Subject Allocation to Teacher Trainers in Cameroon: Conflicts and Perspectives

Abstract

This study was concerned with the allocation of teacher trainers to subjects at the teacher training colleges in Cameroon. The case of some selected Government Teacher Training Colleges. This study was designed to find out the extent to which every teacher trainer can effectively teach every subject of the Grade one teacher training programme if assigned to do so. The Deans of study have to allocate subjects to teacher trainers based on needs while considering the academic backgrounds of the teachers. Most often than not, these teachers happen to have similar academic backgrounds. This results into a situation whereby, some subjects such as statistics and ICT are resisted or turned down by some teacher trainers when assigned to teach them. This situation often escalates into a teacher trainer/Dean of studies conflicts which hamper the smooth functioning of the colleges. This paper evokes the root cause of such conflicts and proposes the way forward. The following hypotheses guided the study. Ho: Subject allocation does not significantly influence work climate at the teacher training colleges. Ha: Subject allocation significantly influences work climate at the teacher training colleges. The cross-sectional survey research design that employed the descriptive approach was adopted for the study. Specifically, forty (40) participants were randomly selected from a population of about 116 teacher trainers. The Scientific Management Theory as postulated by Taylor (1909) formed the study’s theoretical framework. Data analysis was done using both descriptive statistics and inferential statistic with the help of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. The findings from the analysis revealed that the teacher trainers could effectively teach 29.6% of the 27 subjects of the teacher training programme. None of them indicated that they can effectively teach all the subjects of the Grade one Teacher Training Programme. The study recommended that, in order to do away with teacher trainer/Dean of Study conflicts and boost teacher trainers’ output, the admission requirements at the Department of Sciences of Education at the HTTCs in Cameroon  need to be revised.

Keywords: Subject allocation, Teacher Trainer, Conflicts, Perspectives

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-24-07

Publication date:August 31^st 2021