Effect of Principals' Professional Engagement on Teachers' Motivation in Public Secondary Schools in Vihiga County, Kenya

Author: Victoria Zyeri Atonya, Dr. Michael Kimotho, Dr. Rose Atoni

Date: 2026

Abstract: This study examined the effect of principals' professional engagement on teachers' motivation in public secondary schools in Vihiga County, Kenya. Anchored on Victor Vroom's Expectancy Theory, the study adopted an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design comprising a crosssectional quantitative survey followed by a phenomenological qualitative strand. Professional engagement was conceptualised as the principal's active involvement of teachers, students, parents, the Board of Management (BOM), alumni and external education officers in the running of the school, together with the principal's own compliance with statutory registration requirements and support for teachers' self-appraisal and continuing professional growth. The target population comprised 159 principals, 2,560 teachers, 159 BOM chairpersons and 10 SubCounty Directors of Education. Using Nassiuma's (2000) formula, a sample of 93 principals, 93 BOM chairpersons and 206 teachers was drawn through stratified and systematic sampling, while the ten Sub-County Directors of Education were included through census. The quantitative instrument recorded a Cronbach's alpha of .804 and a Guttman split-half coefficient of .811. The null hypothesis that principals' professional engagement has no statistically significant effect on teachers' motivation was tested at the .05 level of significance using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), from which an equivalent regression model summary was derived. Findings showed that principals engaged stakeholders to a large extent overall, most strongly in applying knowledge of Teachers Service Commission registration and licensing requirements (mean = 4.60) and in involving teachers in developing the school's vision and mission (mean = 4.02), but weakly in engaging parents in administrative matters (mean = 2.50) and in sustaining alumni participation (mean = 2.26). The hypothesis test yielded F(4, 291) = 6.95, p < .001, R² = .087, leading to rejection of the null hypothesis and the conclusion that principals' professional engagement significantly predicts variation in teachers' motivation, with a stronger effect than that recorded for leadership competence alone. Qualitative accounts corroborated this pattern, linking frequent, trust-based principal-teacher interaction to stronger commitment and social cohesion. The study recommends that principals institutionalise structured engagement with parents, alumni and the Board of Management, and that professional engagement be treated as a distinct, trainable competency in principal-development programmes.

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