This is primarily a study of the leadership behaviour of women principals in primary schools in the UAE. Differences between principal's views of their own behaviour and teacher's perceptions of the principals leadership behaviour were analysed. Data was collected through a demographic Questionnaire and the use of the Leader Behaviour Descriptive Questionnaire (LBDQ), Form XII. The sample consisted of 60 elementary school Principals and 425 teachers. Women principals face problems peculiar to their situation as working women in a deeply conservative society and this is put into the wider context of the educational system within which they work. The major findings and conclusions were that Principals perceived themselves as exhibiting leadership behaviour, in most of the 12 leadership behaviour categories, more often than their teaching staff. In particular Principals perceived their leadership behaviour to be significantly higher than did their teachers in the areas of : 1. Demand Reconciliation 2. Initiating Structure, 3. Tolerance of Freedom, 4. Role Assumption, 5. Production Emphasis and 6. Integration And lower than teachers in Predictive Accuracy. No significant differences existed in the other 5 dimensions. Principals' leadership behaviour was perceived by teachers to be more related to consideration of their staff, than to issues surrounding the initiating of structure in the school. There were significant differences between non-trained and trained Principals in leadership behaviour in the following areas : 1. Tolerance of Uncertainty and 2. Superior Orientation No significant differences were found between teacher's perceptions of their principals' behaviour regarding the demographic variables being investigation except for years of experience. However, significant differences were perceived in principals' leadership behaviour based on different school size, in terms of : 1. Persuasiveness and 2. Integration. Finally major recommendation and implication include: 1.The re-design of training programmes to improve principals' technical, human relations and conceptual skills. 2.The Ministry of Education should consider upgrading the criteria by which Principals are selected, and encourage higher education to participate more actively in preparing school administrators. Efforts to improve performance among the Principals starts with the recruitment, selection and training of both teachers and administrators. It is also hoped that in the future Principals and Administrators in schools will be given a greater role in the decision making process.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:312420 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Al-Shaibani, Hama |
| Publisher | University of Exeter |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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