Principals’ leadership styles: Critical components to the security management in selected secondary schools in Mandera county, Kenya

Abstract

Introduction: Leadership styles of school principals plays a significant role in making the school a safe haven for students. This is because principals interact with the school community more often, and hence understand the school environment better. Purpose: Determine the critical leadership style in the security management in Mandera County, Kenya Methodology: The correlational study design was used as the framework that anchored the study. The survey targeted a population of 424 teachers, 46 principals, 460 BOM members and 13,387 students in Mandera County which makes a total population of 14,317. The sample size was 201 teachers, 40 principals, 210 BOM members and 373 students and thus narrowing the sample size to 824 respondents. The respondents were stratified, proportionately and randomly sampled. Questionnaires for teachers, semi- structured interview guides for principals and BOM members, and focus groups were adopted as instruments of collecting information. Before the main study, the researcher conducted a pilot study in schools that had characteristics similar to those of the sampled schools. Content validity was determined using expert judgment from specialist in the education management. Instrument reliability was established using the Cronbach alpha technique. Thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data, while quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics in terms of frequencies, means, and inferential statistics in terms of regression analysis. Results: The results of this research show a prediction that for each increase in the leadership styles of secondary school principals, there was a 29.7% increase in security management. Recommendation: Major recommendation is that school leadership need to adopt the correct management strategies to ensure security. Furthermore, the community where the school is located should be involved in matters of student security and safety.