Differences in Leadership Styles of Principals in Public Colleges of Education in Ghana Based on their Personal Characteristics

Kweku Esia-Donkoh

doi:10.32861/rje.56.78.85

Abstract

The study investigated the differences in leadership styles exhibited by principals of public Colleges of Education in Ghana in relation to their sex, age, years of work experience, and academic qualification. The cross-sectional survey design was adopted for the study. The target population was made up of all 46 principals of public Colleges of Education in Ghana. The target population consisted of all 38 public Colleges of Education which were in existence before the absorption of eight private Colleges of Education by the government of Ghana into public system. The purposive sampling technique was used to select 38 principals for the study. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire developed by Bass and Avolio (2004) was adapted to collect data. Means, standard deviations, t-test and ANOVA were used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in the leadership styles of the principals of public Colleges of Education in Ghana based on their sex, age, and academic qualification. However, there were statistically significant differences in the leadership styles adopted by the principals in relation to their years of work experience. It was therefore concluded that many years of experience of principals of public CoEs in Ghana is critical for good leadership in these colleges. Among the recommendations was that the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) should consider years of work experience in the selection and appointment of principals for public Colleges of Education in Ghana. Additionally, in-service training and refresher courses should be organized regularly by NCTE for principals on the leadership styles suitable for achievement of objectives and goals of their colleges.

Highlights

In 2018, educator preparation programs across the state of Texas prepared and certified 87,680 new teachers in areas including elementary and bilingual education, career and technical education, computer science, foreign languages, special education, and the four core areas: mathematics, science, social studies, and English (Texas Education Agency, 2019)
Following approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), data was collected from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) via a Public Information Request (PIR) as to survey responses on the Exit Survey and Principal Survey for the years 2011-2013, and responses on the Principal Survey for First-Year Teachers for the years 2011-2013
Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) Standards for Teacher Educators are minimally reflected in survey questions (M= 1.06, Median=1.00, SD= .827)

Summary

Introduction

In 2018, educator preparation programs across the state of Texas prepared and certified 87,680 new teachers in areas including elementary and bilingual education, career and technical education, computer science, foreign languages, special education, and the four core areas: mathematics, science, social studies, and English (Texas Education Agency, 2019). Despite a healthy production of teachers, teacher attrition is a significant concern facing school administrators (Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond, 2019; Sass et al, 2011). In Texas, attrition of all teachers was markedly higher for the smallest school districts than for the largest. That these realities are not novel as shortages in core subject areas date as far back as the 1930s (Sutcher et al, 2019). Almost one-third of new teachers leave the field within the first three years and almost half of all new teachers leave the field after the first five years (Darling-Hammond, 2003; Sutcher et al, 2019)

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