| dc.description.abstract | Teachers' conditions of service and teachers status were relatively good in pre- colonial
and colonial Kenya. It worsened progressively as other white-collar professions flourished after independence (1963). Educational reform policies have long since been affected by the political climate. Education has also been receiving acute under funding because of economic woes that have befallen Kenya since the 1980s. There was an increased demand for Arts-based teachers in the 70s and 80s (World Bank Policy Paper, 1990). Therefore more Arts-based teachers were trained so as to meet this demand. Public Universities were expanded so as to train more of Arts-based teachers. This went on for a while until the government through the Teachers Service Commission in 1989 declared that it had many numbers of these teachers.
The attitude of Kenya's elite class has not helped the cause of education reform. In fact
most of them have taken their children to private schools, therefore, they are less concerned about what goes on in public secondary schools in Kenya. In general, teachers have not been motivated to work better. Terms of service are poor compared to other workers in the industry.
This forces highly qualified teachers to move elsewhere looking for 'greener' pastures. Lack of feedback on how best they are working makes them not encouraged to work harder. Certain policies are not clear to the teachers. Worse still, the differentiation that exists among teachers in public secondary schools in Kenya is not only in the teachers' grades but also the subjects taught. These differences are in the. terms of services for instance the Arts-based graduate teachers are not paid the same salaries as their colleagues who teach the Sciences and Languages. These and many other forms of 'segregation'are what prompted this study.
The Study focused on Arts-based graduate teachers who included Head / Deputy teachers in Nairobi Province, Kenya. Generally, these teachers have been demoralized by the Government's policy intervention. The Government, in a bid to retain the 'special' subjects teachers in the profession gave this category of teachers' three increments on their salary in1997. This policy intervention had a negative impact on the level of motivation of the Arts based graduate teachers whose subjects were not considered special.
The study therefore set to investigate how the Arts-based graduate teachers ranked their
level of motivation in the eight factors namely remuneration, the work itself, working
conditions and environment, job security, school leadership and supervision, promotion,
interpersonal relations and recognition. The study also determined the factors motivating Arts based graduate teachers and the impact of differences in remuneration of teachers on their job. It also sought to find out how the Arts-based graduate Head/Deputy teachers were motivated in the following factors; administrative tasks and responsibilities, working conditions, teaching staff, student body, role, province and profession related matters.
The reviewed literature concentrated on five areas of studies on motivation, the concept
of motivation, the theories of motivation and job satisfaction, the relationship of motivation and selected variables and teacher motivation and job satisfaction in Kenya. Data relevant to the study was collected using two parallel questionnaires one for the Arts-based graduate teachers who were also Head / Deputy teachers and the other for the Arts-based graduate teachers not in
the administration. There was a total of 183 Arts-based graduate teachers of whom 9 were
Head / Deputy teachers. To find out if the two questionnaires were suitable to collect the
relevant data, a pilot study was carried out using 3 Head / Deputy teachers and 7 Arts-based
graduate teachers randomly selected from a sample of 123. The results of the pilot study were
used to make the necessary corrections 'and modifications for the two instruments,
The revised instruments were hand-delivered to the six Head / Deputy teachers and 107
Arts-based graduate teachers. The raw data from the open ended questions was analyzed by computing the frequency and percentage of respondents who gave responses in a given question item, Data from the close-ended items for the Arts-based graduate teachers was subjected to the one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to test the three hypotheses of this study, A hypothesis was either, accepted or rejected at a 0.05 level of significance. From the analyzed
data it was found that the variables of sex, age and work experience had no significant influence on the Arts-based graduate teachers level of motivation. The overall motivation of Head/Deputy teachers was that 4 out of 5 (80%) of them were motivated in their job. The study also
showed that, the Arts-based graduate teachers were not motivated with their remuneration. This
job factor had the lowest mean compared to work itself, which had the highest mean.
The study in addition showed that the Arts-based graduate teachers valued their
remuneration more than other factors of their job. They ranked it first. They ranked recognition
last as it was the least important job factor for them.
The Study further revealed that generally, the Art-based graduate teachers level of
motivation was low. 14 out of 85 (16 %) of them were not motivated while 43 out 85 (67%)
were slightly motivated. Therefore, the study came up with the following recommendations first;
the government needs to revise upwards the salaries paid to Arts-based graduate teachers
including other fringe benefits. Second, the government to further develop the Arts-based
graduate teachers for better performance. Third, the government needs to revise appraisal of
Arts-based graduate teachers. Lastly, Head / Deputy teachers need to be accorded' adequate'
power and authority to execute their duties well.
The study suggested further research in the following areas. First, that the study could be
replicated using other instruments to establish whether similar results would be arrived at.
Second, a comparative study on the levels of motivation of Arts-based graduate teachers in
public secondary schools and teachers of the 'special' subjects be carried out to find out the
differences and similarities between what motivates these groups of teachers. Lastly, a similar
study would investigate the impact ofthe levels of motivation on performance of the Arts-
based graduate teachers. | en |
