Perception of students and teachers about the styles of leadership in secondary schools in the Molopo District of the North West Province

Abstract

In early 1994, there were a lot of disturbances in schools in Mmabatho-Mafikeng area of former Bophuthatswana. Among several other reasons, it was generally held by teachers in the affected schools that principals of these schools were more autocratic and less democratic in their leadership styles. Similarly, it was generally believed by students of high schools that their teachers and principals did not apply democratic principles in administering the schools. In addition, there was an issue in staff-rooms that morale of teachers in schools affected by student disturbances was low and female teachers were more affected than their male counterparts. The above mentioned feelings of teachers and students were just beliefs and perceptions without being substantiated by any empirical data. This researcher therefore became interested in collecting some relevant data to explore if such beliefs are based on reality. Some research questions were formulated to focus on two aspects of the aforementioned issue: (i) perception of students and teachers about leadership styles; and (ii) morale of teachers. From the high schools in Mmabatho-Mafikeng area where serious student disturbances took place, two schools were randomly chosen. And one high school was also randomly chosen out of those high schools where no such student disturbances occurred. A sample, based on 60 teachers and 150 std. 9 & 10 students, was randomly drawn. Four questionnaires, containing Likert-type items, were constructed by the researcher to take estimates of perception of students and teachers about leadership styles and those of teachers' morale. These questionnaires were given to the selected students and teachers with the request that they should complete and return them to the researcher. Despite repeated verbal reminders, a small number of teachers and students returned the completed questionnaires. It was not possible for the researcher to select other samples of subjects because the chosen high schools were closed due to the political turmoil. Under these circumstances, the researcher decided to analyse the available data and complete the research project.