Contemporary Educational Leadership Styles and Teachers' Productivity in Primary Schools in South-East Senatorial District, Rivers State, Nigeria
Keywords:
Educational Leadership, Transformational Leadership, Democratic Leadership, Teachers' Productivity, Primary SchoolsAbstract
Educational leadership remains a critical determinant of teachers' productivity and the overall effectiveness of primary education. This study examined the relationship between contemporary educational leadership styles and teachers' productivity in public primary schools in Rivers South-East Senatorial District, Nigeria. Specifically, the study investigated the influence of transformational, democratic, and autocratic leadership styles on teachers' productivity. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The target population comprised all head teachers and teachers in public primary schools within the study area. A sample of 200 respondents was selected using a stratified random sampling technique with proportionate allocation and simple random sampling. Data were collected using two researcher-developed instruments: The Educational Leadership Styles Questionnaire (ELSQ) and the Teachers' Productivity Questionnaire (TPQ). Face and content validity were established by experts in Educational Management and Measurement and Evaluation, while the reliability of the instruments was determined using Cronbach's Alpha, which yielded an overall reliability coefficient of 0.82. Mean and standard deviation were employed to answer the research questions, whereas Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to test the null hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that transformational leadership (r = 0.72, p < 0.05) and democratic leadership (r = 0.67, p < 0.05) had significant positive relationships with teachers' productivity, whereas autocratic leadership demonstrated a significant but negative relationship with teachers' productivity. The study concluded that participatory and transformational leadership practices contribute substantially to improved teachers' productivity and school effectiveness. It recommended sustained leadership development programmes for head teachers and the institutionalisation of participatory leadership practices to enhance teachers' commitment and instructional performance in public primary schools.
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