Teachers’ perceptions on the influence of selected working conditions on commitment to their professional roles in public secondary schools in Njoro Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Teachers’ commitment to their professional roles is important as it influences the teaching-learning process, students’ academic achievement, attitudes and behaviour. Secondary school teachers’ commitment to their professional roles in Njoro Sub County has been unsatisfactory. This could perhaps be due to the perceived influence of working conditions given that they have been associated with commitment. This study investigated teachers’ perceptions on the influence of selected working conditions on commitment in public secondary schools in Njoro Sub-County, Kenya. The study adopted the descriptive research design. All public schools in the sub-county were involved in the study. The target population was 453 teachers. A sample of 150 teachers from 47 public secondary schools, selected using stratified, proportionate and simple random sampling techniques participated in the study. A teachers’ questionnaire was used to collect data. The face and content validity of the instrument was examined by five experts from the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Management, Egerton University. The reliability of the questionnaire was estimated using the Cronbach method. It yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.85 and was deemed reliable. Data was analysed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Science version 25.0. Frequencies and percentages was used to describe and summarise data. The results indicated that majority of the respondents were of the view that instructional materials were adequate and they influenced teachers’ commitment. A majority (64.1%) of the teachers felt that they had heavy workloads, which influenced commitment to their professional roles. Over two thirds (69.6%) of the respondents were of the opinion that their principals were effective in supervision of instruction. A majority (62.5%) of the teachers were of the view that supervision of instruction influenced commitment to their professional roles. The study concluded that the teachers perceived that adequacy of instructional materials, workload and supervision of instruction influenced commitment. These findings may provide principals, school managers and education stakeholders with a better insight of the influence of these selected working conditions on commitment. The insight may assist school administrators and education stakeholders in reviewing related policies, and coming up with strategies for enhancing teachers’ commitment. The findings are also expected to bridge the gap in literature and serve as secondary data for future researches