Transformational leadership and student outcomes : evidence from Rivers State, Nigeria

Despite the widely accepted theories on transformational leadership and its impact on student outcomes, in the West, much less is known about this model in developing countries, including Nigeria. This study explored how learners' outcomes are affected by transformational leadership in Rivers State. The research mapped the prevalent leadership styles to see whether, and to what extent, they illustrated any components of transformational leadership, using Bass’s six transformational leadership (TL) measuring instruments. This exploratory study adopted a mixed-methods approach to investigate this phenomenon, with a multiple case-study design, in five schools from the rural riverine and urban communities of Rivers State, Nigeria. Learners' attainments were examined using a documentary approach while principal and teacher perspectives were obtained via semi-structured interviews. Existing Western theories relating to transformational leadership were confirmed, contradicted, modified, and extended, in this African context. The findings revealed that transformational leadership in Rivers State shares some similarities with Western research and literature but also exhibits certain dissimilarities. The research confirms the growing recognition that leadership theories and models need to be adapted when applied to new, and developing, contexts.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:748412
Date January 2018
CreatorsSmith Theodore, Rachel Folafunke
PublisherUniversity of Nottingham
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50904/

Page generated in 0.0023 seconds