The Educational Psychologist as Organization Development Consultant in South African Schools

Abstract

South Africa is currently undergoing a process of reconstruction and transformation, and educational changes constitute an integral part of this process. Organization Development (OD), could play a valuable role in such change. OD practices, when located within an ecosystemic framework, represent a departure from certain inadequacies of conventional educational psychology practice in South Africa, such as decontextualization and individualization. This paper is the product of a formative evaluation study and ongoing enquiry into school organization development in South Africa. Such research has indicated that particular issues tend to emerge as 'substantive' in the course of OD practice. The paper outlines and discusses a number of substantive issues and presents a framework for conceptualizing these issues in an integrated fashion. The framework is comprised of three interrelated components, namely the school, the consultant(s) and the interaction between them. These components exist within a particular micro and macro context which needs to be taken into account in any OD intervention. It is hoped that the framework will prove useful to OD practitioners in a variety of different contexts and provide a practical means of conceptualizing their situations.