Principals’ Leadership Orientation and Students’ Academic Performance in Secondary Schools of Gedeo Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

As accountability in educational leadership has increased, interest in finding the most rewarding type of principal leadership orientation that helps to improve student performance is enhanced. The lack of agreement on the most rewarding type of leadership orientation among task-focused, relationship-focused or/and change-focused behaviours, as well as the incidence of poor performance by students has resulted in the Gedeo Zone of Ethiopia commissioning us to conduct this study. The objective of the study was to identify the most profitable type of principal leadership orientation that enhances the success of students in the secondary schools of the zone. Three ineffective (least achievers) and three effective (best achiever) schools of the zone were chosen purposively, as sample for the study by using the maximum variation strategy. The total of the sample was 339, of which 321 (n=321) participated in the quantitative part of the study, while 18 were involved in the qualitative part. A questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and document analysis were used as instruments to collect the data. The quantitative data were analysed by using means, standard deviations, correlations, regressions, and line graphs, while the qualitative data were analysed via a content-analytical approach. The findings of this study revealed that high task and change-oriented behaviours among school leadership enhanced the students’ success, while high relationship-oriented behaviours intended to get a mere affiliation affected the learners’ success negatively. High task-oriented behaviours enable principals to initiate work, directing members towards goals, and monitoring members’ performance. The active engagement of principals in teaching and learning activities enhances students’ academic ‘achievements more than mere passive involvement to deal with the challenges they may encounter. Thus, principals are advised to exhibit high task and high change-oriented behaviours, as their engagement affects other stakeholders to play their role in improving students’ learning.