ABSTRACT
During the past few years there has been increasing momentum in South Africa, as in many other education systems, toward developing education initiatives that focus on districts or local education agencies. This chapter reviews the major district development projects in South Africa and to categorize the different approaches. It considers some of the limitations of current initiatives, and suggest ways in which the field can move forward. District development has become a major point of discussion in South Africa because of its location at the confluence of two separate streams in the education sector. In terms of categorizing education development projects in South Africa, Roberts has recently developed a classification framework. The chapter highlights seven case studies of district development programmes and their models of change. One of the earliest projects that had a district development focus was initiated in the Western Cape.
