The Role of Teacher Counselors in Promoting Discipline among Students in Public Secondary Schools in Ugunja Sub-County, Kenya

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of teacher counselors in promoting discipline among students in public secondary schools in Ugunja Sub-County, Kenya. The study was guided by the Assertive Discipline Approach Theory and the descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised of 36 principals and 3500 students in the subcounty. Simple random sampling was used to select 12 principals. The Table of Krejcie and Morgan was used to select 246 students from public secondary schools. Data were collected using questionnaire and interviews. Face validity of the instruments was ascertained by the experts from the Department of Psychology and Educational Foundations of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology. Piloting was done to obtain reliability. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, and percentages. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The study findings indicated that teacher counselors have an important role of assisting and maintaining order in school through disciplinary interventions. Based on the findings, the study recommends that the government should employ trained teacher counselors in schools and that regular refresher and in service courses on guidance and counseling should be provided by government.