Author: Upendo John, Demetria Gerold Mkulu

Abstract: This study aimed at investigating the influence of leadership styles of heads of schools on students’ academic performance in public secondary schools. The study was guided by the following objectives: to determine the influence of laissez-faire leadership style influences students’ academic performance and to find out the influence of democratic leadership style influences students’ academic performance in public secondary schools. The study adopted the contingency leadership theory as propounded by Fielder (1978). Mixed Methods Research Approach was employed. Simple random, stratified, and purposive sampling techniques were employed giving the total sample size of 111 individuals. The convergent parallel research design was used whereby the researcher mixed quantitative and qualitative data in a single study and analysed the two different components independently, and interpreted the results together. Quantitative were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (Version 21.0), while Qualitative data were analysed using open coding to get categories- themes. The study aimed at finding out which leadership styles school heads employed and how they employed them. This partly explained why several students in Nyamagana Districts performed very poorly. The study recommends that the government should deploy school heads that have undergone leadership courses as well as build leadership capacity among those who are already in schools without adequate knowledge on leadership. Also, school heads with credible leadership knowledge should cascade and share it with relevant educational stakeholders.

Keywords: School head, Leadership styles, Academic performance, Laissez- faire, democratic.

Article Info: Received: 11 Nov 2020; Received in revised form: 15 Dec 2020; Accepted: 22 Dec 2020; Available online: 31 Dec 2020

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.56.71