Basic school teachers’ perception of the leadership styles of their head teachers in south Tongu district

Abstract

The important roles played by head teachers as the leaders of their respective schools cannot be over-emphasized as they are deemed by some people as the chief executive officers in their schools. It is indeed significant, therefore, to determine whether the leadership styles exhibited by head teachers as seen through teachers’ lenses influence their classroom activities. This largely was the purpose of the study. It was a descriptive survey and stratified random sampling procedure was employed to sample 269 (179 males and 90 females) public basic school teachers in the South Tongu District. Questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was .85 which was deemed to be reliable. The data was analysed using frequency and percentage counts, means and independent t-test with Predictive Analytical Software (PASW) version 18. Among other things, the study revealed that basic public school teachers have positive image about their head teachers in the South Tongu District. It was also indicated that there was no significant difference between male and female perception of the leadership styles of their head teachers. Moreover, the study found out that the kind of leadership exhibited by a head teacher has some influence on the performance of teacher classroom activities. Teachers were inclined to democratic, transformational, inspirational and distributed leadership styles. Per the findings of the study, it was recommended that all head teachers practice a mixture of leadership styles since no style is absolute. In conclusions, our educational institutions need dynamic and sensitive leaders to man these institutions. It was evident that leadership is very crucial if the educational enterprise is to achieve its purpose.