High school principals in Ghana: leadership styles and practices toward effective ‘educational outcomes’

Abstract

ABSTRACTResearch on principalship has become significant, especially regarding how their roles contribute to students learning. This study explores school principals’ leadership styles and practices and their contribution to students’ educational outcomes. Also, the binding relations between leadership styles and practices and students’ educational outcomes are identified. A qualitative method was employed to collect and analyze data using 3 senior high schools in Ghana. It further utilizes semi-structured interviews and focused group discussions with 201 participants. This study finds that the principals employed distributed, transformational and transactional leadership styles in different situations. Their practices, as a result, positioned them as strategic leaders. In addition, we found a ‘new’ contextual leadership ideology and practice: ‘management by working’ with these principals. The data further showed that the leadership ideologies of these principals were related to students’ educational outcomes through their practices. This research further accentuates the need for well-structured contextual best practices of principals about what works for students’ holistic educational outcomes. Also, the study suggests further empirical studies using schools in other regions to explore the best practices contributing to educational outcomes. Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementThe authors, will be glad to provide all data needed upon request.Notes1. Ghanaian pre-tertiary school system school leaders are called ‘headteachers’ or ‘Headmasters.’ However, in this study, we use the globally accepted name ‘principal.’2. Where there is an instructional or transformational leadership style, the study affirms its relations to teaching and learning, as posited by Hallinger and Heck (Citation2011). Therefore, it is used interchangeably.Additional informationFundingThe author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.Notes on contributorsDavid Kyei-NuamahDavid Kyei-Nuamah is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Education at East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. His research areas include education policy, educational leadership and governance, and philosophy for education.Zhengmei PengZhengmei Peng is a professor and the director of the Institute of International and Comparative Education, Faculty of Education, East China Normal University. His areas of interest are comparative studies, education policy, and educational philosophy.