Influence Of Catholic Church Owned Secondary School Heads’ Motivation On Management Of Students’ Holistic Development In Tanzania

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to assess the influence of Catholic owned secondary schools’ heads’ motivation towards management of students’ holistic development. Specifically, the study was guided by four objectives targeting first, informants’ understanding of Catholic Church policy’s guideline on holistic development of students; second, school heads’ management of social dimension; third, heads of schools’ promotion of intellectual aspect, and four; how heads of schools fostered students’ physical development. The study was undertaken in Moshi Diocese, Kilimanjaro region, in Tanzania, involving 42 (respondents) a total number of informants that is; one diocesan education Secretary, four heads of school, eleven teachers, six supporting staff and twenty students. The study employed the qualitative research approach, employing the multiple case study design where four schools were involved. Interview, focus group discussion, review of documents and observation methods were used to generate data. Thematic analysis procedure was used to analyze data. Findings established that informants had an adequate knowledge of the church education policy and adhered to it. Furthermore, it was revealed that social skills were developed through activities such as sports and games, visitation to orphanage centers and the homes for the needy and other activities which necessitated co-operation among students. Also the findings have shown that, intellectual aspect has been developed among students through the effectiveness of heads of schools in management and implementation of the curriculum. Moreover, the findings established that, students’ physical development was promoted by heads of schools supervision and demand for students to engage in various extra-curricular and physical activities like school environment cleanliness, sporting and school economic projects. Hence, the study concluded that the students’ holistic development in the studied schools was known and implemented as the heads of schools have set in place various mechanisms to have it occurring. Therefore, the findings recommended that, the quest for students’ holistic development needs to be sought by devising the educational circulars and curricula that guide educational institutions to strike a balance among the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains so as to produce all rounded individuals among students in Tanzania.