The Application of Referent Authority by Teachers in Enhancement of Classroom Role Performance: A Case of Machakos County in Kenya
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Date
2024-01
Authors
Anthoniammal, Arulappan Mariapragasam
Kiende, Hellen
Nyaga, Peter
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
EdinBurg
Abstract
Teachers’ classroom authority is fundamental for their successful role performance.
Traditionally, teachers enjoyed legitimacy over the students, but that has been challenged by
educational policy reforms and technology to a two-way social relationship with students
referred to as referent authority. Unfortunately, school policies and school rules and regulations
do not attract the use of personal characteristics in class as teachers are supposed to wield
legitimacy. On the other hand, school curricula advocate for use of hidden curriculum as a way
of achieving the whole personal performance. This article endeavored to establish the extent to
which teachers used referent authority and the influence it had on their classroom role
performance in Machakos County. A descriptive survey research design was employed. The
target population was 369 principals, 4365 teachers, and 63973 form two and form Three
students in 369 public secondary schools in the County. A total of 619 respondents were
sampled using systematic, stratified, simple random and proportional sampling techniques. An
interview schedule was used to collect data from the principals and questionnaires were used
to gather data from teachers and students. Analyzed data from both teachers and students
showed that they strongly agreed that teachers applied referent authority. Inferential statistics
showed that referent authority had a significant influence on the role performance of teachers.
This was also supported by head teacher responses who concluded that teachers who used
referent authority in class influenced to a larger extent their performance. The study concluded
that when teachers use more referent authority practices, their performance in the classroom
improved more as compared to when they used the other three authority types. This study
recommended that the Ministry of Education, universities/colleges and TSC need to review
teacher training curricula to equip teachers in the use of practices and approaches that lead to
referent authority.
Description
Article
Keywords
Referent Authority, Teacher Classroom Role Performance, Class Management
Citation
Mariapragasam, A. A. ., Kiende , D. H. ., & Nyaga, D. P. . (2024). The Application of Referent Authority by Teachers in Enhancement of Classroom Role Performance: A Case of Machakos County in Kenya. Journal of Education, 4(1), 1–11. Retrieved from https://edinburgjournals.org/journals/index.php/journal-of-education/article/view/238