Gender Difference in Teachers’ Perception of School Climate and Their Job Performance in Secondary Schools

The study investigated gender difference in teachers’ perception of school climate and their job performance in secondary schools in Anambra State, Nigeria. Four research questions and four null hypotheses were used to guide the study. The sample size of 550 teachers representing 10% of the population and proportionate stratified sampling method was used to identify the sample size. The face validity was established and the reliability was determined through Crobach Alpha for Organizational Climate Index (OCI) and Teachers’ Job Performance Questionnaire” (TJPQ) was 0.81 and 0.66 respectively. Pearson Product Moment was used to analyze the research questions and hypotheses. The findings revealed that the relationship between female teachers’ perception of open and closed school climate with their job performance was not significant. Based on the findings, the researchers recommended that principals should encourage teachers to devotedly discharge their job performance by maintaining school climate that will enable them discharge their duties with enthusiasm.


Introduction
The basic aim and objective of any school organization is to achieve high academic performance and good behaviour of its students. This cannot be attained without good performance of the teachers who are charged to teach and direct the students. Since teachers serve as academic mentor and behaviour modifiers of the students, students' performance and general school success depends on the teachers' job performance. Teachers' job performance is measurable actions, behaviours and outcome that teachers engage in that contribute to the achievement of the school goal (Emengini, 2017). Teachers' job performance involves the activities, duties, behaviours and attitude a teacher is employed to do in the school in order to achieve the educational and school objectives. There are expected teachers' job performances in the school organization. Such job performances among others as identified by in Teachers Service Manual (2015) include; i.
teaching diligently and faithfully the subject assigned to him/her ii. encouraging the pupils in pursuit of learning; iii. inculcating by precept and example, the highest regard for morality and other virtues; iv. being in the classroom or on the school premises, at least 10 minutes, before the time prescribed for the opening of school; and remaining in the school throughout the official hours unless because of illness or other unavoidable cases; v. being present in the school except for reasons acceptable to the Board or in the case of illness in which his/her absence shall be reported in writing to the principal who shall transmit this to the Board; Similarly, Adejumobi and Ojikutu (2013) noted that teachers' job performance is measured in terms of teacher's lesson presentation which ranges from introduction of lesson to teachers' mastery of subject, class participation, class control, evaluation and conclusion. From the above, it is clear that teachers' duties are more than just teaching in the class. It includes teachers' activities, duties, behaviours and attitude a teacher is employed to do in the school in order to achieve the educational and school objectives.
Despite the importance the role teachers' job performance play in achieving education success, observations of the researchers show that some teachers do create uncommunicative ambience in the classroom where students can freely ask questions, lacked interpersonal relationship where students can freely approach them with their personal or academic challenges.
One factor that seems to relate to teachers' job performance is school climate. According to , school Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.11, No.9, 2020 climate is the interaction between human and material resources in any learning environment. Nwagwu (2017) defined school climate as status of human relationships within the operational environment of the educational institution. There are six types of school climate; they include: open, autonomous, controlled, familiar, paternal and closed school climate , Nwangwu, 2017& Peretomode, 2014.
Open climate reflects a climate where the principal, teachers and students are accessible and actively prepared to jointly achieve school objectives. According to Nwangwu (2017) in an open climate the members of the school are creative, innovative and freely interact with one another. Autonomous climate is a climate that gives teachers freedom to operate. Teachers are given liberty to use their initiative and exercise professional competence while carrying out their duties. In controlled Climate the emphasis is mostly on hard work. Principals dominate all school activities, emphasizes more on school objectives with little attention to consideration and satisfaction of individuals' personal and social needs (Olibie, Uzoechina & Eziuzor, 2015). Familiar climate is characterized by high consideration on need and interests of individuals in the schools with little emphasis in achieving the school objectives. Paternal climate refers to a climate where the principal is very hardworking, but has no effect on the staff. The principal discourages the emergence of leadership acts from the teachers and attempts to solely initiate all leadership himself (Olibie, Uzoechina & Eziuzor, 2015). Closed climate according to Collard in (Okorji, Igbokwe & Ezeugbor, 2016) describes a school where the principal is rigid, unsupportive and controlling while the teachers are intolerant, disrespect, divided and inefficient. Among these school climate types, open and closed climate are pointed as the most prominent in schools (Okorji, Igbokwe & Ezeugbor (2016). Consequently, this study is interested in open and closed climate.
Open climate is healthy whereas closed climate is unhealthy in achieving general school objectives (Okorji, Igbokwe & Ezeugbor (2016). A healthly climate is characterized by free interaction and relationship among school members, good students' academic achievement and good teachers' job performance, while a closed (unhealthy climate) is a roadblock to free expression, interaction, students' learning and teachers' performance. One factor that seem to moderate the relationship between school climate and teachers' job performance is teachers' gender.
As male and female teachers differ in their patterns of development their perception of the relationship between school climate and job performance may vary. Tran (2015) observed teachers' gender difference on the relationship between school environment factors and their teaching efficacy. On the other hand, Emengini (2017) and Wanakacha, Aloka and Nyaswa (2018) in their independent studies observed that gender differences did not have effect on teachers to perform their core functions . in view of this variations in opinions, one wonders whether teachers gender moderate the relationship between school climate and teachers' job performance. It is on the basis of this that the need for a study on gender difference in teachers' perception of school climate and their job performance is expedient.
The main purpose of the study was to find out the gender difference in teachers' perception of school climate and their job performance in secondary schools in Anambra State. Specifically, the study sought to determine whether: The under listed hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.
2.Male teachers' perception of closed school climate will not significantly predict their job performance.
3. Female teachers' perception of open school climate will not significantly predict their job performance 4. Female teachers' perception of closed school climate will not significantly predict their job performance 1.1. Method The study utilized correlational survey research design. The study was carried out in Anambra State. A sample of 550 teachers made up of 77 males and 473 females representing 10% of the population were involved in the study. In composing the sample, the proportionate stratified sampling and simple random sampling technique were adopted. The stratification was based on education zone and gender. Using simple random sampling technique ten percent of male and ten percent of female teachers from each education zone was drawn from the schools sampled. This gave a sample size of 77 males and 473 females.
The researchers adapted two structured questionnaires for data collection namely: Organizational Climate Index (OCI) and Teachers' Job Performance Questionnaire" (TJPQ) . The first questionnaire, the Organizational Climate Index (OCI) was developed by Hoy, Smith and Sweetland (2002). OCI was 20 item questionnaires which was used to measure school climate. Each item consists of description of school climate type in the school. Items 1-10 consists of description open school climate while items 11-20 was on closed school climate. The second instrument was developed by Emengini (2016) Teachers' Job Performance Questionnaire" (TJPQ) was used to collect information on teachers' job performance.

Each of the questionnaire consist of two parts each A and B. Part A contained an item on the gender of the teacher while Part B contained 20 items each structured on five-point scale of VHE-Very High Extent-5 points, HE-High Extent -4 points, ME-Moderate Extent -3 points, LE-Low Extent-2points and VLE-Very Low Extent-1 point
The questionnaires were validated by three experts; two in Educational Management and Policy Department and one in Measurement and Evaluation. All the experts are lecturers in the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University.
The reliability of the instrument was ascertained using Cronbach Alpha, this yielded indices of for Organizational Climate Index (OCI) and Teachers' Job Performance Questionnaire" (TJPQ) was 0.81 and 0.66 respectively Data were collected by the researcher with the help of six research assistants who were teachers in the secondary schools in Anambra State. A total of 550 copies of the questionnaires were distributed but only 418copies representing 76% were successfully retrieved and these were used for data analysis.
Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to answer research questions and test hypotheses. Hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Accordingly, the calculated probability value (P) was weighted against the stipulated level of significance so that where P value is less than stipulated level of significance (0.05), the null hypothesis was rejected but where the P value is greater than the stipulated level of significance, the null hypothesis was not rejected. In answering the research questions, the following rule suggested by Mukaka (2012) was used for judging correlation in this work:  (2012) as seen in the method of data analysis, shows that r (.169) is between .00 and .30. Therefore, the relationship is negligible and positive.  (2012) as indicated in the method of data analysis, r (-.487) is between .30 and .50, therefore, the correlation is low. This is an indication that there is low negative correlation between male teachers' closed school climate and their teachers' job performance in secondary schools in Anambra State. The results in Table 3 revealed that the Pearson's Correlation Coefficient, r. (345) = -.071. Going by the rule of Mukaka (2012) as indicated in the method of data analysis, r (-.071) is between .00 and .30, therefore, the correlation is negligible. This shows that negligible and negative correlations exist between female teachers' perception of open school climate and their job performance in secondary schools in Anambra State.

Size of Correlation Interpretation
Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.11, No.9, 2020  Finally, findings of this study that there is a low negative relationship between female teachers' perception of open school climate and their job performance. This means that closed school climate inversely relate to female teachers' job performance. A unit increase in the closed school climate is associated to a unit decrease in level of female teachers' job performance. This finding of the is in line with the opinion of Maniam and Pihie (2017) that closed climate is unhealthy, unfavourable and unfriendly. Closed climate is a learning environment that distort knowledge and information flow. The findings also support Igbokwe (2016) who noted that closed climate is characterized by very high disengagement, high aloofness and low supportiveness among school members. This shows that teachers working under closed climate are less concerned about school objectives, lacked effective interaction, communication and interpersonal relationship.

Conclusion
The concern of this study was to investigate the relationship between school climate and teachers' job performance. This was in order to examine the gender difference in perception of school climate and teachers job performance. Specifically, this study concludes that there is no significant relationship between open and school climate with male and female job performance. However, as the study shows, a unit increase in the closed school climate level is associated to a unit decrease in level of female teachers' job performance.