Accountability, capacity and trust to improve learning outcomes in South Africa; a systems approach

南非有着长期的压迫和种族隔离历史，导致了严重的不平等，尽管南非被列为中上收入国家（世界银行，2008年）。种族隔离制度垮台26年后，种族隔离制度下实行的系统性种族隔离，加上公然的白色至上主义意识形态，仍然对南非社会及其教育系统产生着深远的影响（Spaull，2012）。Howie（2012）解释了南非如何努力应对贫富学生之间日益扩大的成绩差距和高辍学率，特别是非洲黑人学生。Spaull（2012）对SACMEQ III数据的分析表明，与最贫穷的75%的学校相比，最富裕的25%学校的学生更有可能拥有自己的教科书，经常收到家庭作业，并且教师缺勤率更低。根据Nattrass and Seekings（2001）和Spaull（2012）的说法，资源和资本的分配仍然使白色南非人享有特权，基本上将国家和教育系统分为两个国家。几位作者指出，南非教育系统中存在问题的问责关系以及缺乏信任和能力是学习成果得不到改善的关键问题。例如，Spaull（2001年）解释了国家、省和地方各级政府如何不对公共资源的使用负责，以及如何很少（如果有的话）对不履行职责或解决教师缺勤率高和课程覆盖率低的实际后果。Eddy斯派塞、Ehren等人（2016年）的系统性综述也指出，南非缺乏教师问责制，因为学校没有检查教师出勤登记册，国家政府也没有制裁经常缺勤的教师。缺乏信任阻碍了有效评估和检查系统的实施，例如，教师工会拒绝对教师进行检查并阻止发布评估数据，而缺乏能力随后阻止了地区经理，地区经理，校长，部门负责人和教师有效使用可用的数据（见Eddy斯派塞，Ehren等人，2016; Howie，2012）。这种不信任、缺乏问责和缺乏能力的“恶性”循环使系统无力改进，并造成了一系列“约束性限制”。货车德贝格等人（2016年）认为，为了提高学习成果，需要解决的问题（例如，薄弱的机构功能，不适当的工会影响）。这些例子强调了理解问责制，能力和信任以及这些关系如何随着时间的推移产生（或未能产生）学习成果的变化模式，并创造一个分裂的不平等系统。我们的目标是研究这些关系在南非的公立小学教育系统分三个阶段：1）社会网络分析五分之一和五分之一的低绩效学校和高绩效学校的（问责制和信任）关系和资源流动（20%的学校在最贫困和富裕的地区），2）一个焦点小组，我们将绘制因果循环，描述如何信任，能力和问责制通过一系列平衡和/或加强反馈回路相互联系，以及这些回路如何（过去）生产（或未能产生）学习成果的变化模式，并在系统中造成了很大的不平等，（3）通过纵向路径模型和多指标多原因模型（MIMIC）收集定量（评估和问卷调查数据）来检验因果环。

South Africa has a long history of oppression and apartheid which have led to great inequalities, despite South Africa's classification as an upper-middle income country (World Bank, 2008). 26 years after the fall of apartheid, the systematic racial segregation practiced under apartheid, in conjunction with an overtly white supremacist ideology still has a profound impact on South Africa's society as well as its education system (Spaull, 2012). Howie (2012) explains how South Africa struggles with a widening performance gap between rich and poor students and high levels of drop out, particularly among black Africans. Spaull's (2012) analysis of SACMEQ III data shows that students in the 25% wealthiest schools are far more likely to have their own textbook, receive homework frequently and experience less teacher absenteeism compared to the poorest 75% of schools. The distribution of resources and capital still privileges white South Africans, according to Nattrass and Seekings (2001) and Spaull (2012) and essentially divides the country and the education system into two nations. Several authors point to problematic accountability relationships and a lack of trust and capacity in the South African education system as key issues in the lack of improvement of learning outcomes. Spaull (2001) for example explains how the national, provincial and local levels of government are not held accountable for their use of public resources, and how there are few (if any) tangible consequences for non-performance or to address the high rates of teacher absenteeism and low rates of curriculum coverage. Eddy Spicer, Ehren et al's (2016) systematic review also points to lack of teacher accountability in South Africa as school-based registers of teachers' attendance are not checked and national government fails to sanction teachers who are often absent. Lack of trust inhibits the implementation of effective assessment and inspection systems as teacher unions, for example, reject inspections of teachers and block the publication of assessment data, while lack of capacity subsequently prevents district managers, area managers, principals, heads of department and teachers to effectively use the data that is available (see Eddy Spicer, Ehren et al, 2016; Howie, 2012). This 'vicious' cycle of distrust, lack of accountability and lack of capacity renders the system powerless to improve and creates a series of 'binding constraints' (e.g. weak institutional functionality, undue union influence) that need to be addressed in order to improve learning outcomes, according to Van der Berg et al (2016).These examples highlight the need to understand the intricate relations between accountability, capacity and trust and how these relations produce (or fail to produce) a pattern of change in learning outcomes over time and create a divided unequal system. We aim to study these relations in South Africa's public primary education system in three phases: 1) Social network analysis of the (accountability and trust) relations and flow of resources in a low and high performing school in quintile 1 and 5 (20% of schools in most deprived and wealthy areas), 2) A focus group in which we will map the causal loops which describe how trust, capacity and accountability interconnect through a series of balancing and/or reinforcing feedback loops and how these loops have (in the past) produced (or failed to produce) a pattern of change in learning outcomes and have created large inequity in the system, and 3) Collecting quantitative (assessment and questionnaire data) to test the causal loops via longitudinal path models and multiple-indicator multiple-cause (MIMIC) models.