Browsing by Author "Sila, Jerome"

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    Influence of democratic liberal political culture on the teaching and learning of civics in secondary schools in Tanzania
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2017) Sila, Jerome
    Although quarter of a century has elapsed since Tanzania changed from socialist to liberal political system, nothing much was known about the influence of liberalism on the provision of formal civic education in secondary schools. This aroused the curiosity of the researcher to investigate influence of the Democratic Liberal Political Culture (DLPC) on the teaching and learning of Civics in secondary schools. The objectives of the study were to: determine the influence of the prevailing political culture on teachers’ understanding of the Civics curriculum; examine the relationship between Civics teachers’ (CTs’) classroom practices and ideologies of classroom political learning; and determine the influence of teaching and learning of Civics on students’ civic competences. Kinondoni Municipality was chosen as a case study whereby eight secondary schools were purposefully selected. The sample comprised 90 respondents: 16 Civics teachers, 8 school academic teachers (SATs), 2 school inspectors (SIs), and 64 Form Three students. The study used qualitative approach and case study design. Data were collected through interviews, non-participant classroom observations, and documentary review which were later subjected to content analysis. Study findings indicate that CTs were largely influenced by Civics syllabus in their choices of teaching methods. It also indicates that CTs’ classroom relationship with their students was mainly democratic as they largely demonstrated positive interactions with their students. The findings however, indicate that socialization ideologies were dominant among CTs. Then, it shows that CTs’ interpretation of competence-based Civics curriculum was inadequate as they could not clearly define the concept CBC and identify the key features of the Civics syllabus. The findings also indicate that CTs’ delivery of content in the classroom relate with ideologies of socialisation. Further, the findings indicate that assessment for learning activities employed in the teaching and learning Civics were inadequate and not in line with CBC. Lastly, the findings indicate that although classroom teaching and learning of Civics covered content on democracy, the process was dominated by lectures and imparting of facts. Basing on these findings, therefore, the study has contributed knowledge on the nature of influence of DLPC on the teaching and learning of Civics. Specifically, it has revealed that DLPC has minimal influence on the teaching and learning of Civics in the studied secondary schools. Following these findings, it is recommended that MoEST in collaboration with PORALG has to develop and fund in-service teacher professional development programme for Civics teachers. TIE should also review the curriculum for teacher education at diploma level in order to include Civics subject as one of the core subjects for those intending to be Civics teachers. It is further recommended that other studies be conducted to investigate the influence of DLPC on the teaching and learning of Civics or civic education in other levels of education.