Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies

Teacher job satisfaction influences retention, commitment and the quality of learning, yet schools in North Eastern Kenya struggle to keep teachers. Professional development (PD) is a school management practice that can meet teachers’ growth needs, but its relationship with satisfaction in newly established education administrations is poorly documented. This study examined the relationship between professional development programmes and teacher job satisfaction in public senior schools in Shantabaq Sub-County, Garissa County, Kenya. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory guided the study. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was used with census sampling of all five public senior schools. Questionnaires were returned by 69 of 85 teachers (81.18%), and interviews were held with 5 principals, 20 Board of Management (BoM) members and 15 Parents’ Association (PA) representatives. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.812 for the PD scale and 0.845 for the job satisfaction scale. Questionnaire data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation in SPSS, while interview data were analysed thematically. PD implementation was moderate (aggregate mean = 2.62 on a four-point scale). External training, peer learning and mentorship were rated lowest, even though 84.1% of teachers had attended an in-service course. PD was strongly, positively and significantly related to teacher job satisfaction (r = 0.729, p < 0.001, n = 69), and interviewees reported that PD builds competence, confidence and retention. The study concludes that PD is a strong correlate of satisfaction, but its present form—frequent yet thinly structured—limits its benefits. Expanding external training, institutionalising mentorship and peer learning, and linking PD to needs identified through appraisal are recommended.