| dc.description.abstract | Secondary schools' education is generally recognized for its role in modeling the future of societies and provides the foundation for a more specialized career development in either formal or informal training institutions. School Culture is the underlying values, beliefs and principles that serve as a foundation for an organization's management system as well as the set of management practices and behaviors that both exemplify and reinforce those basic principles (Denison, 1990). It is the values, norms, beliefs and customs that an individual holds in common with members of the social unit or group. A positive school culture is characterized by a strong belief in a shared mission and strategic direction, Teachers involvement in decision making, ability to positively adapt to changes in curriculum and time management in terms of quality and quantity. The purpose of this research was the influence of School Culture on performance of Public Secondary Schools in Gem District.
The study was guided by these objectives; to explore the influence of School mission and shared ideology as a component of School Culture on the academic performance of Public Secondary Schools in Gem District; to establish the influence of teachers involvement in decision making as a component of School Culture on the academic performance of Public Secondary Schools in Gem District; to examine the influence of school's adaptability to curriculum changes as a component of School Culture on the academic performance of Public Secondary Schools in Gem District; to determine the influence of time management as a component of School Culture on the academic performance of Public Secondary Schools in Gem District.
From a target population of 386, 196 respondents were sampled in line with the recommendations of Krejcie & Morgan (1970) and 196 questionnaires and interview schedules administered realizing a return rate of 86.22%. Data analysis was done with the help of SPSS Graduate Pack 12.0 for Windows and reported using descriptive statistics, percentile rank, mean scores and standard deviation for each of the variables. Content analysis has also been used to analyse interview responses from the principals, teachers and students.
The study findings revealed that the school culture attributes had a positive influence on schools' academic performance in Gem District. Correlated with performance in KCSE, the was a positive relationship with the school culture attributes with; teachers responses on mission and shared ideology showing a coefficient correlation of 0.609 with that of head prefects being 0.472; teachers and students responses on involvement of teachers in decision making reported correlations of 0.732 and 0.678 respectively; teachers' and students' responses of adaptability to changes in curriculum showed much weaker correlations of 0.074 and 0.100 respectively while their responses on time management showed strong positive relationships at 0.516 and 0.662 respectively.
The study recommends that schools embrace a cohesive and common approach to striving for success; places more emphasis on participative management; invests in timely adjustments to curriculum changes and consistently make proper use of the schools calendar. The study further suggests that similar studies be done in other areas such as urban and in other institutions of learning such as primary schools and colleges. A study on best cultural practices would also help in spreading good practices that spur excellence and ultimately leading to improved academic standards. | en_US |
