
Discussion of democratic school governance
Edge (2000) defines school-level governance as a radical form of decentralisation. The school becomes the primary means of stimulating and sustaining improvements. On the basis of his study on the transfer of control at the local level in New South Wales, Johnson (1994), argues the merits of this. He argues that the needs of each school are best determined at local level, as each community (and therefore each school) has distinctive needs.
In South Africa, school governance refers to the institutional structure entrusted with the responsibility or authority to formulate and adopt school policy on a range of issues which include school uniforms; school budgets and developmental priorities; endorsement of the code of conduct for learners, staff and parents; broad goals on the educational quality that the school should strive to achieve; school-community relations, and curriculum programme development (Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2008; Sithole 1995). School governance structures create an opportunity for all stakeholders (including community representatives) to develop a sense of ownership of the school and thus take responsibility for what is happening at the school (see Bean & Apple, 1999).
Chapman, Froumin and Aspin (1995) provide a useful list of characteristics of democratic institutions as a framework for school governance. They suggest that policies and actions are based on decisions and are not arbitrary; and that the will of the majority prevails whilst the rights of minorities are preserved and respected. In a school situation, this implies that powers and responsibilities should be distributed among all stakeholders in the school in accordance with the law and that policies should be formulated after rigorous deliberations. Section 16 of the SASA states clearly that the day-to-day professional management of the school should be the responsibility of the principal and the governance of the school remains the responsibility of the SGBs. In practice, parent governors are not all participating fully yet since many of them lack the necessary skills to perform the duties assigned to them. In such situations, the principal continues to perform the functions now supposed to be the responsibility of the SGBs (Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2008).
As Giddens (1984) explains, governance of schools is a political activity, because it deals with both allocative and distributive resources, as well as involving education professionals and lay people who have their own views on what school is about and the way in which it should be organised (Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2008). Power relations therefore remain central to any understanding of the practices and processes of school governance, regardless of the cultural context in which they operate: they are "an ineradicable feature of the fragile character of the school governing bodies as organizations" (Mncube, 2007; Mncube, 2008; Deem, Brehony & Heath 1995:133). This is what makes school governance a complex issue and why some functions such as the appointment of staff, language policy and decisions about school fees have tended to be problematic (Sayed, 2002).
Karlsson (2002) cautions that, instead of warding off the South African apartheid era inequalities in power struggles, social class, gender and race, SGBs in South Africa tend to exacerbate them (Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2008). Parents who are excluded from making crucial decisions on matters affecting education of their children are an instance of this. Like McPherson (2000), and in my own research (Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2007; Mncube, 2008), I found that the functioning of SGBs varies from school to school. Because of the greater managerial expertise among the parents, former model C schools operate more effectively than other schools; and there are also vast differences between urban and rural schools.
For the purposes of this article, democratic school governance refers to the transfer and sharing of power between the state and the school since schools are in the best position to know and understand their own needs, and therefore should be fundamentally self-determining. Democratic school governance implies that all the stakeholders, including parents, decide on school policies which affect the education of their children. This points to a genuine handing over and sharing of power with concomitant responsibility and accountability, rather than a shifting of accountability and responsibility as most commentators suggest.
Research problem and aim
In this study I set out to investigate whether parents are actively participating in democratic governance in South African secondary schools and whether their participation is related to their knowledge about their responsibilities. Participation of parents in school governing bodies (SGBs) was chosen as the most common arena in which the interplay of power relations between professional and lay governors takes place. My research, conducted in 2004 for a PhD thesis, revealed a lack of black parental participation particularly in SGBs of the former model C schools.
The following research questions were identified:
o What are the actual functions of the SGBs in which parents actively participate?
o What are the causes of the lack of parental participating in school activities?
o Is parents' participation in governing bodies related to their knowledge of their responsibilities?
Research design and data gathering
To address the research question, an inquiry was undertaken using a mixed methodology of qualitative and quantitative approaches and the data were collected in two phases of data collection. The first phase of the research included the use of in-depth interviews, observation, and reading of source documents. As in my previous research (Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2007; Mncube, 2008), the use of interviews was done in order to understand the internal dynamics of the functioning of a small sample of SGBs in secondary schools in KwaZulu-Natal. The aim of using interviews was to get "under the skin" of the organisations concerned to reveal the opinions and experiences of various governors regarding the involvement of parents in SGBs and other school activities. First, 32 semi-structured individual interviews were conducted to explore the views of school governors (SGs) about parent participation in SGBs. Each of these interviews was approximately 40 minutes long. A common interview schedule was used for all the participants, regardless of their constituency. In each SGB the following categories of governors were interviewed: a chairperson of an SGB; the principal; two teaching staff governors; one non-teaching staff governor; two parent governors, and two learner governors.
I also observed two formal meetings of SGBs in each school. Robson (2002) contends that observation makes it possible for a researcher to experience what happens in the real world. Informal observations in other words unplanned observations were therefore undertaken. In addition, source documents were examined. These documents were used to complement the other methods used for data collection, and to enhance accountability. Documents were therefore not necessarily studied for substantive evidence. The main documents used were agendas and minutes of SGB meetings, letters to parents, annual reports to parents, disciplinary records and curriculum materials. For ethical reasons access to documents and records was negotiated in advance (Mncube, 2008).
During the second phase of data gathering a questionnaire was used, with the specific aim of involving a significant number of schools, i.e. to reach a wider population of respondents for issues of generalisability. A questionnaire was used to establish whether when democracy is advocated and practised in schools, parents are appropriately informed of their responsibilities. This questionnaire was sent to 500 parents in 10 schools in KwaZulu-Natal in September 2006. Of the 500 parents, 430 returned their completed questionnaires. The schools were carefully selected to ensure that all race categories would be included in the sample so I had comparative data on the involvement of parents along democratic lines in schools with different cultural and economic backgrounds. The categories were as follows: three rural schools, two township schools, three former model C schools, one former Indian school, and one former coloured school. A common questionnaire, compiled in English, was used, as English is regarded as a lingua franca in South Africa. However, the use of English only excluded the participation of at least one parent from an Afrikaans school who did not respond to the questionnaire. The reason given was that it was not available in Afrikaans. This was a lesson for future research.
A variety of strategies was used to achieve as high a response rate as possible. Questionnaires were hand-delivered by 500 Grade 11 learners. Instructions were simple and all the questions could be answered in a very short time. Since the instrument was designed for easy analysis, the closed questions used required only tick-box answers. To compensate for the low level of literacy among some of the respondents, I asked learners with illiterate parents to assist their parents to complete the questionnaire. (This is the reason why Grade 11 learners were chosen to distribute these to the parents.) The learners' assistance' could possibly have had some influence on the reliability of the data. However, since most of the parents had at least basic literacy levels, only a small number of parents had to rely on their children to answer the questionnaires.
Data analysis
The data obtained from in-depth interviews and observation were analysed by means of procedures typical of both qualitative and quantitative research. Interviews were transcribed and coded, and responses grouped according to the questions asked. Excel was used for the initial data analysis before the governors' responses to each question were studied to see what they revealed about respondents' opinions and beliefs about parental participation in SGBs. Tables were used to give a clear overall picture. Data obtained from questionnaires were analysed using simple quantitative procedures only. The focus was on the number of responses per item in a questionnaire. Negative responses were used in discussions, which enabled me to critically analyse issues of parental participation in school governance.
Sample and description of case study schools
Pseudonyms were used for the schools to ensure confidentiality. As already indicated, selection of the four secondary schools in KwaZulu-Natal was not randomly done. These schools were chosen to reflect the apartheid racial classification. The schools are defined as follows: one former Model C school (as explained earlier), a coloured school (coloured' refers to a person of mixed racial heritage), a rural school and a township school. These are schools that were used in my research on school governance (Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2007; Mncube, 2008). Information about each school was obtained prior to the fieldwork. This study builds upon the research conducted in 2004; as such the schools forming the sample are similar to those in Mncube (Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2007; Mncube, 2008).
Buchanan Secondary School is a former model C co-educational secondary school situated in pleasant urban surroundings in a rural town in KwaZulu- Natal. The local middle-class neighbourhood is racially integrated, but white residents predominate. The school is privileged compared to the other three schools: the buildings are large and well maintained. Six hundred and twenty-two learners are enrolled at Buchanan and there are 28 educators. The majority of teaching as well as non-teaching staff are white. Only 60% of the learners can afford to pay the school fees (R5 000 per year); 40% qualify for fee exemption.
Hillside Secondary School is a co-educational secondary school formerly reserved for coloured learners, although Indian learners have been admitted since the end of the apartheid era. Most educators are coloured, but there were Indian and black staff members as well. The school is relatively advantaged and offers a wide range of academic subjects. The surrounding community comprises middle-class as well as working-class residents. Half the learners commute from the surrounding rural areas in search of better quality education. According to the chairperson of the governing body, the school does not have the financial resources to repair the school buildings, which were vandalised some time ago. Only 40% of the learners can pay the R1 200 school fees; the rest qualify for fee exemption. The school has an enrolment of 800 learners and has 22 educators.
Village Green Secondary School is a co-educational rural school in Melmoth. It offers academic subjects and is attended by ethnically homogeneous black learners (IsiZulu speakers). The school is relatively disadvantaged, but is better resourced than many other rural schools. It has, for example, an electricity supply. However, the number of classrooms is inadequate, and as many as 95 learners sometimes have to crowd into a single classroom. All members of the teaching staff are black. The local community consists of a few working-class families; the rest of the community is unemployed; the unemployment rate in the area is very high. The buildings are in reasonably good repair for this type of school. Seventy percent of the learners qualify for fee exemption as parents are unable to pay the school fees (R150 per annum). Education authorities regard this as one of the better rural schools in the region. The school enrols 575 learners per year and has 17 educators.
Melbourne Secondary School is a co-educational township school near Empangeni which is attended by black learners only. It offers academic subjects. This township school is better off than most rural schools. It has an adequate number of classrooms compared to Village Green Secondary School. Nevertheless, the classrooms are still overcrowded with approximately 75 learners per classroom. All members of the teaching staff are black and speak IsiZulu. The buildings are relatively well looked after and were renovated 10 years ago. The school enrols 790 learners per year and has 24 educators. Fifty percent of the learners cannot afford to pay the school fees of R300 per year, thus qualifying for fee exemption.
It is important to emphasise that the sampling was not random, so these findings cannot be generalised to schools in South Africa or even to all of the schools in KwaZulu-Natal. More qualitative and quantitative research of a longitudinal nature needs to be carried out on in this area before generalisations will be possible.
The school fees paid by learners are based on the national poverty distribution table which is in Section 109 of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding. In order to address the issues of poverty in South African schools, the government targets are the same for all learners, regardless of the province they are in. The national poverty distribution table is used by the provincial Departments of Education to allocate funds to schools.
For example for 2007 the school allocation in each quintile (from NQ1 to NQ 5) was as indicated in Table 1.
Table 1 shows that those schools in the national quintile 1 receive 30% of allocation (i.e. R738 per learner); while those schools in the national quintile 5 receive an allocation of only 5% (R123 per learner).
Research findings and discussion
The actual functions of parents in school governing bodies
Section 20 of the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 (SASA) stipulates the functions of SGBs (Department of Education, 1996). To establish whether parents actively participate in SGBs, the following question was put to governors from the four case-study schools: What are the actual functions of parents in the school governing body?' The responses reflect what governors think the actual roles of parents in the SGBs are, or should be, rather than the functions stated in the SASA. Table 2 reflects the variety of functions listed by the respondents. The following Codes were used to make the table easy to understand:
DSF: Decision on school fees
Discipline issues
Daily running of the school
School maintenance
Monitoring performance of learners
School Development
Communication and informing parents
Appointment of staff
Monitoring performance of educators
Formulating school policy
Providing the use of school of facilities
Holding annual general meetings
Admission of learners
Monitoring school performance
Ensuring the culture of teaching and learning.
According to Table 2, the findings suggest that the respondents felt that the main functions of SGBs in which parents actively participate were decisions on school fees (22), discipline issues (16), and the daily running of the school (14). This high value confirms the conflicting roles between the SGBs and principals. According to SASA the day-to-day management (running) of the school is the responsibility of the principal, and not of the SGB.
Fundraising, school maintenance, and monitoring of teacher performance had a tally of five each. School development, budgeting, communication with parents, and appointment of staff were each listed by four respondents, whilst formulating school policies, providing the use of school of facilities, holding annual general meetings, ensuring safety and security of learners and educators, admission of learners were listed by three respondents. The next categories, each listed by two respondents, were deciding on admission policies for learners, monitoring school performance, and ensuring that the culture of teaching and learning exists in schools. The other functions that were listed were code of conduct for learners (1), deciding on school curriculum (1), creating environment conducive to teaching and learning (1), developing a mission statement for the school (1), promoting the best interests of the school (1), ensuring quality education for learners (1), safety and security of learners (1), deciding on school uniform policy (1), offering advice to the school principal (1), ensuring a high degree of transparency and openness (1). Surprisingly, most of these are the functions of SGBs that are stated in SASA. This confirms the lack of understanding of SASA by the parents. However, due to the limitation of space, the broader argument of this article will be limited to decision on school fees and discipline.
Governors from the case study schools were asked whether parents play a full role in the SGBs. The findings of the present study found that parent participation varied in different types of schools. It appears that at rural schools parents are often not afforded the opportunity to play a full role in the governance of a school. In most cases decisions are taken by the senior management team (SMT) instead of the SGB. A parent governor explained:
Yes, we do participate, but not to the full extent. At times as parents we are not given the chances of full control as parents of learners of the school and decisions are taken by the SMT while they need to have been taken by the SGB. The SMT takes the role of SGB, the conflict of roles exist[s] between the school government and the school management (a parent governor from Village Green).
The issue of discipline emerged strongly. Governors in most schools agreed that the most difficult decision they had to take concerned the expulsion of learners. The problems in this regard were noted in the majority of schools. For example, in Village Green Secondary School this problem was brought to the fore when the decision was taken by the principal and his senior management team (SMT) instead of the legitimate SGB. A parent governor argued:
The most difficult decision we took was that of expelling a learner who had stabbed another learner. The principal and his SMT were responsible for the expulsion, but at the hearing of the case, which was conducted after the learner had already been expelled, the teaching staff alleged falsely that the SGB had recommended the expulsion of this learner. Parents and learners were never involved in that decision, but the SGB had to endorse the decision taken by the principal and his SMT. Parents and learners had certainly not been consulted, so it was a malicious attempt of the teaching staff to implicate SGB members who were not present when an incorrect decision was taken. In addition, neither correct procedures nor proper tribunals had been followed. However, as parents we did not want to be suspected of betraying the principal and the chair, so we had no choice but to pretend that we had been involved the decision. At times, as an SGB member, you can raise issues in an attempt to check whether the Act is being followed, but no one takes you seriously. The majority of members have been fully brainwashed by the principal and educators, so that they believe that whatever the teaching staff and their principal do is always right.
The majority of governors in all the case-study schools felt that they followed procedures in the case of serious offences, but the Provincial Department of Education did not always approve their recommendation to expel a learner. This exacerbates disciplinary problems, since learners are aware that in the end the Provincial Department of Education may reverse the decision of recommendation by the SGB. What did emerge, however, is that three SGBs (Village Green, Buchanan, and Hillside) had contravened the South Africa Schools Act relating to suspension and expulsion.
The Republic of South Africa, in the Government Gazette, of 26 January 2006, suggests in Section 9 of the SASA, as amended, that the governing body of a public school may, after a fair hearing on reasonable grounds and as a precautionary measure, suspend a learner who is suspected of serious misconduct. This is recommended as a correctional measure for a period not longer than one week; or, in consultation with the Head of Department, pending a decision as to whether the learner is to be expelled from the school by the Head of the Department. The latter may only enforce such suspension after the learner has been granted a reasonable opportunity to make representations in relation to such suspension. It is not the function of the SGB to expel learners. The SGB should only conduct the disciplinary proceedings as contemplated in section 8 of the Act. If a learner is found guilty of serious misconduct during disciplinary proceedings, the governing body may impose the suspension of such a learner for a period not longer than seven school days, or may make a recommendation to the Head of Department to expel such a learner from a public school. However, research suggests that there are positive behavioural outcomes associated with parental involvement, including improved disciplined and increased ability to self-regulate behaviour (Brody, Flor & Gibson, 1999) and higher levels of social skills (McWayne, Hampton, Fantuzo, Cohen & Sekino, 2004).
It was also suggested by governors that next to disciplinary issues, financial matters were a major concern. The majority of governors grapple with ways of collecting school fees, since in most schools a substantial number of parents qualify for exemption from fees. Schools are left with few effective means of collecting fees from the remaining parents. For example, the Act does not allow school principals to withhold the school reports of learners whose parents have not paid the school fees. At one stage Melbourne did so nevertheless. The chair of governors from Melbourne explained:
The decision we took was on what to do with those parents who do not pay school fees, as this caused dispute among those who paid and those who did not; we also had to decide what to do with those who do not attend meetings, nor respond to the principal's request for private meetings regarding school fees. We suggested that those learners whose parents had not paid the fees do not receive their end-of-year reports. Unfortunately, this contradicts the SASA, which states that learners should not suffer because of the wrongdoings of the parents. Unfortunately, our SGB is now left defenceless.
The chair of governors from Buchanan indicated that financial issues sometimes led to heated participation:
Yes, honestly sometimes parents participate, particularly if there was a controversial issue, and particularly on financial issues. Some could become over-involved.
As I have argued elsewhere (Mncube, 2005; 2007; 2008), this over-involvement' is not surprising as financial struggles feature prominently in South African schools. This is particularly true of rural and township schools, where learners have been involved in riots because of the alleged misappropriation of school funds by principals. Owing to the problems experienced by the majority of parents regarding issues of school fees, the Minister of Education has amended the SASA, introducing no-fee schools. This amendment took effect at the beginning of 2007 (Republic of South Africa, 2006).
Power relations
While in the majority of case-study schools not many power struggles were noted and observed, in Village Green it was noted that participation of parents was hindered by power relations, as in most cases decisions in the SGBs were taken by the senior management team (SMT) instead of the full SGB. A parent governor explained:
Yes, we do participate, but not to the full extent. At times as parents and learners are not afforded an opportunity to take decisions on school matters, but decisions are taken by the SMT while they need to have been taken by the SGB. The SMT takes the role of SGB, the conflict of roles exist between the school government and the school management (Village Green parent governor).
The findings confirm that power relations affect school governance. This is in line with international experience. On the basis of their research, Deem, Brehony & Heath (1995) contend that power relations are central to any understanding of the practices and processes of school governance, regardless of the cultural context in which they operate. Power relations are an ineradicable feature of the fragile character of the SGBs as organization' (Deem et al., 1995:133; Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2007; Mncube, 2008).
Power relations also play a significant role in relation to gender issues, which also play a role in shaping parent and learner participation because of traditional gender stereotypes, which still inhibit the performance of women. This was evidenced by the fact that female parent governors tended to be overshadowed by their male counterparts; as in most SGBs female governors tended to be less vocal during the decision-making processes than male governors were. This is associated with the gendered nature of South African society (Mncube, 2008; Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2007).
Knowledge of responsibilities and participation
In this article I do not address the election of SGB members, which research suggests currently involves less than 20% of parents of learners nationally. The focus is on the level of participation of those parents who are already serving on SGBs. At Hillside and Buchanan most governors stated that some parents, particularly the black African parents, seem reluctant to meet their obligations. This lack of interest and commitment is corroborated by my research (Mncube, 2005; 2007) and applies to all races. This seems to contradict the view that if parents are aware of their rights and responsibilities, they can legitimately be expected to participate actively in school governance issues. As Table 3 shows, the parents in this study seem to have excellent knowledge of their rights and responsibility. Perhaps the explanation can be found in Table 1, which shows that many parents seem unaware of the functions of the SGBs. These include developing a mission statement for the school; promoting the best interests of the school; deciding on school uniform policy; offering advice to the school principal. Only one governor in each of the case-study schools indicated that these were the main functions in which parents actively take part.
Causes of the lack of participation by black African parents in the former model C schools
It is this lack of participation noted in my research in 2004 (Mncube, 2005) that prompted me to investigate the lack of participation by black African parents in SGBs of the former model C schools and school activities. In response to my question on the causes of the lack of black African parents participating in SGBs of the former model C schools, the majority of governors provided the following answers. It should be noted that some of these causes (educational level and non-attendance of meetings) relate to the other types of schools as can be seen elsewhere in the text.
Educational level
A chairman of a governing body and a teacher, both from Melbourne, contended that parent participation depends on parents' educational level: the better educated a parent is, the more he/she will participate in SGB affairs. The majority of governors at Melbourne expressed the same view.
Parental participation depends entirely on their educational level which plays a major role in their contributions, together with their personal abilities, otherwise, they are passive listeners. New educational changes and challenges make them passive participants (Melbourne chair of governors).
The lack of participation applied to the former model C schools as well, so there was no indication that race was a factor. Van Wyk (1998) suggests that illiterate parents are unable to keep abreast of new challenges in education, and so some parent governors tend to delegate their responsibilities to the school principal, thus becoming passive participants (Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2008). A teacher governor from Melbourne noted most parents attend the meetings of their governing body regularly because they are educated and have an interest in education, while illiterates would not have an interest at all. She indicated that in their former SGB most parents had been illiterate, did not attend, and had no interest in the SGB. As a result, the SGB became dysfunctional. Depending on the topic or discussion at hand, interviews, observations or documents some parents can contribute effectively; for instance, as Table 1 suggests, in matters of finance and e discipline.
Even though participation was perceived as democratic in Buchanan, black parents seemed reluctant to participate in SGBs. This appeared to be related to the following factors:
Lack of education on parental involvement
A parent governor from Buchanan indicated that 13 years after the country had become a democratic state, the former model C schools are still run in the same way as they had been run before the country became a democratic state when staffing and management were dominated by white educators:
Some do, like for myself I have fought to get things changed, I have been an active participant all the time. Some parents definitely do not play their role to the best of their ability; because they are not in touch with the school, and this is due to the lack of capacity building or training on how to get involved on school activities and parental involvement (Parent governor from Buchanan).
Another parent governor said:
Many activities in these schools are new to black parents. No attempt has been made to educate black parents on their expected role or to provide accessible explanations to them on how they could be involved in school activities.
The above quotations indicate that even though parents may be willing to participate, the school is not user-friendly to parents, but instead parents feel excluded intentionally or unintentionally by not being educated on how they should be involved. Both quotes clearly state the absence of capacity building for parents so that they can take part in school activities successfully. The two quotes indicate the realities in which some of the former model C schools operate.
Fear of academic victimisation'
The majority of parents indicated during the interviews that they are afraid to challenge the status quo of the school because they feared victimisation (failing) of their child or children. They also believe that their lack of active participation could cause applications for future enrolment of their children to be declined by the school. The majority of parents interviewed suggested that they fear active participation of challenging the status quo and they end up having to accept things even though they do not agree with decisions taken. The danger is that parent governors could become mere rubber stamps of decisions taken by previously white-dominated SGBs. This is in line with Martin (1999), whose research suggests that a good' parent is one who does not ask too many questions and does not involve himself/herself in professional matters of the school (Mncube, 2005; 2008).
Language barrier
The majority of governors interviewed indicated that the use of only the English language in governing body meetings has a negative effect on participation of some members, i.e. those who cannot express themselves fluently in English. It seems that the better educated parents insist on the use of English in SGB or parents' meetings. Surprisingly, some of the less educated parents do too. This becomes a win-lose situation, where those with a high level of English-speaking proficiency are able to express themselves, while the opposite is true for some black or non-English-speaking parents.
Difficulty in attending meetings
The majority of governors suggested that the non-attendance of the SGB meetings was another cause of the lack of parental participation in SGBs. This is because most meetings are held at night, despite the guidelines from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education, which emphasise the undesirability of conducting SGB meetings at night. Lotter, of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education (2003:13), states that despite receiving relevant guidelines, many former white and Indian schools continue to hold elections for governing body members at night. This means that true representation of the community in a governing body is not reflected as many African parents, who have to travel long distances, find evening meetings difficult to attend. A parent from Buchanan mentioned most black parents are full-time employees. When schools hold their meetings during the day, these black parents have to obtain permission to attend the meetings. In most cases their employers refuse to give them time off. In contrast, most white parents in these schools are business owners who do not need to obtain permission to attend meetings.
This is why Buchanan and Hillside struggle to get their full parent component at their SGB meetings. Consequently, parents are not fully represented or informed. This affects their participation. The lack of parent participation in the former model C schools is corroborated by McPherson (2000) and Carrim and Tshoane (2000). Furthermore, this is in line with my research (Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2007; Mncube, 2008). Nevertheless, the findings of this research suggest that some parents do participate and have actually made some SGBs functional, particularly during discussion of controversial issues such as discipline and finance.
Quantitative data on parents' knowledge of their rights and responsibilities and participation
It was important to determine whether parents' knowledge of their rights and responsibilities influenced their participation in school activities. In order to determine this, the information in Table 3 was obtained from parents by means of a questionnaire.
Since South African schools are now more democratically run, parents have generally become extremely knowledgeable about their legal rights and responsibilities in schools. Parents agreed that parents have the right to ask schools how they are teaching the national curriculum (96%), and also that it is the parents'/guardians' duty to make sure that their children attend schools (96%). In addition, the majority of parents (96%) felt that it is a good thing for parents to be members of the school governing body. These results explain why the majority of parents are now beginning to participate more actively in school activities, showing an increased interest in the education of their children. The knowledge of their responsibilities is also evident in parents' responses, as they suggest that it is the parent's/guardian's responsibility to provide time and space for their children's homework (94%). They also agree that it is the parent's/guardian's responsibility to work closely with the school (93%), and that it is the parent's/guardian's responsibility to help children with school homework (93%), while 91% of the parents are of the opinion that parents/guardians should be more involved in making decisions about school activities. This view is corroborated by Epstein (1992) who argued that learners at all levels do better academic work, have more positive school attitudes and other positive behaviours if they have parents who are aware, knowledgeable, encouraging and involved. In addition, several studies conducted in different countries show that involving parents in instructional tasks has positive effects on learning (Campbell & Mandel 1990; Coleman, 1998; Rosenholtz, 1989; Sanders & Epstein, 1998).
Eighty-eight percent of parents know that they have the right to complain to the school if they are not satisfied with the progress of their children. This figure suggests that there are parents who are still not aware of this legal right. However, 87% of parents agreed that it is the parent's/guardian's right to have his/her children educated as he/she wishes. It also raises some concern that only 75% of parents agreed that a few parents on the school governing body can speak for all of the parents.
However, only 55% of the parents indicated that they know the South African Schools Act. This implies that parents are uninformed about issues of school governance, which explains their lack of interest in participation in school governing bodies. It may also have implications for the reliability of some of the high percentages in the table; it is difficult to understand why parents have these perceptions about their rights if they do not know the Act. Parents are not only concerned with the education of their children, but with the education of other children as well. This is evidenced by the fact that only 54% of parents indicated that they were exclusively concerned with the needs of their own children. Only 41% of the parents believed that schools must do what the government tells them to, because parents/guardians cannot make any difference. Although the information points to the fact that parents know their rights, it does not mean that they are actually using their rights, e.g. the right to ask more questions about underperforming educators.
In a nutshell, Buchanan School, a former model C school, could be described as operating more democratically than the other three schools. The SGB at this school is actively engaged in school governance and has a sense of ownership of the school, and the chair of governors, and not the principal and his/her SMT, is in charge of the SGB. McPherson (2000) corroborates the findings of this research. He attributes the success of the former model C schools to the fact that the suburban SGB is better able to obtain sponsorships from the private sector since during SGB elections, parents with managerial expertise are elected, The SGB governs an already well-resourced school, with an already well-developed solid infrastructure and the SGB has the potential of marketing the school effectively, which contributes to its sustainability through continued enrolment levels and paid-up school fees.
While steady and noticeable progress in terms of parental participation was noted in Hillside and Melbourne, these schools lag behind Buchanan. Hillside and Melbourne could be described as more or less on a par in terms of democratisation. The latter seemed to be operating better than the former thanks to the efforts of the chairperson of the governing body, who is a university lecturer. The chairperson of governors at Hillside is an elderly woman with a lower educational level who feels that there is no need to make school practices more democratic on the grounds that the school had functioned successfully in the past, using a less democratic model. Village Green School performed poorest in terms of parental participation in decision-making, e.g. governors were not well-informed about a crucial issue of learner discipline, which resulted in the school acting ultra vires, contravening several sections of the SASA.
The findings suggest that although parents are part of school governance, most of them are not fully on board. Even though those parents who are elected to the SGBs participate in decision-making processes, some parents, particularly those in rural schools, are not always given sufficient opportunity to participate in crucial decisions affecting the life of the school. They are implicitly or explicitly excluded. This finding is corroborated by Giddens (1984) who maintains that governance of schools is a political activity, involving education professionals and lay people who have their own views on what school is about and the way in which it should be organised. The majority of black African parents in the former model C schools ascribe reluctance to participate in SGBs and school activities to a lack of education on involvement in school governance and activities, the language barrier because of the exclusive use of English as a communication medium in SGB meetings, difficulty in attending SGB meetings, their educational/literacy level, fear of academic victimisation' of their children by educators and power relations in the SGBs. In addition, they believe that their active participation could lead to rejection of applications to enrol their children in the school. These factors tend to inhibit or silence the voice of parents in school matters. Even in the cases where parents are extremely knowledgeable about their rights, the findings show that parents do not always use their rights, e.g. the right to ask more questions about underperforming educators. The manifestation of power relations is clearly observed here; which, as Deem et al. (1995) suggest, is central to any understanding of the practices and processes of school governance, regardless of the cultural context in which they operate (Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2007). This is what makes school governance a complex issue and why some functions such as appointment of staff, language policy and decisions about school fees have tended to be problematic (Sayed, 2002; Mncube, 2005).
Finally, as I have contended elsewhere, (Mncube, 2005; Mncube, 2007:89; Mncube, 2008) while representation and debate are theoretically open and fair, structural and behavioural factors still inhibit the extent to which SGBs operate; the authoritarianism of school leadership and governance characteristic of the apartheid era have disappeared, yet issues concerning values, behaviour, attitudes and skills necessary for full democratic participation remain. I recommend that more should be done in educating educators about parental involvement in schools; and also educating and encouraging parents in participating in school activities. Most parents interviewed indicated that they had not received any training in this regard, particularly in sporting activities, which are new to them. To make this possible, ways of encouraging parental involvement in school activities should form part of the curriculum of pre-service educators, and existing educators should be given the necessary in-service training. They would then be in a position to encourage parents to deliberate and engage in dialogue about school activities. In this way there would be a great potential for the voice of parents to be heard and they would feel a sense of belonging and hence engage fruitfully in dialogue and debates pertaining to school governance, where they would feel included in decision- making processes, thus arriving at what Martin and Holt (2002) refer to as the joined-up governance' (Mncube, 2007; Mncube, 2008). This research has provided what parents think are their responsibilities in SGBs and the cause of lack of parental participation in school activities. However, their vast knowledge of their rights and responsibilities did not correlate with their participation in school activities.
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Beginner Kids Martial Arts Classes Enrolling Now
No matter what your child's age, AmeriKick offers exciting Philadelphia Martial Arts classes that all kids love! From our Tiny Tigers Martial Arts classes for 3 & 4 years old, to our Little Dragons Martial Arts classes for 5 & 6 years old and our Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced Martial Arts classes for children age 7-13, we've got just the class for your child's age and skills.
As our expert Black Belt Philadelphia Martial Arts instructors help your child to learn all the fun martial arts moves kids love, we guarantee you'll notice big changes in your child, both physically and mentally.
Our kids Philadelphia Martial Arts classes are more than just a great fitness program for kids.
All of our instructors have years of experience motivating kids to succeed and teach the traditional philosophies of martial arts like:
All of our Philadelphia Martial Arts classes will help your child develop razor-sharp martial arts skills. But our Martial Arts program is not just about giving kids an incredible workout by teaching basic self-defense skills... We also teach dozens of martial arts techniques that will shape and strengthen your child's mind, too.
In Fact, the benefits of our Philadelphia Martial Arts program are almost endless! Just take a look:
And, no matter what Philadelphia Martial Arts class your child enrolls in, they'll learn how to deal with strangers and bullies and how to escape uncomfortable situations brought on by peer pressure or unwanted advances. Not to mention conquering their fears about bullying and being picked on.
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What You'll Learn at Kids Martial Arts
- Respect
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- Improved school grades and behavior through better concentration
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- A lifetime appreciation for physical fitness
- The drive to have an active, healthy lifestyle
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Kids Martial Arts Program Age Groups
- From Age 3 To 6
- From Age 7 To 13


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Ian O'Leary
Changing Lives Around the Globe
I've been a distributor with Lifevantage just over four years. During that time, just like everyone else in this industry, I've had some highs and lows on the journey. I've experienced success and watched others grow, and I've seen defeat and lost business partners I had invested a lot of time in. Through all of that, I still stood on what I knew on day one of just how special this company is, what we have our hands on, and the people involved! Through my training as a firefighter and martial artist, one lesson I hold close is to not quit on something that you set out to accomplish. Even through the tough times, I knew if I stayed consistent and committed myself to the whole process, I would meet success when the time was right for me!
Last year I made a decision to become a professional in this industry and committed myself to developing my skill set as a network marketer and also dive into personal development. Through the last four years of not missing a major Lifevantage event, and investing in a trip to an Eric Worre leadership event for professional network marketers both paid off to be life changing experiences.
When I attended those events, the experience refocused my energy on really investing in others and their lives since the beginning of this year. Friends and family have seen this new vigor and it has drawn them to reach out and revisit the real meaning of Lifevantage. New contacts also are asking me what I do because they see something intriguing that they want to be a part of. This new focus makes this profession exciting and makes sharing Lifevantage a lot of fun and enjoyable! That excitement has created momentum for my team, and my volume has tripled in the last couple of months. Everyday I wake up more excited about the future with this company and the role I am in as a leader, for my team and others!
¹ The Distributor sales earnings disclosed are potential gross earnings and not net of other business expenses and not necessarily representative of the actual income, if any, that a Distributor can or will earn through the LifeVantage Sales Compensation Plan. A Distributor's earnings will depend on individual diligence, work effort and market conditions. LifeVantage does not guarantee any income or rank success.


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Bid History for 2009 International 3000
Auction Start Date: 05/17/23 8:25 PM ET
Auction End Date: 05/31/23 10:21 PM ET
Asset ID: 2 Number of Bids: 82
Loading bid history...
|2009 International 3000
|Auction Closed
|High Bidder:
|Sold Amount:
|Tax (6.700000%):
|Buyer's Premium (12.50%):
|Total Price:
|View Bid History
|Terms and Conditions
2009 International 3000 BUS, 6.4L V8 DIESEL.
Bus will start and run but may need a new battery. The emergency brake will need to be replaced. No other issues.
|Questions and Answers
Q: Hey, what's the transmission? Thanks (5/29/23 6:24 PM)
A: allison (5/31/23 3:37 PM)
Q: its driveable? (5/31/23 3:47 PM)
A: will need to be towed (5/31/23 5:27 PM)
|At the seller's discretion, inspection may be permitted. Inspection is by appointment only. To request inspection, please click the "Ask a question" hyperlink, if available. If you have additional questions, please visit the FAQs
Wire Transfer is the only payment option for this item. The Wire Transfer Transaction Summary page will provide payment and account information. The Wire Transfer must be completed within 5 days unless otherwise specified below.
PAYMENTIf you are the winning bidder, you will facilitate payment by referring to the My Bids section of your account.
1. Payment is due within 5 (five) business days of auction closure.
2. Any invoice $5,000 or above requires payment via wire transfer.
3. Depending on your history with GovDeals, you may be limited to the number of auctions/transactions that you can participate in simultaneously AND/OR the dollar amount that you can pay via credit card, debit card or PayPal. For additional insight, please visit the Probation FAQ.
SALES TAXWhen applicable, sales tax is calculated based upon the auction's advertised location.
If you are seeking sales tax exemption, you must complete Liquidity Services' tax exemption form(s). We recommend doing this prior to the auction's closure or before making payment. To do so, please visit Liquidity Services' Tax Exemption Submission Tool.
The buyer is responsible for all aspects of pick-up / removal, including but not limited to packing, loading, transportation and exporting. Note: Shipping is NOT available.
Removal is by appointment only. All items must be picked-up / removed within 10 (ten) business days from auction closure, unless otherwise stated in the asset description. If any item(s) is not removed within the allotted timeframe, the item(s) may be declared abandoned.
At the time of pick-up / removal, you will be required to present the seller with a copy of your Buyer's Certificate and/or bill of sale, and potentially other documentation (e.g., copy of driver's license, Authorization of Release, etc). When making a removal appointment, please confirm with the seller what is needed to release the item(s).
|Special Instructions
|NOTICE: If you are the winning bidder and default by failing to adhere to this seller's terms and conditions, your account with Liquidity Services WILL BE LOCKED.
Guaranty Waiver: All property is offered for sale "AS IS, WHERE IS." (Seller) makes no warranty, guaranty or representation of any kind, expressed or implied, as to the merchantability or fitness for any purpose of the property offered for sale. Please note that upon removal of the property, all sales are final.