THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP AND TEACHER PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between spiritual leadership and teacher performance among secondary school teachers in the state of Kelantan. This study involved a total of 380 respondents, consisting of national secondary school teachers in the state of Kelantan. The research conducted is using a quantitative method by distributing questionnaires to collect data among secondary school teachers in the state of Kelantan. The instrument used to measure Spiritual Leadership in this study was adapted from the Spiritual Leadership Survey instrument developed by Fry (2003). While the questionnaire instrument to test teacher performance was modified from The Framework for Teaching instrument produced by Danielson (2013). To test the hypotheses underlying this study, the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software version 24 was used. Data were analyzed using descriptive mean, t-Test and correlation tests. A mean descriptive test was conducted to find out the level of spiritual leadership practices of the principal and also the level of performance of the teachers. T-test was conducted to find out the differences in spiritual leadership practices and teacher performance based on gender. While the Pearson Correlation Test was used to test the strength of the relationship between spiritual leadership and teacher performance. The findings of the study show that the practice of spiritual leadership among secondary school teachers in Kelantan is high. Similarly, the performance shown by the teachers is also high. Findings also prove that there is no significant difference in spiritual leadership and teacher performance based on gender. Findings also show that spiritual leadership has a significant relationship with teacher performance. Therefore, it is suggested that the dimensions of spiritual leadership can be applied to principals and teachers in schools to ensure that teachers' performance is always at an excellent level in line with the goals in the Malaysian Education Development Plan 2013-2025. The researcher suggests that further research be conducted in primary schools, religious schools, national type secondary schools and private schools to see the practice of spiritual leadership among school leaders and teachers as well as the influence of spiritual leadership in improving teacher performance.