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Power Relations in School Governing Bodies: Implications for Effective School Governance

Abstract The South African Schools Act ushered in governance in all South African public schools, by introducing school governing bodies (SGBs) that have overall control and authority in the school, its policies and its direction. However, the introduction of SGBs in schools created two centres of power. The purpose of this study is to investigate the power relations between the SGBs and principals in public schools. The convenient selected sample strategy was used by engaging practising second-year principals from the Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) presented at a university, to write narratives. In analysing the narratives, the researcher applied the open and axial coding methods. From the investigation a number of problem areas emerged, such as unidentified roles, the misunderstanding of roles, overstepping of power and the abdication of power as some of the reasons for poor working relations between the two centres of power.