The role of teachers’ implicit social goals in pedagogical reforms in Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Pedagogical reforms in sub-Saharan Africa have often been unsuccessful, arguably because they fail to account for the social and cultural context of teachers’ choices. Two studies in rural Tanzania examined the pedagogical decisions of teachers taking part in a programme of teacher professional development. Teachers reflected on their own decisions to conduct teaching activities, which were observed by the research team, and on the decisions taken by teachers in vignettes. Results suggested that pedagogical decisions were influenced by the social goals of togetherness, cooperation, and fairness. Pedagogical choices were also influenced by the need to avoid embarrassing students and to address conformity among student responses and students’ lack of confidence in addressing teachers. The findings broadly support the hypothesis that Tanzanian teachers pursue implicit social goals in their classroom, some of which are associated with the culture of historically agricultural societies. Teachers may be resistant to new pedagogies which do not support these social goals. Rather than seeing cultural values as ‘barriers’, we argue that teacher professional development programmes, particularly for early years education, should design teaching activities which are consistent with the culturally shaped social goals of teachers while remaining true to the learning goals of those activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Culture
• pedagogy
• teacher professional development
• Tanzania

Acknowledgments

We would like to extend special thanks to the governments of both Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar; the central ministries of PORALG, MOEST, MOEVT and PORALGSD; the Regional Education Offices of Dar es Salaam, Iringa, Mtwara, and Morogoro; the District Education Offices; and the head teachers responsible for participating schools for making this research possible. We would also like to thank all participating teachers for generously sharing their thoughts with us.

Author contributions

Matthew Jukes designed the study, trained and supervised researchers and led the writing of the paper.

Nkanileka Mgonda helped to design the study, conducted interviews and data analysis for both studies and contributed to the writing of the paper.

Jovina Tibenda helped to design the study, conducted interviews and data analysis for Study 1 and contributed to the writing of the paper.

Yasmin Sitabkhan helped to design the study and contributed to the writing of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2022.2093178

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Tanzania Tusome Pamoja program [AID-621-C-16-00003] and by the RTI Fellows Program.

Notes on contributors

Matthew C. H. Jukes

Matthew C. H. Jukes is a Fellow and Senior Education Evaluation Specialist at RTI International. He has twenty-five years of academic and professional experience in evaluating education projects, particularly in early-grade literacy interventions and the promotion of learning through better health. Dr. Jukes’ current research addresses culturally relevant approaches to assessment and programming in social and emotional competencies in Tanzania; improving pedagogy through an understanding of the cultural basis of teacher-child interactions; and frameworks to improve evidence-based decision-making. Previously, Dr. Jukes was an Associate Professor of International Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Senior Director of Global Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at Room to Read. Dr. Jukes has also applied his research to work with the World Bank, UNAIDS, UNICEF, UNESCO, USAID and Save the Children.

Nkanileka L. Mgonda

Nkanileka L. Mgonda is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the School of Education, University of Dar es Salaam Tanzania. He earned a PhD in Education from the University of Leipzig, Germany. His research interests include education in teacher education and ethics, socio-emotional development and character education.

Jovina L. Tibenda

Jovina L. Tibenda is an experienced institutional research and capacity building specialist with nearly a decade of research and capacity building experience with donor-funded programmes, including Senior Technical Advisor and Government Capacity Lead, a Senior Program Specialist for Research with USAID Tanzania Tusome Pamoja programme (2016-Present) and Director of Monitoring Evaluation and Research, USAID Tanzania Marketing and Communication Organization (T-MARC) (2007-2012), and other international NGOs. Her expertise includes research, design and development of activities aimed at building capacity, informing learning and engaging government stakeholders in policy decisions; social emotional learning; gender-based violence prevention; behaviour change communication; and education assessment and evaluations aimed at building capacity.

Yasmin Sitabkhan

Yasmin Sitabkhan, Ph.D is a Senior Mathematics Education Researcher with RTI’s International Education Division. With over two decades of experience in education, she provides technical expertise in mathematics instruction, focused on early childhood through Grade 3, to projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Central Asia, and Latin America. Dr. Sitabkhan designs, analyses, and disseminates results from mixed methods research studies to governments and donors worldwide. Her interests build directly on her experiences as a classroom teacher and her research on culture and cognition, teacher training and support, and students’ development of mathematics. She holds a Ph.D. in Cognition and Development from the University of California, Berkeley.