Gender Equity in Teacher Participation in Tanzania’s Professional Development Programme: Adaptations and Barriers for Female Teachers

Imagine stepping into Tanzanian rural schools full of potential where every teacher’s voice can shape brighter futures. Yet a significant portion of female teachers rarely lead discussions, make decisions, or even ask questions. 

Our two-year Empowering Teachers Initiative journey revealed a hidden gender gap in teacher professional development, tied to family responsibilities, traditional norms and digital access. Women are handling heavy social responsibilities, fighting school gender stereotyping, and missing out on digital training, leaving them behind in teacher professional development.

Let us strengthen opportunities and access to TCPD together, and empower leaders with gender-responsive training, establish leadership paths for women, bring digital skills to everyone and share roles fairly.

Are you ready to spark real change? Use this resource to explore the stories, challenges and potential adaptations to ensure equitable participation of teachers in Tanzania’s school-based teacher professional development.  

Introduction

In the Tanzanian primary school context, where nearly half (48%) of teachers are female (World Bank, 2023), a gender gap persists in the nationwide implementation of Teacher Continuous Professional Development (TCPD). The TCPD programme, called ‘MEWAKA’ (Mafunzo Endelevu ya Walimu Kazini) in Kiswahili, aims to empower teachers and develop skills for better quality education, but gender barriers may be sidelining the government’s efforts.

Our team conducted a 2-year research project (2023-2025) as part of the Empowering Teachers Initiative, which investigates teacher agency and local adaptation as the MEWAKA programme scales nationally. The study explored how equitable the participation of different teacher groups (including gender differences) is, focusing on adaptations to teachers’ needs and challenges encountered. We looked at why female teachers disproportionately engage in TCPD compared to their male counterparts and what solutions might address the barriers. 

Although female teachers were reported to have relatively low participation in TCPD, observations at one school visited showed that female teachers demonstrated notable effort in participating in TCPD, specifically in facilitating COL sessions and providing their responses during the COL sessions. The photos above depict one female teacher acting as a peer facilitator, while the photo below shows another female teacher actively contributing responses during the COL session. 

The TCPD programme and Gender Equity

The MEWAKA programme aligns with the National Framework for Continuous Professional Development (NF-CPD) (United Republic of Tanzania, 2020). It moves away from centralised workshops to a decentralised, school-based model, emphasising Communities of Learning (COLs) — peer-led sessions where teachers collaborate on lesson planning, microteaching and reflective practices to improve their pedagogical skills and tackle challenges (Koomar et al., 2023). 

MEWAKA also aligns with the National Gender Policy of 2000, revised in 2023, which explicitly calls for equal opportunities for males and females in accessing training and holding leadership roles (United Republic of Tanzania, 2023). According to the United Nations Development Programme, 2022, gender equity goes beyond equality, though, by recognising that men and women may need different resources to achieve equitable outcomes. It addresses historical and social obstacles to level the playing field. 

In Tanzania’s TCPD context, gender equity refers to addressing women’s unique needs to balance their professional growth with societal, cultural and systemic challenges that can obstruct them from participating in COL sessions (Tao, 2019). The Global Partnership for Education in Tanzania pointed out gender equity as a priority area in enhancing educational reform, particularly TCPD (United Republic of Tanzania, 2022). The NF-CPD echoes this by stressing equitable participation to address the persisting gender disparities. 

Technology introduces a further barrier: previous research shows that female teachers often have less ownership of technology and access to it, and thus more limited digital skills (Laurillard et al., 2018). MEWAKA’s specialised CoL materials are hosted on a learning management system, which national usage data shows being accessed by three times as many men as women – a dramatic difference. 

Our study involved 12 rural primary schools spanning 4 regions: Dodoma, Iringa, Lindi and Mwanza. Data sources included COL observations, teacher focus group discussions, and interviews with headteachers, academic teachers, peer facilitators and education officers across all system levels: ward, district, region, national. The research instruments are openly available. 

Emerging challenges related to gender equity 

Gendered engagement in CoLs 

There is little national data; our study generated some original findings here. Participation was roughly gender-proportionate in 2/3 CoLs observed. In the remaining 1/3 sessions, female teachers engaged less in three schools and males less in one. Across all CoL sessions, the average number of contributions by men was higher.  The participation analysis also – uniquely – considered the nature of contributions, such as asking a question, sharing or responding to an idea/strategy/challenge, presenting on behalf of a group, or secretarial tasks. Men averaged slightly more substantive contributions than women. 

Social roles: Females’ caregiving responsibilities outside school can limit TCPD access 

Participants reported that female teachers’ responsibilities in caring for children or other dependents are proportionally higher than males’, affecting their attendance of COLs. 

Gender equity and technology use

Female teachers’ greater social responsibilities mean less time to “play around” with technology than men. They were also less likely to spend their money to procure tech or data bundles that could be used in COL sessions. 

You find that women have not prioritized [ technology use] due to the responsibilities we have, which are related to our gender – unlike fathers. Fathers have a lot of time. They can use technology.“

– Teacher 1

While you are busy cooking, he is sitting in the living room, browsing the internet.”

– Teacher 2

Gendered attitudes included reports of women’s “lack of confidence”, lower levels of interest in technology, and even “self-isolation” during CoLs; the underlying structural factors weren’t always recognised. Some participants noted that women were less likely to engage when the CoL topic was technology-focused.

Female teachers are less involved in external workshops using technology. Teachers who are already familiar or comfortable with tech use, usually men, were apparently selected to represent schools.

Gender stereotyping and inequity within schools

Patriarchal attitudes mean that female teachers are more likely than males to be given responsibilities such as welcoming school visitors, overseeing refreshments, and supervising students. In one school the only female teacher did not attend the CoL owing to “office duties”. These responsibilities take them away from TCPD.  

Female teachers also hold fewer leadership positions. Although ⅔ of the primary teachers in our sample were women, the ratio within peer facilitators was reversed: ⅔ were men. The limited number of female facilitators may affect women’s participation in MEWAKA.

Feedback from stakeholder workshops

Three national workshops were held with a wide range of stakeholders across the system to disseminate findings and seek input into policy recommendations. We also revisited every school to conduct a similar workshop with teachers and Ward Education Officers. Participants’ opinions on gender equity findings differed, especially findings reporting female teachers’ lower engagement in CoLs and not procuring bundles due to home responsibilities. While some participants agreed with the gender stereotyping explanations, some men argued that female teachers spend so much time on social media that some fail to handle home responsibilities accordingly.

One male teacher wanted to know why the findings didn’t show challenges encountered by male teachers in participating in CoLs, as they also handle various school responsibilities, such as silencing noisy students. The researchers explained that when gender stereotyping findings were reported by female teachers, male teachers hadn’t raised any concerns about this issue. Moreover, no men ever missed CoLs owing to social roles.

Recommendations

The findings indicate that achieving full gender equity in TCPD means tackling stereotyped attitudes and practices in wider society – a long-term aspiration. There are some specific mitigating actions we recommend though: 

• Enhance digital literacy skills and knowledge about technology 

Pre-service and in-service teachers, especially women, need opportunities to develop digital literacy skills enabling them to access materials and use tech confidently in TCPD. Measures could include school-based peer support and encouragement, including nominating female teachers as ICT champions and separate hands-on workshops for women. 

• Explicitly acknowledge the social tasks which hinder female teachers from participating in CoL sessions.

Distribute social tasks more equitably through rotation or engaging parents and community volunteers.

• Build capacity 

Train education leaders and peer facilitators in gender responsiveness.  Monitor both the frequency and quality of participation of men and women, in CoLs and external technology training/ seminars/webinars.

• Introduce pathways to leadership that target female teachers

Review criteria for promotion and ensure that experienced personnel mentor women to hold various leadership roles such as peer facilitators, academic coordinators and heads of departments. 

• Set key performance indicators (KPIs), affirmative action or quotas 

At least 50% of peer facilitators and educational leaders/officers should be women.  

For more information about the team’s work, including reports on findings around teachers with disabilities as another marginalised group, please see our project page.

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The study is co-funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Partners include Aga Khan Foundation, Tanzania Institute of Education and Aga Khan University. The work is part of the “Empowering Teachers Initiative: Teacher Professional Development at Scale,” an IDRC global research for development programme jointly implemented by the Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development (FIT-ED) and SUMMA under the TPD@Scale Coalition for the Global South. The views expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of FCDO, IDRC or its Board of Governors, FIT-ED, SUMMA, the TPD@Scale Coalition or any of its members.