Employee Voice Contexts and Teacher Retention in Remote Secondary Schools in Tanzania

Abstract

Retaining teachers in their work stations is influenced by many factors which are contextually explained. Teachers’ retention practices in Tanzania and most Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have been ineffective partly because of being monetary based. While ‘voicing’ is regarded as a more feasible strategy for retaining teachers in these countries, conditions which favour voicing over exiting a remote school particularly in the Tanzanian context have been not systematically mapped out. This article presents and discusses seven conditions, to include: empowering, listening and cooperative leadership; habitability; friendliness outside school environment; investment potentialities; a supportive and peaceful school working environment; life as a “challenge” mindset; as well as patriotism and profession commitment, which were found to favour voicing over exiting a remote school. The findings imply that there is a need to empower teachers to influence change and reforms that matter to them, increasing teachers sense of investment in schools they are posted and in the profession (social and financial capital), checking ‘who goes into the teaching profession and with what level of struggle’; improving school-level relationships including justice practices from leaders and management, positive co-workers exchanges; training teachers to become patriotic to the nation and be committed to the teaching profession; and the need to improve cooperation and understanding between schools and their surrounding communities.