Individual and institutional factors influencing teachers' job satisfaction in public primary school in Meru Central District, Kenya

Abstract

The study investigated institutional and individual factors influencing teachers' job satisfaction in Meru Central District, Kenya. It sought to establish the relationship between institutional factors such as working conditions and workload as well as individual factors like leadership aspect, strategies used, recognition, promotion, interpersonal relations as well as a challenges faced and the teachers' job satisfaction levels. These are found to impact directly on the performance of the whole school system. Meru Central District continued poor performance prompted such investigations.

The study used a descriptive survey research design. The study sampled a total of 19 public primary schools out of 93. This translated to 167 teachers out of a population of 838. 18 out of 19 headteachers were also interviewed. Simple random sampling technique was used. A pilot study was contacted in three primary schools to determine the validity while reliability was ascertained through test-retest technique.

Data was collected by use of questionnaire for teachers and interview guide for head teacher, data obtained was subjected to descriptive statistic analysis using the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Programmed frequency tables, percentages, means and standard deviation were used to inform on the phenomena. The study found that leadership aspects used by head teachers has a statistical significance on the primary school teachers job satisfaction.

From the study findings it was concluded that institutional factors like working conditions, physical facilities and the level of work load has significant influence on the teachers' job satisfaction. The study found that there is a significant relationship between individual factors like recognition and self aspirations and job satisfaction. The study found that the strategies used to influence primary school teachers' job satisfaction has a statistically significant association.