Parental perspectives on teacher strikes in Seke Rural District Council, Zimbabwe: Implications for development work

Abstract

This article explores the parental perspectives on teacher strikes in Zimbabwean rural areas. To gain more enlightenment on the realities that they encounter, the study incorporated a qualitative methodology using in-depth interviews to collect data from parents in Seke Rural District Council. An Ubuntu approach was embraced as the theoretical framework for analyzing these challenges exacerbated by teacher strikes in Zimbabwean rural areas. Ubuntu is an African worldview that, among other values, values positive, humane and reciprocal relationships in family, community and society. Ubuntu is also about justice, inclusion, engagement, humanness, and recognition of people who are often marginalised. The research findings show that parents face a lot of challenges such as high propensity of school drop outs, child labour, low production on farm lands, juvenile delinquency, early child marriages, and drug abuse due to teacher strikes. Using the Ubuntu framework, these challenges show that there is usually lack of justice, inclusion, humanness, respect and engagement towards teachers and learners in Zimbabwean rural areas. This article posits that addressing teacher strikes in Zimbabwe is not cast in stone but can be restructured and renegotiated through engagement to ensure adequate incentives of the teachers.