The role of school management in improving government secondary school teachers’ motivation in Babati town, Tanzania.

This study investigated the role of school management in improving teachers’ motivation in government secondary schools within Babati Town Council. The specific objectives were to: Identify managerial skills of Heads of Schools (HoS) that are useful to motivate secondary school teachers; Identify managerial strategies used by heads of schools to motivate secondary school teachers; and explore school management cultures that can improve teachers’ motivation in government secondary schools. The study involved 137 participants out of whom eight were HoS, eight Ward Education Coordinators (WECs), 120 classroom teachers, and one Town Secondary Education Officer (TSEO). Purposive sampling was used to get HoS, WECs, and the TSEO. On the other hand, simple random sampling was used to get subject teachers. Data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions, and documentary review. Data analysis involved both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Quantitative data were analyzed by the help of SPSS version 20 using descriptive statistical technique, giving frequencies, percentages and means while the qualitative data were arranged in the emerged categories and were analyzed through content analysis. The study revealed that heads of schools were found to possess minimal management skills of motivating teachers in their schools which do not satisfy higher-level needs of teachers. The school heads were found to use various strategies of improving teachers’ motivation, but the majority (75%) relied upon provision of tea, lunch, social recreations, provision of teaching and learning materials, common sharing of experiences, ensuring students’ discipline and proposing teachers for special tasks. The findings further indicated the managerial cultures that may improve teachers’ motivation at school level which were transparency, harmonious interpersonal relationships, school heads’ accountability, regular conduct of staff meetings, teachers’ involvement in school decision making, as well as timely feedback from heads of schools and other authorities. Based on the research findings, the study concludes that the HoS possessed some managerial skills that were useful to motivate secondary school teachers. However, they require appropriate management skills to achieve this goal because teachers’ motivation is psychological and dynamic. Heads of schools did not use a single strategy to improve teachers’ motivation, but rather various strategies were used. Also a number of school cultural variables such as accountability and transparency were found important for improving teachers’ motivation in government secondary schools. In response to this research work, another large scale study may be conducted to examine the impact of motivated teachers on students’ academic performance in Tanzanian government secondary schools. It is further recommended that another study be done to investigate how each aspect of school culture identified above may affect Tanzanian government secondary school teachers’ motivation in schools.