Practice and Challenges of Distributed Leadership at Public Secondary Schools of Dessie City Administration

Abstract

The objective of this study was to describethe extent to which leadership is distributed in Public Secondary Schools of Dessie City administration and to investigate perception differencesbetween teachers and principals on the extent of the leadership distribution.Quantitative methodology was employed and data was collected from102 teachers and 20 principals working in six public secondary schools at the city administration using a questionnaire that has seven dimensions of the aspects of leadership which was prepared for the purpose of the study based on literatures and other questionnaires used in previous studies. While principals were selected based on their availability, teachers were selected using simple random sampling. Descriptive statistics like Percentage and weighted mean were employed to analyze the collected data after it was inserted to SPSS version 20. Based on the analysis of the data, it was found that leadership is distributed moderately in the selected public secondary schools. Moreover, there were some observed perception differences between teachers and principals on the extent of leadership distribution. While principals tend to be positive on every dimensions of leadership distribution, teachers on the other hand were observed to be less positive. It was also found out thatlack of commitment to participate in leadership activities and the inability to demonstrate responsibility on the teachers’ side were found to be the main challenges to distribute leadership. On the other hand failure to empower, initiate and encourage teachers to make significant contribution, failure to show high professional standards for teachers and not involving the teachers in decision making or initiating ideas from the top despite the meaningful contribution of ideas by teachers from the principals was observed to be main challenges to distribute leadership.It is recommended that initiating and involving teachers in leadership roles from the principals’ side have to be strengthened to cultivate the best out of the teachers and to improve the performance of their school. On the other hand willingness and cooperation from the teachers sideis recommended as it will pave the way for their future professional development and enjoy their extra role beyond teaching in addition to their contribution for their school success.