Conceptualising a Research on Managing the Teaching and Learning Materials in No-Fee Schools: The Case of Ekangala Township in Tshwane Municipality

Abstract

Ineffective management of teaching and learning material can negatively affect the quality of teaching and learning. This implies that policies and processes with regards budget allocation, procurement and distribution procedures, and accessibility of teaching and learning material are key to quality education. The Gauteng Department of Education has mandated, in each school, the Teaching and Learning Material governing boards and committees to manage this material. However, most of these governing bodies and committees lack have limited knowledge and skills to manage these materials effectively. This has negatively impacted on the management of teaching and learning material and, therefore, the envisaged educational outcomes. This paper conceptualises a research meant to interrogate management of teaching and learning materials. Generally, it employs a summative thematic content analysis of literature on the (i.) research physical context or setting, (ii.) research problem, and (iii.) the past and current studies of the research problem to identify the knowledge gap on this research. Further, the interrogation of the research problem makes use of the problem tree, trend analysis, and the theory of constraint so that we have a structured understanding of this problem. This approach provides us with comprehensive and critical content that allows us to state the appropriate research problem and the accompanying research purpose and research questions on how no-fee schools should manage their material. We then use this information to propose (i.) the research strategy, design, procedure, and methods as well as (ii.) the frameworks that we can use to interpret our anticipated empirical research results.