A CRITICAL ANALYSIS ON THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE PRACTICE OF TEAMWORK AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The importance of teamwork in any organization's development cannot be overstated. The definition of a school as an organization is one that has common aims and is connected to the outside world (Davis, 2004). Members of a school should work together as a team to develop the school by utilizing the existing resources (Babyegeya, 2002). A excellent school should have a strong and effective collaboration. The hallmarks of a good school, according to Hallam (1996), include a sense of community, a pleasant atmosphere, a wide vision of education, an appealing setting, a sense of purpose, and a self-critical posture. These attributes contribute to high-quality education, which may be achieved when instructors work together as a team. Teamwork among teachers is a key technique for achieving the country's educational goals. Teamwork creates a sense of belonging, and education stakeholders should collaborate and aid one another to solve, improve, and boost school efficiency (Brown, 1991). In classrooms, teachers work alone with small groups of students. The instructor might use the teamwork method to demonstrate the benefits of collaboration and instill a new sense of cooperation and collegiality in the students. Teachers will be able to think more creatively and effectively at a school that is a learning organization if they have a stronger capacity to think collectively and use people's characteristics in a more creative and effective way (Whitaker, 1998). Collaboration, solidarity, and interdependence are stressed in teamwork. Teachers in schools are important in every way and should be treated with respect. This provides a humanistic management style, in which instructors are encouraged to participate in decision-making, delegate responsibilities, and be dedicated to their jobs (Nafukho et al., 2011). Teamwork is made up of elements that demonstrate a sense of direction, attention to process, procedure, awareness of time, commitment, success, demonstration of high-level communication skills and interaction, and personal qualities such as being open and honest, speaking directly, and appreciating others' efforts (Whitaker, 1998).
In Nigeria, expanding education has entailed increasing the number of students enrolled in schools, which should be accompanied with the provision of high-quality education. Teachers who work together guarantee that all students participate completely in achieving educational goals, such as personal, social, economic, political, cultural, and moral goals (Hunter, 1998). As teachers execute education policies, higher level education involvement, particularly the formation and practice of teacher cooperation, is one means of enhancing the education system. Secondary school instructors are expected to improve their performance in order to create marketable pupils in a competitive world, since the educational system changes on a daily basis in response to scientific and technological advancements in terms of diverse cultures, people, and systems. Consequently, teachers have different thoughts and feelings about how to deal with these difficulties. Teachers may be interdependent through cooperation, but today's complex learning cannot be developed by a single person hence all major educational issues cannot be handled efficiently without team work (Levi, 2010). This is supported by Dyer and Dyer, (2007) who opine that school is similar to an industry in which students are given skills, knowledge, and attitudes in order to transform science (skills) into technology and productivity, and this is one of the main reasons why the government established a public school system. Therefore, teachers should be developed as human resources in education, and teamwork is the solution to these educational goals.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Despite the government's and other education stakeholders' attempts to build and practice teacher collaboration in schools through various seminars, meetings, and workshops, it has been noticed that establishing and practicing teacher teamwork in schools remains a struggle. It is been observed that team work is one of the major impediments to efficiency among employees, it affects their output and also organization total output. According to Ekpenyong (2019) this continuous to show disunity, selfishness and lack of love among essential human resources, educators, has obstructed effective teaching and learning, result to student poor performance, increase school conflicts and low quality education prevail. Although many studies has been conducted in the area of teachers motivation, teacher qualification and commitment, very few or little has been done to analyze the establishment and practice of teamwork of teachers specifically in secondary schools. Therefore the study presents an analysis on the factors affecting the practice of teamwork among secondary school.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objectives of this study is to analyze the factors affecting the establishment and practice of teamwork of teachers, specifically the study intends to:
i. Identify factors limiting the establishment and practice of teamwork of teachers in secondary schools.
ii. Ascertain whether school leadership style poses a challenges on the establishment and practice of teamwork among teachers in secondary schools.
iii. Investigate the significant effect lack of teachers team work poses on secondary education.
iv. Determine the appropriate strategies on the establishment and practice of teamwork of teachers in secondary schools.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research is guided by the following question constructed in line with the research objectives:
i. What are the factors limiting the establishment and practice of teamwork of teachers in secondary schools?
ii. Does school leadership and management style poses a challenges on the establishment and practice of teamwork among teachers in secondary schools?
iii. What are the effect lack of teachers team work poses on secondary education?
iv. What are the appropriate strategies towards the establishment and practice of teamwork of teachers in secondary schools?
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The findings from this study will help education stakeholders such as Ministry of Education, teachers, parents and the students to understand the importance of teamwork of teachers in the education system towards the realization of quality education. According to Maxwell (2008), teamwork of teachers helps to improve performance, leadership system, create collaborative culture and is the heart of great achievements in the education sector. Therefore the findings may help to contribute a lot in improving performance of the schools management and teachers in particular. Also the study will increase opportunity for other researchers to go beyond this research related aspect.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study borders on the factors affecting the establishment and practice of teamwork of teachers. It will further identify factors limiting the establishment and practice of teamwork of teachers in secondary schools, ascertain whether school leadership style poses a challenges on the establishment and practice of teamwork among teachers in secondary schools, investigate the significant effect lack of teachers team work poses on secondary education. And determine appropriate strategies on the establishment and practice of teamwork of teachers in secondary schools. The study delimited to secondary schools teachers in Umuahia South Local government Area in River State.
1.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Like in every human endeavour, the researchers encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. The significant constraint was the scanty literature on the subject owing that it is a new discourse thus the researcher incurred more financial expenses and much time was required in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection, which is why the researcher resorted to a limited choice of sample size covering only selected secondary schools teachers in Umuahia South Local government Area in River State. Thus findings of this study cannot be used for generalization for other secondary schools teachers in other states within Nigeria. Additionally, the researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work will impede maximum devotion to the research. Howbeit, despite the constraint encountered during the research, all factors were downplayed in other to give the best and make the research successful.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Teamwork: Radices and Radovanovic (2013) define teamwork as the structure whereby a number of people with different background, skills and knowledge drawn from various areas of an organization work together on a specific and defined tasks. The school is one of the organization and set up with specified goals which should be reached and the teachers are very important in day to day activities of the school and that they should work as a team for the school development. (Clegg et al, 2011).
Teacher: A teacher is the person who is capable of imparting knowledge, skills and shaping the youths to the wider scope of knowledge. The teacher is capable of living and molding the youths. The teacher can also teach or facilitate the learning process
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