SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR IN RELATION TO GENDER, TYPE OF SCHOOL AND RESIDENTIAL BACKGROUND

Abstract

Leadership is the ability of an individual or a group of individuals to influence and guide followers or other members of an organisation. Inspires trust and confidence in other members of the group. The fact that "leadership" is not a job title or position is one of the ambiguities in defining and recognizing teacher leaders. The act of guiding a group of people or a class of students toward a common objective while taking into account their well-being and emotions is known as leadership behaviour. To be an effective leader, the most important element is knowing the appropriate leadership behaviour for the situation and understanding the results of one's actions (Ricketts, K. G., 2009).The professionals who follow through on this process to spearhead change in their schools for the good of all children are known as teacher leaders. Beyond their classroom walls, teacher leaders take on the difficulties of enhancing their practice through collaboration with peers, school administration, professional staff, and students and their families. The behaviour should be the one that most effectively achieves the objectives of the group while balancing the interests of its individual members. The present study aims to examine the leadership behaviour of secondary school teachers. The present descriptive study is quantitative in nature. The tool used in the study is a standardised tool namely Teachers Leadership Behaviour Scale by A. S. Arul Lawrence (2010). A sample of 100 secondary school teachers has been selected through stratified random sampling from both rural and urban areas of Jammu District of J&K UT. The data collected was analysed by Mean, Standard deviation & t-test. Data has been computed for testing the hypothesis and drawing out results through SPSS. Results show that i) About 80% of secondary school teachers have extremely high leadership skills, about 7% of secondary school teachers have high leadership skills and 13% of secondary school teachers have average leadership skills. ii) There was no significant difference in the leadership behaviour of secondary school teachers in relation to their gender and residential background. .iii) There was a significant difference in the leadership behaviour of secondary school teachers in relation to the type of school.