Stakeholders’ experiences with the management of professional conduct of teachers in church owned secondary schools in Maseru, Lesotho

Abstract

Teachers’ professional conduct has become a major concern in the world today because some teachers behave unprofessionally and unethically regardless of qualifications, experience and competences they possess. The purpose of this study was to explore stakeholders’ experiences of professional conduct of teachers in church owned secondary schools in Maseru, Lesotho. Underpinned by interpretivist paradigm, this study employed a qualitative multi-case study whereby five church secondary schools in the urban and rural areas of Maseru participated in the study. The population for this study comprised school principals, teachers and School Board (SB) chairpersons of church owned secondary schools. The participants were selected through purposeful sampling. Five school principals, five teachers with lengthy service some of whom were HODs and five SB chairpersons were selected to participate in this study. Semi-structured interviews were used to generate data which were later analysed through interpretive thematic analysis. Findings from this study revealed that the participants witnessed positive and negative experiences of teacher conduct in teaching and learning, relationships in the school and response to authority. The older generation of teachers seemed to pass on a school culture of teacher misconduct to the next generation. This study also reported numerous incidents of teachers’ professional misconduct that were prevalent in schools such as cases related to administrative issues; misuse of school resources; intimacy and sexual abuse; working relationships; religious practices and Covid-19 protocols. Most importantly, this study established that school principals employed democracy; a mix of democracy and autocracy; and shared/collaborative leadership to manage teachers’ professional misconduct and they used, among others, school developed tools; induction and retreat workshops; enforced disciplinary processes to minimise teacher misconduct. The study recommends that, inter alia, principals and department of education should inculcate conducive culture and edify proper codes of conduct in church owned schools.