The role of transformational leadership in influencing students’ outcomes in public secondary schools in Kuwait

Abstract

This study investigates the role of transformational leadership in influencing students’ outcomes in public secondary schools using Kuwait as a case study. The standard of academic achievement in Kuwait’s public schools has been declining over the years, which calls for a different type of leadership to transform these schools. It is argued in this thesis that there is merit in bringing in private sector business models to the public education sector in order to transform the sector and improve the schools’ outcomes. Furthermore, not much research has been undertaken on the paths through which transformational leadership influences public school outcomes in developing countries such as Kuwait. Following a critical review of leadership literature, a theoretical model for leadership that is transformational was conceptualised and this formed the basis of hypotheses formation and data collection. The thesis is thus original in its attempt to understand the paths through which school heads’ transformational leadership influence student’s outcomes in public secondary schools in a developing country (Kuwait). The study adopted a positivist ontology and objective epistemology and obtained data from 495 school heads and staff from 86 public secondary schools in Kuwait via a structured questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation models (SEM) tested the direct and indirect effects of school heads’ transformational leadership in influencing students’ outcomes the student “achievement” and the student “engagement” via several mediating variables including “school culture”, “class room condition” and “academic emphasis”. The analysis identified idealized influence (attributes) and idealized influence (behaviour) as the underlying dimensions of transformational leadership that directly and indirectly influences both student engagement and student achievement as the final outcome. The findings also confirmed differences between males and females in their leadership styles and subsequent influence on students’ achievement, and student engagement with the latter appearing to be better school heads. Therefore, two structure equation models were built to investigate the characteristics of each gender leadership style on the outcome variables. The findings also revealed that males’ leadership style has significant effect on student achievement but not student on engagement, while female leader ship style has significant effect on both student achievement and student engagement stronger than the males’ effect counterpart. Generally however, transformational leadership style has significant effect on both student achievement and student engagement. The study objectives were met and the study contributes to understanding the role of transformational leadership and its influence on staff and students’ achievement, from a developing country in the GCC. Managerial recommendations and suggestions for policy makers are made. Study limitations are highlighted leading to suggestions for further study.