Impact of Principal Leadership Styles and Teacher Quality on Teacher Productivity

Abstract

The aim of this study is to predict teacher productivity from principal leadership styles and teacher quality using social learning and full range leadership theories as the foundation. This is a relationship research that used both correlational and regression design. The study involved 344 participants made up of 305 teachers and 39 vice principals from 39 secondary schools in Lagos state, southwest, Nigeria, through systematic random sampling. The research instruments were the MLQ-6S for teachers' ratings of their perception of principal leadership styles on a 5 scale Likert behavior scale of 1= never, 2=rarely 3=sometimes, 4= frequent and 5= always;  teacher quality assessment questionnaire TQAQ and teacher productivity questionnaire TPQ that were both rated by the vice principals on a scale of level of agreement or disagreement in which 1= strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree and 5= strongly agree. Data collected from responses to questionnaires were entered into the SPSS software first to clean up the data and also to ensure it complied with the requirements of multivariate analysis. Next was exploratory factor analysis for data reduction and to establish construct validity of the research instruments. The results of the factor analysis returned the factorability of all study variables and the scale of measurement of research instruments showed acceptable alpha coefficient of reliability (α) ranging from .594 to .924.  Thereafter, correlation analysis was undertaken, followed later by multiple regression. Correlation returned a verdict of strong and positive relationship between each of transactional leadership styles and teacher productivity (r=.488, p=.000) and a low and negative correlation between teacher quality and teacher productivity (r=.186, p=.000, The results of multiple regression indicated that transformational leadership TFL (β =-.118, t=-2.111 p=.036) is significantly related to teacher productivity only at 95% significant level and not at 99% significant level. But transactional leadership TSL (β = .524, t=8.288, p=.000) significantly predicted teacher productivity in a positive manner at both 95% and 99% significant level. However, teacher quality TQ (β =048, t=-.758, p= .449) is not significantly related to teacher productivity in a positive manner. The implications of the findings of this research is that transactional leadership style better predicts teacher productivity than transformational leadership style and that teacher quality doesn't translate automatically into teacher productivity. This confirms that there is need for school principals to monitor instruction supervision to ensure quality teaching and learning. because it is classroom practice of a teacher that matters. One thing is for a teacher to have the required knowledge, it is another for him to effectively pass it on to the pupils to the extent of making them achieve academic success as he/she provides evidence of teaching productiveness.