Making Access Meaningful: Differentiated Instruction and the Implementation of Fee-Free Basic Education in Mwanza Region, Tanzania
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33687/ijef.003.04.00158Keywords:
Differentiated Instruction, Fee-Free Basic Education, Mixed Methods, Public Secondary Schools, TanzaniaAbstract
Fee-free basic education has widened access in Tanzania, but crowded classrooms, learner diversity, and limited resources continue to threaten equitable learning. This study examined how teachers’ strategies support policy implementation, focusing on the objective: to determine how differentiated instruction influences fee-free basic education in Mwanza Region’s public secondary schools. A mixed-methods approach and convergent parallel design combined a cross-sectional survey with phenomenological interviews and document review. The planned sample was 535; 524 participated (234 teachers, 240 students, and 50 key informants), a 97.9% response rate. Stratified random sampling selected schools, teachers, and students, while officials and institutional leaders were included through total-population sampling. Teacher and student Likert questionnaires, interview guides, and a document-analysis guide were administered after official permissions. Quantitative data were analysed in SPSS 27 using frequencies, percentages, and means; qualitative data were thematically organised and compared with survey patterns. Expert review, triangulation, peer debriefing, and Cronbach’s alpha procedures supported validity, trustworthiness, and reliability, although objective-specific alpha coefficients were not reported. Participation was voluntary; informed consent, anonymity, pseudonyms, secure data storage, and research-only use were observed. Teachers reported a grand mean of 4.22 and students 4.10. Collaboration was strongest (teacher M = 4.45; student M = 4.51), whereas school support (teacher M = 3.99) and visual/digital explanation (student M = 3.61) were weakest. Differentiation therefore supports participation and learning quality, but implementation remains uneven across participating schools. Schools should strengthen practical teacher development, planning time, low-cost visual resources, flexible grouping, remediation, and supportive instructional leadership.
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