Why are Teachers Motivated to Behave Unprofessionally? A Qualitative-Data-Based-Inquiry on Education Stakeholders’ Experiences in Tanzania

Abstract

Scholars and practitioners agree that teaching and/or education can be generally prone to widespread abuse. This paper investigates the education professionals’ account of professional misconduct in the education and/or teaching sector in Tanzania. It draws on the qualitative data generated from interviews, observations and documentary reviews. The informants for this study were teachers, teacher-trainees, officers from the Tanzania Teachers’ Union and school inspectors. The study findings confirm that social, economic, political, academic, traditional and cultural, as well technological forces account for teachers’ misconduct in Tanzania. The paper, however, concludes that the accounts advanced by educational professional informants to explain teaching malpractices and immoral behaviour among teachers in Tanzania are not justifiable on moral grounds and professional etiquette.

Keywords: Educational professionals, Qualitative data inquiry, Teacher misdemeanours, Tanzania

LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research, 8(1), 1-23, 2011