Teachers’ perception of principals’ instructional leadership practices and their influence on students’ academic achievement in public secondary schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish the extent to which principals‟ instructional leadership practices influence students‟ academic achievement in public secondary schools in Baringo County. The objectives of this study were to determine the instructional strategies used by principals in public secondary school in Baringo County, establish the differences in teachers‟ perception of principals‟ instructional leadership practices between Extra County and County secondary schools and determine the relationship between principals‟ instructional practices and academic achievement at KCSE examination. The study was a cross-sectional survey research that adopted survey research design and employed mixed methods approach in a concurrent procedure to collect data. The study used a sample of 48 public secondary schools, 12 principals and their deputies, and 253 teachers drawn from the six Countys in Baringo County. Stratified sampling was used to categorize schools into Extra County and Couty, simple random sampling technique to select the teachers and purposive sampling to select the principals. A structured teacher response questionnaire constructed on five point Likert type scale and unstructured interview guide was used to collect data from the teachers, principals and deputy principals respectively. The questionnaire was piloted and a reliable Cronbach‟s Coefficient Alpha index of 0.9012 was obtained. The two instruments were validated by senior researchers in the department of Educational Management and Policy Studies at Moi University. Descriptive statistics comprising frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation were worked out and presented on tables and graphs, and inferential statistics involving t-test, ANOVA and Pearson Correlation was calculated to test the research hypotheses. The study found out that teachers perceived their principals to be actively involved in defining schools‟ instructional mission and goals, and developing a supportive working environment respectively but had little involvement in managing instructional programs and promoting positive school learning climate. The findings further revealed that there was no significant difference (t (251) =.147, p>.05) in teachers‟ perception of principals‟ instructional leadership practices between Extra County and County public secondary schools though there was a significant difference (F (2,250) =783.422, p< .05) among high, average and low performing public secondary schools at KCSE. The findings also revealed that there is no statistically significant relationship (r (251) =.173**, p>.05) between the perception of principals‟ instructional leadership practices in Extra County and County schools, and students academic achievement at KCSE in Baringo County. Therefore, the study recommends that Ministry of Education‟s directorate of Quality and Standards should intensify school inspection to ensure principals‟ management of instructional programs and promoting positive school learning climate; Kenya Education Management Institute should tailor their training programs towards making principals effective instructional leaders. It is further recommended that principals should provide prudent instructional leadership that will improve students‟ academic achievement.