| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to investigate public secondary school teachers'
attitudes towards School Inspectors, their leadership behaviour and advisory roles. From
the year 2004, the title for school inspectors was changed to Quality Assurance and
Standards Officers (QASOs). However, the study was conducted before the change of
title hence the term school inspectors in used throughout the text. The relationship
between teachers' attitudes towards school inspectors with respect to their professional
qualifications, professional experience, gender and frequency of inspections were
examined. The relationship of these independent variables were studied in relation to
school inspectors' advisory role and leadership behaviour.
Previous studies on supervision and inspection of schools were discussed in the
literature review. A focus on factors affecting supervision of secondary schools, roles and
functions of the school inspectors is given. Further the appointment and training of
supervisors, sources of conflict as school inspectors perform their roles, previous studies
on supervision and inspection of schools and the conceptual framework was discussed.
The research methodology outlined the research design, the target population,
sample and sampling procedures, research instruments, validity and reliability of the
research instruments, data collection and data analysis. The design of the study was expost
facto which is a research design where the factors have already occurred and the
researcher only observed the dependent factors.
The target population for the study was drawn from public secondary school
teachers in Embu District where there were fifty eight (S8) registered public secondary
schools. The staff establishment in these schools was six hundred and twenty five (62S)
teachers with three hundred and twenty four (324) male and three hundred and one (301)
female.
A sample of two hundred and fifty (2S0) teachers was randomly selected from
fifty (SO) schools. A questionnaire for teachers was used as the research instrument. The
questionnaire solicited the personal data of the teachers and questions about their job. An
attitude scale on inspectors' advisory role, leadership styles and visits to schools was used
to collect data on teachers' attitudes towards school inspectors. A number of open ended
questions were included to elicit the opinion on whether schools should be inspected and
the shortcomings of school inspectors. Teachers were asked to give suggestions on how
the quality of work of the school inspectors could be improved and to give possible
problem/constraints the school inspectors face while doing their work.
The test for the validity and reliability of the research instrument, thirty (30) teachers
from eight (8) schools were involved at the pilot stage. The consistency of the test was
determined through split half correlation. Finally, the data was analyzed using means,
percentages, t-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The open ended items were
analyzed using frequencies and percentages. | en |
