摘要：The notion of school ba sed management was firmly entrenched in South Africa with the Schools Act of 1996. T his act also provides substa nce to the fu nctioning of school ma na gement and lea dership str uctures such as School Governing Bodies (SG Bs) and School Ma nagement Teams (SM Ts). More specifically, in so far a s this article is concerned, the focus is on the amended provision of section 16 of the Schools Act where it is stated that, amongst other fu nctions, the School Ma nagement Tea m must ac cept responsibility for the implementation of its policies. We a re reporting on a study in which the perceptions of School Management Team members in Delareyville with re ga rd to the role and functioning of School Management Te ams in policy formula tion and impleme nta tion ar e explore d. More specifica lly, the research question that wa s investiga ted c an be asked a s, w ha t is the role of School M anagement Teams (SMTs) in formulating and implementing school policie s.. T he study was inter pretive in orientation a nd utilised qualitative data gathering techniques. Findings suggested tha t there is a good understanding about the central and even critica l place of policies in school management a nd about the fact tha t policies ha ve an important role to play as directives or guideline s for the day-to-day operations of a school. It was further found tha t, in the South African situation w her e school based management is used widely, school p olicies are consiste ntly seen a s de cision-ma king and problem solving instru ments. It wa s a lso esta blished tha t, althou gh School G overning BodiesSGBs we re officially designated in the new educa tional dispensa tion to pla y the most importa nt role in sc hool policy issues, in pra ctise SMTs have become a more impor ta nt policy mak in g a nd imple mentation body.
关键词：Educational Management. Policy Making. School Governing Bodies. School Ma na gement Teams. ; Sc hool Based Mana geme nt
