Presenters Dr. Tiaan Kirsten Dr. Charles Viljoen WORKSHOP MOVING FROM TOXIC SCHOOLS TO HEALTH...
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Presenters Dr. Tiaan Kirsten Dr. Charles Viljoen WORKSHOP MOVING FROM TOXIC SCHOOLS TO HEALTH PROMOTING SCHOOLS: WHAT THE LEADERS CAN DO Potchefstroom Campus YUN IBESITIYA BO KO N E-BO PHIRIM A N O R TH -W EST UN IVERSITY N O O R DW ES -UN IVE R SITE IT
Presenters Dr. Tiaan Kirsten Dr. Charles Viljoen WORKSHOP MOVING FROM TOXIC SCHOOLS TO HEALTH PROMOTING SCHOOLS: WHAT THE LEADERS CAN DO WORKSHOP MOVING
Presenters Dr. Tiaan Kirsten Dr. Charles Viljoen WORKSHOP
MOVING FROM TOXIC SCHOOLS TO HEALTH PROMOTING SCHOOLS: WHAT THE
LEADERS CAN DO WORKSHOP MOVING FROM TOXIC SCHOOLS TO HEALTH
PROMOTING SCHOOLS: WHAT THE LEADERS CAN DO Potchefstroom
Campus
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Health Promoting Schools WORKSHOP OPERATING ON TWO LEVELS
1.Personal development Self knowledge Skills Attitude Behaviour
2.Professional development Leader Vision, mission & values
Slide 3
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Key questions to
be handled during the workshop include: What are the
characteristics of a toxic school? What is the impact of a toxical
school on the people involved? What are the characteristics of a
positive school? What are the core values of a health promoting
school? How do we listen to and transform toxic stories into health
promoting stories? What strategies are there in overcoming
negativism? How can organisational development be used in
transforming the school into a health promoting school?
Slide 4
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools South Africa: a
few snapshots SA faces many challenges of development
Reconstructing education to a system that brings equity to the
education of all children is one of the most urgent The children
are the future, and must be prepared to meet the demands of that
future. The challenge cannot wait: it must be faced now. The main
problems in SAfrica's education system related to the troubled
past, and in particularly to the policy of Apartheid and its
consequences
Slide 5
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools What is needed to
be understood is the nature of the educational challenges which
face South Africa now, at this juncture in its history. Years of
oppressive rule under the Apartheid system were laid to rest in
1994 when the nation elected its first multi-racial and democratic
government. From holistic-societal point of view recent indicators
give an insight into the challenges to be grappled with in
education in South Africa. Crime, violence, and a variety of
psychosocial problems continue to grow as the promise of a new life
for many is too slowly to be realised.
Slide 6
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Unemployment and
low incomes are the after- effects of years of anti-apartheid
international sanctions. And conflicts abound as both blacks and
whites attempt to redefine their roles in the new society.
Currently, more than half of South Africa's population is under the
age of 20. Various problems continue to frustrate the effective
delivery of education. Education is being characterised as:
inefficient, costly, unequal, and poor in quality; the training of
teachers is inadequate
Slide 7
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools there is a lack
of basic materials; communication between departmental officials
and teachers is poor to non-existent; rationalisation and
redeployment of teachers is causing uncertainty and lack of
motivation; drop-outs and repetition of grades and subjects is more
the rule than the exception; misappropriation of funds is
widespread; chronic absenteeism of teachers and pupils as well as
drunkenness while on duty cast a further dark cloud over the
education sphere;
Slide 8
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Health and
nutrition: the National Food Consumption Survey (2000) survey
eating patterns South African children between the ages of one and
nine years old. One out of two children has an intake of less than
half the recommended level of a number of important nutrients such
as iron, zinc and vitamins A and C. These deficiencies cause:
undernourished children to suffer from apathy, short attention span
drop in learning ability due to iron deficiency; poor weight gain
and growth retardation; poor cell functioning and structure due to
zinc deficiency, poor growth, poor digestion, low mental alertness
and poor resistance to infection because of a lack in
vitamins.
Slide 9
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools School culture
Every school has underlying assumptions about what staff members
will discuss at meetings, which teaching techniques work well, how
amenable the staff is to change, and how critical staff development
is. That core set of beliefs underlies the school's overall
culture.
Slide 10
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Positive or
negative culture In a school with a positive culture, there's an
informal network of heroes and heroines and an informal grapevine
that passes along information about what's going on in the school.
A set of values that supports professional development of teachers,
a sense of responsibility for student learning, and a positive,
caring atmosphere exist.
Slide 11
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Culture of the
school The culture of a school consists primarily of the underlying
norm values and beliefs that teachers and administrators hold about
teaching and learning. Culture is also composed of traditions and
ceremonies schools hold to build community and reinforce their
values. Staff and administrators in a positive school culture
believe they have the ability to achieve their ambitions. Their
counterparts operating in a negative school environment lack faith
in the possibility of realizing their visions.
Slide 12
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Positive or
negative culture In a school with a positive culture, there's an
informal network of heroes and heroines and an informal grapevine
that passes along information about what's going on in the school.
A set of values that supports professional development of teachers,
a sense of responsibility for student learning, and a positive,
caring atmosphere exist.
Slide 13
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools On the other
hand, in a toxic school environment, teacher relations are often
conflictual, the staff doesn't believe in the ability of the
students to succeed, and a generally negative attitude prevails.
Staff and administrators in a positive school culture believe they
have the ability to achieve their ambitions. Their counterparts
operating in a negative school environment lack faith in the
possibility of realizing their visions.
Slide 14
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools ORIGIN OF TOXIC
CULTURE/SCHOOLS Negative views of their work, their abilities,
their students No leadership to help staff to overcome adversity,
avoid negative rationalizations, no closure to conflict Drift
towards negativity slow, gradual, new shared viewing of the school
counterproductive Pockets of negativity influence whole school
Keepers of negativity and cynicism (rumourmongers, hostile
storytellers, antiheroines and antiheroes, harmful exemplars) Use
complaints to gain power and attention
Slide 15
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools CHANGING A TOXIC
CULTURE Schools with a negative, or toxic, culture lack a clear
sense of purpose have norms that reinforce inertia blame students
for lack of progress discourage collaboration often have actively
hostile relations among staff In fighting such a negative culture,
the staff must assess the underlying norms and values of the
culture and then as a group activity, work to change them to have a
more positive, supportive culture.
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Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools TOXIC
SCHOOLSHEALTHY SCHOOLS Lack shared purposeshared purpose Aggression
in workplacecommitment team spirit Unhealthy healthy Bullyingcare
for each other Unproductiveproductive Degenerativegrowth
Fragmentedcohesion Not serving needs of allall stakeholders
important Negative valuescollegiality, performance Disgruntled
staffprofessional community
Slide 17
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Hopelessness
shared sense responsibility Attacking new ideasnetwork positive
communication Always criticizingrituals/ceremonies that reinforce
core values School is battleground/warinterpersonal connection
Oppositional groupsshared sense respect and care Spreading
frustrationfor everyone Negative conversationsstories that
celebrate Stories of failure told successes Animosity against
principalprofessional relationship
Slide 18
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Context Research
amongst role players suggests various issues: Education Department
Dysfunctional schools Absenteeism of educators Mismanagement Lack
of ethics Schools and teachers Demands from education department
OBE School organisation Multicultural environments
Slide 19
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Schools and
teachers Parents/families Attitudes of learners Discipline
Societal/community demands Physical ailments in educators and
learners Learners Lack of learner support Disregard for human
dignity Lack career orientation & life orientation Observe
stress in teachers Teaching & learning not realised
optimally
Slide 20
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Parents
Dysfunctional teaching Abuse of learners Perceive school as primary
educator Schools should be safe routes to schools Social ills
violence, drug abuse, etc. Inefficient parenting roles/skills
Absent parents
Slide 21
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Innovation in the
Schools Key questions to be answered Doing something I/we know
about more often? Doing something I/we know about better? Doing
something somewhat different? Doing something altogether
different?
Slide 22
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Innovation in the
Schools Conceptualisation and definition The ability to deliver new
value to the customer (a new way of doing things or a new way to
create customer satisfaction) Innovation utilises creative acts
that must result in quantifiable gain Extending the utilisation of
a product or process Any idea, practice, or material artifact
perceived to be new by the relevant unit of adoption No innovation
as long as the present course of action is considered to be
satisfactory. Discrepancy between satisfactory and actual
performance urges the need for alternatives
Slide 23
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools or Innovation is
process, involving multiple activities, performed by multiple
actors from one or several organisations, during which new
combinations of means and/or ends, which are new for a creating
and/or adopting unit, are developed and/or produced and/or
implemented and/or transferred to old/or new partners ( adapted
from Gemuenden, 2004)
Slide 24
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Innovation in the
School The more open and willing an organisation is to accept and
even seek out new ideas from its external environment, the more
innovative it is (Zaltman & Wallendoff, 1979). The tendency for
large organisations to adopt more innovations has been attributed
to critical mass (eg. the number of people convinced about the
innovation; number of people engaged in the innovation; the amount
of positive energy generated at the point of entry of the
innovation; the amount of success generated after the point of
entry of the innovation (success stories)
Slide 25
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Critical success
factors of innovation Team/individual discensus Conflict properly
managed is a positive force in innovative thinking Team/individual
creativity Generation of ideas and new improved ways of doing
things Team/individual commitment Willingness to transform
intellectual in-puts into out-puts. It is about doing new
things
Slide 26
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools What is meant by
health? Popular and general meaning of health New Oxford Dictionary
of English (1998: 864): the state of being free from illness or
injury A person being restored to health would then mean a person
whom was ill or who had an injury, but is now free from such
problems. This general meaning of health as a concept is loaded
with the connotations and denotations of health as only being about
the physical body, curative and very medicalised in fact a very
bio-medical approach
Slide 27
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools World Health
Organisation Definition The World Health Organisation (WHO, 1948,
1999) defines health as: A state of complete physical, mental and
social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity. Probably the most often cited definition of health
Definition recognizes social wellbeing and therefore the links
between individuals and their social world. Important for the role
it has played in highlighting that health is much more than the
absence of disease, and That it is much more than a physical state
(Wass, 2000: 47)
Slide 28
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Ryff &
Singers (1998:1) conclusion It also seems that in traditional
everyday use, and because of the longstanding emphasis in human
health on illness, and Also because science has until now relegated
health to the biological sciences, The state of the art
conceptualization of health is that it is primarily concerned with
the body.
Slide 29
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Wellness informed
holistic definition of health (Kirsten & Viljoen (2004) Optimal
states of the domains of well-being in which an individual as a
biopsychospiritual being, is physically, psychologically and
spiritually integrated, interrelated and in harmony with the total
living, non-living and symbolic environment, conducive to living a
life of quality and actualising his/her potential in all the
contexts of human existence, based on sustainability and for the
common good.
Slide 30
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Scriven &
Orme (1996: 22) The indisputable logic of intersectoral
collaboration, that if health is more than the absence of treatment
or disease, then promotion and maintenance lies beyond the remit of
any one professional group or sector has not yet dawned upon most
professionals groups or sectors in South Africa.
Slide 31
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Contexts of human
existence Adapted Meta- Approach Transparency
Slide 32
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Illness-wellness
continuum Transparency
Slide 33
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools What is a health
promoting school? Global strategy An approach to strengthen health
promotion in all aspects of education, where children, teachers and
other members of the school community learn, work and play. Is a
school community that takes action and places priority on creating
an environment that will have the best possible impact on students,
teachers, family members and members from the community.
Slide 34
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools What is a health
promoting school? (cont.) Recognises and acts upon the need to
establish environments that will most positively impact upon health
for all through the formal school curriculum, the school atmosphere
and the interface between the school, family and community. The
health promoting school model bases its definition of health on
that of the WHO, which encompasses physical, psychological, social,
environmental and spiritual well-being.
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Slide 45
Potchefstroom Campus Health Promoting Schools Health is created
and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life;
where they learn, work, play and love (Ottawa Charter for Health
Promotion)