ASSESSMENT OF SCHOOL PRINCIPALS MENTORSHIP OF SUBORDINATES IN IMO STATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS

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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.



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ASSESSMENT OF SCHOOL PRINCIPALS MENTORSHIP OF SUBORDINATES IN IMO STATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS

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