Teachers’ perception of their role as moral educators in Tanzania: a study of selected secondary schools in Iringa municipality

This study was aimed at investigating teachers’ perception of their role as moral educators in secondary schools in Iringa Municipality, Tanzania. Specifically, the study sought to establish teachers’ understanding of their role as moral educators, to find out the ways used by teachers to provide students with moral values, and to identify the challenges facing teachers as moral educators. The qualitative approach through a case study design was used for the study. Purposive and convenience sampling strategies were used to obtain 48 participants for the study. The information was collected through unstructured interviews and documentary search. Three major findings are presented. First, the majority of the teacher informants in secondary schools were aware of their role as moral educators. Indicators of their awareness included their ability to identify sources for understanding their professional role through the professional code of conduct and government educational circulars. Secondly, teachers deployed various methods to promote students’ moral conduct, including punishment, school rules and regulation, counselling, verbal admonition and making examples of students. Thirdly, in their attempt to promote students’ moral conduct both private and public schools faced various challenges, including communities’ failure to support teachers in giving the children moral values. From the findings, it is concluded that teachers’ understanding of their role as moral educators seemed to be influenced by their professional experience rather than being oriented to the moral dimension through their teaching practice. In the light of this, the study recommended that the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) should regularly organize training courses and seminars for teachers on moral awareness so as to make them aware of their moral obligations to students. Also, parents should work hand-in-hand with schools to promote students’ moral values. Indeed, schools reinforce the values adopted at home and in society.