Ethiopian Journal of Business and Social Science

English Language Teachers’ Level of Instructional Behavior at Selected Secondary Schools

Abate Demissie Gedamu — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 20:20:20 +0300

This study aimed to examine the level of instructional control among English language teachers in selected secondary schools in Gamo Zone, Ethiopia. The study adopted an analytical survey research design to address the study objective. A census was used to select 62 English language teachers as participants. A validated five-point Likert scale questionnaire was employed to collect quantitative data. Statistical analyses, including one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Games-Howell post hoc analysis, were conducted to determine the level of instructional control among teachers. Additionally, a one-sample t-test was conducted to compare differences between the observed and expected mean values at both scale and subscale levels. The effect size was also utilized to describe the magnitude of instructional control. The findings of the study revealed that English language teachers predominantly employed strong teacher control, followed by marginalized shared and loose control. These results suggest that teachers primarily relied on teacher-centered direct instruction which may potentially lead to achievement gaps among students. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the Gamo Zone Education Department organize on-the-job training for English language teachers on instructional control to empower them to implement varied instructional control types as required thereby promoting a more balanced and inclusive instructional environment.

Keywords: Instructional control; Loose control; Shared control; Strong control; Student-centered; Teacher-centered

Backchannels in Tigrinya

Dagnew Mache Asgede — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 19:13:44 +0300

This article aims at describing the system of backchannel and how it is linguistically marked in oral face-to-face interaction in Tigrinya, which is a North-Ethio-Semitic language. Though the language is used by its speakers at all regional domains, its conversational structure is not explored in depth. The data employed in this study was established from audio-recorded sociolinguistic interviews, recordings of authentic conversations, fieldnotes, introspective data and data from previous studies. The data generally totals 300 minutes oral data, 612 sentences from fieldnote and examples form empirical studies, and 115 introspective examples. The findings reveal that Tigrinya speakers use fillers, particles, phrases, pronominals, and clauses. These language expressions are used as asides (encouraging an interlocutor to proceed speaking), to seek attention, to request for confirmation, to confirm attention, and to mark understanding of an information. Besides, some of the backchannel dives, for example, the verbs contain number, gender, and tense agreement in them. The linguistic expressions that used as backchannels in Tigrinya, therefore, are not only short or monosyllabic words.

Keywords: backchannel, continuer, confirmation, call attention, stating information

Linking Challenges to Academic Leadership Behaviors in Public University Context

Girma Mekuria — Wed, 01 May 2024 10:55:16 +0300

This research aimed to investigate potential root causes of challenges that arise and explain what drives
the development of academic leadership behaviors in Ethiopia's public university context. The authors
employed a cross-sectional survey design to achieve the research objective. The study established 540
sample units using Cochran's (1977) sample size determination and correction techniques, and further
employed a stratified random sampling technique to select the stated sample academic leaders from three
bands of six public universities. Among the 540 questionnaire papers distributed to participants, 487
(90.2%) were properly filled out and submitted. The collected data was recorded, organized, and analyzed
using Excel and STATA-12. The study employed multivariate regression analysis using STATA-12 to
scrutinize if subordinates' developmental challenges were attributed to the development of immediate
academic leaders' behaviors. As a result, the study investigated the selected potential challenges that
accounted for the highest variation in explaining the deviation in instructional leadership behavior (R2 =
0.16) compared to the variants in transformational (R2 = 0.11), transactional (R2 = 0.09), and laissez
faire (R2 = 0.04) leadership behaviors. This insight argues that the variety of complete academic
leadership behaviors in public universities can be explained by one or more developmental challenges,
such as members' novelty, staying up-to-date, challenging the status quo, being innovative, questioning
immoral acts, and taking risks. The study suggests that reasonable potential sources of developmental
challenges in academic governance are useful for the development of academic leadership behaviors in
the public university context. Thus, the rational challenge is a developmental tool to advance academic
leadership behaviors. The policy makers need to rethink and re-formulate academic governance policy
dimensions that provide faculty members legal opportunities to challenge superiors either to stop immoral
academic governance or to promote innovative academic governance in the university context.

Keywords: challenge; academic leadership; leadership behaviors; university; context

A Secondary School Teachers’ Professional Commitment in Wolaita Zone, South Ethiopia Region

Solomon Sapo, Tamirat Bihonegn — Wed, 01 May 2024 10:56:18 +0300

Professional commitment refers to the emotional attachment and dedication individuals have towards
their chosen profession. In the field of teaching, commitment is crucial for educators' focus and
involvement. However, sometimes teachers may experience declining commitment over time.
Therefore, a study was conducted to investigate the extent of teachers' professional commitment in
selected secondary schools in the Wolayta Zone, South Ethiopia Region. The study focused on
examining teachers' commitment to the teaching profession, students, colleagues, and the school. The
study used a cross-sectional research design to collect primary data from randomly selected
secondary school teachers using a lottery method. Researchers developed a questionnaire, which was
tested, and a Cronbach alpha value of 0.78 was recorded. Researchers used quantitative data
analysis, including measures like mean and standard deviation, as well as inferential statistical
methods like one-way ANOVA. The study found that secondary school teachers in the Wolayta Zone
demonstrated high dedication to their profession but had moderate commitment to students,
colleagues, and the school as a whole. Commitment levels did not differ significantly across schools.
The study identified salary, benefits, and recognition as the most influential factors affecting
teachers' commitment. The study concluded that the highest level of professional commitment had not
been achieved, likely due to these factors. Therefore, the study recommended recognizing and
rewarding committed teachers to foster their commitment. The study also suggested addressing
factors like recognition, opportunities, and benefits at the education bureau level.

Keywords: Colleagues, professional commitment, secondary school, students, teachers