HEAD TEACHERS’ DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP STYLE: IT’S INFLUENCE ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN UASIN GISHU COUNTY, KENYA

Authors: *Dr. Agen’go Ogony Maurice, PhD, Dr. Pamela Buhere, PhD & Dr. Peter Jairo Aloka, PhD

ABSTRACT

Head teachers’ task is crucial in inclusive education   because of the central role they play in promoting participation among teachers to ensure that inclusion succeeds and to reduce underachievement particularly with children who might be perceived as having difficulties in learning. The purpose of this study therefore was to establish the influence of head teachers’ democratic leadership style on the implementation of inclusive education in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The study was anchored on Lewin’s leadership theory. The study adopted Concurrent triangulation design within the mixed method approach. The target population for the study comprised 4909 teachers in public primary schools and 464 senior teachers totaling up to 5373. The sample size comprised 491 teachers stratified sampled, 10 senior teachers systematically randomly sampled and a sample size of 501 was used.  Data collection instruments were questionnaires and interview schedules. Content, construct and face   validity was ensured by expert judgment. Reliability was ensured by Cronbach Alpha method and reliability coefficients were all above 0.7.  Quantitative data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and inferential statistics such as Spearman Rank correlation and liner regression while Qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The results indicated that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between the head teachers’ level of democratic leadership style and implementation of inclusive education (n=368; rho =.204; p <.05). The study recommended that head teachers should be encouraged to employ democratic leadership styles on issues related to special needs education since democratic leadership style was revealed to be having positive correlation to implementation of inclusive education.

Keywords; implementation, inclusive, education, democratic, leadership.

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