Determinants of teacher participation in teamwork for improved performance in public secondary schools in Taita . district, Kenya

Abstract

There are many obstacles towards achieving high level of teamwork among secondary school teachers in the process of offering education in secondary schools. Education is important for all citizens of a given country for it determines the level of development of the country. Education should be offered in a coordinated manner by a team of teachers in collaboration and free endless consultations. Failure of many teachers to work as a team affects the process of curriculum implementation, which in turn negatively affects the quality of education, talent nurturing and the discipline of the learners. Secondary school teachers require teamwork in areas of syllabus delivery, in handling of co-curricular and in disciplining of the learners. This study was based on the Elton Mayo's management theory which states that employees are encouraged to achieve by relational factors such as attention and camaraderie than by monetary rewards or environmental factors such as lighting and humidity among other factors. The specific objective of the study was to investigate the determinants of teacher participation in. teamwork for improved performance in public secondary schools in Taita district in Kenya. Its significance was to provide information for use by secondary education department in the district to improve performance of KCSE examination, nurturing talents, developing good citizenry by controlling discipline of students. It targeted one hundred and forty eight TSC employed teachers in the eighteen secondary schools in the district and adopted descriptive research design. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select sample schools and the respondent teachers. Data was collected using questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and percentages. Relationship between the variables was determined using cross tabulation, chi square, contingency coefficient measure of association and Analysis of Variance (ANOV A). The findings showed that teacher participation in teamwork is more prevalent in institutions where democratic leadership is practiced and that democratic leadership, training and favourable school culture were important ingredients in teacher participation in teamwork. Further, the study confirmed that teacher participation in teamwork is a prerequisite for improved performance. It is therefore recommended that stakeholders put in place measures that would enable adequate roll out of teamwork among teachers in all schools. School administrators should also enhance democratic practices in their management practices to liberate and encourage teachers to give their best to the institutions thus improved students' performance. Further, they should strive to enhance in servicing of teachers by taking them to seminars and workshop thus empowering them to be more innovative and productive to improve performance.