Chapter 18: Serving Multiple Masters: Rural Ugandan Headteachers’ Role in Attracting and Retaining Teachers

Attracting and retaining teachers in rural schools is an issue that impacts communities around the world. Head teachers play a critical role in the recruitment, management, and development of teachers and they do so in the context of serving multiple stakeholders—the school community, parents, central and local education authorities—who often have conflicting expectations. The ability to address these tensions is key to the school’s success in attracting and retaining teachers, yet the way Ugandan head teachers do so remains poorly understood. This chapter reports how specific head teachers’ practices “work around” the expectations and tensions among school boards, community leaders, and government agencies, that is, “multiple masters” as they attempt to attract and retain teachers. The role of the head teacher as policy and practical “gate-keeper” and how the head teachers balance individual school autonomy and the need to fit Ministry of Education policy, the expectations of teachers, parents, and local community is presented. This study thus highlights how school head teachers adapt policies to fit their circumstances and to address the expectations of multiple masters to foster teacher attraction and retention.