School leadership has an effect on learner output & performance
School leadership has an effect on learner output & performance
The management/leadership style of the principal determines the
climate in the school and influences the educator’s experience of
the quality of his/her working life and working environment.
"It makes sense that if employees believe their managers care about
them, then organizational benefits will result (Kroth & Keeler, 2012)
“Teachers and students alike work better when they are cared
about” (Day, 2004)
"Caring may improve teaching outcomes, and hence be a competency
worth developing for pedagogical reasons. Caring may help leaders
produce better outcomes, and hence be a competency that leadership
courses might put forward" (Kroth & Keeler, 2012).
Research about caring has been significant in at least two disciplines, nursing and education (caring for students). It has received less attention in management and leadership literature.
A lack of care in schools contributes to the following:
• Declining levels of effectiveness in the organisation
• A lack of commitment
• A decline in performance of educators
• Negative organisational relationships which further contributes to a negative school climate.
• Poor academic performance of learners
• Withhold care from others
The school leader thus has a duty to care for and to care about teachers. No clear guidelines for school leaders on how to optimise their caring leadership
The research pivoted on the question whether South African school principals fulfilled their caring role towards teachers?
The research pivoted on the question whether South African school principals fulfilled their caring role towards teachers?
The purpose of this research was to determine the principal’s perceptions of psychological care given to educators and to compare it to the level of psychological care experienced by educators.
A second aim was to develop a management strategy for optimising psychological aspects of care in school leadership.
Caring school leadership defined:
Caring school leadership defined:
The school principals‘ concern about the wellbeing of the educator, which manifetsts in sympathy, empathy and a commitment to the educator. This concern further includes the provision in physical, personal, social, emotional and self-actualising needs of the educator.
Caring leadership closely relates to leadership styles and theories that regard the people in the organisation as important.
Transformational leadership include individual support, organisational values, intellectual stimulation and participatory decision making.
Moral leadership which is based on moral authority in the sense of shared values, ideas and ideals
Servant leadership the leader accepts the role of encourager and supporter
Determinants of caring leadership
Determinants of caring leadership
A review of the caring literature from nursing, education, management and leadership.
Instruments:
CDI (Caring Dimensions Inventory) of Watson & Lea (1997)
The Servant Leadership Behaviour Scale (Sendjaya et al., 2008)
The Watson caring model (Rexroth & Davidhizar:2003)
The care model for teacher training programmes (Smith & Emigh, 2006)
The care model of Tronto (Fine:2007)
The care model of Beck (Beck:1992)
A systematic stratified cluster sample of 83 schools with more than 15 teachers each was drawn from the total population of n= 1377 schools.
All the principals (n=83) and teachers were invited to participate in the survey.
The sample can be regarded as representative of the entire North West Province.
Seventy two of the 83 schools responded to the questionnaires (86.7%); 65 principals and 1041 teachers participated in the survey.
Non experimental design embedded in the post positivistic paradigm: Survey Research
Non experimental design embedded in the post positivistic paradigm: Survey Research
Structured questionnaire – Caring School leadership Questionnaire (CSLQ) Four point Likert scale with 59 items of which 26 specifically addressed psychological aspects
Cronbach alpha coefficients varied between 0.83 and 0.98. Since the values were larger than 0.7, the questionnaire could be regarded as reliable.
A factor analysis confirmed validity (3 factors = 3 determinants of care)
Calculation of the practical significance (effect size – d-value where d = 0.8 indicates a large effect)
Results
To determine how principals rated their care-giving:
To determine how principals rated their care-giving:
Principals rated their care giving very high
To determine whether significant discrepancies existed between principals’ rating of their care-giving and teachers’ experiences thereof:
Significant discrepancies existed between principals rating
and teachers’ experiences. (very large d values)
To identify the determinants of care that contributed the most and the least towards principals care-giving and teacher’s ratings thereof.
Contributing most was workplace/organisational determinants
Contributing least was psychological determinants.
Emotional intelligence of principals
Emotional intelligence of principals
Strategy – Addressing emotional intelligence as part of the PGP
Principals not addressing emotional/psychological needs of educators
Strategy – Establishing a wellness program at the school
Honest relationships, build on moral values
Strategy – To identify the common and core values in the school and develop a school specific code of conduct (For management and educators), based on these values.
Education/Training
Education/Training
Determinants of care and specific psychological care could be addressed in specific training programmes eg. ADE or PGDipl in School leadership. Short courses for principal training, could adress psychological determinants of caring leadership.
Training opportunities for principals, specifically with regard to the development of emotional intelligence.
School level
With the appointment of principals, the SGB could take into account the results of personality evaluations.
If personality evaluations shows specific development areas, the principal should receive guidance.
Principals should annually do a self evaluation, to determine if they adress their caring role with regard to educators optimally.
School level
School level
With the appointment of principals, the SGB could take into account the results of personality evaluations.
If personality evaluations shows specific development areas, the principal should receive guidance or psycotherapy.
Principals annually do a self evaluation, to determine if they adress their caring role with regard to educators optimally.
Principals annually undergo a 180o-evaluation to determine if they adress their caring role with regard to educators optimally.
The relation between caring leadership and school effectiveness/
