Effects of principals’ gender on leadership effectiveness in secondary schools in Mtito Andei division, Kibwezi sub- county, Kenya

Abstract

Educational leadership has a critical role in the transformation of society, and for change to happen, effective leaders are key. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of principals’ gender on leadership effectiveness in secondary schools in Mtito-Andei Division. The study was guided by four research objectives. The study used ex post facto research design. Simple random sampling was used to select the respondents for the study. The sample size was 28 principals and 140 teachers. Data was collected by use of questionnaires and interview schedules and was analysed by use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Conceptually, the chi- square test of independence statistic was computed by summing the difference between the expected and observed frequencies for each cell in the table divided by the expected frequencies for the cell. In hypotheses 1, 2, 3 and 4 scores in management of discipline, management of staff personnel, management of students and management of financial resources were converted from continuous data to discreet data (categories) and then Chi-square used to test the hypotheses. The researcher adopted a significance level of 0.05. The results of the data analysis show that there was a significant relationship between the principals’ gender and effectiveness in management of discipline. To determine the relationship between the gender of the principals and effectiveness in personnel management, the results of the analysis indicated no significant relationship between the principals’ gender and effectiveness in personnel management. On whether there was a relationship between principals’ gender and effectiveness in student management, data analysis did not reveal any significant relationship. The Chi-square results revealed no significant relationship between principals’ gender and effectiveness in financial resources management. The study recommends that the Teachers’ Service Commission should consider gender while promoting deputy principals to become principals in order to ensure that there is gender equity in the secondary schools. The study was conducted in public secondary schools in Mtito-Andei Division, Kibwezi sub-county. The researcher therefore suggested that the study be conducted in a larger area like a county or in the whole of Kenya to determine the relationship between principals’ gender and leadership effectiveness so as to compare the results with the current study.