Integrated Leadership For Coherence School Improvement At Public Primary Schools In Addis Ababa,Ethiopia

The minister of Education of Ethiopia in 2007 designed and launched the school improvement program by giving school principals has full autonomy to select the school improvement committee from students,teachers,PTAs,and school community to execute the program,which revolves around the two main objectives to attend which are fostering student academic achievement and leadership capacity.Unfortunately,existing national literature demonstrated that the primary school principal’s selection and preparation approach is vague or inadequate.Given that primary school principals need only teaching experience and a few months of strewed curriculum and unstable induction schedule to become a school principal.Simultaneously,school principals acquire less leadership competency and knowledge to perform or practice different leadership practices that facilitate and furnish the smooth execution of school progress.Hence,the current study proposed to examine the potential impact of instructional and transformational leadership practice of school principals on a coherence school improvement process and student academic performance.Indeed,instructional,and transformational school leadership models dominate the research area of education,although substantial overlaps and distinctions are evident.Thus,this research has a substantial purpose of contextualizing the two leadership roles in the research contexts and integrating the significant roles from both leadership models to eliminate their limitations.Moreover,the study brought a new scope of attention in examining the immediate and unintended effect of both leadership practices on student academic performance through the mediating role of the school development process.By taking the following objectives of the study,the researcher conducted a survey research design that dispatched the questionnaires known as the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire(MLQ)made up of Bass(1985),and Avolio and Bass(2004),the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale(PIMRS)(Hallinger,1984),and Internal Coherence Survey(Elmore and Forman 2013)to assess transformational,instructional leadership,and internal coherence of school improvement process respectively to 367 participants made of school principals,teachers,PTAs,parents and community members in state run primary schools in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia.Subsequently,the study performed descriptive,univariate,multivariate,linear regression,linear hierarchical regression,and path analysis or structural equation model using SPSS.25.0 and AMOS 21.0 data analysis software.According to the paramount outcomes of the study,First,the study suggested that there is a moderate tradition of instructional and transformational leadership behavior by school principals.Second,the finding stipulated that although leadership practice by school principals promotes the internal coherence of the school improvement process,the instructional leadership effect was more prominent.Third,the study proposed an integrated leadership model made of considerable roles from both leadership models that are idealized influence,inspirational motivation from transformational leadership model and defining and communicating school mission,managing curriculum and instruction,monitoring students’ progress,and promoting school learning climate from instructional leadership model.This elucidates that transformational leadership is the agent for the practical impact of instructional leadership in ensuring a coherence school improvement and positive school performance.Lastly and most interestingly,the current research finding indicated that school principals’ practice of one or both leadership performance has/have a significant direct effect on student learning outcomes,negating a large body of preceding evidence.