THE EFFECT OF SCHOOL HEADS' LEADERSHIP STYLE ON LEARNERS' PERCEPTION OF SCHOOL CLIMATE

A positive school climate and excellent leadership are essential to promote holistic school administration and high-quality education. Research­ers wanted to find out how school leaders' leadership styles affect the percepti­on of students in a high-quality educational environment using a mixed-method research design. A total of 1018 people participated in this survey, including 907 students and 111 school officials from 24 different schools. The Multifac­tor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) was used to determine the most common le­adership style among school heads. The SCAI Secondary General Version was used to assess students' perceptions of the school climate level. Also, four school principals participated in one-on-one interviews on how their leader­ship styles changed during the pandemic. All aspects of school climate, in­clud­ing community relations, student interactions, learning and assessment, physi­cal appearance, discipline environment, attitude, and culture, had high levels of perceived school climate. Results show that transformational leadership, con­tingent reward, management by exception, and inspirational motivation are the most prevalent styles of leadership, while laissez-faire, idealized influence, and intellectual stimulation are the least prevalent. Only two out of forty-two (42) correlations between school atmosphere and leadership style were significant. Student interactions and idealized influence are also included in this cate­gory. School administrators and teachers need to understand the level of trans­formational leadership and the school climate to create the best school environ­ment, which will improve the quality of teaching and learning and, in the end, school performance.