PRINCIPALS’ DISCIPLINARY PRACTICES AS PREDICTORS OF TEACHERS’ JOB COMMITMENT IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

Teachers’ job commitment is vital for the achievement of set educational goals. This study examined principals’ disciplinary practices as predictors of teachers’ job commitment in public secondary schools in Anambra State. Two research questions guided the study and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 7290 teachers in 267 public secondary schools in Anambra State. The sample of the study consisted 547 respondents. Random sampling procedure was used for the study. The instruments for data collection were two sets of structured questionnaires by the researcher tagged; “Principals Disciplinary Practices Questionnaire (PDPQ)”, and “Teachers Job Commitment Scale (TJCS)’’. The face validity of the instruments were established by three experts, two in Educational Management and one in Measurement and Evaluation, all from the Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Education, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam Campus. The construct validity was established using Principal Component Analysis Approach. Cronbach Alpha procedure was used to determine the internal consistency of the instruments, PDPQ yielded coefficient value of 0.84, and 0.79 for TJCS. This gave an average coefficient value of 0.81. Simple regression was used to answer the research questions and to test the null hypotheses. The findings revealed that principals’ preventive disciplinary practices and corrective disciplinary practices were significant factors for predicting teachers’ job commitment in public secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that principals should ensure that teachers are well informed about school rules and regulations, principals should ensure that teachers who disobey school rules are given appropriate punishment, Anambra State Post Primary School Service Commission should organize periodic training for principals on disciplinary practices. The study affirmed that the application of the assumption of Operant Conditioning Theory would expand the dimensions of use of disciplinary practices to improve teachers’ job commitment. The study established that preventive, corrective, and progressive disciplinary practice are significant factors for predicting teachers’ job commitment.