Significance of school leadership in behaviour management of students

Date of Award

8-1-2009

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Education (M. Ed.)

Department

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Abstract

Behaviour management of students is an important aspect of school life and an integral component of the leadership practice of the school leaders. The behaviour of students reflects the school's norms, culture and priorities where the school leadership plays its vital role in formulating strategies aimed at institutionalizing the desired set of behaviours. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the influence of school leadership on behaviour management of the students. It further aimed at investigating the views of the teachers and students about the school leadership's influence on behaviour management of the students. Precisely speaking it intended to investigate how and to what extent does school leadership influences students' behaviour management in a private secondary school of Karachi. Within a framework of a case study design, data was collected in two phases. In the first phase, the influence of school leadership on student behaviour management was explored through semi-structured interviews from the school leadership, observation and document analysis. Based on the themes generated in the first phase, a survey questionnaire was developed and administered to the entire teaching staff of the secondary section and to a group of randomly selected students, to understand their views about school leadership's influence on students' behaviour management. This study explored that school leadership influences students' behaviour through initiating and maintaining various policies and procedures. They enact certain support mechanisms both for students and teachers with regards to student behaviour management. The school leadership involves parents and maintains certain procedures of awards for encouraging positive behaviours and consequences for discouraging negative behaviours. They also considerably influence students' behaviour through their own personal practices. This study can prove beneficial to the participating school as well as to other school leaders in understanding how they can manage their students' behaviour. Furthermore, it may help them in knowing teachers' and students' perceptions on the effectiveness of these strategies. The findings of this study may provide useful insights for the teacher educators in planning and designing teacher and school leadership training programmes in the area of student behaviour management.

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