The Primary School Deputy Head’s Supervisory Role and itsEffects on the Motivation of Teachers at Junior LevelT. Mhlanga * , N. Wadesango ** and M. Kurebwa ** Zimbabwe Open University, Midlands Region, Zimbabwe** Walter Sisulu University, East London Campus, RSAKEYWORDS Supervision. Effective Teacher. Role Model. Motivation. FrustrationABSTRACT A study was conducted to assess the Primary School Deputy Head’s supervisory role and its effects on themotivation of teachers. The study adopted the qualitative interpretive research methodology. A self-reported instrument in theform of questionnaires on the subject was the main instrument administered to all 20 junior teachers and four deputy headsfrom 4 Primary Schools in Mkoba suburb in Gweru. An interview schedule was also administered to all the school heads. Datawas presented in form of tables and it was analyzed qualitatively. The findings showed that most junior teachers in the sample,perceived the deputy head’s role to be focused on ineffective teachers and weaknesses of teachers. There was no consistentsupervision. As far as the junior teachers were concerned their instructional performance could equally be effective with orwithout the deputy head’s supervision. The results also showed that the Deputy Heads’ supervisory perception concurred withthat of junior teachers that supervision focuses on weaknesses and ineffectiveness of teachers. The study recommends that bothDeputy Heads and junior teachers should be inducted on the Deputy Heads supervisory role. The heads and regional officesshould support the deputy heads in order to make them effective.Address correspondence to:Dr Newman WadesangoEmail; nwadesango@wsu.ac.zaINTRODUCTIONSoon after independence in 1980, Zimbabwesaw dramatic changes in its educational poli-cies. The policy on mass education was launchedand education was declared as a fundamentalhuman right. This led to large expansion inschools both in rural and urban areas with en-rolments doubling or even trebling. As a re-sult, double sessioning was witnessed in mosturban schools, thereby increasing the roles ofthe primary deputy head (D\H). At school level,a lot has to be done with regards to supervisionas a way of promoting quality education and forthe motivation of teachers. One of the modelsof supervision likely to be employed is Scien-tific Supervision. This model focuses on teacherrating, objective measurements in teaching, useof standardized tests and heavily relies on ex-aminations to determine outputs. The othermodel is the Human Relations Supervisionwhich emphasize on worker motivation and sat-isfaction at work. Human Resources Supervi-sion focuses on the person’s ability to use his orher talents. Lastly, Clinical Supervision involvesplanning together with the teacher (Bush 2003).The personnel who supervise at a primaryschool are: the head, deputy head (D\H) andthe Teacher-In-Charge (T.I.C), hence the needto staff develop them, re-orient and in-servicethem regularly. In Asia they have achievedeconomic development because they investedheavily in human resources in their initial stagesof economic development programmes(Edwards 1998). In Zimbabwe, donors like theCanadian International Development Agency(CIDA) and Swedish International Develop-ment Agency have contributed, much towardsthe improvement of administrator’s manage-ment skills. Cogan (1995: 20) supports the ideaof improved instruction when he says, “Super-vision gives supervisors a responsible hope ofaccomplishing significant improvement in theteacher’s classroom instruction.”The Concept of SupervisionEder and Harris (1999) say that supervisionis a process of facilitating the professionalgrowth of a teacher, primarily by giving theteacher feedback about classroom interactionsand helping the teacher make use of that feed-back in order to make teaching more effective.From what has been said above, supervision canbe viewed as a way of helping the teacher growprofessionally by assisting him or her on instruc-tional skills through immediate feedback aftera lesson delivery. This can help the teacher im-prove on his or her area of weakness for effec-tive teaching to be realized. Wadesango (2009:45) defines supervision as: “A process of inter-© Kamla-Raj 2012 Int J Edu Sci, 4(3): 215-222 (2012)
