Head Teachers’ Leadership Styles and Students’ Discipline in the Selected Secondary Schools in Nyagatare District, Rwanda

Education

The issue of head teachers’ leadership styles and students discipline has become the subject of intense debate globally, triggering a contest on student’s discipline that is responsive to the changing demands of school leaders and other stakeholders. This article focuses on the relationship between head teachers’ leadership styles and students discipline in the selected secondary schools in Nyagatare District. The study utilised a mixed method research approach, employed a descriptive design that enabled the researchers develop descriptions from data that inform the readers about the level and status of the phenomenon. It also provided tools for investigating the relationships between the study variables. The cross sectional design enabled the researchers to collect data about the study phenomenon from a cross section of respondent categories at one point in time. The study established that head teachers’ leadership styles had a significant but weak correlation of r=.474, sig=.000**. Head teachers’ leadership styles characterized by the studied dimensions was related to good students’ discipline in terms of completion of assignments, regular attendance, adherence to schools’ dress code and respect of school authorities. The study concluded that head teachers’ leadership styles that included shared locus of decision making; participation of students and parents in disciplinary matters is related to a presence of very good students’ discipline. The study therefore, recommends that head teachers should review their leadership styles to ensure that there is shared locus of decision making, parents and students participation to stimulate good students discipline where students will be able to complete their assignments, attend school regularly, adhere to school dress code and respect school authorities, among other dimensions of good students’ discipline.

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