The Influence of School Climate on Teachers’ Motivation in Government Secondary Schools in Delta State, Nigeria

The study identifies the predominant school climate and examined the influence of school climate on teachers’ motivation in Delta State, Nigeria. Two research questions were answered and two hypotheses were formulated and tested at the 0.05 level of probability. The study is a correlational research method based on the ex-post facto design. The study covered teachers and students in public secondary schools in Delta State. The population for the study comprised 11,988 teachers from the 415 public secondary schools in Delta state. The sample consists of three hundred and sixty (360) respondents selected on the basis of multi-stage cluster sampling technique. Questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. Data gathered from the field were analyzed using descriptive statistics – frequency, means and standard deviations, and coefficients of determination – to provide answers to the research questions. The null hypotheses were tested using inferential statistics – independent t-test analysis and the regression analysis at .05 level of significance. The findings from the study showed that there is no significant difference between male and female teachers on their reported predominant school climate in Delta State Secondary Schools. There is a significant relationship between school climate and teachers’ motivation. It was concluded that controlled school climate is the dominant school climate in Secondary Schools. The level of teachers’ motivation is very high. There are no significant differences in reported predominant school climate between male and female teachers. It was recommended among others that school principals should regularly undertake leadership training and should continuously evaluate the effectiveness of implemented strategies to improve school climate to positively impact teachers’ motivation and enhance students’ learning.