Differentiating the Principals’ Leadership Behaviour in High and Low-Achieving School of Nepal: A Quantitative Study

Abstract

School principal leadership plays a significant role in school success, through its effects on teachers' perception, attitudes, and behaviours. However, the knowledge of how teachers and principal themselves perceive the principals leadership behaviour in high-achieving school and low achieving school in least develop country like Nepal is very limited. Most existing evidence focuses on developed country that are no the results that can be apply in least develop and developing countries, which why we lack solid operative knowledge on teachers perception on leadership behaviour in high-and low achieving schools of least develop country. This study seeks to address this lacuna. This quantitative study examined and compared the leadership style of high-and low-achieving school’s principal that serve socially and economically disadvantaged population through the perception of the teachers and principals themselves. Leadership Behaviour Inventory Questionnaire (Green, 2006) was administered to 547 teachers and 12 principals of six nationally awarded high- achieving schools and six low- achieving schools of Nepal. The finding revealed that teachers in the high-achieving schools consistently viewed their principals’ behaviour more positively than did their counterparts in the low-achieving schools. High-achieving school principals exert influence on teachers. The study also found that principals in high-and low-achieving schools had minimal differences in how they perceived their leadership styles in regard to thirteen core competencies.

Keywords: school principal, teachers, leadership, high-achieving school, low-achieving school, student achievement