Teacher Retention and Working Conditions in Low-Fee Private Schools in Ghana: The Role of School Leaders

• In Event: School leadership and its consequences

Proposal

The phenomena of Westerners and Western based-organizations building schools in ‘third-world nations’ has been occurring for centuries. Various faith-based groups (e.g., Jesuits, Friends, Methodists) and colonial governments (e.g., France, the U.K., the Netherlands) founded private schools in non-Western nations beginning in the seventeenth century, with some still in existence (Beadie & Tolley, 2002; Jones 2008). Many of those schools targeted locals to be converted to a particular faith, while others were schools serving expatriates and had relatively high tuition that was often not available to locals and, in some cases, host country nationals were not invited to enroll. Today there is great diversity in the types of private schools found in these emerging nations. It is estimated that there are more than one million low-fee private schools (LFPSs) in low and middle-income nations (Economist, 2015). While many are run by NGOs, the fastest growing group are individual low-fee private schools (Cordeiro & Brion, 2016).

Educator Preparation in Africa

Because the preparation for new or existing principals is limited in emerging nations, there is a dearth of literature on the topic (Bush, Kiggundu & Moorosi, 2011). Numerous scholars recognize that principals of schools are not prepared well enough for the tasks they have to accomplish (Donlevy, 2009; Mestry & Grobler, 2003). This lack of leadership preparation is even more evident in emerging nations (Swaffield, Jull, & Ampah-Mensah, 2013). Yet many scholars argue that school leaders play a crucial role in school improvement, teacher morale and retention, and student learning (Grissom & Harrington, 2010; Ingersoll, 2001).

According to Barnett’s (2018) review of leadership preparation and professional development, requirements can be thought of as a continuum from tightly to loosely regulated. As an example, the US has a tightly regulated system, while countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden have moderately regulated systems where trainings are offered but not required. Barnett and other scholars argue that countries such as most African and Central and some South American nations have loosely regulated systems in which preparation programs for aspiring school leaders are rare or non-existent and professional development offerings are infrequent (Lumby, Crow, & Pashiardis, 2008).

In sub-Saharan Africa in particular, there are many untrained principals who do not have the necessary skills, knowledge, or attitudes to manage their schools effectively and efficiently (Otunga, Serem, & Kindiki, 2008). According to Bush and Oduro (2006) schools in Ghana are often ruled by authority, seniority and language and not by who may be competent for the challenging tasks at hand.

In addition to the lack of school leader development, there is great variability in low and middle- income countries with regard to teacher preparation and retention. In some African nations such as Ethiopia, the majority of teachers in LFPSs hold teaching credentials and/or degrees; while in countries such as Burkina Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana it is far more typical to encounter few teachers at the primary level who have any formal education beyond a high school diploma.

An acute teacher shortage exists in at least 74 low and middle-income countries. This results in millions of children being excluded from primary education and beyond (Meyers 2015). Ghana is one of the sub-Saharan countries with an acute shortage of teachers. Thus, exploring what Ghanaian schools can do to support current teachers is key to Ghana achieving SDG 4. Since approximately 25% of the schools across Ghana are private and it is estimated that 60% of the primary schools in Ghana’s capital region are private (Cordeiro & Brion, 2018), understanding how private school leaders can increase teacher retention is a crucial part of developing education policy in Ghana.

This paper describes the results from four ethnographic case studies conducted in Ghana. The section of the study reported here addresses the following research questions: 1) What are the challenges of Ghanaian teachers in low-fee private schools? 2) In what ways, if at all, do school leaders support teachers at their schools?

Methodology and Research Design

This qualitative study took place during the 2016-17 school year in the Greater Accra region, in four LFPSs serving children from nursery (age 3) until Junior High School (age 14). The two researchers spent a total of 48 days in four schools. Research sites were selected using criterion sampling. There were six forms of data collection: 1) individual interviews with teachers and with school leaders; 2) focus group interviews with teachers; 3) a teacher survey; 4) classroom observations; 5) photographs and 6) documents. One focus group was held at each school with 5-7 teachers per group for a total of 25 teachers; additionally, three individual teacher interviews were held. The researchers interviewed a total of eight school leaders. All interviews were digitally recorded and the researchers used a semi-structured interview protocol. A total of 67 surveys were completed from all four schools with the response rate ranging from 80-95%. Using the Stallings Classroom Observation Instrument a total of nineteen classes were observed. Dozens of photographs were taken, and documents such as teacher contracts, handbooks, etc. were collected.

Findings

The full paper presents the differences and commonalities between the teachers and the school leaders when describing the challenges faced by teachers and the supports provided to them. Additionally, teachers discussed three main challenges: 1) inadequacy or late payment of their salaries; 2) poor facilities; and, 3) few teaching resources. The paper also discusses education policy implications with regard to Ghanaian private school teachers, as well as teacher preparation and development.

Authors

• Paula A. Cordeiro, University of San Diego

• Corinne Brion, University of Dayton