American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR)
2019
American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR)
e-ISSN :2378-703X Volume-3, Issue-1, pp-01-11 www.ajhssr.com
Research Paper
Open Access
Empowering Teachers in Ghanaian Basic Schools: Prospects and Challenges Dandy George Dampson University of Education, Winneba, Ghana dgdampson@gmail.com
ABSTRACT: Whilst teacher empowerment is not new in literature, it appears that its practice is novel to many head teachers of basic schools in Ghana. The study sought to investigate the prospects and challenges of teacher empowerment in Ghanaian Basic Schools. Using the convergent parallel design, a total of 282 teachers were randomly sampled from 32 basic schools in the Central Region of Ghana for the study. Whereas all 282 teachers answered the structured questionnaires, six (6) of them were further sampled to provide responses for the semi-structured interviews. The study revealed that the extent of teacher empowerment in the basic school is high. With regard to the prospects of teacher empowerment, the study established that teacher empowerment makes teachers more effective and helps to create the school‟s vision for students‟ success. The study further found that the main challenges facing teacher empowerment include: the hierarchical school structures, lack of trusts for teachers and favouritism from the part of head teachers. In view of the findings, the study recommended that head teachers of the basic schools should trust and respect teachers, support staff development and teachers‟ decisions. Additionally, head teachers of the basic schools should allocate adequate time for the development of collaborative relationships among teachers. KEY WORDS: Empowerment, teacher, head teacher, basic school I. INTRODUCTION Teacher empowerment is one of the key ingredients in school reformation (Afful-Broni, 2004, Hirsch, Emerick, Church & Fuller, 2006). Teacher empowerment can be defined as teacher autonomy to make decisions (McGraw, 1992), to make professional judgments regarding teaching (Bolin, 1989), and to have a professional voice (Simon, 1987). It is further seen as promoting collegiality, providing quality professional learning, and acknowledging the impact that teachers have on students‟ academic life (Zembylas & Papanastasiou, 2005). Teachers who are empowered are classroom-based professionals who have been given the mandate by the school leader to create and improvise their teaching and learning materials, administer their own lessons as well as evaluate students‟ performance. According to Bogler and Somech (2004), teacher empowerment is premised on the belief that teachers have both the skills and knowledge to improve the conditions in which they work. Studies (Lintner, 2008; Jacobs, 2014) have shown that when classroom-based teachers are empowered, they claim ownership of their own professional development which eventually improves schools. The nature of Ghanaian basic schools requires head teachers and other school leaders to invest in teachers the right to participate in the determination of school goals and policies and the right to exercise professional judgment about the content of the curriculum and means of instruction. This means that teaching is fundamentally a moral activity, and as such, it requires teachers to have expertise to engage in thoughtful deliberations and professional authority to participate meaningfully in decisions about the school and their classroom. Despite the benefits associated with school empowerment, research seem to indicate that basic school teachers in Ghana are least empowered in their schools (Dampson, 2015 & 2017, Dampson, Antor, Eshun, 2018). For instance, in the United States of America, a study conducted by Jacobs (2014) revealed that apart from creating a positive school culture, the head teachers do not empower the teachers in principal training, principal leadership and teacher leadership. In Jordan, a study conducted by Hamadneh (2016) revealed that teachers are highly empowered. On the other hand, Al-Mahdi‟s (2007) study established that the level of teacher empowerment was moderate in Egypt. Whereas in Kenya, Kimwarey, Chirure, and Omondi (2014) intimate that head teachers need to empower teachers with the right knowledge, skills, attitudes and development of competence that would enable the teachers to respond adequately to challenging and demanding needs of the modern society. This demands that teacher empowerment should be a continuous process where individuals are developed, a journey where people gain lifelong experiences which would enable them exercise power over their own practices and circumstances. Nonetheless, the level at which basic school teachers in Kenya are
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