Assessment of the Application of Deontological Ethical Theory in the Performance of Head Teacher's Instructional Leadership Duties in Public Day Primary Schools in Nyamache Division - Kisii County, Kenya

Abstract

Without offering solutions to educational problems, the society may not move forward in the process towards achieving the noble goals of education. This study has explored the impacts of deontological ethical theory on the performance of head teachers in instructional leadership. The knowledge gap this study attempted to fill was an improvement in the head teachers' performance on instructional leadership. The study was conducted in Nyamache division - Kisii County, Kenya which had 74 day public primary schools. The researcher took a sample of 10 schools which represented 13.5% of the target population who were respondents. The participants of this study were 5 in number, in each of the 10 schools. Specifically, the sample was selected as follows: 10 head teachers, 10 teachers, 10 support staff, 10 std 7 learners and 10 school committee chairpersons. The total sample was 50 and the target population was 2,113 people. The researcher used a descriptive design which adopted both qualitative and quantitative approaches in data gathering. The validity of the research instruments was ascertained by the degree to which the items measured the application of deontological ethical theory on the performance of head teachers and reliability was assured by asking the same interview questions to all the respondents of a particular category and the extent to which the responses were consistent from all the respondents. Data was analyses using a simplified version guideline by Hycner.  The analyzed data was converted to percentages and there after tables were used to depict the research findings. The main research finding was that most head teachers are not fully committed to their duties and majorly apply power leadership theory in instructional leadership. The result of this study is expected to benefit the county education officers, the government policy makers, Curriculum designers and any other interested party in the theory and practice of education; regarding the policies that should be put in place in a bid to streamline public day primary schools' leadership.