Job satisfaction among secondary school teachers in Nairobi province

Abstract

The problem of teachers' job satisfaction has been addressed in various fora in which various recommendations have been made. Despite the implementation of some of these recommendations, studies have shown that teachers are not satisfied with their jobs. The purpose of this study was to find out the various levels of job satisfaction among secondary school teachers in Nairobi province. The study was to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and seven independent variables. The study was also supposed to find out how the teachers ranked the seven job factors in order of most important. The literature review in the study covered the theories of motivation and job satisfaction and also other research areas carried out in Kenya that were relevant to this study. These researches covered the Kenyan teacher and job satisfaction. This study used Ex-post factor design and the target population consisted of public and private secondary school teachers in Nairobi province. A questionnaire was used as the research instrument and it was divided into three parts. Three academic staff members from the University of Nairobi validated the instrument. The instrument had a reliability of 0.9.J\ sample of sixty-four secondary schools and 621 teachers were used tor the study. The two-tailed t-tests and one-way analysis of variance were used to test the hypotheses. The major findings of this research study were: The teachers were satisfied in the job factor of interpersonal relation and the lowest level of job satisfaction was recorded in the job factor of work environment and working conditions. The levels of job satisfaction among teachers increased with their age and length of teaching experience. female teachers were generally more satisfied than the male teachers and married teachers were more satisfied than the unmarried teachers. Teachers in girls' schools were more satisfied than the teachers in boys' and mixed schools. Overall job satisfaction showed teachers were slightly dissatisfied with a mean of 2.31 The mam recommendations of this study are: It would be advantageous if schools provide housing for teachers so as to increase the levels of job satisfaction. Head teachers can be trained in education administration and management so as to curb supervisory problems. Teachers' pay should he equitable in comparison to over with similar qualifications in other organizations and professions.