School climate and teachers' job performance in Ugandan secondary schools: a case of kasese district

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of school climate (school physical environment, administrators' management behaviours, and students' behaviours) on teacher job performance (effective academic curricular execution, effective co-curricular execution, and effective student discipline management) in Ugandan secondary schools in case of Kasese District. The study adopted a cross-sectional design to gather data from a sample of a population at a particular time in order to obtain information about preferences, attitudes, practices, concerns or interests of groups of people. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used for the mutual validation of the data. The study sample size of 71 respondents comprising of headteachers, teachers and students was selected using simple random and purposive sampling techniques. Data were collected using questionnaires and interview. The study findings revealed that physical environment significantly affect teacher's job performance. This was explained by multi-regression analysis (adjusted R2) found to be 0.627, implying that the effect is by 62.7%. The study findings further reveal that administrators' management behaviours and students' behaviours significantly affect teacher's job performance (r2 = 0.32). The study concludes that the prevalent school climate in terms of physical environment, administrators' management behaviours, and students' behaviours significantly affect teacher's job performance. As such, strategic interventions must be considered by concerned stakeholders to ensure that a conducive school climate prevails in order to improve job performance of teachers in Kasese District. The study suggests that the government should put priority on allocating funds for renovation of school physical structures, building of new classroom blocks, equipping laboratories and school libraries. The study also advocates that school administrators should endeavor to adopt leadership behaviours that create an enabling environment for teacher job satisfaction to maximize academic performance. Students' misbehaviours must be regulated by adhering to school rules and regulations to improve teachers' performance.