ABSTRACT
This study was designed to investigate the assessment of school principals’ mentorship of subordinates in Imo state secondary schools. Five research questions and five hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population for the study comprised of 558 vice principals and 5,135 teachers making of up 5693. Sample for the study comprised 514 teachers and 56 vice principals. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled school principals mentorship of subordinates questionnaire. The instrument was faced validated by three experts, two from Education Administration and Planning and one from Measurement and Evaluation, all from the Department of Educational Foundations University of Nigeria Nsukka. The questionnaires were trial tested and cronback Alpha reliability test was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument and this yielded reliability co-efficient (0.79). Data were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions and t- test statistics was used to test the null hypotheses formulated at 0.05 level of significance. Based on the findings among which is that the overall mean values indicates that the opinion of vice principals and teachers with regards to principals exposure of subordinates to instructional leadership was to a great extent. It was recommended that adequate principals’ mentorship strategies should be adopted in secondary schools in Imo State to ensure effectiveness. These mentorship strategies include instructional leadership, fostering friendliness, keeping good school community relations, supporting staff career development and school discipline. This could be achieved by organizing seminars and workshops to enable principals imbibe the mentorship skills in the day to day running of their schools.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The idea of providing novices entering any field or profession and those already in the profession with a wise, experienced guide and role model dates to ancient times and has gained widespread acceptance in many walks of life. From law, medicine and nursing to business, engineering, architecture and library work. Within public education, mentoring for teachers began to spread in the early
1980s as part of efforts to reduce attrition and improve instruction quality. Having a quality relationship with school administrators is important to novice teachers as well as experience ones because principal’s support influences teachers’ job satisfaction and decisions to remain in teaching.
Mentoring is a very old concept in a new guise. It can be traced back to Greek mythology when Odysseus entrusted his son Telemachus to the Goddess Athena, who disguised herself in human form as mentor, an old friend of Odysseus. Her function, according to Homer (2001) was to act as a wise counsellor and helper to the youth. Mentoring then became common practice in the time of the guild and trade apprenticeships when young people, having acquired technical skills, often benefited from the patronage of more experienced and established professional. Most successful people in any walk of life probably have had one or more people over the years who have established particularly a
strong influence over their lives and careers.
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Mentoring therefore can be seen as a deliberate pairing of a more skilled or experienced one with the agreed-upon goal of having the less experience person grow and develop specific competencies (Murry and Owen 2002). Also, mentoring according to Mckimns (2003) connotes an assistance given to an individual in other to enable him/her grow in the profession. In the same vein, Okondayo (2007) defines mentoring as a relationship which exists between the mentor (principals) and the mentee (teachers and vice principals) with the aim of assisting the mentee to cope with a new situation like a new job or a change in personal circumstances or in career development.
Bozeman and Feeney (2007) defined mentorship as a process of informal transmission of knowledge, social capital and the psychosocial support perceived by the recipient as relevant to work, career, or professional development which entails informal communication, usually face to face and enduring a sustained period of time, between a person who is perceived to have greater relevant knowledge, wisdom or experience (the mentor) and the person perceived to have less (the mentee). By this definition, mentoring is a process which involves time, helping, personal development and relationship between an expert which in this study is principals in Imo state secondary schools and a neophyte being teachers and vice principals in Imo state secondary schools. The principals in this study as mentors are expected to give their expert knowledge so that their subordinates (vice principals and teachers) will develop their full potentials while in teaching profession.
However true mentoring is more than just answering occasional questions or providing ad hoc help. It is an on-going relationship of learning, dialogue and challenge. One can deduce from all these definitions above that mentorship is a personal developmental relationship in which a more experience or more knowledgeable person which in this study is the school principal, helps to guide the less experienced and less knowledgeable person, which is the vice principals and teachers in this study.
This cordial relationship between the mentor and the mentee with the aim of assisting the mentee to grow in the line of business if effectively applied in the school system may yield result that is capable of maintaining effective school administration in Nigeria (Onyedineke, 2001). This is because, teaching has always been described as a multifaceted, and complex task that requires guidance from experience or senior colleagues. Conventional Wisdom among Educators, (2011) outlines the concern that new teachers are poorly introduced to the profession, resulting in a loss of the best and the brightest among these teachers. In other words, mentoring in school setting could be likened to maintaining and facilitating professional growth among teachers.
Therefore, for principals in Imo state secondary schools to fulfil this mentoring role to their subordinates (teachers and vice principals) in this study, they have to create conditions which promote the growth and development of these subordinates within their schools. They can do this by exposing vice principals and teachers in Imo state to instructional leadership. Instructional leadership can be defined as those actions that a principal takes, or delegates to
others, to promote growth in student learning (Flath, 2000). School principals in Imo state can expose subordinates to instructional leadership, by promoting on- going evaluation and professional development of these teachers, they will also ensure that their relationship with teachers and vice principals are of high quality and supported with time for planning and collaboration. If principals are to take the role of instructional leader seriously, they will have to free themselves from bureaucratic tasks and focus their efforts towards improving teaching and learning. Also, principals in this study act as mentors to their subordinate by fostering friendliness among their subordinates which in turn will create good rapport and conducive atmosphere between teachers and vice- principals for effective teaching and learning to take place. They also mentor subordinates by supporting their career development through In-service educational programmes; Seminars and workshops and occasional teachers’ group discussion; supported by the school principals.
Furthermore, since secondary schools in Imo state brings up their students to grow into useful members of the community, it is then necessary for principals as mentors to create avenues which will encourage teachers and vice principals to keep good school community relationship. According to Mgbodile (2003) school community relations can be describe as the degree of understanding and goodwill achieved between the school and the community. Principals in Imo state can promote school community relationship, by making sure that parent teachers association meeting is in place in the school for parents and teachers interaction and also by allowing teachers and vice principals participate in important
community functions. Also, the rate of indiscipline among our secondary school students and even staff in Imo state is high. It is no news that most teachers come to school when the feel, teach student when they want and even student pass by their teachers and other adults without greeting them. This situation, demand that principals in Imo state secondary schools should mentors their vice principals and teachers on school discipline. They can achieve this role by educating their subordinates well on school discipline by setting up regulation guiding the schools, set up disciplinary committee among vice principals and making sure that students and staff who goes against the school rules are severally punished without favouring anyone.
In stressing the role of principal mentorship of subordinates in maintaining effective school administration, Sparks (2007) posits that:
When you talk about school improvement, you are talking about people improvement. That’s the only way to improve schools unless you mean painting the buildings and fiscing the floors. But that’s not the school that is the shell. The school is people, so when we talk about excellence, improvement, or progress, we are really talking about the people who make up the building. Focusing on people is the most effective way to change any organization. In fact, it can be argued that organizations do not change, only individuals change. It is only when enough of the people within an organization change that the organization can be transformed (p. 23).
If this premise that people are the key to school improvement is correct, then it follows that the fundamental role of the principal is to help create the conditions which enable a staff to develop, so that the school can achieve its goals more effectively through effective mentorship. In short, a key to school improvement is the willingness and ability of principals to assume the role of staff developer and
mentor to their subordinates (teachers and vice principals) whom in their mission aims at promoting professional practices, beliefs, and understanding of school personnel toward an articulated end, and thereby ascertaining an effective principal-ship in schools.
Therefore principal-ship in education implies the arrangement of human and material resources available in education and using them systematically for the achievement of educational objectives. Encyclopedia of Education (2002) posits that the title of principal is an appropriate designation for the chief administrator of a school. Udoh and Akpa (2001) refer to the principal as the head of a secondary school. The early school principal-ship was given to any teacher found to possess some sign of demonstrable administrative ability. A teacher with academic qualifications and the right type of personality could be appointed the administrative head. In addition to full-time teaching duty, many of such principals were preoccupied with such takes as scheduling, attendance taking; reporting etc. (Obiukwu, 2007).
Although, the idea of a principal serving as a teacher, as well as an administrator, continues today in small urban communities and most rural areas. Ukeje in Okunamiri (2007) stressed that as school became more complex, the principals were relieved of part of the teaching duties. Hence, the title of principal usually refers to the head of a secondary school or a post primary institution. The secondary school principal’s office had now been transformed into a sort of a mid-way station between the educational policy makers, staff and students. The principal as the administrator is expected to guide, control, mentor and provides
leadership in a way that supports the aims and objectives of secondary school education as stated in the National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004).
This policy objective in the national policy on education will be better achieved when school principals act as mentors to their subordinates. This is because; entering practice in any profession offers a major challenge to newly qualified practitioners. It is a formative period where the knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired during a programme of education are applied in practice. Entering practice in teaching profession is a transition period which can be stressful as well as challenging as new demands are made upon individuals who are seeking to consolidate their skills (Okafor, 2004). This entering practice is also a period when a practitioner is in need of guidance and support in order to develop confidence and competence. In facilitating mentoring, Jones (2007) noted that:
mentoring helps to identify potentials, induct new staff more quickly to improve retention of staff, encourage and support high flyers, encourage and support ethnic minority and disadvantage groups, support self-development and work based learning programme, support organizational change, encourage personal development and help individuals cope with transitions such as moving into a new job or role ( p.
43).
In related manner, Collier District Mentor Standards (2009) states that a mentor principal is an effective leader who engages in reflective practices and provides thoughtful, candid and constructive feedback in a manner that supports individual protégé learning. The mentor must be organized and have the ability to assess the protégés strengths and needs in thoughtful ways and target opportunities for growth. In addition, Collier District Mentor Standards went
further to state that a mentor principal is an educational leader who builds and maintains a learning relationship with an individual protégé that involves respect, trust, support, and effective communication, a mentor principal is an educational leader who allows the protégé to assume a real leadership role, that is, make independent decisions, and own the responsibility for the results, a mentor principal is an educational leader who has passion for learning and believes that mentoring is a mutually enhancing professional development opportunity in which both partners benefit. A mentor principal is an educational leader who displays emotional maturity as evidenced by personal and professional interactions both with protégés and the school community (Cogan, 2011).
Mentorship is as old as school system; this is because the school exists for the purpose of learning through meaningful teachings. This is why Mgbodile (2003) observed that school administrators should see the leadership of instruction as their number one job, which involves planning, organizing and supervision of instructional programmes of their schools so as to enable them to achieve the envisaged goals. Furthermore, Mgbodile went further to observe that for principals to achieve the organization envisaged goals there must be friendliness between the superordinate and the subordinate so as to ensure effective supervision of instruction. In the same vein, principal as a mentor encompasses effective school community relations. Therefore, school principals as mentors ought to establish, develop and maintain satisfactory or cordial relations with the community in which the institution is situated (Oboegbulam, 2003). This means
that principal must apply those qualities of leadership which could lead to mutual understanding and co-operation.
Studies have revealed that a good mentor principal is one who encourages career development of his or her colleagues which are under his/her administration and thereby enabling them to maximize their output (Ezenwa, 2011 and Obi, 2010). All these and other observations made by other authors attract further examination so as to determine its obtain ability in the school system.
Also, the extent to which principals in secondary schools in Imo State act as mentors to their sub-ordinate (vice principals and teachers) is yet unknown. And having identified the significance of mentorship on effective actualization of educational goals, the researcher deemed it necessary to assess school principals mentorship of subordinates (vice principals and teachers) in Imo state secondary schools.
Statement of the Problem
Despite the values underpinning mentoring in school administration such as increasing satisfaction and retention rate to members of school organisation, increasing self-confidence, developing competence, encouraging collaboration and not competition among members of an organization, school system in Imo state seems to have ignored mentoring in school administration. Of the several factors that have been found to account for this ugly state of affairs, inability of principals in Imo state to expose vice principals and teachers to instructional leadership, their inability to manage personnel and to ensure good school community partnership in schools, likewise Inability to support subordinates (vice
principals and teachers) professional growth and inability to mentor subordinates on school discipline by school principals in the state have been attributed to be the most critical.
This can be witnessed where principals in Imo state ignore staff induction, leaving new educators to find their own way in schools without proper orientation exercise which will enable them know the school do’s and don’ts and this causes these teachers to be frustrated and they end up not performing well in their teaching role. One then finds people criticizing these teachers saying their performance is far below what is expected of them when they are compared with other experienced teachers. Even those who are not new are left without workshops, seminars and public enlightenment programmes that will help them to update their knowledge on the current practices in the profession. Based on the foregoing, the problem of the study is: what extent does secondary school principals in Imo state exercises mentorship to their subordinates.
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of the study is to assess school principals’ mentorship of subordinates in Imo state secondary schools. Specifically, the study seeks to:
1. Find out the mean responses of vice principals and teachers on the extent to which principals’ expose their subordinates to instructional leadership in Imo state secondary schools.
2. Determine the mean response of vice principal and teacher on the extent to which school principals’ foster friendliness in their subordinates in Imo state secondary schools.
3. Find out the mean response of vice principal and teacher on the extent to which school principals’ encourage subordinates to keeping good school-community relationship in Imo state secondary schools.
4. Find out the mean response of vice principal and teacher on the extent to which school principals’ support their subordinate’s career development in Imo state secondary schools.
5. Find out the mean response of vice principal and teacher on the extent to which school principals’ mentor subordinates on school discipline in Imo state secondary schools.
Significance of the Study
The findings of this study will be of both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, the findings of the study will help in extending the relevance of system theory which was propounded by Bertalanfly in the 20th century which states that a system is series of interrelated and interdependent parts in such a way that the interaction of any part of the system affects the whole system. This is relevant to education system because the school is a system and the concept of interaction and interdependence of parts with the education system like all other social system has identical properties with the other system. The school is looked at in terms of social system as complex interaction setting (Getzels and Cample 2007).
Practically, the findings of this study would be of immense benefit to policy makers in education, school principals, teachers, students, and future researchers.
The result of this study will help policy makers in education to improve their planning practices, by putting good mentoring programmes in place when planning for education in other to improve performance in management and administration of the education sector in Imo state.
The principals of secondary schools will benefit from the findings of this study. This is because, with adequate mentoring practices and programmes put in place, they principals will improve more and also through effective mentoring, principals could develop more subordinates who would grow professionally to become leaders tomorrow thereby contributing towards the achievement of educational goals.
The teachers will benefit from this study because with adequate mentoring programmes available via seminars, conferences, workshops and public enlightenment programmes, teachers will develop more skills that will help them to give quality teaching and become better school leaders in future.
The students will also benefit because through effective mentoring programmes in the school, students will enjoy quality teaching and become graduates who can defend themselves and contribute their quota to the nation building.
Lastly but not the least, the findings of the study will be of immense benefit to future researchers in that it will serve as a source of literature in their future researcher endeavour. It will also inform them on the area that needs more research as well as replication
Scope of the Study
The study was delimited to public secondary schools in Imo state. The content scope involves assessing the extent to which principals expose subordinates to instructional leadership, foster friendliness in subordinates, encourage subordinates in keeping good school community relationship, supports subordinates in career development and mentor subordinates on school discipline. Research Question
To guide this study, the following research questions were posed.
1. To what extent do school principals expose subordinates to instructional leadership based on the mean responses of vice principals and teachers in Imo state secondary schools?
2. To what extent do school principals foster friendliness in subordinates based on the mean responses of vice principals and teachers in Imo state secondary schools?
3. To what extent do school principals encourage subordinates to keeping good school community relationship based on the mean responses of vice principals and teachers in Imo state secondary schools?
4. To what extent do school principals support subordinates on career development based on the mean responses of vice principals and teachers in Imo state secondary schools?
5. To what extent do school principals mentor subordinates on school discipline based on the mean responses of vice principals and teachers in Imo state secondary schools?
Hypothesis
The following null hypotheses guided the study and was tested at 0.05 level of significance.
Ho1.There is no significant different between the mean ratings of vice principals and teachers on the extent to which school principals expose their subordinates to instructional leadership.
Ho2.There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of vice principals and teachers on the extent to which school principals foster friendliness in subordinates.
Ho3.There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of vice principals and teachers on the extent to which school principals encourage subordinates to keeping good School Community Relationship
Ho4.There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of vice principals and teachers on the extent to which school principals support subordinates career development.Ho5.There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of vice principals and teachers on the extent to which school principals mentor subordinates on school discipline.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
ASSESSMENT OF SCHOOL PRINCIPALS MENTORSHIP OF SUBORDINATES IN IMO STATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS>
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