Influence of School Administrators’ Leadership Style ’ on Physics Teachers’ Job Performance in Federal Capital Territory Abuja

Influence of School Administrators’ Leadership Style ’ on Physics Teachers’ Job Performance in Federal Capital Territ0ry Abuja

¹Fadipe Bayo Michael, ²Uwaechia Francis Chidi

¹Faculty of Education, Department of Science Education, Veritas University Abuja,

²Faculty of Natural and Applied Science, Department of Pure and Applied Physics Veritas University Abuja

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.71043

Received: 07 August 2023; Revised: 26 August 2023; Accepted: 08 September 2023; Published: 19 October 2023

ABSTRACT

The study examined the influence of administrator’s leadership styles on secondary school Physics teacher job performance in Federal Capital Territory Abuja. Two research questions guided the study. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The population comprised of 207 Physics teachers in the five education zones. The sample size was 136 Physics teachers, selected from three out of the five education zones through multi-stage procedure. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire that was validated by three experts from University of Abuja, two from the Department of Science Education and one from measurement and evaluation, Department of Educational Foundations. The reliability coefficient was 0.88 and the data was analyzed using mean rating. The study found out among others that teachers have knowledge of their administrator’s leadership styles. That leadership styles influence Physics teacher job performances and that good leadership styles can improve Physics teacher’s job performances. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that principals should be trained on the use of leadership styles as well as improving on the use of autocratic and democratic leadership styles.

Keywords: Autocratic leadership style, democratic leadership and teachers, Duties, Physics. Performance

INTRODUCTION

One of the fundamental branches of science is physics. It is described as research into the entire range of interactions between matter and energy. According to Omosewo (2013), physics is the foundation of science and technology. The fundamental knowledge and comprehension of physics’ laws and their applications greatly improve society’s quality of life. Many emerging nations have realized recently how important Physics is as a prerequisite for technological advancement. Fafunwa (1972) and Awokoya (2012) advocated for a functional curriculum in the sciences, especially in relation to physics in Nigeria, because they recognized the significance of physics in national development. “The quality of a country’s physics education is a better indicator of its technological potential than any other single index, such as the size of its population,” it said.

No matter how much technical competence is brought, technology culture cannot truly take root without physics (Ette,2012). In Nigeria, education is a tool for influencing national development. The National Policy on Education outlines the country’s educational objectives in terms of their applicability to both individual and societal demands (FRN, 2014). To support the country’s educational progress in light of this, the National Policy on Education established goals and objectives. The principal of the school has supported these goals and objectives by giving good administrative leadership in the aspect of running secondary schools is one of this role’s responsibilities. By doing so, teachers can perform better on the job, which in turn could improve students’ academic achievement. Many education experts, parents, and the governments of all the nations that supply the majority of the resources for education have expressed concern about how well the principal performs this administrative function especially in the aspect of providing quality leadership function over the science teachers. For instance, there has been a sharp increase in the number of teachers in Nigeria, which has led to a rapid rise in awareness across a variety of industries and fields, including those directly related to education, such as universities, colleges, and schools (Ministry of Education, 2015). School leaders must offer highly valuable insights on how they conduct themselves on a daily basis to create a climate that encourages excellent teacher performance. These roles fall under the headings of encouraging leadership development, enabling team empowerment and responsible delegation, recognizing ultimate accountability, building rapport, facilitating instruction, and managing change. John Gardner (2016) asserts that leadership is “the process of persuasion or example by which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to pursue objectives held by the individual or leadership team.”

Therefore, a leader’s leadership style is a specific behavior used to inspire followers to accomplish the goals of the business. It is an expression of a leader’s dominant behavioral tendency. Additionally, it refers to the method by which a school administration affects a teacher or group of teachers to help students achieve their academic objectives (Awoska, 2012). The claim assumes that the manner in which that procedure is carried out is determined by leadership style.

A leader’s leadership style largely determines whether or not they are effective as a leader as well as how they relate to people both inside and outside of the business. How does a specific leader plan to complete a task when it needs to be done? How does a leader manage a situation where an emergency arises? How does a leader mobilize the community if the organization requires its support? These all depend on the type of leadership used. Chrislip and Larson (2015) identified four different leadership philosophies. Leaders that are autocratic insist on handling everything themselves. They are in complete control, make all the decisions, and rarely divulge their actions to anyone else. A leader’s leadership style largely determines whether or not they are effective as a leader as well as how they relate to people both inside and outside of the business. How does leaders plan to complete a task when it needs to be done? How does leaders manage a situation where an emergency arises? How does leaders mobilize the community if the organization requires its support? These all depend on the type of leadership used.

However, democratic and autocratic leadership philosophies will be used in this study because they appear to be the two main types of leadership that is directly opposite. Due to the variety of administrative approaches used in successful school administration, successful school principals have been regarded as effective leaders with distinctive leadership qualities. In promoting the idea that a leader defines positions and task roles by removing barriers to performance, promotes group cohesion and team effort, and increases individual opportunities for satisfaction and advancement, research has shown that a leader clarifies and sets goals together with the subordinates and effectively communicates with them, assigns duties to them according to their abilities, skills, knowledge, and experience, helps the subordinates find the best part for achieving the desired goals. ( Bunmi, 2015). Ayodele, (2014) opined that the behavior of the leader is acceptable to the subordinates only if they continue to see the leader as source of personal opportunities to improve performance and satisfaction.  This perspective aligns with the concept of democratic leadership, where leaders inspire and motivate their followers to achieve their full potential. By providing opportunities for growth and development, leaders can foster a positive relationship with their followers and maintain their acceptance as a source of personal advancement.

Statement of the Problem

Numerous administrative issues, with a focus on the performance of teachers, have plagued Federal Capital Territory secondary school educational system in recent years. However, observations have revealed that it appears that, quality principals’ leadership styles are not being applied effectively, which has resulted in poor teacher job performances in secondary schools in federal capital territory of Abuja. This is evident in the areas of some principals’ autocratic behavior, the state of the buildings surrounding and inside the school, the abundance of broken equipment that is no longer in use, the rise in student indiscipline, and the outbursts of occultism among students. Conflict between teachers and principals as well as insufficient funding, facilities, and instructional supervision have occasionally been observed. others. Furthermore, the inadequate implementation of curriculum standards and outdated teaching methods also play a role in the overall decline in educational quality in secondary schools in FCT. As a result of poor leadership style, some teachers have become non-challant in the execution of their duties and many see their job as a waiting place for a better job. Generally, this has affected the outcome of students’ results in schools, especially in external examinations. The researcher, therefore, embarked on this study to investigate the leadership styles of principals and physics teachers’ job performance in secondary schools.            

Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this study is to investigate the influence of principals’ leadership styles on physics teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in federal capital territory of FCT. Specifically, the study will seek.

1. To determine the influence of autocratic leadership style on physics teachers job satisfaction in secondary schools in Federal capital territory of FCT.
2. To establish the influence of democratic leadership style influence on physics teachers job performance in secondary schools in Federal capital territory of FCT

Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

1. In what way does autocratic leadership style influence physics teachers’ job performance in secondary schools in Federal capital territory of FCT?
2. In what way does democratic leadership style influence physics teachers’ job performance in secondary schools in Federal capital territory of FCT?

METHODOLOGY

The researcher design used in the study is descriptive survey research design. This design has to do with the opinion, attitudes and behaviours of secondary school teachers regarding the influence of principals’ leadership styles on physics teachers’ performance in FCT Abuja. The study was carried out in FCT Abuja which is made up of 52 public schools. The target population is the 207 physics teachers in the 52 public secondary schools in FCT Abuja. This covered all the six education zones in FCT which includes Municipal Area Council, Kwali, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Abaji.  The sample size for the study is 136 Physics teachers was selected as sample size which formed 65% of the entire population size. A purposive sampling techniques was used to select 3 out of the six educational zones, this is because they form the larger percentage of the sample size and to keep the work within manageable size. Abaji, Municipal Area Council and Kwalii Education zones were selected..  The researcher formulated a questionnaire – Influence of principals’ leadership styles on physics teachers’ job performance questionnaire (IPLSPTJPQ) The questionnaire was divided into two parts- Part A and Part B. Part A covered information about the respondents while part B contains the 10 items separated into 2 research questions.  The instrument was subjected to face and content validation using three experts, two from Department of Science Education and one from Educational Foundations measuring in measurement and evaluation University of Abuja. The Reliability of the instrument was determined by a means of test-retest method. In this case the same questionnaire was administered twice after a two weeks interval to 10 teachers from Niger State which were not part of the original respondents before going to the field. When the first and second results were correlated, it yielded a coefficient of 0.91 which the researcher considered reliable since the coefficient was high.  Questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The researcher and two research assistants distributed the questionnaire to the 136 respondents. Mean was used to analyze the questionnaire items.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Research Question 1: In what ways does autocratic leadership style influence physics teachers’ job performance in secondary schools in FCT. Abuja

Table 1: Teachers’ responses on the ways autocratic leadership style influence Physics teachers’ job performance in secondary schools in FCT. Abuja

From the result of the findings from Table 1; items 2,3, and 5 from the Physics teachers’ responses all fall within the accepted level width of above 2.5 while items 1and 4 falls within the rejected level of below 2.50. This was why the grand mean of the respondents fall within the accepted level of 2.71 showing that Physics teachers accepted that autocratic administrative leadership style influences teachers’ job performances. The result obtained from this analysis therefore revealed that teachers accepted that principals’ leadership styles influence teachers’ job performances.

Research Question 2. What is the influence of democratic leadership on Physics teachers’ job performance in secondary schools in Federal capital territory of FCT?

Table 2: Teachers” responses on ways democratic leadership style influence ‘teachers’ job performance in secondary schools in Anambra Stat

From the result of the findings from Table 2; items 2,3, and 5 from the Physics teachers’ responses for item 2,3 and 5 falls within the accepted level of above 2.5 while items 1 and 4 fall within the rejected level of below 2.50. This was why the grand mean of the respondents fall within the accepted level of 2.73 showing that teachers accepted that administrative leadership style influences teachers’ job performances. The result obtained from this analysis therefore revealed that teachers accepted that principals’ leadership styles influence teachers’ job performances.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

The analysis of the responses to the items in research question 1 showed that, autocratic leadership styles does not improve physics teachers job performance, in essence it shows autocratic leadership style have adverse effects on physics teachers’ performance this is in compliance with the findings of Ezeuwa (2015) who argued that  autocratic leadership in its extreme form has a way of not allowing staff to make input in management decisions and so adversely affects job performance. Physics teachers’ response to Research question 2, showed that the respondents agreed that good leadership styles of principals improve teachers’ job performance, it promotes and advances teachers, in decision making improves their morale, delegating duties to them improves their job performance, and that democratic and collaborative leadership styles help teachers to perform better. This is in agreement with the findings by Chrislip and Liarson (2015) who agreed that democratic leadership style influences teacher job performance positively, through collective decision making. Akan (2016) was also of the opinion that democratic leadership style of principals in the course of leadership, encourages the workers to perform higher which affects organizations positively. Bunmi (2015) was of the view that the level of performance of an employee relies not only on the actual skills but also on the leadership style employed by the principals.

The ways autocratic leadership style influences teachers’ job performance, the result of the analysis of the data showed that respondents agreed that teachers are aware of what leadership styles mean, know their school administrator’s leadership style and will be aware if the principal’s leadership style is not good. Ministry of Education (2015) confirmed that in Nigeria for example that there are rapid and increasing awareness of principals’ leadership styles in various sectors. Bryler (2016) maintained that the behavious of the school principals is very important to teachers when it comes to the issues of how they influence their performance in their schools through their leadership styles. Ayodele (2014) opined that the behaviour of the leader is acceptable to the subordinates only if they continue to see the leader as a source of personal opportunities to improve performance and satisfaction. This goes a long way to show that teachers are taken cognizance of their administrator’s leadership styles. Chrislip and Liarson (2015) opined that authoritative leaders who insist on doing things by themselves alone while subordinates are watching them without telling anybody else what they are doing is an indication of a bad leadership style.

CONCLUSION

The result obtained from this analysis therefore made the researcher to conclude that teachers are aware of their principals’ leadership styles and that principals’ leadership styles influences teachers’ job performances.

RECOMMENDATIONS

As a result of this study the following recommendations are hereby made:

1. Principals should be trained with the necessary skills to apply leadership styles in the various organizations for better results.
2. They should be trained on different leadership styles so as to know the best ones to apply in their various schools.
3. Moreover, principals should be helped by the government to improve on their application of democratic and laissez faire leadership styles.

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