School Climate as a Moderator of the Relationship between Principals’ Self-Awareness and Student Academic Performance in Kenya

Abstract

Despite sustained government investment in education, public secondary schools in Kenya's North Rift region continue to experience persistent low academic under performance. This study examined both the direct relationship between principals' self-awareness a core Goleman emotional intelligence dimension and student academic performance, and the moderating role of school climate in that relationship. Grounded in Goleman's Emotional Intelligence Theory (2011) and anchored in a pragmatic research philosophy, the study adopted an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. A sample of 407 respondents (100 principals and 307 TSC- employed teachers) drawn from 1,350 public secondary schools across eight North Rift counties was selected using proportionate stratified random sampling. Data were collected through structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, multiple regression, and Hayes' PROCESS macro (Model 1) moderated regression with 5,000 bootstrapped samples and 95% confidence intervals. Findings revealed a statistically significant and positive direct relationship between principals' self-awareness and student academic performance (r = 0.739, p < .01; β = 0.126, p = .026). Moderated regression analysis further confirmed that school climate significantly moderates this relationship (β₆ᵦ = −0.062, p = .003; ΔR² = 0.033, F = 18.251, p < .001). Conditional effects analysis demonstrated a compensatory moderation pattern: the effect of self- awareness on academic performance was strongest when school climate was weak (effect = 0.505, p < .001 at the 16th percentile) and diminished progressively as climate improved (effect = 0.131, p = .059 at the 84th percentile). These findings indicate that self-aware leadership is most consequential in resource-constrained, low-climate school environments. The study recommends targeted self-awareness capacity-building programmes prioritizing schools operating under weaker climate conditions, as these are the contexts where enhanced principal self-awareness yields the greatest students’ academic performance.