Principal Leadership Style and Student Achievement in Rural Secondary Schools in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract or Introduction

The Leadership styles adopt by school principal plays an important role in raising the students' academic achievement in Nigeria. This study investigates whether the principal’s leadership styles influence student achievement in rural secondary schools in Nigeria. Firstly, the study determines the overall type of leadership style adopted by upper and lower rural secondary schools in Nigeria. Secondly, it establishes the principal leadership style behavior in both upper and lower secondary schools. Finally, the study intends to investigate the influence of the Nigerian principal leadership style on student achievement in upper and rural secondary schools.

The research design used is a quantitative descriptive sectional survey research design. The theoretical or educational gap, locational gap, and the approach gap were identified. In the research process, the researcher utilized two survey questionnaires, "Leadership Orientation Survey" from Bolman and Terrence E. Deal which has three sections, leadership styles, leaders' behavior, and overall rating respectively. The second survey contains one section “principal leadership survey”. Forty-six teachers in upper and forty in lower rural secondary schools were asked, but only 20 in upper and 20 in lower responded during the research. Frequency, percentage, and mean were used.