Influence of Principals’ Use of Peer Counselling as an Alternative Disciplinaly Method on Students’ Discipline in Kitui County, Kenya
- August 27, 2020
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: Education, IJRISS
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue VIII, August 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186
Dr. Janet K. Mulwa, PhD
Lecturer, Department of Educational Administration and Planning, School of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, South Eastern Kenya University
Abstract: This study sought to investigate Principals’ influence in use of peer counseling as an alternative disciplinary method on students’ discipline in public secondary schools principals’ in kitui county, Kenya. The study objective sought to establish the extent to which public secondary school principals had implemented peer counseling as an alternative disciplinary method in their schools. The study adopted the ex-post-facto research design to establish the situation of students’ discipline at the ground. The target population consisted of 333 secondary school principals from which a sample of 101 respondents was obtained. Data was collected by use of Questionnaires. A pilot study was used to establish instrument validity. Instrument reliability was determined by a test-re-test technique. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyse data. Data was presented using frequency distribution and cross tabulation tables. Qualitative data was organised and presented in narrative form. A Chi-square (x2) test was used to establish the significance of implementation of peer counselling and students’ discipline. The significance level was set at alpha = 0.05. From the findings, 67.3 per cent of the principals agreed that students attended peer counselling in their schools while others did not. Results of chi-square (x2) test had a p-value 0.349>0.05. The study concluded that school discipline could be shaped by the disciplinary methods that school principals adopted.
Key words: Peer counseling, Students’ discipline, Public secondary schools, Implementation, Alternative disciplinary methods.
I. INTRODUCTION
Peer counselling is a component of guidance and counselling which traces its roots to the development of psychology in the United States of America (USA). It came about as a reaction to change in the industrialised society. In 1911, Goodwin organised a wide range of programmes in guidance and counselling in high schools in America (Were, 2003). In the 1980’s peer helping programs in schools across Canada, escalated at an alarmingly fast rate (Carr, 1988). The purpose of peer counselling in schools as noted by Cowie and sharp (1996), is to render help to peers within the schooling environment and to assist school counsellors in the schooling environment. Thus, as an alternative disciplinary method, peer counselling could be used to manage students’ discipline in learning institutions in Kenya.
