Influence of Principals' level of education on student leaders' involvement in secondary schools governance in Kenya

Abstract

The incorporation of stakeholders in decision-making goes a long way in creating an enabling environment for learning and realizing organizational effectiveness. This study sought to investigate the influence of Principals' level of education on student leaders' involvement in secondary school governance in Kenya. The study objective sought to establish the relationship between the principals' level of education and student leaders' involvement in governance in secondary schools. The study was based on path goal theory that postulates that subordinates behaviour is motivated and influenced by their leader. The study used Descriptive survey design. The sample size was selected by stratified sampling, simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques to select 17 principals and 255 student leaders giving a total 272 respondents. Questionnaires were used as data collection tools. The split-half technique was used to establish instrument reliability. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Thematic discussions were employed to take care of the qualitative data. The findings were presented using frequency distribution tables, means and percentages. From the findings, the ANOVA results indicated that there is no significant difference between the principals' level of education and student leaders' involvement in school governance (F=0.33, Sig=0.80) at p>0.05. The study concluded that all the principals across the sampled schools involved students in school governance issues to the same extent irrespective of their education level and recommended formulation of clear guidelines on operations of student leaders who should be made aware of their right to participate and represent the interests of other students in matters affecting them.