This study explored the institutional factors affecting teachers’ effectiveness in rural primary schools in the Tshwane North District of Gauteng Province, South Africa. The qualitative study, which aligned to the interpretivist paradigm, adopted an inductive approach. Two rural primary schools were purposefully sampled, after which semi-structured interviews were held to gather data from 25 participants: one principal, one deputy principal, two heads of department, one acting head of department, and 20 teachers. The data were analysed using Tesch’s method of open coding. The major findings of this study revealed that various institutional factors affect teacher effectiveness in rural primary schools, including a serious shortage of physical, technological, human and financial resources; poor infrastructure; inadequate teacher support; language barriers; and insufficient parental involvement. The study recommends rural primary school teachers be provided with the necessary educational resources, and that quality teacher development workshops be organised for educators at all levels.
learner academic performance, learning environment, rural school, teacher effectiveness
Vhurande Dadirai. Department of Leadership and Management, University of South Africa. Email: 45126267@mylife.unisa.ac.za
Thulani Andrew Chauke. Corresponding author. University of South Africa, Department of Adult Community and Continuing Education. Email address: chauke.thuli@gmail.com
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
This work was not supported by any funding.
This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines set by the University of South Africa. Approval of conducting the research was granted by the Gauteng Department of Basic Education (DBE). The conduct of this study has been approved and given relative clearances by the University of South Africa (Ethics certificate no: 2024/04/10/45126267/02/AM).
AI tools were not used in writing this paper.
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Cite this article:
Dadirai, V. & Chauke, T.A. (2025). Institutional factors affecting teachers’ effectiveness in rural primary schools. International Journal of Educational Management and Development Studies, 6(2), 100-124. https://doi.org/10.53378/ijemds.353197
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