ABSTRACT

Government primary schools in Sub-Saharan Africa are faced with a litany of problems, but one issue often discussed, dissected and debated is that of the poor quality of teachers. The global impetus for Education for All and the subsequent Dakar Framework for Action has brought the issue of teacher quality to the fore, as it has been widely researched and accepted that teachers are the strongest school level determinant of student learning (Lockheed and Verspoor 1991; Scheerens 2000; Hopkins 2001; UNESCO 2005). In Sub-Saharan Africa, scarce financial resources and the demand to expand the teaching force have exacerbated the poor provision of teacher quality, and much discourse has evolved around the determinants of quality teaching, as well as reforms needed to improve quality within the existing teaching force. To that end, a great deal of research has attempted to delineate teacher variables that affect student achievement (cf. Guthrie 1982; Fuller 1987; Heneveld 1994), which often entail lists of ‘teacher competencies’ (such as skills and content knowledge) and elements of ‘teacher performance’ (the use of knowledge and skills in the classroom) (Anderson 2002). I would like to posit that deficiencies in teacher well-being undermine efforts to both identify teacher quality variables and initiatives to improve them. First, lack of teacher well-being leads to opportunistic behaviour that runs counter to what is needed for quality teaching and learning to occur; and second, lack of well-being affects acceptance and adherence to reforms attempting to reconcile such behaviour.