Faculty of Education

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Browsing Faculty of Education by Author "Mgaiwa, Samson John"

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    Academics’ job satisfaction in Tanzania’s higher education: The role of perceived work environment
    (Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 2021-04-03) Mgaiwa, Samson John
    Employees’ job satisfaction is critical for better work performance, reduced turnover intention, enhanced organizational commitment, and decreased job burnout. In the last several decades, numerous studies have assessed the association between employees’ work environments and job satisfaction globally. However, little research has addressed academics’ job satisfaction in non-European countries, and studies of Tanzania are particularly scarce. Drawing on Lewin’s field theory, this study sought to fill this gap by examining the relationship between Tanzanian academics’ perceived work environment and their job satisfaction, as measured by the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ). The study was quantitatively driven, with a cross-sectional survey design. A convenience sample of 116 academics (men: N ​= ​93; women: N ​= ​23) from two universities in Tanzania responded to a newly self-designed Perceived Work Environment Inventory and the MSQ. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed using SPSS version 25 to detect significant predictors of academics’ job satisfaction. The results demonstrated that academic freedom, participative decisions, teamwork, supervision, and resources statistically significantly predicted academics’ job satisfaction over and above their marital status, gender, age, academic rank, and institutional type. This study has both practical and policy implications, and its findings contribute to the broader literature on the management and governance of higher education.
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    Emerging Fundamental Issues of Teacher Education in Tanzania: A Reflection of Practices.
    (Educational Process: International Journal, 2018) Mgaiwa, Samson John
    Quality of teachers is recognized as one of the critical dimensions for promoting student learning in schools. However, in Tanzania there are several emerging issues that affect teacher education and teachers, and as a result affect students’ learning. The existing corpus of literature indicates a death of studies on the systematic understanding of issues that affect teacher education in Tanzania, especially at a time when education across the world is encountering a number of challenges. Employing documentary review and interviews as data collection methods, this paper attempts to analyze the emerging issues affecting teacher education in Tanzania. Employing the Teacher Education Model for the 21st Century, the paper identified five major issues affecting teacher education namely; lack of specific policies for teacher education, lack of continuing professional development, lack of an autonomous teacher regulatory body, inadequate ICT and teacher education, and poor quality of candidates joining teacher education. Generally, the findings indicate that teacher education is not effectively planned in terms of policy imperatives to meet the contemporary professional demands for 21st century education in Tanzania, and beyond. Finally, conclusions and certain recommendations which take a futuristic perspective in preparing 21st century teachers are offered.
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    Fostering Graduate Employability: Rethinking Tanzania’s University Practices
    (Sage open, 2021-04-13) Mgaiwa, Samson John
    Globalization, partly spurred by technological innovation such as artificial intelligence and robotics, continues to disrupt not only economic trajectories and business models, especially in the developed world, but also the knowledge and skill requirements for graduates entering the labor market. A growing corpus of literature on graduates’ employability has identified barriers to employment ranging from skills mismatch to a lack of soft skills. Although the literature on graduate employability is informative and illuminating, the role of university practices in fostering graduate employability in sub-Saharan Africa, and Tanzania in particular, has been less studied. Drawing on the broader employability literature, this article provides a comprehensive analysis of the best university practices in an effort to address the unemployment problems of university graduates in sub-Saharan Africa and Tanzania in particular. Four critical university best practices for fostering graduate employability are of interest—developing effective university—industry partnerships, aligning university education with a country’s development plans, regular university curriculum reviews, and strengthening quality assurance systems. Therefore, this article contributes to the higher education literature on the role of university practices in fostering graduate employability.
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    Institutional constraints affecting quality assurance processes in Tanzania’s private universities. Journal of Higher Education in Africa
    (The Journal of Higher Education in Africa, 2017-11-01) Mgaiwa, Samson John; Ishengoma, Ishengoma Mchunguzi
    Abstract The purpose of this study is to identify the institutional constraints of quality assurance processes in Tanzania’s private universities and colleges. The descriptive survey design combines qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Purposive, stratified, and random sampling procedures are used to select a sample of 486 participants in the study who comprised 191 academic staff, 291 students, and 4 quality assurance officials from four private universities. Questionnaires and interviews are used for data collection. The findings indicate that inadequate financing, lack of capacity in terms of adequate, qualified and experienced human resources to undertake quality assurance functions, lack of clear and viable quality assurance policies, lack of awareness on quality assurance issues, and lack of academic leadership were the identified major institutional constraints to quality assurance processes in Tanzania’s private universities. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings are also discussed.
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    Leadership initiatives in response to institutional quality assurance challenges in Tanzania’s private universities
    (Journal of Further and Higher Education, 2020) Mgaiwa, Samson John
    Higher Education (HE) systems worldwide are undergoing multifarious changes due to pressure engendered by the global need for the knowledge economy. The demand for knowledge economy has created two demands: the need for quality HE education and the high social demand for HE which has resulted in the rapid emergence of private universities (PRUs). The quest for quality education has long been the main foci in HE reforms evident in universities putting in place quality management systems for assessment of university performance. Extant research shows that in Tanzania, PRUs have long been facing quality challenges ranging from lack of adequate and qualified academics to frail quality assurance(QA) systems. Although the existing research on QA challenges in private higher education are numerous and informative, the question on how university leadership responds to quality management challenges and whether or not such initiatives are significant in lessening the challenges remains largely unknown. Therefore, this paper examines the leadership initiatives aimed to respond to QA challenges in Tanzania’s PRUs and on whether such initiatives are useful in addressing QA challenges. The paper contends that private universities need effective leadership and governance to overcome the existing quality challenges.
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    Mentorship of early career academics in Tanzania: issues and implications for the next generation of academics
    (Higher Education Pedagogies, 2021-03-31) Mgaiwa, Samson John; Kapinga, Orestes Seliverius
    Mentoring has been pointed out as one of the strategies for early career academics (ECAs) preparation and support for smooth transition into academia. Although ECAs mentoring has been widely studied, and the findings have indeed been informative and illuminating, the issues facing ECAs have yet to be adequately addressed, particularly in Tanzania. Drawing from open-ended questionnaires, focus group dis cussions, and interviews, we examined the issues surrounding the mentoring of ECAs in selected Tanzanian universities. Academic exploi tation, isolation, and lack of support from senior academics were among the key issues facing ECAs. The findings further revealed that regular mentorship training, peer support, and institutional policy framework as strategies in place to subdue the mentoring challenges. We argue for universities to have policy framework on professional development through ECAs mentoring to fill out the gap on pedago gical, research and public engagement deficits for ensuring capable next generation of academics.
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    Operationalising Quality Assurance Processes in Tanzanian Higher Education: Academics’ Perceptions from Selected Private Universities.
    (Creative Education, 2018) Mgaiwa, Samson John
    The purpose of this research was to examine the extent of operationalization of quality assurance processes in Tanzanian Private Universities (PRUs). A descriptive survey design informed by a mixed research approach was employed to guide this research. Purposive and stratified random sampling procedures were employed to select a sample of one hundred and ninety-five (N = 195) participants in the study who comprised of 191 academics, and 4 quality assurance officials from four private universities. Questionnaires and face-to-face interviews were used for data collection. The findings indicated that QA processes such as institutional self-assessment and external examinations were to a large extent conducted by PRUs. Unlike these findings, internal quality audits and tracer studies were not adequately carried out. Conclusively, the non-regular practice of these processes remains the main challenge in most of the surveyed Tanzanian PRUs because they are stipulated in the institutional policy documents without a will to adequately implement them.
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    The paradox of financing public higher education in Tanzania and the fate of quality education: The experience of selected universities.
    (Sage open, 2018) Mgaiwa, Samson John
    This article examines the sources of funding for public university education in Tanzania. The article also examines the trends in Other Charges and Capital Development funding for selected public universities in Tanzania taking a leap of years from 2010/2011 to 2015/2016 and their implications for quality issues in the provision of higher education. Results indicate that the sources of financing for public universities in Tanzania are unreliable and unsustainable. The findings further show that government approval rates for budgetary requests from universities decreased over the 6 years. At the same time, the proportion of government-approved funds and those released to universities decreased during the period under review. This article argues that given the unreliability of sources of higher education funding and decreasing budget approval rate and disbursed funds, the fate of quality higher education in the Country is questionable should the trend continue. Based on the findings, conclusions are drawn and recommendations made in light of the weaknesses identified and the review of the system of public university education funding in Tanzania.
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    Public–private partnership in higher education provision in Tanzania: implications for access to and quality of education
    (Bandung Journal of Global South, 2016-11-24) Mgaiwa, Samson John
    Public–private partnerships (PPPs) in education are presented as capable of resolving several issues of education provision, financing, management, access and quality. This paper aimed at analyzing the impact of PPPs on access to and quality of higher education in Tanzania. Secondary research was used to gather data and critical review of the data and its analysis made. The focus of the paper was on higher education financing and on private higher education institutions. The findings indicated that PPPs have had a positive impact on increasing access to Tanzania higher education. However, although private universities and university colleges are many in number, enrolment has continued to be higher in public universities. It was further noted that an increase in higher learning institutions and subsequent increase in access to higher education has not meant an improvement in the quality of education provided by the institutions. As such, PPPs have had no significant impact on the improvement of quality of education. This is mainly accounted for by the number and qualifications held by academic members of staff in private universities, the infrastructure as well as the programmes they offer.