Educational Leadership and Learners’ Academic Achievement in Secondary Schools in Developing Countries: A Critical Review

Abstract

The study explored three leadership styles in education for students’ academic achievement in secondary schools viz: democratic, laissez-faire and autocratic leadership styles in developing countries. The main crux of the study was examining the impact of heads of schools' leadership towards academic achievement of secondary schools’ students and recommending the most effective leadership style for heads. In-depth study of heads of schools' leadership styles to students’ academic achievement through systematic review of previous related literature was conducted.  The study used qualitative method to analyse 49 published documents of which 5 were books published from 2002 to 2023 and 44 were papers published from 2006 to 2023 years. This study was confined in the following sample of countries Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa. Also, supplementary papers from Kuwait and USA were reviewed to study more how leadership in education is done.  The findings showed that no single leadership style in educational context fits all schools’ environments. Moreover, it was shown that most heads of schools prefer the use of the democratic type of leadership style which does not fit all schools’ environments. The studies revealed that educational situations differ, thus the leadership style chosen should rely on the school situation. The current study recommends some effective measures for leadership development of secondary schools’ heads.