NFLUENCE OF PERSONAL AND SCHOOL CHARACTERISTICS ON PRINCIPALS’ INCLUSIVENESS IN PLANNING SCHOOL ACTIVITIES AS PERCEIVED BY TEACHERS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS, LARI SUBCOUNTY, KENYA.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Participation of teachers in the day to day running of a school is a very important aspect. However it has been observed that in many Kenyan schools, administrators have isolated teachers in making decisions that relate to daily school activities.The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of selected personal and school factors on principals’ inclusiveness in planning school activities as perceived by teachers in public secondary schools in Lari Sub-county. The study employed ex post factoresearch design. Data was collected by use of questionnaires that were administered to 169 teachers and 30 principals. Stratified, simple and proportionate random sampling designs were used to select respondents. The research instruments were pilot tested for validity and reliability before being used in the study. The instruments reliability index was computed using Pearson correlation. A reliability coefficient of 0.92 which was computed was acceptable. Statistical techniques specificallyt-test and the one way Analysis of Anova(ANOVA) were used to test the four hypothesis which were germane to the study at .05 level of significance. This was accomplished with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer programme version 19.0. Experienced principals, the study revealed were more inclusive than their less experienced counterparts and that the difference in inclusiveness level was significant (P < .05). However, no significant difference in inclusiveness level was revealed with regard to principals gender (P> .05) and school category a principal was heading (P > .05). Findings from this study will go a long way in making principals appreciate the need to bring teachers on board when planning school activities. Furthermore, findings emanating from this study may benefit Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI) and the Teachers Service Commission with regard to the salient training needs to be addressed during principals’ workshop/seminars.