Locus of control and Public Secondary School Teachers Job Involvement as sustainable Development in Oyo State, Nigeria

Locus of control and Public Secondary School Teachers Job Involvement as sustainable Development in Oyo State, Nigeria

Folasade Olufemi IPEAYEDA & Afolakemi Olasumbo OREDEIN

Department of Educational Management Faculty of Education Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.7011022

Received: 27 October 2023; Accepted: 01 November 2023; Published: 30 November 2023

ABSTRACT

The paper examines the relationship between Locus of control and Job Involvement of public secondary school teachers’ in Oyo state, Nigeria, in the context of sustainable development. Data was collected from 250 respondents (secondary school teachers) through questionnaire prepared from Mary Lynn Collins scale, Rotter’s locus of control scale and Kanungo scale for job involvement. Collected data was analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts, percentage, average, mean and standard deviation. The result of the study revealed that locus of control had a significant positive association with job involvement among the teachers. The implications for educational policy making, as well as future research are discussed.

Keywords: Locus of control, secondary schools, job involvement, teachers

INTRODUCTION

Teachers’ job involvement and external locus of control in education cannot be over-emphasized when discussing about sustainable development. As such, sustainable development can be described as the concept of meeting the demands of the present generation without compromising the potential of future generations to meet their own needs, sustainable development is a concept. It entails striking a balance between social justice, environmental conservation, and economic progress which are all embedded in the type of education provided for the society by the government. Sustainable development is a complex and multidimensional concept that has a broad range of problems and strategies. The goal is to create a more sustainable and inclusive future for everyone, where social progress, economic success, and environmental health coexist harmoniously. Education and awareness are one of the aspects of sustainable development. If sustainable development is successfully implemented, promoting education and increasing public knowledge is crucial. This entails teaching people about sustainable activities, advocating environmental responsibility, and promoting sustainable consumption and lifestyle options. As a result of this, teachers’ external locus of control and involvement in their professions (job involvement) is also very sensitive and essential.

Job involvement can be referred to as how important a job is to an employee. It has to do with an individual’s disposition to his or her career or profession. Several scholars have given different definitions of job involvement based on their views and understanding. For instance, Huang, Yang, & Li 2016, defined Job involvement as a deep interest an employee has developed toward the objectives, culture, and assignments of the organization. Ariel 2019, described it as a kind of special attention an employee pays to his/her immediate work. It is said to be an important element that has an impact significantly on the individual in the sense that it helps an individual improve his /her performance in the place of work by inputting their maximum effort to solve the problem with intelligence when motivated (Hermawati & Mas, 2017). Considering all these definitions, it can be inferred that job involvement is an employee’s job-related attitude. These can be expressed through an individual Enthusiasm, Interest, or Zeal towards a profession.

This implies that employees (teachers) who exhibit a high level of enthusiasm, zeal, and interest in their job are expected to see their professions as the ultimate desire and ready to give all it takes to sustain and promote the interest of such profession. Such employees (teachers) tend to develop healthy relationships with their colleagues at work and develop good interactions with the parents and even students or learners. They are sets of teachers who see their profession as a good platform to transform, model, and make lives and future leaders. However, the ability to exhibit this job-related attitude to the maximum level is likely to be influenced by the locus of control of an individual.

Thus, locus of control can be described as the control an individual has over the events or happenings of life. Several scholars have looked into the locus of control from different perspectives such as; (Wilfried, Meyer, Susanna , Christiane and Weber, 2017) who described Locus of control as the expression of an individual’s assessments concerning direct life, It is the control an individual has over the events of life the events such individual encounters and the outcome of these events. In the case of Özkan, & Sarıçoban, (2018), they said, the locus of control can be seen as a psychological construct which has important variable that is based on the assumption whether praise or condemnation received by an individual as consequences based on such a person’s future attitudes.

The concept of locus of control is believed to be either external or internal that is internal locus of control and external locus of control (Özkan and Arif 2018). Individuals with an internal locus of control have the belief that their destiny is in their hands and that it is whatever they are not interested in that they cannot achieve. They believe that in as much as they can input effort and strive; they shall surely achieve their goals, objectives, and aspirations in life (Çakır, 2017). People of these categories, hold themselves responsible for failure or success they attained or occur to them in life. They do not give up easily to failure but rather give all it takes to attain success and make a change over the situation (Çakır, 2017).

On the contrary, people with an external locus of control give room for external affairs to dictate or influence the affairs of their lives. They tend to attribute and leave whatever happens to them to chance, fate, and luck. They allow what happens around them (such as family background, economic situations, distance, weather conditions, and the like) to influence or affect their life negatively. At times they give the impression that the world is too complex to be predicted (Özkan and Arif 2018). Such individuals easily apportion blame to others for their performances ( Çakır, 2017). This study considers the external locus control of teachers.

Research has shown that teachers play an important role in training and educating society’s future members and leaders (Tadesse 2019). The teacher is at the center of the interaction of the main element of an educational system which comprises learners, the educational program, teaching, and the environment. Teacher takes the task of educating young and adult individuals’ needs in society. Apart from genetics, teacher contributes greatly to student learning and knowledge accusation6. However, the effectiveness of any teacher in the teaching profession will require that such a teacher get him/herself updated in knowledge and information. It is also expected who will be able to be effective in the classroom to exhibit pedagogical knowledge with high expectations from his/her students and create a positive teacher-student relationship, follow up students and give them feedback.

The attributional theory is a model which explains the causes of behaviours and events. The theory was first propounded by Fritz Heider in 1958. Fritz Heider was known to be the father of attribution theory. It was assumed from this theory that, people observed, analyzed and explained behaviours and events with explanations. Attribution is assumed to be external and internal. Internal attribution is made when an individual character or achievement is attached to individual ability, personality, attitude or disposition, mood and efforts. External attribution is made when a given behaviour is seen as a task, other people, a lucky environment, or weather conditions.

This theory is relevant to this study based on Fritz’s two assumptions through which attribution can be made (that is external and internal). It was submitted that individual can associate their behaviour, success or failure, with ability, strength, personality and even effort. On the other hand, an individual can attribute behaviour, success, or failure to cause by mood, people around, weather conditions, and the situation at hand. The locus of control of an individual is based on this theory as it can either be external or internal.

The study is significant as it is set to bring considerable implications in knowledge development and operational benefits to both researcher and stakeholder concerns. The outcome of this research would enable school management, the Ministry of educations and the government to understand the level of job involvement as well as the locus of control among the senior secondary teachers and rise to give what it takes as a way of contributing their quoter to achieve a successful sustainable development in Oyo State. At the same time, this knowledge will help them to go about considering Oyo state public secondary school teachers’ psychological strength about their involvement in jobs and then find means of encouraging them in other to give room for a successful sustainable development in Oyo state. Although, a lot of research work has been carried out on external locus of control not much has been done on combining it with job involvement in relation to locus of control of secondary school teachers for the success of sustainable development in Oyo state which therefore makes the study unique.

However, lots of factors are observed to serve as obstacles or barriers for teachers not to be able to execute their responsibilities effectively as professionals. Such factors include the very high cost of living which makes the salary of teachers insufficient and as a result makes teachers look elsewhere for the survivor, also, unavailability of learning materials, a good and conducive environment for teachers to discharge their duties conveniently. Irregular incentives which are capable of making teachers lose interest in his or her job. Not only that, the inability of government to make provision for training and workshops regularly available for teachers which can serve as means of knowledge and skill updates for teachers in their profession and more. The above-mentioned factors or issues that are liable to demoralize teachers hereby rendered them not optimistic and unenthusiasm to discharge their duties as expected. One is not surprised at the performance of secondary students, especially the West African Examination Council results in the past few years in Oyo State (online). This can in turn hamper the awareness and success of sustainable development in Oyo State

Statement of the Problem

It can be observed that in contemporary days, people tend to be impatient, unfriendly, depressed, disturbed and even inhuman. Probably Because of the economic situation of the country insecurity and joblessness people are battling with. Masses struggle to survive and putting three square meals on the table becomes difficult. Coincidentally, Teachers live in the same community. No wonder teachers in secondary schools act touchy, abusive, and unhappy which makes students not so free to discuss their personal issues with them. Not only that, some teachers exhibit a wrong attitude towards their profession. These in a way call for attention and require some investigation to be carried out because if care is not taken, it may affect the successful awareness of sustainable development, especially in Oyo State.

Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of this study was to examine the level of public secondary school teachers’ external locus of control and Job involvement in sustainable development in Oyo state. The objectives are to:

1. identify the level of teachers’ job involvement of public secondary school teachers for sustainable development in Oyo State
2. identify the level of external locus of control of public secondary school teachers for sustainable development in Oyo State.

Research Questions

The study was guided by the following research questions:

1. What is the level of public secondary school teachers’ job involvement in sustainable development in Oyo State?
2. What is the level of external locus of control of public secondary school teachers in sustainable development in Oyo State?

Hypothesis

The hypotheses below which were tested at a 0.05 level of significance shall guide the study.

H₀1 There will be no significant relationship between locus of control and job involvement of public secondary school teachers for sustainable development in Oyo State.

METHODOLOGY

Study Population

The population of this study consists of all teachers both male and female in public secondary school in Oyo State. A number of 2187 teachers served as respondents in this study. The teachers were selected through a simple random sampling technique, where males were 994 (45.5%) and female were 1193(54.5%). The age of the participants ranged between 25 years to 50 years and above while the qualifications include all the educational grade levels ranging from NCE to PhD.

A structured questionnaire was used to collect data in this study. Mary Lynn Collins scale, Rotter’s locus of control scale, and Kanungo scale for job involvement were adapted to measure the variables in this research. While proceeding in the adaptation, a four-scale Likert style was used [At all time (4) to Not at all (1)] to measure the kinds of teachers’ external locus of control and level of job involvement. Frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used to analyze the data. Frequency and percentage were used for teachers’ demographic information, mean and standard deviations were used for teachers’ external locus of control and job involvement level, and correlation was used to find the interaction between teachers’ job involvement and external locus of control.

RESULTS

The findings are categorized in relation to teachers’ demographic information, locus of control, and teachers’ job involvement.

Findings related to teachers’ gender are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Gender Distributions of Respondents in Study Areas

Source: Researcher, 2023

Table 1. Presents the gender sampled for the study, it was revealed that 199 respondents given as 54.5% were female while 166 respondents given as 45.5%, from the respondents’ female were more than male.

Findings related to teachers’ age range

Table 2: Age Range Distributions of Respondents in Study Areas

Source: Researcher, 2023

The distribution of the age range of the respondents sampled for the study is presented in Table 2. It shows that 252 respondents given as 11.5% were between the age of 25-30, 388 respondents given as 17.7% were between the age of 31-35, 530 respondents given as 24.2% were between the age of 36-40, 482 respondents given as 22.0% were between the age of 41-45, 311 respondents given as 14.2% were between the age of 46-50, while 224 respondents given as 10.2% were between the age of 51 & above respectively. These revealed from the table that respondents between the age group of 36-40 were more than any other age group.

Table 3: Academic Qualifications of Respondents in Study Areas

Source: Researcher, 2023

The distribution of the academic qualifications of the respondents sampled for the study is presented in Table 3. It shows that 217 respondents given as 9.9% were those whose has NCE, 494 respondents given as 22.6% were those whose has HND/PGDE, and 1159 respondents given as 53.0% were those whose has B.Sc/B.Ed, 264 respondents given as 12.1% were those whose has MSc/MEd, while 53 respondents given as 2.4% were others respectively. These revealed from the table 4.4 that BSc/B.Ed has the highest frequency than any other academic qualifications of the respondents.

Research Question One: What is the level of teachers’ job involvement in Oyo state?

Table 4: Level of Teachers’ Job Involvement in Oyo State

Source: Fieldwork, 2023; SD = Standard Deviation,

Decision Rule: 0 – 1.49= Very Low, 1.50 – 2.49= Low, 2.5 – 3.49 = High, 3.50 – 4.0 = Very High

Research question one was raised on what is the level of teachers’ job involvement in Oyo state. The table shows the respondents agreed with the following: I go an extra length to get learning material (mean = 3.45); I make use of learning materials while teaching (mean = 3.31); I ensure students are excited in the cause of teaching activities (mean = 3.38); I give out assignment to students (mean = 3.32); I ensure students participate in the class work (mean = 3.41); I stay around to supervise group work when going on (mean = 3.29); I care to ask after absent students (mean = 3.29); I am interested in getting students out of his or her shell (mean = 3.27); I may not enjoy any other profession like teaching (mean = 3.11). The overall weighted mean is 3.31, and the level of teachers’ job involvement in Oyo state is high.

Research question Two: What is the level of external locus of control of public secondary schools for sustainable development in Oyo State?

Research Question Three: What is the teachers’ external locus of control level in Oyo State?

Table 5: Level of teachers’ external locus of control in Oyo state

Source: Fieldwork, 2023; SD = Standard Deviation

Decision Rule: 0 – 1.49= Very Low, 1.50 – 2.49= Low, 2.5 – 3.49 = High, 3.50 – 4.0 = Very High

Research Question Three: What is the level of teachers’ external locus of control in Oyo State?

Decision Rule: 0 – 1.49= Very Low, 1.50 – 2.49= Low, 2.5 – 3.49 = High, 3.50 – 4.0 = Very High

Students get me pissed off with questions (mean = 2.59); I don’t tolerate any student misbehaving (mean = 2.78). The overall weighted mean is 2.98, the level of teachers’ locus of control in Oyo state is high

Ho1: No significant relationship will exist between external locus of control and job involvement in public secondary schools Oyo State.

Table 6: Correlation between Job Involvement and External Locus of Control

There is a strong correlation between external locus of control and job involvement, a coefficient of 0.980 is very high and also significant (p <0.05). Hence, .980 is very strong and indicates a significant relationship between external locus of control and job involvement in public secondary schools in Oyo State.

DISCUSSION OF FINDING

Sustainable development can be described as the concept of meeting the demands of the present generation without compromising the potential of future generations to meet their own needs. It entails striking a balance between social justice, environmental conservation, and economic progress. Sustainable development can be achieved by putting many things into consideration such as setting goals for sustainable development, guiding a county and organisation in their pursuit of sustainability, climate change mitigation, circular economy, social equity, biodiversity conservation, stakeholder engagement, and educational awareness just to mention a few. The impact of teachers’ external locus of control and job involvement in achieving or creating awareness for sustainable development cannot be overlooked. This informed the researcher’s quest to consider the relative influence of teachers’ external locus of control on job involvement.

The result showed that public secondary school teachers in Oyo state demonstrate a high level of enthusiasm towards their professions, high level of zeal and interest in their professions was demonstrated. Therefore, based on the result of the statistical analysis, it showed that the level of public secondary school teachers’ Job Involvement in Oyo state is high. This is a good indication to show that teachers in public secondary schools have a good attitude towards their profession. One can deduce that there is a tendency for individuals can easily be enlightened about sustainable practices, fostering a sense of responsibility towards the environment and encouraging sustainable consumption and life choice through education which is brought about by teachers (Sascha and Karl-Armin, 2019).

The result from the weighted mean analysis table 2, revealed that the external locus of control of the public secondary teachers in Oyo state is high This answers the research question 2 of the present study. The result of the present study is in agreement with that of Yusran, Suarnitati, Sri, Erna, and Indar (2020), and Purwani, (2015) in which it was concluded that individuals with high external locus of control have a quality of life that is not good because such people are very dependent on the situation surrounded them and not on themselves. It was hypothesized that there will be significant interactions between locus of control and job involvement of public secondary school teachers for sustainable development in Oyo State.

Table 5 shows that there is a correlation between public secondary school teachers’ external locus of control and job involvement. This showed a strong and significant relationship between external locus of control and job involvement of public secondary school teachers in Oyo State. This can be corroborated by (Sri & Nadia, 2009), who were trying to examine the influence of locus of control and job involvement on organisational commitment, the result showed a positive relationship between the two variables. Sunbul (2003), also found that the teachers’ locus of control and their age are positively and directly related to emotional burnout. Meanwhile, Bein, Anderson & Maes (1990) found that there was a negative correlation between teachers. External locus of control and job satisfaction

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded based on the result of this study that the external locus of control of teachers in public secondary schools in Oyo State is high. This may not really be of good benefit for success for awareness of sustainable development in Oyo State.  Again, the result of the analysis indicated that the teachers’ job involvement in public secondary schools is high. This is a good indication to show that teachers in public secondary schools have a good attitude towards their profession. Also, the relationship that exists between the variables, shows that Oyo State public secondary school teachers are efficient in their profession.

RECOMMENDATIONS

It is recommended that government should design and organize professional development workshops that focus on empowering teachers to recognize and harness their internal capacities for professional growth.

School administrators and policymakers should implement initiatives to further strengthen emotional attachment and moral responsibility among teachers. Activities that foster a sense of belonging, appreciation, and shared values within the school community could contribute to enhancing these dimensions of commitment.

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