| dc.description.abstract | Various studies around the world show that the majority of public primary schools
are headed by male teachers. Despite these observations, no systematic study has
been conducted to identify the factors that contribute to this challenge, particularly in
the sub-district of Nyamira. The goal of the current study was to investigate the
reasons behind the underrepresentation of women in the management of public
elementary schools in Kenya's Nyamira County's Rigoma Sub-County. The goal of
the study was to understand how social-cultural factors, academic achievement, and
the importance of mentoring affect the underrepresentation of women in public
primary school administration in Kenya's Rigoma Sub-County. A research design
used for the current study was descriptive design. The target population for the
current study comprised; 4 curriculum support officers, a sub-county education
director, 280 female teachers, 200 male teachers, 24 schools and a sub-county quality
assurance and standards officer. The schools were selected using cluster sampling
design, purposive sampling design for head-teachers, simple random sampling
procedure was used to sample teachers from sampled school. The sample size was;
18 head-teachers, 54 male teachers and 54 female teachers. The research tools are;
Guide to interviews, observations, document analysis and questionnaires. The
validity of the research tool was tested by providing two professionals to guide the
researcher for validation. The test-retest approach was then employed to establish
reliability. We gathered both primary and secondary data, which we then
quantitatively and qualitatively assessed. The data were frequently analysed using
descriptive statistics. Tables and figures are used to present the analyzed data. This
study found that cultural issues such as religious beliefs, myths, culture and gender
roles led to the underrepresentation of women in education management among
teachers. The findings, which showed that the majority of respondents believed
female primary school teachers held fewer leadership positions, are proof of this. The
survey also discovered that because there aren't enough female role models to excite
and inspire women, there aren't enough of them working in education management.
Finally, this study finds that academic qualifications have a strong impact on the
under-representation of women in leadership positions in public primary schools, as
the majority of female teachers do not achieve the qualifications required for
promotion and only hold P1 certificates. The study concluded that cultural problems,
lack of mentors and low educational attainment led to the underrepresentation of
women in education management among teachers. The study recommends increasing
teachers' awareness of the impact of cultural factors in education to enable them to
advance to leadership positions in schools. It also urges further investigation on the
methods used by successful female administrators to overcome challenges and
advance in their careers. | en_US |
