Influence of principals’ instructional leadership practices on academic environment in public day secondary schools in kisii central sub-county, kisii county, kenya.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of principals’ instructional leadership practices on school academic environment in public day secondary schools in Kisii Central, Kisii County. The objectives of the study were to: determine the influence of setting annual academic goals on school academic environment, examine the influence of monitoring instruction on school academic environment, find out the influence of principals’ promotion of teachers’ professional development on school academic environments, find out the influence of principals’ promotion of collaboration on school academic environment, establish principals’ influence on utilization of available resources on school academic environment. The study adopted cross-sectional survey research design. Twelve schools were selected randomly from 25 public day secondary schools in Kisii Central sub-county. The sample consisted of 12 principals selected through purposive sampling, 72 teachers and 322 learners selected using proportionate random sampling. Interview schedules, questionnaires, observation schedules and document analysis guides were used to collect data. Reliability was established through the test-retest method. Data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, standard deviation and Chi-square at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that: Goal setting enhanced teaching and learning environment mainly by influencing syllabi coverage while monitoring instruction enhanced teachers' class attendance. Teachers' professional development had the least influence on school's academic environment as it was not needs-driven. Teacher collaboration promoted school-wide focus on teaching as teachers learnt from each other while utilization of resources created an enabling environment for teachers to issue homework and classwork to learners. The study concluded that: Goal setting was a common instructional leadership practice among the sampled principals however it was marred by lack of or inadequate communication to teachers and learners resulting in their failure to own and identify with the goal as revealed by the incongruence in stating schools’ goals between different categories of respondents in the same school. Although the majority of teachers rated their principals as effective in monitoring instruction, the intended purpose is not realized as it is flawed by teachers’ fear of the measures that the Teacher service commission may institute following unfavorable appraisal reports from lesson evaluation. There were disparities among schools in access to facilities such as laboratories, classes and libraries as provision of books was also not informed by current data provided by principals. The study recommended that principals should constantly refer to set goals to cultivate ownership and commitment by teachers and learners. Principals should design monitoring instruction in a way that their intentions are not construed to be punitive or influenced only by the existing Teachers service commission’s policy rather than by the need to enhance teachers’ professional growth and learning. The Ministry of education should use data provided by the principals in the supply of teaching-learning resources to schools. The study recommends further studies on: Other roles of principals that influence school academic environments, influence of distributed instructional leadership on teachers’ perceptions of school environments and replication of this study in boarding schools, private schools in the Sub County and in other geographical regions.