Instructional Leadership Effectiveness of Principals in Government Secondary Schools of Adama City Administration

Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to assess the instructional leadership effectiveness of principals’ in government secondary schools of Adama City Administration of Ormia Regional State in Ethiopia. To achieve this purpose attempt was made to answer the following basic questions: what is the extent of instructional leadership effectiveness of principals; in which dimensions and functions of instructional leadership functions; principals are more effective; and what are the factors that affect instructional leadership effectiveness of principals’ in the study schools? Descriptive survey research method was used in this study. The questionnaire administered to 11 principals and 164 teachers selected as a sample; and an interview administered with officials from education office, six board members of the schools, six Parent Teacher Associations and focus group discussion conducted with 24 members of student council. The quantitative data were processed using SPSS (V-20) and analyzed using descriptive statistics like; frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. To test the association between principals and teachers responses for each items of the questionnaire, t-test was used. Moreover, the qualitative data collected for this study were analyzed and narrated to supplement the data obtained through the questionnaire. The results of the analysis show that, the extent of instructional leadership effectiveness of principals’ was found at moderate level. In addition, principals were highly effective in shaping and communicating the school goals, supervising and evaluating instruction, coordinating the curriculum, monitoring student progress and maintain high visibility in the schools. Concerning promoting professional development and protecting instructional time; instructional leadership practices of principals were rated moderate level of effectiveness; while, on the subscale of providing incentives for teachers’, principals’ instructional leadership effectiveness were rated lower scale. With regards to the major factors that affect principals instructional leadership effectiveness: giving higher priority for managerial activities than instructional leadership functions; inappropriate selection and assignment of school principals; lack of resources and facilities; inefficiency of using appropriate technologies; and lack of educational and professional training for principals were identified as the major factors that affect principals’ instructional leadership effectiveness. From this it is possible to conclude that, lower level of principals effectiveness was resulted due to lack of understanding about instructional leadership theories and competence problems of the principal; and absence of support and incentives from superintendents. Finally, based on the findings of the study, recommendations like capacitating the existed principals who have been working without educational leadership knowledge and the required qualifications; adapting legal frameworks and strategies’ on recognizing and evaluating best work performance of principals and teachers; strengthening the current practices of professional development activities; practicing delegation of authority to staffs; and making income generating possibilities and using untapped resources from the communities were forwarded.