Factors Influencing Professional Commitment of Public Secondary School Teachers in Trans-Nzoia West Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

This study sought to established factors influencing the professional commitment of public secondary school teachers in Trans-Nzoia West sub-county, Kenya. It adopted a descriptive correlational research design. Stratified random sampling was used to obtain categories of schools that best represent the entire population being studied. Cluster sampling technique was employed where all the 109 teachers from 10 randomly selected county schools, 58 teachers from the extra-county school and 67 teachers from the national school participated in the study. A total of 192 questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 82%. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. It was found that there is a significant direct relationship between teachers’ professional commitment and their attitudes towards the teaching profession, beliefs about student learning, value systems and their evaluation of the school culture. These variables account for 83.6% of the variance in the professional commitment. It is therefore recommended that the schools should continue to find ways to enhance teachers’ attitudes towards the teaching profession, beliefs about students’ learning and value systems and the school culture in order to boost the teachers’ professional commitment.