Demographic Factors and Teachers’ Observance of Their code of Conduct in Secondary Schools in Mayuge District

ABSTRACT

All professionals are proud to have a Professional Code of conduct and Practice which is a most important identifying feature of their profession. Consequently, this study investigated the relationship between the demographic factors and teachers’ observance of their code of conduct (that is; respect, integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, service, equality) in secondary schools in Mayuge District Eastern Uganda. The specific objectives of the study were to establish the relationship between teachers’ gender, age, working experience and qualification and how they affect the observance of their code of conduct in Mayuge District, taking a sample of 80 respondents ofthe academic stafffrom 21 secondary schools both private and government aided, namely among others bunya ss,sarah nitro hs ,luubu ss, rena college Mayuge, Tawheed academic institute, kaluba hs, malongo ss, buway ss, kigandalo ss. The study took both a descriptive and cross-sectional survey design with qualitative and quantitative approaches. The survey was used purposely to easily get the details from the respondents. Data was collected from 21 schools and 60 teachers and head teachers using questionnaires and oral interviews. The respondents were selected using simple random sampling and for head teachers it was purposive since they were few. The findings of the study were that the relationship between teacher ‘s gender and their observance of their code of conduct was this was represented by the significance value for the correlation which was equal to 0.000, which was less than the level of (sig 0.05).meaning that teachers gender has strong impact on their observance of their conduct. Findings on objective two indicate that the relationship between teacher’s age and their observance of their code of conduct was significant. This was represented by the significance value for the correlation which was equal to .000 less than the level of significance (0.O1),commonly used by the social scientist, meaning that teachers’ age has greater influence on their observance of their code of conduct in Mayuge District. The study further revealed that teachers have a positive attitude towards the teachers” code of conduct. It was recommended that different authorities such as the schools administration and district education department should avail to teachers’ personal copies of teachers’ code of conduct ,irrespective oftheir gender, age, or area ofqualification. In terms of professional collegiality and collaboration, the study recommended that teachers should xiii I P a g a work with the intimest of sharing, developing and supporting good practice to maintain the highest quality of education experiences for learners and Work in a collaborative manner with learners, parents/guardians, school management, and other members of staff, relevant professionals and the wider school community, as appropriate, in seeking to effectively meet the needs of learners. Supervision by the district inspectorate department especially in collaboration with Education Standards Agency, should be strengthened and inspectors be more regular to stop teachers from conducting themselves in a manner that may bring service to disrepute. The study further recommended that the recognized teacher organization (UNATU) in the district should jointly with district education department constitute the ethics committee at the district level, comprising representatives of teachers and eminent educationalists to deal with complaints referred to it by the schools where the teachers have failed to improve their conduct inspite of efforts made by the school administration. A study be done in USE aided secondary schools in Mayuge district on conflict between private intimest and professional duty.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION

APPROVAL iii

DEDICATION iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS V

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES X

LIST OF ACRONYMS X~

ABSTRACT Xffl

CHAPTER ONE 1

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1

1.0 Introduction 1

1.1 Background of the study 2

1.1.1 Historical Background 2

1.1.2 Conceptual Background 5

1.1.3 Theoretical Background 9

1.1.4 Contextual Background 10

1.2 Statement of the Problem 11

1.3 Definition of Key Terms 12

1.4 Purpose of the study 13

1.5 Specific objectives of the study 14

1.6 Research Questions 14

1.7 Justification of the Study 14

1.8 Significance of the study 15

1.9. Scope ofthe study .16

1.9.1 Content Scope .16

1.9.2 Geographical Scope 16

1.9.3 Time Scope 16

CHAPTER TWO 17

LITERATURE REVIEW 17

2.0 Introduction 17

2.1 Theoretical Review 17

2,2 Conceptual Framework 18

2.3 Teachers’ professional code of conduct 19

2.4 Constraints associated with the professional code of conduct 21

2.5 Tools applied in monitoring and assessment of teachers’ code of conduct 24

2.6 Literature Summary 26

CHAPTER THREE 27

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 27

3.0 Introduction 27

3.1 Research design 27

3.2 Study population and Area 28

3.3 Sample size and sampling Techniques 28

3.4 Data type and source & sampling technique 29

3.5 Data collection Methods / Instruments 30

3.5.1 Questionnaire 30

3.5.2 Interviews 30

3.5.3. Documentary study .31

3.6 Data quality control 31

3.6.lValidity 31

3.6.2 Reliability 32

3.6.3. Procedure for Data Collection 32

3.6.4 Data Analysis 33

3.6.5 Quantitative data analysis 33

3.7 Measurement of Variables 34

3.8 Ethical consideration 34

CHAPTER FOUR 35

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS 35

4.1 Introduction 35

4.2 Response rate 35

4.2.1 Background information of the respondents 35

4.3. Relationship between teachers’ gender and their observance of their code of conduct in

Mayuge District using Pearson Correlation 41

4.4 Relationship between teachers’ age and their observance of their code of conduct in Mayuge

District 42

4.5 Relationship between teachers’ qualification and their observance of their code of conduct in

Mayuge District 45

4.6 The relationship between teachers’ working experience and observance of their code of code

of conduct in Mayuge District 49

CHAPTER FIVE .50

DSCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 50

5.1 Introduction 50

5.2. Summary of Findings 50

5.3. Conclusion 57

5.4 Recommendations 58

5.5 Areas for Further Research 59

REFERENCES 60

CONSENT FORM 64

GOVERNMENT OF UGANDA 65

APPENDIX I: QUESTIONNAIRE 71

INTERVIEW GUIDE 76