High school principals in Ghana: leadership styles and practices toward effective ‘educational outcomes’

Research on principalship has become significant, especially regarding how their roles contribute to students learning. This study explores school principals’ leadership styles and practices and their contribution to students’ educational outcomes. Also, the binding relations between leadership styles and practices and students’ educational outcomes are identified. A qualitative method was employed to collect and analyze data using 3 senior high schools in Ghana. It further utilizes semi-structured interviews and focused group discussions with 201 participants. This study finds that the principals employed distributed, transformational and transactional leadership styles in different situations. Their practices, as a result, positioned them as strategic leaders. In addition, we found a ‘new’ contextual leadership ideology and practice: ‘management by working’ with these principals. The data further showed that the leadership ideologies of these principals were related to students’ educational outcomes through their practices. This research further accentuates the need for well-structured contextual best practices of principals about what works for students’ holistic educational outcomes. Also, the study suggests further empirical studies using schools in other regions to explore the best practices contributing to educational outcomes.