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Using the “theory of action” framework, it examines how policy signals and school-level actors’ meanings shape participation and representation. The study draws on policy statements, monitoring efforts, and extensive data from parents, principals, teachers, and learners across six schools in two provinces. It finds participation narrowly framed around efficiency rather than democratic aims, requiring changes to power structures for authentic community involvement.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/whose-theory-of-participation-school-governance-policy-and-practice-in-south-africa/600560/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/whose-theory-of-participation-school-governance-policy-and-practice-in-south-africa/600560.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"OmBimo","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-02","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the central focus of the article on school governance in South Africa?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It examines how South Africa promotes broader participation in educational decision-making through local school governance structures, especially where parents serve as majority members.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the article use the “theory of action” framework?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It uses the framework to interpret both government policy and school-level actors’ meanings of participation and representation, comparing policy intent with actual practice.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What does the article conclude about the meaning of participation in practice?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"School governance and participation are defined narrowly, emphasizing efficiency rather than democratic purposes, and parents’ participation is bounded by principals’ views of what supports efficient school running.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},600560,1792172370,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},962090893581,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Whose Theory of Participation? School Governance Policy and Practice in South Africa  \nSuzanne Grant Lewis  \nHarvard Graduate School of Education  \nJordan Naidoo  \nHarvard Graduate School of Education  \nAbstract  \nThis article analyzes South Africa's efforts to promote broader participation in educational decision-making through local school governance structures in which parents serve as majority members. We utilize the \"theory of action\" framework to understand both government policy and school-level actors' meanings of two dimensions of governance: participation and representation. The analysis considers policy statements, government efforts to monitor implementation, and extensive data from parents, principals, teaches and learners in six diverse schools in two provinces. The \"theory-in-use\" among most of the school-level actors reflects the policy signals and dominates governance discourse. School governance and participation is being defined in very narrow terms that emphasize participation for efficiency reasons, rather than for democratic purposes. Parents' participation is framed by what principals view as appropriate within the boundaries of supporting the efficient running of the school. Truly re-defining roles of school level actors will require addressing power structures and conventions if it is to allow for the authentic participation of communities in the governance of schools.  \nIntroduction  \nWith the increasing decentralization of fiscal, political, and administrative responsibilities to lower-levels of government, local institutions, and communities, the notion of participation has taken on greater currency, emerging as a fundamental tenet in the promotion of the local governance of schools. Greater local participation serves the two main thrusts of the neo-liberal agenda, which appears to be driving most calls for greater decentralization, namely the promotion of \"good governance\" and the shrinking of the state and the expansion of private sector activity (Maclure, 2000) . Many scholars have argued that masked by the language of \"empowerment,\" the goals for greater local participation in school governance are managerialist effectiveness and financial efficiency (Gardner and Lewis, 1996) . Furthermore, while there is some smallscale evidence to support the efficiency argument, the evidence for empowerment and democratization is often partial, tenuous and reliant on the rightness of the approach rather than on proof of outcomes (Cleaver, 1999) .  \nThis article examines South Africa's experience in promoting broader participation through the establishment of local school governance structures, a model designed with the expressed aim of contributing to the democratic transformation of South African society1. By exploring the theories of action (Argyris and Schön, 1974) underpinning the specification and interpretation of these policies in practice, we are able to assess the extent of transformation and the nature of participation in school governance. More  \n© 2004 Current Issues in Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 100 May 10, 2004  \nWhose Theory of Participation?  \nSchool, Governance Policy and Practice in South Africa  \nspecifically, we examine whether local participation is limited to managerialist effectiveness or extends to a shifting of the locus of control over school governance to parents.  \nAnalytic framework: Theories of action  \nA major criticism of the participation discourse is that it is based on a naïve understanding of power and the power relations that exist both between central and local actors and within local groups (Hailey, 2001) . A participatory process may merely provide opportunities for the more powerful and serve to maintain exploitation and exclusion (Hildyard et al., 2001) . By extension, we argue that a simplistic understanding of power and power relations characterizes views of the relationship between policymakers and local actors","cbCaikdmHk3o9Z88","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikdmHk3o9Z88","pdf",262419,13,"English","# Introduction\n## Analytic framework: Theories of action","[{\"question\":\"What is the central focus of the article on school governance in South Africa?\",\"answer\":\"It examines how South Africa promotes broader participation in educational decision-making through local school governance structures, especially where parents serve as majority members.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article use the “theory of action” framework?\",\"answer\":\"It uses the framework to interpret both government policy and school-level actors’ meanings of participation and representation, comparing policy intent with actual practice.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the article conclude about the meaning of participation in practice?\",\"answer\":\"School governance and participation are defined narrowly, emphasizing efficiency rather than democratic purposes, and parents’ participation is bounded by principals’ views of what supports efficient school running.\"}]","Whose Theory of Participation? - School Governance Policy and Practice in South Africa | PDF",1792090933,33]