Examining teacher leadership development in a government secondary school in Koboko west-Nile Uganda

Date of Award

12-2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

First Supervisor/Advisor

Dr. Abdalla Mohamed

Second Supervisor/Advisor

Ms. Mary Anyango Oluga

Department

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Abstract

The ultimate resource of any community is its people and so are the teachers who are a beacon of hope for the future of a school. A case study of examining teacher leadership development in a government secondary school in Koboko District, West Nile Uganda was carried out. This study aimed at determining teacher leadership development opportunities in the school, the factors that enhance and the factors that hamper teacher leadership development in the school. Data collection involved the use of both primary and secondary methods with instruments such as, semi structured interviews, focused group discussion, and document analyses were used. Data was largely analyzed qualitatively according to the study subsidiary questions and presented in themes. The key findings reveal that teacher leadership development was valued in the school but the extent to which teachers are actively involved in teacher leadership development opportunities was invariably limited by the dominance of the head teacher’s leadership style and also by unfavorable policies being put by the Ministry of education and sports that assigned too many roles to the head teacher as the leader of all the school programmes. Teacher leadership development opportunities included mentoring and coaching, reflection, feedback, teacher-led projects, strategic plan and action research. These teacher leadership development opportunities are enhanced by factors like the head teacher’s leadership style and the school culture of collegiality. The findings also showed that teacher leadership development in the school is hampered by factors such as: personal attitudes of the teacher, foundation body of the school, inadequate time and age. Whereas there is progress being made in improving teacher leadership development in the school by the school administration, this condition calls for more concerted efforts by the school, parent teachers association, body of governors and Ministry of education and sports because teachers are vital in decision making and can help the school administrators in making the most appropriate decisions for better management of the schools, better policies can be designed to nurture, involve, support, and inspire them to act in teacher leadership positions to make differences in their own lives and in the lives of others in the community. Those policies could help create opportunities and possibilities for teachers to meaningful participate in school leadership development efforts now and in the future.

This document is available in the relevant AKU library

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