Influence Of Head Teachers’ Leadership Practices On Teachers’ Job Satisfaction In Nakuru And Nairobi Catholic Private Primary Schools, Kenya

High quality teaching staff is the cornerstone of a successful educational system. To attract and retain quality teaching staff, sessional papers 12 of 2012 and 14 of 2012 urged head teachers to establish strategies for ensuring high teacher job satisfaction in schools. In Catholic private schools, research has raised concern over low teacher job satisfaction levels resulting to high teacher turnover rates of between 15% and 25% annually. This research aimed at establishing the influence of head teachers’ leadership practices on teachers’ job satisfaction. The objectives of the study were to determine the level of teacher job satisfaction, the influence of head teachers’ leadership practices, and the influence of head teachers’ leadership practices on teachers’ job satisfaction components. The study was guided by the path goal theory. Path goal theory recognizes that the actions of a leader (head teacher) have direct influence on the subordinates (teachers). Mixed methods research approach was used. The mixed method approaches combine quantitative and qualitative data in a single study. This study adopted the convergent parallel design. In this design quantitative and qualitative research is conducted simultaneously in a single study. The target population was 74 head teachers and 1184 teachers in the 74 Catholic private primary schools in Nairobi and Nakuru dioceses. Stratified sampling was used to categorize schools into two strata, the urban and rural schools. From each stratum, 40% of the head teachers and 20% of teachers were sampled. Simple random sampling was used to sample two teachers from each of the 6 teaching subjects. The study sampled 31 head teachers and 248 teachers.