Management of schools: Teachers' involvement in decision making processes

Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. The purpose of this study is therefore to establish effects of insignificant teacher’s participation in the management of teaching load allocation in the Gweru District of Zimbabwe. The study adopted an interpretive qualitative research methodology and a case study research design. A purposive convenient sample of twenty five school teachers and five school heads from Gweru District formed the study. Data were collected through face to face interviews and documentary analysis. The study began the process of data analysis by transcribing verbatim audio taped interviews. The results were cross-checked with the participants. The study established that teachers were not involved in the allocation of teaching load in most of the participating schools. It also emerged that if a teacher is deployed to teach a subject where he/she has lower competence, what happens is that the teacher may underperform or teach the wrong things altogether.   Key words: Schools, teacher’s participation, decision-making, decentralisation.