Abstract
The study sought to establish whether the availability or non-availability of professional development opportunities determine the turnover intention of teachers in public secondary schools in Meru County, Kenya. Descriptive survey design, where both qualitative and quantitative paradigms were employed. The study population comprised of 2582 secondary school teachers and principals in 367 public secondary schools. Stratified proportionate sampling and simple random sampling methods were used to pick 518 participants who included 503 secondary school teachers and 15 secondary school principals. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data from teachers while interview schedules were used to collect qualitative data from the sampled principals. The hypothesis was tested using the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation and chi-square goodness of fit. Computer software SPSS Version 21 aided in data analysis. An analysis of the Pearson product-moment correlation showed a negative correlation between professional development opportunities and the turn-over intention of teachers in secondary schools in Meru County. Equally, Chi-square results corroborated indicating a strong and significant association of professional development opportunities and turn-over intention of teachers in secondary schools in Meru County. The study concluded that a lack of professional development opportunities leads to low morale, low motivation, and high turnover intention of teachers in public secondary schools in Meru County. The study recommended that the education stakeholders including the schools’ Boards of Management, the Ministry of Education, and the Teachers Service Commission among others motivate teachers by regularly offering them professional development. This would enhance their pedagogical skills thus reducing turnover intention among teachers.
Highlights
Motivation is the direction and persistence action and is a drive that makes people choose a certain action and not others and why they continue with a chosen action over a long period even when faced with difficulties and problems (Mullins, 2010; Luthans, 2011)
1.2 Objective The objective of this study was to establish whether there was any relationship between professional development opportunities and turnover intention of teachers in a public secondary school in Meru County, Kenya
5.Summary and Conclusions The objective of this study was to establish whether there was any relationship between professional development opportunities and the turnover intention of teachers in public secondary schools in Meru County, Kenya
Summary
Motivation is the direction and persistence action and is a drive that makes people choose a certain action and not others and why they continue with a chosen action over a long period even when faced with difficulties and problems (Mullins, 2010; Luthans, 2011). Researchers (Gatsinzi, Jesse, & Makewa, 2014) asserted that a large number of teachers in sub-Saharan Africa are poorly motivated by the existence of poor working conditions and unavailability of incentives such as opportunities for on-job training and Technium Social Sciences Journal Vol 11, 36-45, September 2020 ISSN: 2668-7798 www.techniumscience.com development which leads to low job satisfaction poor quality teaching. They assert that an education system producing high inputs(teachers) leads to quality outputs(students) This is only possible through making the teaching profession enjoyable and attractive by motivating teachers and raising their job satisfaction by offering opportunities for continuous learning and professional development. This position was taken by Aslami, (2013) by positing that when teachers are appreciated by being given opportunities for on job training and development, they be more settled in their current job and a reduced turnover intention will be noticed
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