EFFECTIVENESS OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IN
ZANZIBAR: STUDENT’S ACHIEVEMENT
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Aysha Ahmada Mzee1 |
1 Universiti
Putra Malaysia. 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
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ABSTRACT |
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Keywords: School; student;
Administration; effectiveness; achievement; Zanzibar; |
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The
purpose of this study is to construct a tangible description of effective
school administration in Zanzibar – Tanzania and students achievement. This
study attempts to examine the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for
effective administration in today’s schools in order to prepare student
achievement in their learning. The study is expanded to include several
perspectives of what it means to be an effective school administration and
students achievement. The superintendent and a trustee, staff members,
students and parents of the secondary school were also participants and their
perspectives as well as my own were added to the study. The study is organised
in three Parts; Part one is about background of the study including a brief
summary of Zanzibar with her educational situation. Part two is about
literature review with a thematic summary of different articles reviewed and
analysed on effectiveness of school administration and student achievement
according to the views and concepts of authors. The last Part three is on the
methodology, dealing on the arrangement and facilitation of the proposed
research design and summary of methods to be applied. Publisher
All rights reserved. |
Tanzania,
officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa in the
African Great Lakes region. It is a formation of two countries: Tanganyika and
Zanzibar which merged in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania.
Zanzibar, lying 25-30 kilometres off the coast of Tanzania Mainland, is a
formation of two sister islands of Unguja and Pemba. It is nested in the Indian
Ocean in all north-south and east-west borders. Zanzibar City is the capital
city of Zanzibar. The total area of Zanzibar is 2,460 sq km and the population
is at 1,303,569 as of 2012 (Tanzania National Census Bureau, 2012: 2).
Zanzibar has retained its state government and has its own authority
over all non-union matters, education is among them. By 2000, Zanzibar had 207 public
schools and 118 privately owned schools (Sacmeq.org. Accessed 7 December
2014). The primary and secondary school
administration system in Zanzibar is slightly different from that of the
Tanzanian mainland. On the mainland, education is only compulsory for the seven
years of primary education, while in Zanzibar an additional three years of
secondary education are compulsory and frees (Sacmeq.org. Accessed 7 December
2014).
There are three cycles of secondary education in Zanzibar. The first
cycle - junior secondary which covers the Orientation year, Form 1 and Form 2
(14 - 16 year olds) is part of compulsory basic education. The second cycle -
senior secondary covers Forms 3 and 4 (17 - 18 year olds) and comprise students
who are selected after the national Form 2 examination. Forms 1-4 comprise what
is commonly called Ordinary Level (or “O”-Level) Secondary (MoE, 1999: 25). The
third cycle, usually referred to as the Advanced Level (or “A”-Level)
Secondary, covers Forms 5 and 6 (19 - 20 year olds) and comprises students who
are selected after the National Form 4 Examination (MoE, 1999: 25).
The
Ministry of Education and Vocational Training Zanzibar (MoEVT) is responsible
for the provision of education. The Ministry and other administrative
stakeholders play a direct role in shaping student’s achievement. Effective
school administration and student’s achievement is a theme that has dominated
discussion and action in Zanzibar and other low income countries over the past
15 years (MoEVT, 2011: 12). Strengthening effective school administration is
the aim of both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All
(EFA) goals agreed by world leaders in 2000 (MoEVT, 2011: 12).
The Ministry faces challenges to overcome effective administration of
its schools in terms of quality and relevance in education (MoEVT, 2011: i).
There have also been records of a lack of authority in schools along with many
responsibilities of administrators in line with limited resources, which all
together limited the student’s achievement (Tanga et al. 2008).
In fact, there is a “general agreement that the quality of education in
Zanzibar has declined, and a consequent desire for this to be addressed”
(MoEVT, 2011: 5). In this situation, the Ministry and the community have been
actively addressing goals and objectives to sharpen effective school
administration, for example promoting leadership management, increasing the
number of teachers and schools (MoEVT, 2011: i).
This research undertakes a critical review of literature on effective
school and its relation with student’s achievement in Zanzibar – Tanzania, and
describes qualified administrators and collective leadership as among the
needed tools for an effective school administration. Effective school
administration is also contingent on the extent to which administrators are
transparent and accountable to their students (MoEVT, 2011: 10).
Education
managers, administrators, teachers, supervisors and school management are very
important in the effectiveness of school administration. These are the school
administrators whom they do play an important role in achieving a higher
performance of their students.
Inadequate resources, poor policy roles and directives, lack of a good
relationship between the parents, heads and their staffs are some of the
problems hindering better effectiveness of a school administration in Zanzibar,
Tanzania. In addition, effectiveness of school administration is undermined
through lack of resourcing resulting in difficult working conditions and low
salaries, which cause demoralization, apathy and misconduct amongst teachers.
The end result of an ineffective school administration affects heavily the
student. Though students have their own personal problems, e.g. social and
economic status, family stability and psychological and intelligent capacity;
their achievement is well affected through time and age due to an improper
school administration.
In order to have an effective school administration for the betterment
of student’s achievement, the administration must focus on policy, resources,
abolishing shift system and reducing enrollment size. In addition, collective
responsibility in leadership as well as integrating cultural management with
formal management are among important aspects in combining all administrators
in the achievement of an effective school administration and student’s
achievement.
The
overall objective is to make a research on the effectiveness of school
administration in Zanzibar – Tanzania and how this affects student’s
achievement. In seeking to attain the overall objective, the following specific
objectives will guide this research:
1.
Discovering
and establishing the elements of effectiveness of a school administration in
Zanzibar;
2.
Assessing
the relationship between an effective school administration and student’s
achievement;
3.
Evaluating
the challenges facing school administration in attaining student’s achievement
in Zanzibar and suggest appropriate solutions.
In
focus to the problem statement above and the objectives, the following
questions will guide this research:
1.
What
elements of an effective school administration are there available to suit to
Zanzibar?
2.
How
has the effectiveness of a school administration affect the achievement of
students?
3.
What
solutions are there available to support the effectiveness of a school
administration for student’s achievement in Zanzibar?
The
study of an effectiveness of school administration in Zanzibar – Tanzania in
line with student’s achievement can be a learning paradigm to enhance the
educational and administrative personals’ knowledge and management skills as
well. This is but a small contribution on the effectiveness of a school
administration that not only a thorough analysis of the present school
administration will be done but what kind of a school administration is needed
for Zanzibar that will achieve the perception of students and needs of the
society at large. Seeing that ineffective school administration pulls back the
achievement of students in Zanzibar, a restructured policy and strengthening
human and capital resources recommended by this study will definitely increase
student’s achievement in that students and the administrators, will be
guaranteed to an integration that will achieve better educational level.
The
central interest of this research is to make an analysis on the effectiveness
of school administration in Tanzania and how it affects student’s achievement.
Hence, the focus directly falls upon studying practices, experiences, and
policies of education in Zanzibar – Tanzania. However, there are several
limitations which may affect aspects of the research that fall beyond the
control of the researcher. Materials on effectiveness of school administration
and those of student’s achievement which are relevant to this study for
Zanzibar are not readily available and accessible. This is proved by the
nominal researches on Zanzibar educational administration with emphasis on
student’s achievement. As an international student, collection of data in
Tanzania will accumulate time and financial costs, a burden that will largely
affect the research and findings. Apart from requesting the Zanzibar
authorities and school administrators to reveal their information, these
limitations can additionally be overcome by analyzing resources that are
available online such as journal articles, news and statistics. Also,
experience from other relevant countries can be studied to shorten the
limitation.
DEFINITIONS (CONSTITUTIVE AND OPERATIONAL)
A
student is a learner, or someone who attends a school or a similar educational
institution. In its widest use, student is used for anyone who is learning,
including mid-career adults who are taking vocational education or returning to
university (Carole, 1992: 261-271).
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under
the direction of teachers. In Zanzibar, there exists a formal education system
which is compulsory for the first nine year levels (standard one to form two).
Primary education is compulsory for the whole seven year study while secondary
education is obliged to be undertaken in the first two years (Marzano et al.
2005).
Administration as the leading body or group of people is the highest
administrative department who oversee all lower departments of a school
(Frederickson, 1997: 103). In most cases, a school will have a leading group of
people as a part of their administrative processes. These people may include
superintendent, chief operating office, school headmaster, school register and
other leadership roles e.g. chief librarian or chief statistician. They are
usually appointed by the ministry responsible for education or a relevant
district or regional officers. Apart from possessing leadership skills, they
should be able to oversee and supervise school as well as playing a key role in
the student’s achievement (Frederickson, 1997: 153).
Effectiveness is the capability of producing a desired result. When
something is deemed effective, it means it has an intended or expected outcome,
or produces a deep, vivid impression (Argyris and Schon, 1974: 124). Efficacy,
efficiency, and effectivity are terms that can, in some cases, be
interchangeable with the term effectiveness. Other synonyms for effectiveness
include: clout, capability, success, weight, performance. Antonyms for
effectiveness include: uselessness, ineffectiveness (Argyris and Schon, 1974:
224).
In terms of achievement, it is the outcome of education, the extent to
which not only a student, but also a teacher or institution has achieved their
educational goals (Tomporowski et al., 2007: 111-131). Academic achievement is
commonly measured by examinations or continuous assessment but there is no
general agreement on how it is best tested or which aspects is most important
procedural knowledge such as skills or declarative knowledge such as facts. Intelligence, personality, mental ability,
conscientiousness and physical activity are among individual factors having
been linked to student’s achievement (Tomporowski et al., 2007: 111-131).
LITERATURE
REVIEW
Part
three is about literatures being reviewed which are relevant to the topic in
hand. The review allows highlighting the background and justification for doing
this research. Several pieces of literature have been searcher to identify the
problem being researched as well as identifying gaps in the literature.
Eight studies have been selected with a wide range of themes and
theories but all ending up with the effectiveness of school administration and
student’s achievements. Though the studies are written in a different viewpoint
against the chosen topic, they provide detailed explanation on the ground i.e.
Tanzania and Sub-Saharan’s perspectives. Other studies give a limited analysis
on the effectiveness of school administration and also student’s achievements.
Lastly, some relevant experiences have been pulled in from Netherland and
Nigeria.
Hence, the studies allows the researcher to carry on from where other
authors have researched as well as identifying writers on school administration
and student’s achievements. All in all, the review allows the researched to
increase her breadth of knowledge on educational administration in Zanzibar,
Tanzania.
THEMES OF SYNTHESISED REVIEWED LITERATURE
The
literatures were synthesized from five themes. First is from Tanzania’s
perspective in which two main articles were reviewed: “Teacher accountability
in context: Tanzanian primary school teachers’ perceptions of local community
and education administration” by Barrett, A.M. and the other is on “Teacher
Professional Development in Tanzania: Perceptions and Practices” by Komba and
Nkumbi. The former draws its findings from primary school teacher in Tanzania
with comparisons to England. The analysis shows that on responsibility,
accountability, professional responsibilities and co-construction with shared
parents are the keys to education administration (Barrett, 2005: 43). Komba and
Nkumbi’s article is related to developing school administrators such as
teachers, ward coordinators professionally (Komba and Nkumbi, 2008: 67). The
article’s findings indicates that teacher professional development was however
poorly coordinated and rarely budgeted for (Komba and Nkumbi, 2008: 67).
The
second theme is that of Sub-Saharan in which a study by Lee et al. defined
effectiveness in terms of students’ literacy achievement at the end of Grade 6
(Lee et al. 2005: 207). The study was conducted in 14 Sub-Saharan African
countries, including Zanzibar. The findings shows that school effectiveness
vary across countries through a pattern of higher achievement in urban schools
having more resources and higher-quality teachers while poorly achieved in
large schools and schools offering ‘shifts’ education (Lee et al. 2005: 207).
The third theme is related to effectiveness of school administration.
Two articles were reviewed in which “The Measurement of School Effectiveness”
by Cahan and Elbaz provided different dimensions to reflect the school
effectiveness for student’s achievements (Cahan and Elbaz, 2000: 127-128). For
example, parental level of education, family income, size, financial sources,
student’s personal ability and motivation are all to be taken into account when
measuring the effectiveness of a school’s administration (Cahan and Elbaz,
2000: 127). A different review is from Seitz on “Effective Leadership in School
Administration” which has attempted to examine the knowledge, skills and
attitudes needed for effective leadership in current schools (Seitz, 1974: ii).
The findings of this study indicated shared vision and open communication among
its seven main characteristics of effective leadership (Seitz, 1974: iii).
The fourth theme is on student’s achievements. A study by Leithwood and
Mascall on “Collective Leadership Effects on Student Achievement” was reviewed
to estimate the impact of different sources (including shared leadership on
teacher) and how they affect student achievement (Leithwood and Mascall, 2008:
529). The findings of this study show that an emphasis on leadership at schools
contributes to a higher level of achievement. Hence, school principals
influence the achievement of not only schools, but also students (Leithwood and
Mascall, 2008: 529).
The fifth and the last theme is gaining experiences from other
educational administration. Nigeria and Netherlands were selected for this
purpose. An article titled “Professional development of principals: A path to
effective secondary school administration in Nigeria” by Ibara examines the
professional development of secondary school principals in Nigeria and
emphasizes that it is a means to enhance the effectiveness of school
administration in Nigeria (Ibara, 2014: 274). The Netherlands additionally
offers relevant experience for Tanzania and an article on “Smart Management in
Effective Schools: Effective Management Configurations in General and
Vocational Education in the Netherlands” by Hofman and Hofman was selected for
a review. Hofman’s study focuses on leadership management styles in schools and
analyses differences in effective management styles between schools with
different student populations. The authors presented a description of relevant
management factors (e.g. integration, educational supervision etc.) on
effective school administration for student’s achievement (Hofman, 2011: 620).
Teachers
are regarded as related to their students as far as their roles and
responsibilities are concerned (Barrett, 2005: 49). However, Barrett (2005: 48)
has elaborated that teachers are sometimes portrayed as among the causes of
poor quality in education, both internationally (Hawes and Stephens, 1990) and
within Tanzania (Alphonce, 1993; Kironde, 2000). In addition effectiveness of
school administration is undermined through lack of resourcing resulting “in
difficult working conditions and low salaries, which cause demoralization,
apathy and misconduct amongst teachers” (Hurst & Rust, 1990; Harber and
Davies, 1997). Hence, there is evidence of widespread of teacher’s misconduct
in Tanzania and there are proofs of chronic levels of teacher absenteeism,
irregularly reporting for work, attending work while drunken etc. (Barrett
2005: 48-49; Alphonce, 1993; Rajani and Robinson, 1999).
One of the main causes of the weak performance of teachers and poor
administration of schooling is said to be weak capacity of the education system
to monitor and support teachers (Barrett, 2005: 53). The district-level staff
visited schools only twice a year to conduct an inspection of administration,
buildings and classroom teaching (Barrett, 2005: 53). These inspections are
recommended to be done regularly to “ensure conformity across schools in
implementation of the national curriculum” (Barrett, 2005: 53)
Komba and Nkumbi give a current perception and practice of teacher
professional development which is relevant to this study in hand. The
administration is defined to include head teachers, primary school teachers,
ward education coordinators, district education officers, school inspectors,
and members of the school committee (Komba and Nkumbi, 2008: 67). In order to
positively affect the quality of education in Tanzania, the authors recommends
for an expansion of the “mechanisms for the preparation and development of
teachers and managers of Tanzania’s education system” (Komba and Nkumbi, 2008:
67).
Komba and Nkumbi reports that there’s lack of effective schooling in
Tanzania due to lack of teaching modules and essential texts (Komba and Nkumbi,
2008: 68). In addition, teachers lack support from parents and the surrounding
community (Komba and Nkumbi, 2008: 78). As teachers are always the key source
of knowledge and inspiration for the students, meaningful educational
textbooks, community support and student’s learning guidelines should be
provided to strengthen the quality of student’s achievements (Komba and Nkumbi,
2008: 68).
The effectiveness of the teachers depends very much from education
managers and supervisors. Education managers, administrators, supervisors and
school management are very important in the effectiveness of school
administration in the long run to achieve higher performance of their students (Komba
and Nkumbi, 2008: 72). Apart from guiding, supporting, monitoring and
evaluating teacher’s work, the administrators must have the ability to
interpret and monitor the implementation of educational policies at their
levels of administration (Komba and Nkumbi, 2008: 72).
Additionally, teachers’ performance is reflected from their competence,
efficiency, teaching and learning resources (Komba and Nkumbi, 2008: 70). The
administration should therefore restructure teacher’s roles and develop new
instructional techniques to refine their practice and broaden them both as
educators and as individuals (Komba and Nkumbi, 2008: 70).
Lee et al. (2005) elaborated effectiveness in 14 Sub-Saharan countries and came to
find that student’s achievement is lower in countries where schools use shifts,
for example in Mozambique and South Africa, while its quite similar in other
countries - Botswana, Namibia and Zanzibar (Lee et al. 2005: 223). Lee’s study
has also come to the conclusion that private schools were more effective than
government supported schools (Lee et al. 2005: 225). Most importantly is that
schools which are better resourced, example libraries and administrative
offices, students achieve “at higher levels” than in the other countries where
school resources are inadequate (Lee et al. 2005: 232). Another factor to
higher student achievement is “in schools with higher-quality teachers (Lee et
al. 2005: 232). In order to making African schools more effective, Lee calls
for the administration to focus on policy, resources, abolishing shift system,
reducing enrollment size, among others (Lee et al. 2005: 234-236). Lee has also
described that in order to study school effectiveness in the best available
approach; a researcher has to retrieve data directly from teachers and students
(Lee et al. 2005: 238).
Cahan and Elbaz (2000) suggest an alternative solution to measure
school’s effectiveness. This is because there is inequality of schools in many
of the factors affecting achievement. Hence, rather than concentrating on the
quality of teaching only and the most common approach of the estimation of
school effectiveness of ‘statistical control’, an estimation of initial between
“school inequality in the estimation of school effectiveness” can be applied
(Cahan and Elbaz, 2000: 129). The statistical control approach is said to
“raises conceptual and statistical problems which, in turn, affect the validity
of the obtained estimates” (Cahan and Elbaz, 2000: 128). It is known that the
main “prediction equation does not include all the relevant variables” (Cahan
and Elbaz, 2000: 128). The alternative approach studies the initials between
school inequality approach and it “defines effectiveness in terms of the
increment or gain in the achievement of a given cohort in the same school
between two consecutive grades” (Cahan and Elbaz, 2000: 129). The achievement
gain reflects one year of schooling, higher grade which in turns “reflects
maturation effects and other age-related factors” (Cahan and Elbaz, 2000: 129).
In order to obtain the statistical control estimates, Cahan and Elbaz
estimates the mean test scores which were “regressed on the school means of
three background variables” such as: mother’s education, father’s education,
and number of children in the family (Cahan and Elbaz, 2000: 134). This
“ensures the highest possible predictive validity given these variables and,
therefore, the best implementation of the statistical control method on the
basis of available information” (Cahan and Elbaz, 2000: 134).
Seitz (1974) outlines the significance of leadership in educational
administration. The concept of leadership is elaborated in line with its models
which together provide a framework for administrators (Seitz, 1974: 28).
However, the administrators should develop their own style that will best suit
the selected model, otherwise the “staff may question the genuineness of the
principal” (Seitz, 1974: 28). Among the models outlined by Seitz are
situational leadership and servant leadership. The former directs
administrators how and when to tell, sell, participate and delegate (Seitz,
1974: 12) while the latter states that a person can be leader and a servant
mutually (Seitz, 1974: 25). Also relevant is transformational leadership which
emphasizes unity in pursuit of becoming the best school and moving the school
in a different better direction (Seitz, 1974: 21).
Leithwood and Mascall (2008) comes with the ‘collective leadership’
theory in combining effects of all sources of leadership (administrators,
teachers, students and parents) as well as contributing to each source
(Leithwood and Mascall, 2008: 530). Through collective leadership, the
administrators and its associates distribute patterns of leadership more
accurately and thereby reflecting the “division of labor that is experienced in
organizations from day to day” (Leithwood and Mascall, 2008: 530). The theory
also helps to “reduce the chances of error arising from decisions based on the
limited information available to a single leader” (Leithwood and Mascall, 2008:
530).
Leithwood and Mascall try to link their theory with the student
achievement by emphasizing that influence of collective leadership links
student achievement through teacher motivation (Leithwood and Mascall, 2008:
554-555). This is supported by comparing schools whose student achieved in the
lowest was because of not taking on board the theory of collective leadership
(Leithwood and Mascall, 2008: 554-555).
Ibara draws some critics and argument that’s principals need to have
better learning qualification to enhance effective school and student’s
achievement (Ibara, 2014: 676). Principals can also potentially be strengthened
through professional development such as training, on-site processes and
professional development (Reitzug, 2002; Ibara, 2014: 676). By quoting Cranston
(2002: 59), Ibara lists several skills and capacities that should be possessed
by a person prior to be appointed as a principal. These include aspects of
strategic leadership – people, school, educational and also aspects of
management, facilities, budgeting, staffing and accountability, just to mention
a few (Ibara, 2014: 677).
In referring to Nigeria, the above qualifications are not taken into
account when appointing a principal rather than “any teacher of long-standing
classroom experience can be appointed to the position of principal without
consideration of his/her school management or leadership qualifications”
(Ibara, 2014: 684). As a consequence, the school, administration, management,
leadership and governance are all placed in the hands of “technically
unqualified personnel” (Ibara, 2014: 684).
Hofman and Hofman (2011) integrate the elements of cultural managements
with those of more formal management characteristics (Hofman and Hofman, 2011:
623). The authors assume that the effectiveness of schools depends very much on
such integration and that schools may use this concept to “develop a consistent
and effective school organization” (Hofman and Hofman, 2011: 623). Also
relevant, is integrating educational supervision between the school and the
faculty as effective leadership is a result of focusing both school and faculty
heads (Hofman and Hofman, 2011: 624). This can take the form of taking into
consideration the views of school heads and teachers together with those of the
faculty or departmental heads (Hofman and Hofman, 2011: 624). However,
“different schools need different management practices” because; “there are
strong differences between schools in terms of their student populations,
environment, and place in the community” (Hofman and Hofman, 2011: 622).
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK & EXPLANATION
Barrett’s
study on teacher’s accountability is relevant to the candidate’s topic. In any
administration of school, there must be accountability, most significantly from
teachers. This is where a school be effective. Teachers influence the
achievement of students. Hence, any misconduct or continuous absenteeism will
highly affect the school and the student. This must be taken into consideration
in strengthening the school’s administration. However, Barrett’s study was
written in 2005 and based only in two Tanzania Mainland’s regions: Shinyanga
and Pwani. Additionally, Barrett’s study does not give an analysis of Zanzibar
neither emphasizes on how teacher are related to the administration and student.
This research in hand aims to fill in this gap by linking the relationships of
the school administration and student.
Komba and Nkumbi (2008) writes on the importance of teacher professional
development in Tanzania they examine the consequences of not having a well
designed schedule for training. The perceptions and practices of school
administrators are found to be poorly coordinated and training is rarely
budgeted for (Komba and Nkumbi, 2008: 67). These challenges are related to the
management and in the long run have a direct effect on student’s achievements
(Komba and Nkumbi, 2008: 86). Nevertheless, Komba and Nkumbi’s article is not
based on the effectiveness of school administration. As a result, the article
does not define ‘effectiveness’ and neither link it with the school
administration and students achievement. This research aims to fill in this
gap.
A
study from Sub-Saharan African countries gives a comparative analysis between
Zanzibar and other Sub-Saharan African countries. The study by Lee et al.
(2005) identifies school’s characteristics in 14 Sub-Saharan African countries.
These include social and academic backgrounds, teachers administration, human
and physical background (Lee et al. 2005: 207). Lee et al. defines
‘effectiveness’ in terms of students’ literacy “achievement at the end of Grade
6” (Lee et al. 2005: 207). The authors should have broadened up their scope to
include achievement above grade 6. Additionally, mixing Zanzibar with other
Sub-Saharan countries looses adequate discussion and an in depth analysis for
Zanzibar specifically. This research aims to widen the scope on effectiveness
but at the same time limiting the discussion and analysis to Zanzibar’s
perspective.
In researching about effectiveness of a school administration, certain
elements must be tabled to measure the ‘effectiveness’. This is what Cahan and
Elbaz (2000) seeks to study. The authors come up with a concept of measuring
‘effectiveness’ between school inequalities. The approach “defines
effectiveness in terms of increment or gain in the achievement of a given
cohort in the same school between two consecutive grades” (Cahan and Elbaz,
2000: 129). Other measurements are however not discussed by Cahan and Elbaz.
This research aims to pull in parent’s attitude, teacher’s overall roles and
student’s performance together with the author’s concept in measuring schools
effectiveness.
A
proper and reliable method of doing this research is linking effective leadership
and school administration. Seitz’s study (1974) relates these concepts
perfectly fine. Though Seitz’s study is written reflecting the 1970s, the
theories are still relevant in this age of 21st Century. Seitz comes
up with several models of leadership, for example situational, instructional,
transformational, and servant leadership (Seitz, 1974: 12-28). These models are
not to be applied together, but administrative can choose an item which best
suits to the need of their school. However, this study needs to be related with
the Zanzibar’s school administration and see how they can be applied in this
modern age.
Leithwood and Mascall (2008) come up with the concept of collective
leadership and how this affects student’s achievement. The authors conceptualises
their theory by widening organisational structures and leadership in a flat
mode as well as distributing leadership over multiple people and roles
(Leithwood and Mascall, 2008: 530). The leadership framework is defined to
include teachers, administrators, students and parents (Leithwood and Mascall,
2008: 530). The study is relevant as it describe the participative approach in
school administration with the aim of increasing student’s achievement. This
concept is well to be taken on board when writing this research.
Several overseas experiences are also relevant for this research. Hofman
and Hofman’s article (2011) in Netherland focuses on different leadership or
management styles in schools. They find that there exists a strong difference
in effective management “styles between schools with different student
populations” (Hofman and Hofman, 2011: 620). Other experiences are that of
Nigera by Ibara (2014) who writes on qualifications for appointing a school
administrator. Ibara suggest, among others, that a principal should possess
skilled personnel as well as having appropriate training and competences for
school management and leadership (Ibara, 2014: 674). The experiences of
Netherland and Nigeria are both relevant for this research as management styles
and principal’s qualifications affect students’ achievement.
This
study seeks to explore school administrators response towards instructional
activities used in the students achievement secondary schools in Zanzibar,
Tanzania. Based on the concept that principals and teachers portray their
pedagogical knowledge through their practices of students achievement, the
study investigates how administration response towards these activities and
strategies and went beliefs the administration hold the effective to the
student achievement in the school.
This Part presents the research design, location of study, study
population and sample procedure, description of instruments and scoring,
validity and reliability of the instrument, procedures for data collection,
data analysis, and bibliography, appendices, instrument and work schedule.
Polit
and Hungler (1999: 155) describe the research design as a blueprint, or
outline, for conducting the study in such a way that maximum control will be
exercised over factors that could interfere with the validity of the research
results. The research design is the researcher’s overall plan for obtaining
answers to the research questions guiding the study. Burns and Grove (2001:
223) state that designing a study helps researchers to plan and implement the
study in a way that will help them obtain the intended results, thus increasing
the chances of obtaining information that could be associated with the real
situation. The
study will deem qualitative research best suited to understand the relationship
between the effectiveness of administration and student achievement in Zanzibar
schools. A key strength of qualitative research is the ability to give the
research a comprehensive perspective of the phenomenon under study (Babbies,
2007), facilitating the discovery and understanding of actions, beliefs,
decision and recognition of nuances in attitudes and behavior that cannot be
easily detected by qualitative methods (Babbies, 2007; Creswell, 2009).
We adopted a grounded
theory approach to the research designing a study that sought to inductively
generate a theory about phenomenon of interest by the rigorous constant
comparison of data collected and analyzed concurrently (Babbies, 2007; Strauss
and Corbin, 1990; Suddaby, 2006). Theoretical sampling involved the interplay
between theory and data to select new research cases and to re-focus the
interview questions in order gain deeper meaning and understanding of emerging
concepts (Strauss and Corbin, 2009).
The
study is based in Zanzibar, a State within the United Republic of Tanzania. The
study is located at West Urban Region of Zanzibar, Tanzania. The Region is
bordered to the north by the North Region, to the east by the Central Region,
Kiwani Bay in the South Region and to the west by the Urban District. Secondary school enrolment is 31,125 with 10,997 school teachers as by
2010 (MoEVT, 2011: i). In focus to the West Urban Region and an analysis of the
effectiveness of school administration in student’s achievement, two public and
one private school have been selected. These are Laurent International School
(private), Mwanakwerekwe’ C’ Secondary School (public) and Kiponda Secondary
School (public) – all located in the West Urban Region of Zanzibar -Tanzania.
POPULATION AND SAMPELING PROCEDURE
Polit
and Hungler (1999: 43, 232) define a population as the totality of all subjects
that conform to a set of specifications, comprising the entire group of persons
that is of interest to the researcher and to whom the research results can be
generalised. LoBiondo-Wood and Haber (1998:250) describe a sample as a portion
or a subset of the research population selected to participate in a study,
representing the research population.
Population
The
target population for the study are students from secondary schools in
Zanzibar. The students exhibited the
highest and lowest levels of growth in academic achievement. Zanzibar student’s
achievement in studies is the uses as the primary indicator in successful. In
total the population included 200 respondents in two public schools in Zanzibar
and one private school.
The
target population for this study is made up of three secondary schools in the
West Urban Region in Zanzibar including principals, teachers, students,
secondary school directors, West District and Urban District education
officers. The population will include
200 respondents of 140 students, 50 teachers, 5 principals, 2 districts education
officers and 3 secondary directors.
Sampling
Procedure
A
sampling procedure defines the rules that specify how the system calculates the
sample size and it contains information about the valuation of an inspection
characteristic during results recording (attributive, variable, manual, etc.).
The
procedure which will be adopted in this study in order to obtain the sample of
respondents for providing data is systematic sampling. This mode of sampling
will involve dividing the study in homogeneous groups which includes:
(i)
Random sampling
Random
is a technical term in social science research that means that selection was
made without aim, reason, or patterns. If any study uses the word random, it
means that specific scientific procedures were used to ensure that the sample
was selected purely by chance. Scientists have developed a few procedures that
must be followed for a study to achieve random, such as the hat-and-draw method
or a random number table. To be random, participants cannot be chosen because
of their intelligence, gender, social class, convenience, or any other factor
besides scientifically-agreed upon random procedures
(ii)
Purposive sampling
In
purposive sampling, the researcher uses their expert judgment to select
participants that are representative of the population. To do this, the
researcher should consider factors that might influence the population: perhaps
socio-economic status, intelligence, access to education, etc. Then the
researcher purposefully selects a sample that adequately represents the target
population on these variables
DESCRIPTION OF INSTRUMENT & SCORING
A
few well documents adopted by research in the Urban West Region in Zanzibar
will be used as the basis for designing the questionnaires for this study. The
instrument from a private school will be applied because of its
comprehensiveness in describing all the different practices of school
administration involvement in the student achievement. The instrument relevant
to describe and score is that of, Komba and Nkumbi (2008) who writes on the
importance of teacher professional development in Tanzania. They examine the
consequences of not having a well designed schedule for training. The
perceptions and practices of school administrators are found to be poorly
coordinated and training is rarely budgeted for (Komba and Nkumbi, 2008: 67).
These challenges are related to the management and in the long run have a
direct effect on student’s achievements (Komba and Nkumbi, 2008: 86).
Several overseas instrument describe scoring experiences are also
relevant for this research. Hofman and Hofman’s article (2011) in Netherland
focuses on different leadership or management styles in schools. They find that
there exists a strong difference in effective management “styles between
schools with different student populations” (Hofman and Hofman, 2011: 620).
Leithwood and Mascall (2008) come up with the concept of collective leadership
and how this affects student’s achievement. This research aims to link
effective leadership and school administration.
Asserting
validity involved issues of the truth and correctness of a statement and
whether you are measuring what you think you are measuring. Ary and Razavieh (
1990) posited that validity of an instrument is an extent to which it measure
what one thinks it is measuring and it is always specific to a particular
purpose for which the instrument is being used. Salvia et. al ( 1991) stated
that validity concerns the
appropriateness of the inferences that can be made on the basis of test
results. In other ward, validity indicates the instrument’s accuracy (Lodica,
2006). Further, Mc Burney & White (2007, p 139) view validity as an
indication of accuracy in terms of the extent to which a research conclusion
corresponds with reality. The foregoing suggests that validity hinges on the
extent to which meaningful and appropriate inferences or decisions are made on
the basis of scores derived from the instrument used in a research.
Reliability is different from validity in that the
former relater to consistency where the latter relates to accuracy. Reliability
is concerned with how consistently we are measuring what we intend to measure
(Ary and Razavieh, 1990). Ary and Razavieh (1990) also stated that reliability
refers to the consistency and suitability of a score from a measuring scale.
The reliability refers to the consistency of scores
that is an instrument’s ability to produce approximately the same score for an
individual over repeated testing or across different ratters. The closer to
+1.00 the reliability coefficient is the more highly reliable the instrument.
To establish stability, first a pilot sample of participants is selected. Pilot
sample is instrument developments are usually large populations, which allow
for the greatest degree of general ability. Once the pilot has been
established, participants are given the instrument the scores are obtained for
every individual depending on the instrument’s purpose, correlation
coefficients ranging from 0.84 or stronger would be moderately strong and
certainly acceptable. Coefficients of 0.24 to 0.34 are considered to show a
slight relationship and may be acceptable level for instruments that are
considered exploratory.
Data
collection instruments refer to devices used to collect data such as
questionnaires, tests, structured interview schedules and checklists (Seaman
1991: 42). Polit and Hungler (1997: 466) define a questionnaire as “a method of
gathering information from respondents about attitudes, knowledge, beliefs and
feelings”. The questionnaire is designed to gather information about
effectiveness of school administration and students achievement’ knowledge,
skills, attitudes and beliefs regarding needed in current schools.
Appointments will be made with the school principals. Secondary school
director, district officer, secondary school students and secondary school
subjects teachers at least two weeks before visiting through correspondence.
The researcher will then visits the class teachers and administered the
interviews in person over a period of five days.
The researcher will go to the field and start to collect data by using
procedure of structured and unstructured questionnaires, interview and document
analysis. The questionnaires are to be completed by teachers (n-50), students
(n-140), principals (n-5), while face-to face interview will be conducted with
districts education officers and secondary director (n-5). The questionnaires
will design using likert-type questions that sought to determine the extent to
which school engages in the correlative effective school. The researcher will
send the questionnaire to the respondents and may use the following
methodologies:
(i)
Drop
and pick,
(ii)
Drop
and pick later,
(iii)
Fill
personally by asking questions in the questionnaire and filling.
Also
the researcher will use secondary method by reading reports dealing with
effectiveness of school administration and students achievement.
The
data will return question with code for processing using SSPS for window
Release 16.0 as this study will be descriptive in nature. Also, descriptive
analysis using frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations will be
applied. The respondents’ response on their perceptions of the concept on
effectiveness of school administration and students’ achievement, and the
barriers to school and administration partnership will be analysed using
frequencies and percentages.
The respondent responses of their perception on the importance of
administration involvement in the student’s education and school practices will
analysis using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation. Pearson
product moment correlation coefficient will be used to determine the
relationship between the two variables. Ary et al 1990 note that the
correlation procedure shows the extent to which change in one variable is
associated with change in another variable. The scale used by Davis (1971) was
used to describe the relationship between variables. The scale is follow:
|
Coefficient |
Descriptions |
|
70 or higher |
Very strong relationship |
|
50 to 69 |
Substantial relationships |
|
30 to 49 |
Moderate relationship |
|
10 to 29 |
Low relationships |
|
01 to 09 |
Negligible relationships |
T-test
was used to find out whether there were significant differences between
variables of two levels.
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