PRINCIPALS' ETHICAL LEADERSHIP PRACTICES AS PREDICTOR OF TEACHERS' JOB PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN DELTA STATE

Abstract

The study investigated principals’ ethical leadership practices as predictor of teachers’ job
performance in public secondary schools in Delta State. Two research questions guided the study
and two null hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. A correlational research
design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 11,083 secondary
school teachers in 489 public secondary schools in the 11 education zones of Delta State. The
sample size for this study consisted of 918 teachers drawn using a multistage sampling procedure.
Two sets of instruments titled “Principals’ Ethical Leadership Practices Questionnaire (PELPQ)”
and “Teachers’ Job Performance Questionnaire (TJPQ)” were used for data collection. The
instruments were validated by three experts, two from the Department of Educational
Management and Policy, and one from the Department of Educational Foundations in the
Measurement and Evaluation Unit, Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University.
Cronbach's alpha was used for a test of internal consistency of the instruments, which yielded
overall coefficients of 0.80 for PELPQ and 0.86 for TJPQ respectively. The researcher, together
with ten research assistants, collected data for the study using the direct approach method and
98% return was recorded. Simple regression was used to answer the research questions and test
hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed, among others, that principals’ ethical role
clarification practices is a strong and significant predictor of teachers’ job performance in public
secondary schools in Delta State. It was also found out that principals’ ethical guidance practices
is a moderate and significant predictor of teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools
in Delta State. Based on the findings, it was recommended, among others, that Delta State Post
Primary Education Board should organize annual seminar to enlighten and update the knowledge
of principals regarding the engagement in ethical guidance practices to enhance teachers’ job
performance.