Job Factors that Influence Feelings of Commitment to Teaching among Primary School Teachers in Kenya

Abstract

The provision of a well-educated, keen, competent, respected and contented teachers is by far the most important contribution that a nation can make to schools.  The staffing and recruitment of students has had far reaching effects on the quality of teacher education institutions.  Teacher education has carried a strong stigma of inferiority compared to other aspects of education.  It has often been practice to point a finger at the students who join teacher colleges as those who have failed to join else where.  Teaching is viewed as a peripheral profession to which they could turn to if more lucrative and, invariably, urban commercial occupations failed to materialize.  The teacher has often to work in conditions which would down the bravest spirits.  The cumulative effect is to depress the public image of the teacher and to assign the profession a lower status.  It may be hard to change this misconception of values, but, one of the essential parts of any successful development of education in Africa today is a return of a higher prestige and regard for teachers.  For this reason, there is a great need to understand and to discover the nature and even possible sources of commitment in the teaching profession.  The design for the study was descriptive and ex post facto.  The study population was primary school teachers and the sample size was three hundred and seventy two (372).  The data collected was analyzed with the aid of the computer.  The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used.  The study revealed that majority of the teachers would ideally have preferred a career other than teaching.  The female teachers were more committed to teaching and were more likely to see their careers in education as involving teaching itself.  The findings revealed that intrinsic and extrinsic job factors are equally important as motivators.  A teacher is likely to be both committed to teaching and to have a positive professional self-perceptions after teacher training.  Professional self-perceptions become more central to the commitment of teachers during training and that self-perception and commitment to teaching are dynamically inter-related.