Determining the influence of the principals’ use of participatory decision making on the status of students’ discipline in secondary schools in Kiambu county, Kenya.

Abstract

This study was conducted to determinethe influence of the principals’ use of participatory decision making on the status of students’ discipline in secondary schools in Kiambu County. The study adopted a descriptive survey method and employed questionnaires and interview schedules to collect data. The study sample consisted of 15 principals, 21 deputy principals, 55 class teachers and 375 students from selected schools in the County. The quantitative data from questionnaires was analysed with the aid of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) and presented using tables, graphs and pie charts. From the principals’ interviews, research questions were analysed along thematic lines and presented using frequencies tables. The findings established that schools that had participative decision making practices had fewer cases of indiscipline (65.97%) as compared to schools which did not (68.87%).The study also noted that schools that did not use class meetings and suggestion boxes had higher cases of indiscipline (70.07%) and (70.33%) respectively.