Influence of Timing in Introducing Teacher Performance Evaluation on Effective Outcomes: The Case of One Education District in Zimbabwe

This paper reports on a study that assessed how timing of introducing teacher performance evaluation in one district in Zimbabwe influenced the achievement of the desired outcomes. The research was premised on the pragmatic research paradigm and underpinned by the Readiness Assessment, Design, Process, Significance (RADPS) conceptual framework. The convergent parallel mixed method design was employed for data gathering and analysis from randomly selected 292 teachers for the quantitative strand and 12 purposively selected teachers for the qualitative strand. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Beta coefficient tests) were used to analyse quantitative data and ATLAS ti. 8 generated quotations and networks that summarised the narrative views of teachers on the timing of introducing the performance evaluation system. The ANOVA result (0.000) indicated that there was a significant relationship between the timing of introducing performance evaluation and its effectiveness and the Beta coefficient value (0.213) indicated a strong influence of timing of introduction on effectiveness of performance evaluation. The quantitative results were corroborated by findings from interviews, which indicated that the system had been imposed, had inadequate budgetary support, no piloting prior to implementation, inadequate pre-implementation training and marketing. These resultantly led to limited buy-in by stakeholders and a negative impact on the effectiveness of the whole performance evaluation system. Based on the findings, we concluded that due to its mistimed introduction, the performance evaluation system was ineffective in achieving its educational objectives in the Zimbabwean district where the study was conducted.