KENYATTA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION DEPAERTIMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION, CURRICURU & POLICY STUDIES

PROPOSAL CHAPTER ONE. PRESENTED : : PRESENTD BY E83/CE/11190/2008 COURSE : DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EDUCATION & POLICY 1. PRO. OLEMBO 2. DR. MARY OTIENO : MARYCASTA MWIVANDA REG NO:

YEAR OF STUDY

2ND YEAR

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EDUCATION MANAGENENT IN KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

A STUDY OF ADVERSITY QUOTIENT OF SECONDAY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND TEACHERS IN RELATION TO STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT: A CASE OF KIAMBU COUNTY IN KENYA.

CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY A review of the literature and published articles reveal that the educational issues of today are dissimilar to those of decades past. In 1970s the top problems reported by teachers were; talking out of turn, excess noise , absenteeism, low enrolment in schools , the problem of girl child out of school, pregnancy of school girls among others. By 1990s the list had changed dramatically, it now included, drug abuse, indiscipline, rape and assault By the time of the new millennium technology change and international policies such as the millennium development goals and EFA goals and human rights policies become the new changes in our schools. With these changes the world - including that of education has become an increasing adverse environment within which to work, play, live and thrive (Stolts,1997). Paul Stoltz , the author of the adversity quotient (1997) , compares leadership to mountain climbing. It is often up- hill against what at times may seem insurmountable odds; leadership is hard work requiring diligence, knowledge and commitment to the tasks. Educational leaders today have a daunting task ( Williams, 2003). As the new generation of students of the information era (computer era) fill the classrooms and the increased population of students due to the subsidized education in secondary schools embraced by Kenya towards the realization of the millennium development goals (MDGS) and the EFA goals. Schools are facing issues unheard of to previous generation of children. Protecting students from violence and drugs, coming to terms with emerging issues such as the back to school policy of the girl child , teaching over age students , and offering HIV /AID education and peace education are but a small sample of the adversities with which educational leaders must contend with .The content and curriculum are a no longer the sole emphasis in the classroom . How a leader responds to this adversities not only affects the leaders success but also the success of those he/she leads as well. Principles typically are the educational leaders of their schools .They influence the conditions under which teachers teach and students learn. The manner in which principals respond to adversities both internal and external will most likely influence the school culture, which in turn will likely influence the students achievement. Principals that are able to create and

maintain a learning climate that is resilient to the adversities inherent in modern education and society will provide students with increased opportunity to achieve. Kenyan must teach its children alongside reading lessons or writing assignment, how to face and overcome the challenges they meet along the road to success. Education is a focus of both public and political debate and discussion .The Kenyan education curriculum and the examination council (KNEC) over the years have been criticized of their ability to meet the needs of children in todays society, a debate that has constantly been repeated in the Kenyan parliament over the last decade, sometimes suggesting a complete overhand of the 8.4.4 system of education but every time effecting small changes here and there that amount to the adversities being addressed in this study. A wealth of information has been written that points to the failures of Kenyas public education. The need of education to reinvent itself in line with emerging issues facing our society is generated by a push for reform from researchers, politicians and the public at large. The process of bringing about this reinvention affects the very core of the structure and function of the education system. In Kenya there have been many education reforms since independence to date, all aimed at making education relevant to the Kenyan population. In 1981, the Mackey commission recommended a complete change of the education system from 7.2-3 to 8.4.4, a system that has been much criticized, disputed in its aim of enhancing self reliance amongst the students at different levels. This has been because the stimulus for this change came primarily from outside the school culture driven by political agenda. There was little or no attention to the characteristics and regularities of the institutional culture and their possible social and psychological correlates; and there seemed to be the un verbalized assumption that the goal of change could be achieved independent of these regularities. In 2002 a new government came into office in Kenya under the leadership of Hon. Mwai Kibaki and its political party manifesto introduced the free primary education (FPE) and eight years down the line the introduction of subsidized secondary education (FSE) was introduced also , this was driven by millennium development goals and later the EFA goals. These new policies created challenges being experience in our schools today. Among the changes that have been witnessed was the scrapping of the ranking of schools in National examination 2003 and its re- emergency again in 2011, the enrolment of anybody of any age in school who wished to pursue education, the return to school formula for the girl mother, the childrens rights, the empowerment and democratization of the students body in schools and the form one entry guidelines that sparked a controversy between private schools and public schools. This current situation of education in Kenya today contains four basic principles: strong accountability for results, increased flexibility and local control. Expanded option for parents and emphasis on teaching methods that have been proven to work (tuition during holidays and

weekends) in order to produce better examination results where every students is supposed to do well despite their abilities or challenges they have faced un life. The public anxiety about education continues to test the coping skills of school leaders. On the one hand principals are expected to run a tight ship coaxing every bit of performance out of institutions that must cope with limited resources and a rapid changing society ( Williams, 2003) .At the same time critics call for reforms of reinventing schools to meet the challenges of the 21st century ( Lashway, 1996) Education in Kenya continues to change and evolve. Now majority of Kenyans are better educated and demands are more thorough, accounting of the educational process and its outcomes, especially in the area of student achievement. The paradigm is shifting from teacher knows better to amore collaborative, incorporating parents ,students ,educators and researchers , a reason why in every school nowadays there are open days for every class to discuss students progress in achievement. In Dance of change (1999) Peter Senge discusses the shifting of current mental models in both education and society. With these emerging issues comes adversity. Although education has attempted to keep pace with our changing society, societies unrealistic expectations and plans have not influenced the core of our educational systems (schlemchty,1992) .The continued pressure for educational reform places increasing demands on both resources and personnel .This increased emphasis on accountability and achievement places additional pressure on teachers to perform and students to learn. 1.2 THE STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. The public anxiety about education continues to test the coping skills of school principals. On one hand principals are expected to run a tight ship coaxing every bit of performance out of institutions that must cope with limited resources and a rapid changing society .At the same time critics call for reforms of reinventing schools to meet the challenges of the 21st century ( Lashway, 1996). These two are the adversities that will be addressed in this research. In the past decade, a strong emphasis was placed on educational reform for economic and societal reasons. Schools have fallen under increasing preasure to increase student achievement and job readiness. Much of the recent focus has shifted to test scores as a measure of success. The principal has to deal with the emerging adversities and produce good results for his or her school. In overcoming adversity, the challenge exists of not only of learning to cope with it, but also to make constructive use of it. Thus, a principal responding positively to modern educational challenges lessens the negative impacts it may have on student achievement. Hence, the need for this study to find out if, there

is any relationship between principals and teachers response to adversity and student achievement.

1.3

THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to look in quantifiable manner at leadership in relation to adversity and its influence on student achievement, teacher response to adversity and principals perception of adversity. The purpose of this study is: 1. To study the adversity quotient of secondary school principals 2. Compare the adversity quotient of the principals on the basis of school type 3. To study school performance of the schools in study 4. Compare school performance of secondary schools in the study 5. To ascertain the relationship between adversity quotient of the principals and the school performance 6. Compare the relationship between adversity quotient and school performance on the basis of school type 7. To study the classroom teachers adversity quotient

1.4.0

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1. To study adversity quotient of secondary school principals for the a) total sample b) on the basis of school type 2. To compare the adversity quotient of the principals on the basis of school type 3. To study school performance of the total sample and on the basis of school type 4. To compare school performance on the basis of school type 5.To study the adversity quotient of school principals on the basis of school performance

6. To compare the adversity quotient of school principals on the basis of school performance 7. Compare the school performance on the basis of principals adversity quotient level 8.. To compare teachers adversity quotient and that of the principal in every school in the study

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS The study will try to answer the following questions. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 What is the perceived adversity quotient of the principals by themselves? What is the relationship between the principals adversity quotient and their demographic profiles? How does the adversity quotient of the principal affect student performance? What is the relationship between a principals response to adversity and student performance as measured by results of KCSE? What is the principals perception of his ability to deal with adversity? What is the relationship between a principals response to adversity and the classroom teachers response to adversity? Is there a difference in adversity quotient of principals on the basis of school type What is the adversity quotient of the principals on the basis of school performance? Is there any difference in adversity quotient of the principals on the basis of performance?

10 Is there a difference in school performance on the basis of level of principals level of adversity quotient? 11 Is there a relationship between principals adversity quotient and school performance? 12 Is there any difference between principals adversity quotient and the classroom teachers adversity quotient in the same schools?

1.4.2 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

This research will test the following null hypotheses.

H01 there is no difference in student performance as measured by KCSE results between schools based on principals adversity quotient H02 the principals response to adversity will not correlate with the teachers response to adversity.

H03 there is no relationship between principals adversity quotient and their demographic profiles

1.6 ASSUMPTION OF THE STUDY

It is assumed that the principals in this study have been at their location (current school) for at least one year prior to the administration of the standardized testing (K.C.S.E).

1.7 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY Although significant research has been conducted in the areas of student achievement and leadership effectiveness, little research has attempted to link specific attributes of leadership effectiveness, such as response to adversity to student achievement. This study therefore will seek to examine behavior and try to see if relationship may exist between response to adversity and student achievement that suggest causality. The results of this research will seek to assist students in achieving academic success by examining one component of school climate, the principals response to adversity in education in Kenya. 1.8 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study will be done among secondary schools in Kiambu county in Kenya. Kiambu county borders Nairobi city and Thika town which are cosmopolitan in population and feeds most of the schools in Kiambu county with students. Kiambu County has a blend of both rural and urban education challenges hence best suited to the research of the relationship between adversity and student achievement. This county also an advantage of having all categories of schools from Nation schools to county schools, boarding to day schools, public to private schools.

The participants in this study will be secondary schools principals and teachers. All the participants will be asked to complete the adversity response profile ( ARP) questionnaires. Additionally the principals will be interviewed.

1.9 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Response to adversity is a crucial element of emotional climate .One of the many roles of the principal is in shaping a positive school climate. School climate cannot be divorced from learning ( Tran .2994). Thus student learning is linked to climate and the principal and teacher perception of such is very important. (Stephan 1994) of the university of Oregon notes that increased student achievement and motivation correlated strongly with a health and a sound school. Furthermore the most effective changes in school culture occur when principal; teachers and students model the values and beliefs important to their school. It is the responsibility of the principal to nature the symbols that express and reinforce a positive school climate and thereby offset the negative influence that are brought about by emerging adversities in education. The importance and relevance of a principals response to emerging adversities influence the response it has on school culture, teacher efficiency and student success. As earlier mentioned, todays education is facing increased emerging adversities. It is the belief of the researcher that as the principal leads to handle these emerging issues effectively, teachers and students will have increased achievements

The result of the study will benefit the following: Administrators can gain additional information in understanding individuals adversity, which will help the schools to hire and retain highly motivated and competent staff.

Curriculum Developer may include and consider the present studies of leadership styles, performance and practices in developing the curriculum. Teachers will be encouraged to put their best efforts and maximize their performance capabilities. The study will provide ideas in helping them develop their potential and leadership. Human Relation will take into consideration the performance or management of human organization in getting people together to accomplish desired goals. Policymakers can obtain data from the study that can be codified for use in the formulation of policies relative to the organization and operation of schools. Researcher may continuously study and consider criteria not only in leadership but also in every aspect of dealing with human endeavor. Students can improve their learning through a principal with higher adversity quotient and appropriate leadership style. The school principal who is in constant exposure to different pressures both internal and external has to constantly review a guide in performing his/ her task.

1.10 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

1. The study will use a non- experimental research design using human subject and therefore the variables cannot be manipulated, but rather it will try to identify possible re-existing cause and effect relationships. 2. This study will be limited to one element of the school culture , adversity and therefore will not look at other possible variables that influence student achievement 3. Non- experimental description research is more likely to be influenced by bias because it is difficult for the researcher to detect. 4. A major limitation in this study would be the unknown variable that influence the manner in which teachers and principal;s respond to emerging adversity which may include belief an d attitudes because they are uncontrollable.

5. The current study will confine itself to measure the school performance with respect to KNEC examination (KCSE).Activities of co-curricular also help in determining school achievement will not be included in this study because they differ from one school to another. 6. This study will use the tools of questionnaire and interview schedule only due to constrains of time and leave out observation that may yield more beneficial results 1.11 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK In this study the researcher is focused on adversity quotient and academic performance. According to Stoltz ones adversity quotient consists of four dimensions:CO2RE. This acronym include control; ownership and origin; reach; and endurance. Control begins with the perception that determines how and to what extent one takes action in face of adverse situations. Origin and ownership refers to how one seeks to determine the cause of adverse events in ones life and to what degree one is responsible for the outcome of that adversity. Reach refers to how one can limit an adverse event to bring just a problem at hand or how one lets the adverse event affect other areas in their life. Endurance refers to how one sees the adversity or its cause as being permanent or temporary. Those four elements combine to form a persons adversity quotient and his or her response to any given adversity. CO2RE dimensions are grounded on research and breakthrough in three scientific fields: the Cognitive psychology, Psychoneuroimmunology, and neurophysiology. According to Stoltz (2000) a persons overall adversity quotient, though significant, reveals little about why his or her adversity quotient is the upper, middle or lower ranges. One must look closely to understand it fully. Academic performance refers to the grade point average (GPA) of the student obtained by the end of a course in this study it will be taken to mean the grade obtained by a student in the Kenya National Examination at the completion of form four. It is the method to evaluate how students performed academically. Usually, people think that if a person possesses a high level of adversity quotient his or her performance is equally high. This study hypothesis that, principals with high adversity quotient will influence their students to perform highly.

Conceptual framework
Community School culture

Attitude s belief

Principal leadershi

Principal response to adversity

Student achievement

Institutiona l context

Teacher effectiveness

Definition of terms

ADVERSITY QUOTIENT According to Webster Dictionary adversity is a state of affliction or hardship and quotient is the quality resulting from division of one quality by another. According to Stoltz, adversity quotient is a science of human resilience. People who successfully apply adversity quotient perform optimally in face of adversity. In fact they not only learn from these adversities but respond to them better.

OPERATIONALIZATION DEFINATION

Adversity quotient is a sophisticated measure of the core skills of emotional intelligence. This research has adopted the definition of adversity quotient from the work of Paul Stoltz. He defines adversity quotient as the sum of the score obtained on four scales of control, ownership, reach and endurance measured on the adversity response profile, a self rating questionnaire with 5 scales which is designed to measure an individuals style of responding to adverse situations. The control scale measures the degree of control the person perceives that he/she has over adverse situation. Ownership is the extent to which the person owns or holds himself or herself accountable for the situation. Reach is the degree to which the person perceives good or bad situation reaching into other areas of life. Endurance is the perception of time over which good or bad events and their consequences will last or endure. The researcher will adopt this definition which is mathematically represented as follows: AQ=C+O2+R+E O2=Or +Ow

Where C= score on control O= score on ownership R= score on reach E= score on endurance Or= score on the ownership as a result of origin O2 = score of ownership as a result of ownership ADVERSITY RESPONSE PROFILE Adversity quotient is measured by the adversity response profile. It is a tool designed by Paul Stoltz to determine the adversity quotient of individual. Based on the scores obtained on the adversity response profile individuals are classified as people with high moderate and low adversity quotient.

ADVERSITY In this study adversity will be taken to mean challenges in Kenyan education resulting from reforms in the quest of reinventing education to meet the needs of

the 21st century, and the increased demand placed upon principals by all stake holders to raise or maintain school mean scores in national exams.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT/PERFORMANCE Evaluation is an important stage in learning. It helps to understand what the student has learned and what he/ she has not understood and also the level of learning that is achieved, thus this process is not only the measure to an end but an end the means i.e. it not only helps the evaluator to understand how much the student has learned but also how well the student has performed at the end of a learning experience. In this study student achievement will be obtained from the school past records of KCSE results from the office of director of studies in the schools.

RESILEENCE Resilience is the successful adaption response to high risk or adversity. This word is important in this study due to its relationship with adversity. Whereas adversity is external influences occurring outside the individual, resilience is personal response to external influences. In this study the ability of the principal to influence the school conditions and enable to maintain or increase the stated student achievement in terms of mean score is the one referred as resilience.

PRICIPAL This is the school leader. They are often referred as instructional leaders. In this study leadership will be taken as the attributes of the principal that aid in influencing others to reach the stated goals or mean scores. The role of the leader is very critical I influencing adversity response both individually and institutionally.

SCHOOL CULTURE School culture refers to pervasive patterns, beliefs, attitudes and expectations that exist in a school setting. Culture is a learned process of expectations and norms that include the assumptions and perceptions of the school community. Such

norms are critical in shaping the school environment. School culture is one of the mediums through which influences is shared and disseminated. The role of the school culture in influencing student achievement cannot be over looked.

CHAPTER 11 2.O LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER 111 3.O RESEARCH METHODOLOGY