Teacher Leadership Style: A Classroom‐level Study
| Published date | 01 September 1994 |
| Pages | 54-71 |
| Date | 01 September 1994 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09578239410063111 |
| Author | Yin Cheong Cheng |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Journal of
Educational
Administration
32,3
54
Teacher Leadership Style:
A Classroom-level Study
Yin Cheong Cheng
Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
In current movements of educational reforms for educational quality and
effectiveness, empowerment of teachers and improvement of their performance
are often the critical focuses. There is a strong belief that it is impossible to
improve classroom educational process and student educational outcome
without enhancement of teacher effectiveness[1,2]. A great number of studies
have been emerging in search of teaching effectiveness[3]. How teaching is
related to learning and what teacher factors at the classroom level are effective
for learning outcomes are often key issues in teaching effectiveness
research[4,5]. There is also another trend of research that focuses on impacts of
classroom environment on educational outcomes and tries to identify what type
of environment is effective for learning[6,7]. Following the growing evidence of
the importance of learning environment, inevitably, how to develop an effective
learning environment particularly by class teachers becomes an important
issue for improvement of education.
To consider the relationship between teacher and students from an
organizational perspective it may be helpful to reconceptualize the research on
classroom process. A classroom including a group of students and their class
teacher is in itself a small social organization, in which the class teacher is often
assumed to be the leader and students the followers[8]. If we accept this line of
thinking, then the social interactions between students and their class master
may be studied in terms of organizational behaviours such as leadership style,
use of power, or social climate. Clearly, ideas and theories of leadership and
management were mainly developed in the field of adult organizations.
Whether they are valid in the classroom involving children or how they can be
borrowed to develop teachers as effective leaders in the classroom seems to be
an interesting area for study. Furthermore, what type of teacher leadership is
effective for developing positive classroom climate and improving student
performance may be an important question fo r teachers and teacher educators.
But unfortunately few studies have explored the above issues. The research
gap sets a tight limit to our thinking and effort to improve teacher performance
in the classroom and develop appropriate leadership education for teachers who
are facing or will face complicated teaching tasks and management problems in
Journal of Educational
Administration, Vol. 32 No. 3, 1994,
pp. 54-71. © MCBUniversity Press,
0957-8234
This article is one of the reports of an ongoing research project on “Educational Quality in Hong
Kong Primary Schools: Indicators and Organizational Determinants” that is supported by an
Earmarked Research Grant awarded from the Universities and Polytechnics Grants Committee of
the Hong Kong Government. The author appreciates the financial support of the Committee.
Teacher
Leadership
Style
55
present-day classrooms. Therefore, borrowing the ideas from the leadership
and management literature, this article aims to investigate how teacher
leadership style is related to classroom environment and student performance.
It is hoped that the findings may make a contribution to the ongoing discussion
of the above issues.
Mainly in areas of business and industry organizations, many studies have
been done and some important theories and concepts have been developed on
the topic of leadership[9]. As many leadership theorists revealed, there are at
least two fundamental and distinct categories of leader behaviour, one
concerned with people and interpersonal relations and the other with
production and task achievement[10,11]. In general, different degrees of
emphasis on the dimensions of leadership form different leadership styles.
Therefore, if a teacher emphasizes task achievement and neglects human
relations with students, his/her leadership style will be described as mainly
task-oriented. The conception of “Ohio State Leadership Studies” is consistent
with the above duality of leadership. In these studies, an instrument called
Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) was developed to measure
two basic dimensions of leader behaviour – initiating structure (IS) and
consideration (CN). Initiating structure refers to the establishment of well-
defined patterns of organization, channels of communication, and methods of
procedure. Consideration refers to the provision of friendship, mututal trust,
respect, warmth and interest in the relationship between the leader and
members of the group[10]. By cross-partitioning these two dimensions, four
quadrants of leadership style can be generated: “high IS and high CN” style,
“high IS but low CN” style, “low IS but high CN” style, and “low IS and Low CN”
style. There have been numerous studies utilizing the LBDQ since the 1940s and
many findings indicated that:
●initiating structure and consideration are fundamental dimensions of
leader behaviour, and that the LBDQ provides a practical and useful
means for measuring leader behaviour;
●effective leader behaviour is associated with high performance on both
dimensions;
●high initiating structure combined with high consideration is associated
with favourable group attitudes and with favourable changes in group
attitude[10,12].
In the context of classrooms in primary schools, we would like to know how the
leadership style of the class master is related to students’ educational attitudes
and classroom climate and whether the style of high initiating structure and
high consideration may be more effective.
Leadership involves a process in which the leader influences subordinates.
Power often refers to an agent’s potential influence over the attitudes and
behaviour of one or more designated target persons[9]. In this sense, the
description of leadership influence may be in terms of leader’s use of power.
To continue reading
Request your trial