Leadership style behaviours that act to enhance or erode teachers' perceptions of school learning environment : a qualitative perspective

This paper reports on a qualitative investigation of three secondary school principals and the impact their leadership style behaviours have on teacher's perceptions of the enhancement or erosion of their school's learning environment. Fifty two randomly selected schools involving 458 respondents from across NSW, Australia were surveyed as to teacher perceptions of leadership style of the principal, school learning environment and perceptions of selected teacher outcomes. From this initial pool three schools were selected and twelve staff informants (ten teachers and 2 principals) interviewed using a semi-structured interview technique. Data was gathered aimed at investigating those specific principal leadership behaviours that acted to either enhance or erode staff perceptions of school learning environment. Several findings resulted from a content analysis of the data. The role vision as a motivator became evident, highlighting the principal's leadership behaviour of building and vision and articulating it to the community. The leadership behaviours of modelling and encouraging open communication lines were also identified as enhancing a school's learning environment. Respondents readily identified the influence of the principal in change management, decision-making and the acquisition of teaching and learning resources. In these areas staff identified the transformational behaviours of principals, for example, by lifting commitment of staff in programs of innovation by clearly communicating that obtaining organisational goals was impossible without staff participation. These findings point to simple and effective strategies that will work together to enhance teacher perception of school learning environment.