Compelling read on productive learning spaces in schools
11 June 2021
Dr Johann Burger, a Deputy Chief Education Specialist and Transform to Perform (T2P) Lead Champion in the Cape Winelands Education District, along with Professor Aslam Fataar of Stellenbosch University, recently launched what has been described as an essential read for existing and aspiring school leaders.
Dr Johann Burger, a Deputy Chief Education Specialist and Transform to Perform (T2P) Lead Champion in the Cape Winelands Education District, along with Professor Aslam Fataar of Stellenbosch University, recently launched what has been described as an essential read for existing and aspiring school leaders.
The book, Skoolleierskap en die skep van produktiewe leerruimtes in skole, was highlighted during a webinar on 4 May 2021. Several academics, colleagues, family and friends from as far as the UK, attended the event.
The keynote speaker, Professor Jonathan Jansen, underscored the long overdue need for such a book that actively promotes the need for the school, regardless of its economic standing, to be a welcoming milieu for children. Jansen, an extolled voice in education, was so taken by the book that he invited its authors to randomly pick an area and go along with him to both engage with principals on the topic and gift all of them a copy.
That the book appeals to the diversity of the South African landscape is undoubtedly so as two principals from diametrically different schools, the Muhammadeyah Primary (in Wynberg, Cape Town) and Stellenbosch Primary schools respectively, praised its conceptualisation and content in the webinar.
Burger’s concluding remarks inseparably aligned the book’s central message to that of the T2P strategy; namely that transformative leadership and creating productive learning spaces will inspire learners and make them excited about going to school. The likely spin-offs are improved learner performance, a higher learner retention rate, improvement in satisfying learners’ emotional and social needs, an improvement in their discipline and behaviour, and ultimately an improvement in their willingness to make positive contributions to their own lives, and those of their communities and the country.
To place an order for the book, please contact African Sun Media (associated with University of Stellenbosch) at orders@africansunmedia.co.za.
Burger has donated 5 copies of his book to T2P. To stand in line to win a copy, enter here
