Teachers’ Relational Factors Influencing Timely Syllabus Coverage In Public Secondary Schools Within Migwani Sub-County, Kitui County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to establish the extent to which teachers‟ relational factors (communication, conflict resolution, coordination and attitude) influence timely syllabus coverage. The objectives of this study were: to establish the influence of communication on timely syllabus coverage, to establish the influence of conflict resolution on timely syllabus coverage, to establish the influence of coordination on timely syllabus coverage and to establish the influence of attitude towards relational interaction among teachers on timely syllabus coverage in public secondary schools in Kenya. The study was carried out in Migwani sub county, Kitui County. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The study involved all the 41 public secondary schools with a teachers population of 459 (41 principals, 41 deputy principals, 92 HODs and 285 assistant teachers). The study sample was drawn from 32 schools. Equal numbers of teachers (7) from each school were involved in the study giving a sample of 224 (32 principals, 64 HODs and 128 assistant teachers). Piloting was done in two schools and the pilot test for the research instruments using Pearson‟s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC) was found to be 0.750 for principals questionnaire (PQ), 0.8890 for HOD questionnaire (HODQ) and 0.9145 for assistant teacher questionnaire (TQ). Purposive sampling was done to select schools and hence the principals while simple random sampling was done at school level to get HODs and assistant teachers. Data was collected by use of the 3 questionnaires: PQ, HODQ and TQ. Quantitative information was summarized into frequency tables, percentages and graphs. Responses were tabulated, coded and processed by use of computer SPSS program version 16. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze both close-ended and open-ended questions from the HODQ and PQ while descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze responses from TQ. Descriptive statistics analysis showed Means that indicate that respondents agreed that teacher relational factors have positive influence on timely syllabus coverage. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) test confirmed that all the four teacher relational factors have significant effect on timely syllabus coverage F(dfB, dfW) = F(4, 113), (p < 0.05), and hence all the four null hypotheses were rejected. PPMCC test established that there exists a positive correlation between teachers‟ relational factors and timely syllabus coverage. The study recommends that teachers interact in a relational manner for this would boost the prospects of timely syllabus coverage and that a further research be done on influence of relational factors of teachers, students and support staff on timely syllabus coverage and on other teacher relational factors: politics, friendship, mentorship, competition, bullying, consultations, information exchange and favoritism.