Teachers’ Causal Attributions for Academic Underachievement in Public Secondary Schools in Tanzania

Abstract

Human beings have a tendency of explaining success as a product of their personal factors while associate failure to situational factors. This is what Heider (1958) termed as attribution theory. Success in academics is a socially desirable event while failure is socially undesirable. The presence of massive failure in national examinations such as that of form four 2010 in Tanzania stimulated educational actors. Teachers were blamed for massive failure; this study intended to investigate how teachers would explain that massive failure whether internalizing or externalizing. The study found that teachers attribute students’ failure to factors external to them significant at p=.000, the external factors included issues to be solved by the government, students and parents. Based on academic qualifications there was significant difference at p=.021 in externalization, teachers with no bachelor degree externalized more than teachers with bachelor degree. Furthermore, the study found out that no difference in attributions between male and female teachers, long and short experienced teachers and academic qualification in internalization. Lastly, school managements blamed more the ministry of education and students This study concluded that teachers denied being the ones who cause students’ massive failure instead the ministry concerned and students were the root cause. The ministry of education has to set implementable plans and the students invest time in learning that is supported by parents.

Keywords:attributions, motivations, Tanzania and academic performance

LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research, 9(2), 11-27, 2012