Primary school teachers and community development in Bukoba (Tanzania)
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Date
1977
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Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
The present study begins from the premise that teachers’ participation in community development activities is vital to any efforts to integrate a school into its surrounding community. It argues, however, that although some research studies in Africa, and especially in Tanzania, have indicated a certain amount of isolationism among schools in relation to the communities in which they are situated, involvement or participation of primary school teachers in community affairs is not altogether lacking more particularly when most primary schools are located in rural areas. The purpose of the field investigation was to suggest ways in which teachers’ participation in community development activities was viewed from two different but complementary perspectives, namely: (i) participation in a wider range of community development activities. (ii) Participation more heavily in community development activities. The argument of the study was twofold: (I) on the one hand, if it could be determined which activities most teachers participate in, and the reasons for such mass participation, (and conversely, those activities that teachers do not participate in, and the reasons) then it would be possible, in light of these reasons, to make relevant suggestions so that teachers would participate in more community development activities. (iii) On the other hand, more or less participation in community development activities might correlate significantly with a set of independent variables, which would provide the basis for making recommendations for teachers to participate more in community development activities. From both arguments, two research sub problems upon which the whole study was based were formulated. The first sub problem was aimed at finding out those activities in which most teachers participate, and the reasons. The second sub problem aimed at establishing an association between participation in community development activities (the dependent variables), which were considered under five aspects, namely economic, educational, health, political, and recreational or cultural activities, and a set of independent variables. Following from these two sub problems, two groups of hypotheses were formulated. (i) “The activities that most teachers perform in the community are those for which an official directive or order has been given, (i.e. an official obligation)” and conversely “the activities not performed by the teachers are those not officially required of them”. Here then, the reason for participating or not participating in the activities was assumed to be an official regulation or the lack of it. (ii) Each of the independent variables selected (1) sex, (2) place of origin, (3) duration of stay in the community, (4) level of formal education, (5) attitude towards the teachers’ role in the community, (6) attitude towards the teaching profession, and (7) attitude towards the community would correlate positively with each dependent variable. Outlining the main problem, the sub problems and the hypotheses constitutes the content of the first chapter; the second chapter deals with a review of literature relating to the general field of the study. In four chapter reports the process of data analysis and discusses the findings. For the first sub problem, the questionnaire revealed that adult education activities (especially literacy training) and political activities were participated in by most teachers (at least 75 per cent of the teachers in the sample). The accompanying interview revealed that, in addition to those two types of activities, most teachers were involved also in other activities: building schools for the community, health campaigns, and cultural or recreational activities. The three main reasons behind teachers’ involvement in those activities were indicated as : -an official obligation on the teachers by the authorities to perform a certain activity as part of their duty. -Self-awareness, motivating teachers to help in promoting community development. -Political consciousness promoted through various political media. As for the activities not performed by the teachers, the questionnaire revealed that few teachers (not more than 25 per cent of teachers in the sample) involved themselves in such activities as Co operation Union meetings; teaching adults how to cultivate and maintain their “shambas”; teaching adults good animal husbandry; building a dispensary, or meeting with health officials to discuss health problems in the community. Again three main reasons were given by teachers for not performing these activities; - the activities were not their “business” - they knew little about the activity. - They had never been requested to perform the activities. Another reason was that they were over-burdened with other regular duties and tasks in school, which tended to consume most of their time and energy. Concerning the second sub problem, most correlations established between the independent variables and the dependent variables were not statistically significant. Only three were significant. These were that association between duration of stay in the community and participation in economic activities; duration of stay and participation in health activities, and level of formal education and participation in economic activities. Although the first two associations were positive, as expected, the last was rather negative; higher levels of formal education tended to coincide with lower levels of participation in economic activities. The fifth chapter summarizes the whole study, with the emphasis on the findings. From these, some recommendations.
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Available in print form
Keywords
Rural development, Teachers, Bukoba, Tanzania
Citation
Aben, N (1977) Primary school teachers and community development in Bukoba (Tanzania), masters dissertation,University of Dar es Salaam. Available at (http://41.86.178.3/internetserver3.1.2/detail.aspx?parentpriref=)