Determinants Of Pre-School Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Teaching In Thika Municipality, Kenya

ABSTRACT

This study sought to investigate determinants of pre-school teachers’ attitudes towards teaching in Thika Municipality, Kenya. The concern to stakeholders has been the negative attitudes of the pre-school teachers towards teaching. Such a concern called for investigation. To accomplish this task, a descriptive survey design was used. The justification for using this design was that it enabled the researcher to collect data from a wide area within a short time. Ex-post facto design was also used to explore possible relationships among variable. Justification for this being that the events had already taken place. A total of 53 pre-school teachers and 12 administrators participated in the study. A simple random technique and purposive sampling were employed to identify study samples. In addition, questionnaires and interviews were used as research instruments for collecting data from the respondents. The statistical procedures were carried out using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Qualitative and quantitative techniques were employed in order to analyse the obtained data. Specifically, frequencies, pie-charts, percentages and chi-square were used. Various hypotheses were stated and tested. The study revealed that there were still low levels of training among pre-school teachers. Teachers with few years of teaching experience were the ones involved in teaching in the pre-schools. Pre-school teaching was still largely viewed as a job for women. Teachers in public pre-schools were more positive towards their job than their colleagues in private schools. Good relationships with significant others created a happy and good school atmosphere. Teachers were unhappy with their salaries and also lacked welfare groups. The study concluded that immediate changes be put in place to give the profession a human face and to better motivate the teachers who were largely demotivated. Among the recommendations were that pre-school teachers work under the ministry of education and an attempt be made to improve the retention level of teachers. Administrators should work on modalities of motivating their teachers. Refresher courses are organized for the teachers to help them understand what attitudes are and how these impacts on their performance. Above all, the Ministry of Education should put in place stringent measures in order to instill discipline and stability to pre-schools in Thika municipality.