Principals’ Definition of School Instructional Mission and Its Influence on Learners’ Academic Achievement in Public Secondary Schools in Baringo County, Kenya

Abstract

It is critical for principals to provide effective leadership when their schools formulate shared instructional goals which provide structures that focus schools towards student learning and improved academic achievement at national examination. This study sought to determine teachers’ perception of actions taken by principals in defining school instructional mission and goals in public secondary schools in Baringo County. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey that adopted a survey research design and employed mixed methods of inquiry in a concurrent procedure. It used a sample of 48 public secondary schools, 12 principals and their deputies, and 253 teachers. Stratified sampling was used to categorize schools, simple random sampling to select the teachers and purposive sampling to select the principals. A structured teacher response questionnaire and unstructured interview guide were used to collect data from the teachers, principals and their deputies respectively. Descriptive statistics were run, and their means and standard deviation presented on tables and a graph. The findings revealed that teachers in Baringo County’s public secondary schools agreed at MR=3.99 that their principals formulated and communicated the schools’ instructional mission and goals to enhance teaching and learning and improve students’ academic achievement at national examination. However, it further showed that teachers agreed at MR=4.01 that principals communicated instructional goals to their schools’ constituents compared to framing instructional goals at MR=3.88. They also agreed at MR=4.12, 4.04 that principals developed instructional goals in high and average performing schools compared to low performing school MR=3.88. The study recommends that principals provide leadership when their schools formulate and implement instructional goals, Kenya Management Institute should empower principals in district and low performing schools so as to better their management and instructional leadership in framing instructional mission.