Teachers Decisional Involvement in Public Secondary Schools in Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined teacher decisional involvement in public secondary schools in Enugu State, Nigeria. Four research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. The researcher adopted a descriptive survey research design for this study. The population for the study was 8,885 principals and teachers. The sample size of the study was 888 respondents. The researcher utilized stratified, proportionate random sampling techniques in order to determine the sample size of the respondents. The instrument for data collection was a structured 42-item questionnaire titled “Teachers‟ Involvement in Decision Making Questionnaire (TIDMQ)”. The instrument was validated by three research experts in Faculty of Education, ESUT. To ascertain the internal consistency of the instrument, Cronbach Alpha method was used to compute the internal consistency of the instrument. The computation yielded .80 for cluster 1 and .76 for cluster 2, .81 for cluster 3 and .79 for cluster 4. The instrument had an overall reliability index of .79 which indicated that the instrument was reliable and, therefore, considered appropriate for use for the study. Mean and standard deviation were used for research questions, while the null hypotheses were tested using t-test statistical method at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that teachers are involved in decision making in the areas of student‟s affairs and staff affairs and school disicipline. Teachers are not involved in the school planning process. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommended that Enugu State government should periodically involve teachers during decision making as it concerns staff affairs. This will make the teachers to be productive. Ministry of Education should organize regular interactive sessions for principals and teachers to exchange ideas and gain information to improve their collaborative decision makings on students‟ affairs.