The Relationship between Demographic Characteristic of Age and Instructional Leadership Style – A Kenyan Perspective

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VII, Issue VIII, August 2020 | ISSN 2321–2705

The Relationship between Demographic Characteristic of Age and Instructional Leadership Style – A Kenyan Perspective

Ann Wanjiru Githaiga, Emmy Kipsoi
 Department of Educational Foundations, School of Education, Moi University, Kenya

Abstract: Education is the vital instrument for economic and social mobility at the personal level, an instrument for transforming a society and a veritable means of effecting development at the national level. Consequently, leadership exhibited at any institution of learning is widely deemed to be an important aspect. As such, there are several reasons in literature suggesting that Instructional leadership (IL) has a strong influence on the success of a school. However, from literature, studies on the relationship between instructional leadership behavior and demographic characteristic of age are very few. As such, the essence of this study was to fill that gap by establishing whether there is significant relationship between instructional leadership behavior and age of head-teachers in primary schools in Kiambu County, Kenya. The study adopted a quantitative method, used a stratified random sampling technique and utilized Instructional Leadership Inventory (ILI) instrument to survey 198 head-teachers of public and private primary schools in Kiambu County. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to determine the relationship between IL behavior and age of the head teacher. On the overall, the study revealed that there was no significant relationship between IL behavior and demographic characteristic of age as measured in the dimensions of: Managing curriculum, supervising teaching, monitoring student progress, defining mission and promoting instructional development. The study is in agreement with various studies that demonstrate that age has no strong relationship with leadership style.

Keywords: Education, Instructional leadership Style, Age.

I. INTRODUCTION

To establish attributes and behaviors that determine effective leadership and leadership style, different theories and assumptions, based on personality, behaviorist, and contingency theories, also known as demographic characteristics have been used (Molleman, 2005 Lojpur et al., 2014,). Consequently, demographic characteristics of the leader as a manager of an organization or institution have received much attention among researchers Adeyemi, & Jimoh, (2014).

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