Exploring school leadership practices in challenging context of Sikkim/

"F.No. 02/157/2017-18/RP/Major". Submitted to Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi. Major Research Project submitted by Dr. Namrata, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

1. Introduction... 1-16 1.1 Background of the study.... 1-3 1.2 The Pivotal Role of the School Principal as a Leader.... 3-4 1.3 Understanding the School Context.....5-7 1.4 Theoretical Framework...7-13 1.4.1 Instruction and Instructional Leadership... 7-8 1.4.2 Transformational Leadership....8-9 1.4.3 Trust.....9-10 1.4.4 Student Outcomes....10-13 1.4.4.1 Positive Youth Development...11-12 1.4.4.2 Happiness...12-13 1.5 Significance of the study....13-14 1.6 Statement of the Problem....14-15 1.7 Research Questions....15 1.8 Objectives of the Study....16 1.9 An overview of the report structure....16
2. A Review of Related Literature.... 17-49 2.1 Introduction....17 2.2 Defining Leadership.....17-18 2.3 Leadership Models....19-31 2.3.1 Transformational Leadership...19-28 2.3.1 Instructional Leadership... 28-31 2.4 Roles and Responsibilities of School Principal..31-34



2.5 Building School Climate, Care, and Trust...34-43 2.6 Leadership Practices in Different Contexts...43-47 2.7 Relationship Between School Leadership Practices and Student Outcome... 47-48 2.8 Summary....48-49 3. Methodology....50-58 3.1 Introduction...50 3.2 Overview...50-51 3.3 Coverage...51-53 3.3.1 An Overview of Status of Education in Sikkim: Challenges and Issues...52-53 3.4 Participants...53-54 3.5 Measures....54-56 3.5.1 Perceived Principal's Leadership Practices Measures.. 54-55 3.5.2 Student outcome measures...55-56 3.5.3 Semi-structured interview schedules...56 3.6 Procedure....56-57 3.7 Pilot study...57-58 3.8 Statistical Analysis...58 4. Results and Interpretations....59-98 4.1 Introduction....59 4.2 Descriptive Statistics....60-65 4.2.1 Descriptive Statistics for principal leadership questionnaire (PLQ)... 60 4.2.2 Descriptive Statistics for principal instructional management scale (PIMRS). 61-62 4.2.3 Descriptive Statistics for teacher's perceived relational trust (RT) scale...... 62-63 4.2.4 Descriptive Statistics for student's positive youth development inventory (PYDI).. 64 4.2.5 Descriptive Statistics for student's orientation to happiness (OTH) scale.... 65 4.3 Correlation matrix for PLQ, PIMRS, RT, PYDI, and OTH scales...65-67 4.4 t-test across gender and school performance type for PLQ, PIMRS, and RT Scales of teachers....67-71 4.4.1 t-test across gender for PLQ, PIMRS, and RT scales of teachers... 68-70 4.4.1.1 t-test across gender for PLQ scale of teachers....68 4.4.1.2 t-test across gender for PIMRS scale of teachers.. 69-70 4.4.1.3 t-test across gender for RT scale of teachers...70-71 4.4.2 t-test for PLQ, PIMRS, and Trust Scales based on high and low performing schools... 71-74 4.4.2.1 t-test for PLQ scale based on high and low performing schools...71-72 4.4.2.1t-test for PIMRS scale based on high and low performing schools...72-73 4.4.2.2 t-test for RT scale based on high and low performing schools...73-74


4.5 Multiple Regression Analysis between PLQ, PIMRS and RT Scales....74-79 4.5.1 Multiple Regression Analysis between PLQ and RT scales...74-75 4.5.2 Multiple Regression Analysis between PIMRS and RT scales....75-76 4.5.3 Multiple regression analysis between PLQ, PIMRS and RT scales in high and low performing schools.. 76-79 4.5.3.1 Multiple regression analysis between PLQ, PIMRS and RT scales in high performing schools...76-79 4.5.3.1.1 Multiple regression analysis between PLQ and RT scales in high performing schools...76-77 4.5.3.1.2 Multiple regression analysis between PIMRS and RT scales in high performing schools.. 77-78 4.5.3.2 Multiple Regression Analysis between PLQ, PIMRS and Trust Scales in low performing schools...78-79 4.5.3.2.1 Multiple Regression Analysis between PLQ and RT scales in low performing schools...78-79 4.5.3.2.2 Multiple Regression Analysis between PIMRS and RT scales in low performing schools...79 4.6 t-test for measuring students outcomes across gender and school performance type... 80-85 4.6.1 t-test for measuring students outcomes across gender for PYDD and OTH scales... 80-82 4.6.2 t-test for measuring students outcomes across school performance type for PYDD and OTH scales.... 82-85 4.3 Thematic Analysis.....85-98 5. Discussion.....99-106 5.1 Introduction...99 5.2 Objective 1: To explore the school leadership practices in the challenging context of Sikkim...99-102 5.2 Objective 2: To study the relationship between (a) teachers perceived principal leadership styles and relational trust, and student outcomes and (b) teachers' perceived principal leadership styles and relational trust...102-103 5.3.1 Objective 3 (1): To investigate the leadership styles, relational trust, and students' outcomes across gender and type of school performance...103-104 5.3.2 Objective 3 (2): To investigate students' positive youth development and orientation to happiness across their gender and high and low performing schools...104-106 6. Summary and Conclusion....107-114 6.1 Summary...107-111 6.2 Implications....111-112 6.3 Conclusion....112-113 6.4 Recommendations for Future Research....113-114 Bibliography...115-166 Annexures