Transformational leadership in colleges of education in Ghana: teachers’ perspectives (Review Completed - Accepted)
Leadership plays an important role in the success of schools and this success directly depends on the effectiveness of their heads. Over the past decades, debate over the most suitable leadership styles for heads of institutions and organizations has dominated the argument. This study looked at the leadership attributes of principals of the colleges of education in Ghana from the teachers or tutors (the terms are used hereafter interchangeably) perspective measured through a descriptive survey collected from teachers in selected public colleges of education in Ghana. The target population was made up of teachers and vice principals in the colleges of education.
The accessible population was made up of all the 1,528 teachers and vice principals in the colleges. Data on the principals’ leadership styles and effectiveness were composed from Avolio and Bass’ (2004) Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) which were completed by teachers in 15 public colleges of education. Simple random sampling techniques were used in selecting the single and mixed sex schools.
The study showed that generally principals in colleges of education demonstrated transformational leadership style. However, on the attribute of ‘idealized influence’ respondents indicated that their principals sometimes exhibited that attribute. It is recommended that responsible bodies(if any) in charge of training principals in Ghana should include in their training course an aspect on the ‘idealized influence’ attribute of transformational leadership
Keywords: Attributes, Colleges Of Education, Job Satisfaction, Principals, Teaching Efficacy, Transformational Leadership