Human resource Practices and teacher engagement in the rural setting of Ugandan schools

Abstract

The study sought to examine the relationship between human resource practices and teacher engagement in secondary schools in the far north district of Arua. The study was premised on the counter- productive work behaviors of some secondary school teachers working in the rural setting of Uganda. There was however, lack of local empirical studies on the factors driving this trend. Cross sectional research design was adopted for the purpose of the study using a sample of 226 respondents out of the total population size of 514 teachers in the selected local government. Pearson Correlation and regression analysis were used to find out the extent to which HR practices predict teacher engagement. The research findings showed a positive Correlation between the study variables. The study concludes that there is need for the policy makers and school administrators to introduce and effectively apply HR practices namely recruitment and selection, reward, performance management, staff development programmes and employee involvement aimed at inducing teachers’ engagement despite the upcountry setting in which they work. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 19thAnnual international management conference of Makerere University Business School, September 2 -5, 2014.