The contribution of heads of schools in addressing teacher malpractices in Tanzania secondary schools: a case of Morogoro municipality and rural district

The purpose of the study was to examine the contribution of heads of schools in addressing teacher malpractices in selected secondary schools in Morogoro Municipality and Morogoro Rural district in Morogoro region, Tanzania. The study was guided by three research objectives: to explore the nature of teacher malpractices in schools; to find out what approaches were employed by heads of schools to address teacher malpractices, and to identify the challenges that heads of schools encountered in addressing teacher malpractices in their respective schools. The study mainly utilized qualitative research approach using a case study design. Also, some aspects of quantitative research approach were included. Data were collected through document analysis, observations, interviews and questionnaires from 127 respondents involving stratified random and purposive sampling procedures. Qualitative data were subjected to content analysis while quantitative data were categorized and presented in graphical and tabular forms and converted into frequencies and percentages. The study found that teacher malpractice was a problem of great concern in schools with variation in terms of types, location, frequency and teachers’ gender as well as education level and work experiences. Various approaches that were employed by secondary school heads to address teacher malpractices in their respective schools involved the use of teacher attendance registers, giving warnings and reprimands, the use of school discipline committees, assessing teachers’ work, reporting cases to higher authorities and providing guidance and counselling. However, the approaches were ineffective in addressing the problem of teacher malpractices amidst different challenges that, among others, included duality of heads of schools’ roles, heads of schools being implicated in malpractices, lack of cooperation from district education offices, lack of teacher commitment, lack of headship allowance, poor support from teaching and non teaching staff, lack of pre-service headship training and induction programmes. Thus, heads of schools had not gained much success in promoting teacher ethics in schools. In light of the research findings, unless some collective efforts are put forth by all stakeholders in education, stemming teacher malpractice and promoting teacher ethics in schools may seldom be attained. The study concludes that teacher malpractices is a very serious concern in secondary schools as it affects teachers’ work performance, the teaching and learning process and education quality as a whole. For stemming teacher malpractice and successfully promoting teacher ethics, stakeholders recommended for official recognition and Fulfilment of teachers’ needs and provision of financial support to education units, a review and proper documentation of teachers’ codes of conduct and stakeholders involvement in designing, developing and enforcing teachers’ code of ethics, heads of school should exemplify ethical conduct within and outside school premises by serving as role models for teachers to facilitate the promotion of teacher ethics. Finally, the study recommends for heads of schools’ empowerment through being provision of various kinds of support, including professional skills development.