INFLUENCES OF THE SCHOOL LEADERSHIP STYLES ON THE STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN TANZANIA COMMUNITY SECONDARY SCHOOLS: A CASE OF DODOMA MUNICIPALITY

ABSTRACT

This study was undertaken to investigate influences of school leadership styles on the students academic performance in Tanzania community secondary schools in Dodoma municipality. To achieve research objectives three research questions were formulated; what are the influencers that necessitate good academic performance in community secondary schools? what leadership styles does head of school use to promotes student academic performance in community secondary schools?, and what roles the school leadership undertake in enhancing quality of teaching and learning in community secondary schools? Data were collected through interview, documentary review and observation techniques. The data were analysed qualitatively into thematic areas for easy coding and interpretation, whereby the researcher transcribed each of the interviews by identifying and reviewing common themes through coding process.

The results of this study revealed that, head of the schools in community secondary school uses different styles of leadership such as democratic, laissez-faire and autocratic leadership style depending on the situation, whereby democratic style is mostly used by heads of the schools in community secondary schools and by large, teachers believe in democratic leadership style due to their involvement in decision making process. This implies that democratic leadership styles has the most influence on the students academic performance compared with laissez-faire and autocratic leadership styles. Researcher conclude that, democratic leadership style is viewed as an important aspect of teamwork and collaboration, because teachers are fully involved in decision making process and are supported in different ways by their leaders to accomplish their duties.