Influence of head teachers’ leadership styles on students’ discipline in public secondary schools in Mogotio sub-county, Baringo county, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of head teachers’ leadership styles on students’ discipline in public secondary schools in Mogotio Sub-County, Baringo County, Kenya. The specific objectives were to establish the influence of democratic leadership style, Laissez faire leadership, authoritarian leadership style and transformational leadership style on students’ discipline in public secondary schools in Mogotio Sub-County, Baringo County, Kenya. The research applied descriptive research design. The study sampled 30% of the teachers to involve 102 teachers and 17 head teachers. This gave a total sample size of 119 respondents from the 17 public secondary schools. Questionnaire for teachers and interview schedule for the head teachers in public secondary schools were used for data collection. Reliability was determined through test-retest method resulting in coefficient value of 0.7 which indicated it was reliable. Validity was ensured through discussion with the experts including supervisors and colleagues. Primary data was collected and analyzed using quantitative and qualitative techniques and presented in tables and graphs. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze quantitative data and content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. The findings showed that authoritarian style of leadership is practiced since from the findings most of the head teachers do not consider teachers most of the times when formulating school policies and decision making when need arise. In conclusion, authoritative leadership is not the preferred leadership style in majority of secondary school as evidenced by the teachers when they indicated that it demotivates them. Democratic style of leadership is partially practiced since the study indicates that most of the head teachers involve teachers in formulation of school policies frequently. It was concluded that free reign (Laissez faire) style of leadership is not favoured in most of the secondary schools. Transformational (charismatic) leadership style is practiced since teachers are highly inspired by their head teachers in the performance of their work. The head teachers should attend seminars and workshops that teach the dangers of authoritarian style of leadership. The Head teachers in the district should arrange for school exchange programs to learn the dangers of free reign (lassez faire) leadership style. The Sub-County Director should arrange for workshops for both pre-school teachers and head teachers to be sensitized of the benefits of democratic style of leadership. The findings of this study provide information on the role of head teachers on students’ discipline. The findings serve as a springboard for policy makers to design, implement, monitor and evaluate policies meant to create safe schools and change the inherent leadership styles that enhance students’ discipline and attainment of Education for All by 2015. Further study should be done on the influence of leadership styles on the academic performance since this study only focused on the discipline of the school.