Influence of strategies used by board of management on teachers’ development in public secondary schools in Busia district, Kenya

Abstract

In this era of globalization that comes with quality education for competitiveness, principals and BOM members are being urged to exercise strong teacher development in their schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of strategies used by BOM on teachers‟ development in public secondary schools in Busia district, Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to establish the influence of Conflict Resolution Strategies (CRSs) adopted by BOM on teachers‟ development, determine the influence of the training opportunities offered by BOM members‟ for teachers‟ development, establish how the provision of democratic atmosphere by BOM members influences teachers‟ development, and determine how delegation of responsibilities by BOM members influences teachers‟ development in public secondary schools in Busia district. This study was anchored on Herzberg's theories of employee motivation suitable for assessing principals‟ and BOM members‟ effectiveness in teacher development at school. The study was conducted using the descriptive survey design which describes respondents‟ characteristics such as abilities, opinions, attitudes, beliefs and/or knowledge. Therefore, this study aimed at capturing respondents‟ opinions, attitudes, beliefs and knowledge based on teacher development. The target population consisted of 28 public secondary school principals, 410 teachers and 364 BOM members given that each school had an average of 13 BOM. The sample size was 26, 200 and 188 public secondary school principals, teachers and BOM members respectively. Simple Random sampling was used to choose 2 schools, hence 2 principals, 10 teachers and 24 BOM members to take part in the piloting study. The main study, therefore, consisted a total of 24 principals, 190 teachers and 164 Board of Management (BOM) members. These questionnaires were designed based on the objectives of the study and on the literature review. The researcher used the test retest method to enhance instrument reliability. The study yielded data that required both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Packaging for Social Sciences (SPSS) while qualitative data was organized into themes and patterns based on analysis of meanings and implications emanating from respondents information and documented data on academic performance. Quantitative results of data analysis were presented mainly in tables. The study was to establish the influence of the strategies used by BOM members on teacher development. As part of recommendations, teacher development in educational institutions is crucial, hence BOM should be appointed carefully to ensure that they are experienced. Besides, given the scope and limitations of this study, the researcher recommends a replica of the study to be performed in other public secondary schools in Kenya to cover other districts apart from Busia district to provide comparison in findings.