The perceived influence of school leadership on learner behaviour in a Namibian secondary school

Leadership and its Influence on Organization Members’ Behaviour

Simply stated, leadership can be equated with influence, a ‘process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals’ (Northhouse, 2010: 3) or, collectively, getting people to work together to make things happen (Ejimabo, 2013: 5), summed up by Yukl (2006) as ‘the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives’ (2006: 8). More recently, leadership has come to be associated with organization culture.

Belias and Koustelios (2014: 457) refer to leaders as setting the direction of values, cultural norms and basic assumptions in an organization. They describe the leader’s role as defining, strengthening and articulating, through words and actions, the cultural values of an organization, including a school. Minckler (2013: 3) describes leadership as an interaction process between and among the leader and organization members that shapes organization culture.

Schein (1990) identifies three levels of organizational culture that the leader creates in an organization: artefacts (observable aspects of an organization’s life, for example, activities, rituals, documents, relationships, dress, communication), espoused values and beliefs (norms, standards, strategies and philosophies) of the organization and the underlying assumptions (the taken-for-granted beliefs, perceptions, thoughts and feelings) that unknowingly shape the behaviour of organization members.

The culture of an organization often starts with the founder (Schein, 1983: 16), his or her beliefs, values and assumptions, (Schein, 1997: 211) and preferences for how things should be done (Bush, 2003: 156). These beliefs, values, assumptions and practices are unknowingly taken-for-granted by members of the organization as the correct way to think about things, to do things and to behave (Bush, 2003: 156) and are conveyed to newcomers through various socialization experiences such that they ‘become prescribed as a way to maintain the social order’ (Schein, 2010: 3). Founders or other exceptional leaders are the carriers of organization culture (Biswas and Biswas, 2001: 36). School leaders are responsible for sustaining a school culture by modelling (Aitken, 2007: 17) and communicating the values and beliefs within the school as well as to other stakeholders outside the school (Bush, 1998: 43). For Schein (2004: 2), a core function of leadership is therefore the management of an organization’s culture. However, it can also entail the destruction of an organization’s culture. Yukl (2006: 49) confirms that leadership has either a positive or undermining influence in an organization.

Sergiovanni (1984: 9) refers to principals’ cultural creation role in a school as one of facilitating relational bonding among learners, teachers and other stakeholders in the school. The bonding provided by a shared culture imparts on organization members a feeling of attachment and meaning.

A number of researchers have observed how a leader’s influence on organization members’ behaviour is mediated by an organization’s culture. Bush (2003: 156) found that at the heart of an organization is its ‘beliefs, values and ideology’, established by the leader, which become shared traditions that are communicated to and reinforced within organization members and consequently influence how they behave. The leader’s role in establishing the core elements of organizational culture, such as values, norms, standards for behaviour and shared expectations (DeLong, 1997: 6; Hargreaves, 1992: 271), makes for a powerful mechanism (Ojo, 2009: 391) for guiding, shaping (Robbins, 2000: 249) and influencing the attitudes (Lunenburg, 2011: 1) and behaviour of organization members (Barth, 2002: 7; Brown, 2004: 2; Evans, 2001: 43; Lukasova, 2004: 95).

Without a dominant or strong organization culture (Robbins, 2000: 237), which is ‘the emergent result of the continuing conversation and negotiations about values, meanings and proprieties between the members’ (Seel, 2000: 2), there would be no uniform interpretation of what represents appropriate or inappropriate behaviour. A strong organization culture does not happen by osmosis. It is initiated and nurtured by the leadership in an organization, absorbed and owned by the organization members and handed down to newcomers, both by design – through induction processes for example – and through socialization (Schultz, 1994).

Leaders of strong organization cultures encourage and support ways of thinking and doing that are ethical and satisfying, that make organizations good places to be in in terms of quality of work-life (Bhindi and Duigan, 1997: 119). Leaders of strong organization cultures establish and maintain trusting relationships among organization members. The trusting relationships in turn allow a leader to guide an organization through both good and difficult times (Azuka, 2009: 18).

Leaders of strong organization cultures also enable organization members to develop an awareness that they are part of something bigger than their individual selves, that they are organically part of a social group (Tajfel, 1972: 292), which is their organization. The individual self can be taken up by the collective self where individual behaviour is transformed into collective behaviour as people perceive and act in terms of a shared, collective conception of self (Turner, 1999: 11). When individuals identify with and commit to the group, their behaviour is strongly influenced by the group norms and values (Hannah et al., 2011: 223). An organization culture with a sense of community where, for example, ‘student-teacher relationships matter’ reduces the risk of negative learner behaviour (Griggs et al., 2009: 562). As an individual develops a generally positive sense of social relatedness within the social group this supports the internalization of socially desirable or acceptable values. These values, in turn, help individuals to regulate their behaviour within the social group (Wentzel, 2003: 322) in the sense that there is a sense of belonging to and ‘identification with a behaviourally relevant group’ (Chatzisarantis et al., 2009: 57). Individuals want to fit into the social group of which they are part.

Positive Learner Behaviour

The term positive learner behaviour is used in the literature in different ways. Some researchers (for example, Luizelli et al., 2005 and Sugai and Horner, 2006) use the term to refer to a particular type of school-wide intervention designed to improve and support socially valued learner behaviour. Other researchers (for example, Bradshaw et al., 2010) use the term in a more generic sense to refer to learner attitudes and behaviour, such as, ‘Be respectful, responsible, helpful’ and so on (Bradshaw et al., 2010: 1). Both approaches, whether explicitly or implicitly, draw on behavioural, social learning and organization behaviour principles (Lewis and Sugai cited in Bradshaw et al., 2010: 135), which have been traditionally used with individual learners. These principles have been generalized and applied to entire schools including learners, staff, management and, sometimes, parents.

Whether part of a formal intervention or part of the way things are done in a school, both uses of the term embrace similar intentions and expectations. Put simply, school leaders and staff want everyone to have a satisfying school experience. Social skills development is important to enable this. The development of social skills includes the promotion of social competence through effective interpersonal communication dispositions and practices with both fellow learners and adults. It also includes dealing with conflict, problem solving and friendship building. Positive reinforcement (Hellriegel et al., 2012) is encouraged when learners display these social competencies. Positive social relationships between and among learners and between learners and teachers have been shown to reduce learner risk factors and enhance learner pro-social development (Kellam et al., 1998). All stakeholders, learners, teachers, management and parents, participate in generating consensus-driven behavioural expectations and discipline sanctions. The focus is on reducing and, where possible, eliminating punitive, reactionary and exclusionary approaches and practices and embracing edifying, proactive, preventative, inclusive and social competence-based orientations (Sugai and Horner, 2009).

It is well known (Fullan, 2014) that a school principal’s leadership is a key contributory factor in the variation among schools, including learner behaviour. The role of the school principal as a role model and teacher role-modelling (Bandura, 1977 cited by Swinson, 2010: 191) are often emphasized (Bradshaw et al., 2010: 134). The school leadership promotes positive change in staff behaviour, which subsequently influences learner behaviour. Ultimately, positive learner behaviour is often associated with the school culture that a principal nurtures. This includes the kinds of expectations learners have of the school and positive reinforcement manifested through praise and appreciation, all under the umbrella of clear and fair expectations of learner behaviour.

Swinson (2010) draws attention to the important, decisive at times, role learners can play in school decision making processes, including in the design of learner behaviour expectations and sanctions. He notes (2010: 182) that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child obliges those who work with children to consult with and involve them in decisions that affect them. Osler (2000), Pearce and Hallgarten (2000), Read (2005) and Rowe (2006) all argue that school policies that involve the learners in their development are more likely to be successfully implemented and sustained. By understanding the underlying thinking and purpose, learners are likely to commit to decisions in which they have participated (Lewis and Lindsey, 2000). This has been found to be the case with learner behaviour expectations (MacBeath et al., 2003). Swinson (2010: 183) found in his research in a number of British secondary schools that such participation in school decision making, including learner behaviour expectations and sanctions policy, resulted in overall improved learner involvement in school, school attendance and higher academic achievement. There were a ‘communal sense of well-being’, heightened levels of motivation and endeavour, and friendly relationships (Swinson, 2010: 190).

The Principal’s Role

Teachers and learners commented on the former principal’s role in creating a school culture that promotes positive learner behaviour:

Our former principal’s legacy is still with us. He was our parent to us and we still remember what he told. He really encourages and motivates us to behave well and work hard and that is what we are doing (Nestor).

Successor Continuity is Important

Our new principal is following in the footsteps of our previous principal. The way he wants things to be done is exactly how the former principal wanted us to do things and behave at this school. We are lucky to have nice principals (Mati).

Teachers also referred to the principal’s creation of a school environment conducive to positive learner behaviour. Through opportunities for open dialogue he makes it possible for teachers to learn from him:

We learn a lot from that man and that is what we are applying today. Some of us came to understand the theories that we learn when we were doing our teacher training practically from this man. For example, some of us recall the issue of managing learners. We learn that you do not need to use force in enhancing positive behaviour among learners. What is needed is to get a strategy to do that (Mr Noa).

Teachers said the principal has created a school culture that has led to self-motivated and committed teachers and learners, which promotes positive learner behaviour. For example, lesson preparation is taken seriously and teachers teaching the same subject collaborate by sharing information and doing joint preparation. The principal’s approach to the teachers has been, ‘You are professionals and you should conduct yourself as such’ (Mr Luke).

Ms Tuyeni remarked:

We are obliged to be self-motivated and committed to our duties, and one of our duties is to guide the behaviour of our learners. If we are not committed then it means we are cheating these learners. Some of us take an Oath of Dedication during our graduation ceremony and you feel bound by that Act of Dedication.

The teachers’ claim was confirmed by a comment made by Mr Luke, the principal:

Our teachers here are self-motivated and committed. You do not even need to be after teachers here. They do not want to be pushed. They have a sense of responsibility and deliver their duties in a responsible manner. I think that it is the motivation and commitment of the teachers that have influence the way our learners behave.

Respect

The principal, teachers and learners believe that school leadership that emphasizes respect, especially self-respect, creates the foundation for positive learner behaviour. The principal and teachers instil in learners the value of respect. Petrus said, ‘We have to respect ourselves and respect other people’. This is congruent with our observation of the learners’ respectful behaviour. For example, they do not pass a teacher without a greeting.

Not only respectful behaviour but also respectful language use is emphasized. Maria explained that, ‘We are told to always mind our language in whatever we say to others. Even that little word ‘thank you’ matters here. We are taught that ‘thank you’ is very important to others’ and ‘swearing and insulting others is not allowed at our school’. We noted that the school’s mission states that ‘the school aims at inculcating respectful behaviour among its learners’.

Care

Research participants said that caring is important to the principal and that it encourages and supports positive learner behaviour. For example, at school assemblies the principal regularly reminded learners to:

Take note that whatever behaviour you display you make sure it does not affect or offend anybody of us here. Let us make this school a peaceful place to live and remember we can only achieve a peaceful environment through our positive attitudes and behaviours that do not disturb others. Take care of your behaviour and take care of others. Let us be responsible for our own behaviours on the school grounds and in the hostels, not to disturb others.

We observed that learners, without being asked to do so, move to the sports field when they are free so as not to disturb others who have lessons. The school’s mission statement refers to ‘inculcating moral and caring behaviour and attitudes’ in the learners.

Participants commented that one’s language shows whether a person cares or not and that it has a great impact on other’s behaviour. For example, learners referred to some of the principals’ frequently heard statements, some of which we also heard, such as, ‘We love you!’ They believe this positively influences their behaviour. The learners said statements like that make them feel cared for and loved, ‘That makes a person feel good. It is like you are with your own father. He cares’ (Kelau).

Simple words can have a profound impact on the person to whom they are directed.

Healthy relationships

A caring school culture promotes positive relationships among teachers, parents and learners that, in turn, helps establish positive learner behaviour. However, teachers find that, ‘Establishing good relations with both teachers and learners requires hard work … and a good will to cooperate and work hand in hand with the parents in enhancing positive behaviour among the learners’ (Mr Nkosi).

The teachers explained what healthy relationships between teachers and learners at their school means:

The relationship between the teachers and learners means the way the teacher treats the learner leads to the behaviour of the learner. Learners need to feel that they are loved and cared for. If a learner experiences the teacher’s love and care this learner will definitely behave positively to you as a teacher (Mr Noa).

Positive relationships build trust between teachers and learners. During break times we observed teachers chatting with learners, about soccer, for example. Ms Ndati explained that:

Learners consider their class register teachers as their parents because they even confide their problems to their class register teachers. They are freer to speak to their teachers than to their biological parents. They have trust and confidence in their class register teachers.

Collaboration

Teachers referred to the principal’s use of teams and his encouragement of shared responsibility among the school’s role-players. Mr Ronny reported that:

Our school mission is the compass for all of us here. We can only succeed when we work together towards the school mission. ‘Omunwe umwe ihau itoola ona’ (a thumb, although it is strong, cannot kill aphids on its own). Working collectively is better than an individual … Doing things collectively is beneficial to the school because different stakeholders, including parents of the school, have different expertise from which we as a school learn different approaches and / or strategies of dealing with learner behaviour in our school. Our aim is to make our learners moral citizens whose behaviour is acceptable by the society. Therefore, collaborating with parents and involving them helps us to instil moral values and behaviours they inculcate in their children at home. This also makes our learners to understand the link between home and school. At our school, we deal with learners’ behaviour from a teamwork perspective.

During our time at the school we observed parents, police, pastors, the director of education and so on addressing the learners on various issues, including learner behaviour. Mr Nkosi said, ‘To bring about positive learner behaviour is not effected by a school culture of a one man show. It is crucial to do things from different people’s expertise’. This implies the ‘ubuntu’ (Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu – a person is a person through other human beings) culture of doing things in their school. Nussbaum (2003: 13) describes ubuntu as ‘the capacity to express compassion, justice, reciprocity, dignity, harmony and humanity in the interests of building, maintaining and strengthening community’.

A Sense of Belonging

The teachers appreciate that their principal understands the importance of people being accepted, to feel that they belong. When learners have a sense of acceptance and belonging they feel confident and take responsibility for their own behaviour. Ms Tuyeni mentioned:

We have an official opening of the academic year’s activities every year. It is during this occasion that we make everybody feel that he or she is welcomed, accepted and recognized as a member of this school. We do this to forge a feeling of ownership, belongingness of everybody, and especially our new learners.

Maria recalled:

I still remember the principal’s statement, ‘Feel at home, you are all welcome to this school’. To some of us it was pleasing to be told you are welcomed to the school. At least you are recognized and welcomed to the house.

Learners explained that a sense of belonging not only promotes positive learner behaviour, it also makes them feel proud of who they are and of their school:

We are proud to be learners of this school. Even outside we always strive to keep the name of our school high and we do that through our behaviour and performance. That is why we are always number one in this region. We follow the advice of our teachers and those who normally come here to advise us when they talk to us on the importance of discipline and good behaviour (Nestor).

Teachers share this pride, ‘We are proud of the behaviour of our learners. That is why even the performance of our school is always number one in the region’ (Mr Noa).

Praise, Acknowledgement and Recognition

During an assembly, the principal said, ‘I want to congratulate you learners. I observe that you keep the school ground clean’. And Mrs Ngano, the Director of Education:

I congratulate the whole school, teachers and learners, for your good performance in the previous grade twelve examinations. Discipline counts. When you are disciplined you also get good results and ill-discipline cause people to get ill results. Continue doing the good job.

Teachers explained that they use praise and recognition to encourage positive behaviour among the learners. Teachers praise learners even in small things. Kelau said the teachers have, ‘Their interest at heart. They praise our work. That is an encouragement for one to do better and to behave well. Even a sweet is a token of appreciation’.

On the school’s awards day learners received awards for the best learner in each subject, the most improved learner in each subject, the learner whose behaviour had most improved, the best behaved learner in the school and so on.

Role Modelling

The teachers reported that the principal has made them aware that they have a responsibility to role model positive behaviour to their learners and to live the values the school wants learners to live:

We walk the talk and are role models to our learners in whatever we are doing. It does not help to tell learners to behave in a positive way while we are behaving differently. We try by all means to give them good examples in the way we behave (Ms Ndati).

Mr Ronny said:

Positive behaviour is a two-way traffic. If I as a teacher behaves well to my learners, I in turn experience positive behaviours from my learners. If not, I will experience the same from my learners. You reap what you sow. Learners emulate my behaviour. That is why at our school we as teachers demonstrate to our learners a standard way of behaving.… You cannot tell the learners to show respect if you yourself do not show respect for other people, including the learner you are teaching. What we are teaching our learners is to have internal discipline than external discipline.

Observing teachers is part of the hidden curriculum, ‘A hidden curriculum implies there are things and behaviours our learners learn from us without us teachers being aware that learners are learning from us’ (Mr Nkosi).

While at the school, whenever teachers saw us, they always asked whether there was anything we needed or whether we had been assisted. They also never passed us by without speaking to us. We experienced the same behaviour from the learners.

We also observed how, when the bell rang for lessons or assembly, teachers moved quickly to their classes or the assembly point. It was the same with the learners. At assembly the learners line up according to their class groups, from the shortest to the tallest. There is no pushing and shoving. They do it in an orderly manner without a teacher being present. The teachers explained that the principal had inculcated in them, the teachers, that they are responsible for themselves and should not expect the principal to be behind them. The teachers have inculcated a similar attitude in the learners. A calm atmosphere prevails throughout the school.

Learners are aware of the principal’s influence on their positive behaviour. Ms Neingo said:

Oh, that man. He is so inspiring. He made everybody here to work in harmony with one another and to work hard. He set a good example for us. He worked hard and tirelessly for our school. We are because of him. I wish I could be him in my duties. He does not give up.

Misbehaviour – What of Exceptions to the Rule(s)?

Both the teachers and learners are unanimous that besides minor every-day disciplinary actions, such as requesting a learner to work quietly in class or requiring learners to remain after class hours to complete unfinished homework, there are exceptionally few serious incidents of misbehaviour. They ascribe this to the very clear values and behaviour expectations in the school. These values and expectations were developed together by the teachers, parents and learners. They are subject to review at the start of each school year. This also affords all these role players the opportunity to refresh their understanding of these values and expectations. All new parents and learners are required to participate in a workshop around the values and expectations at the start of their first year at the school. Parents and learners then make a commitment to uphold the school values and to abide by the procedures associated with discipline. At the end of the first term all the role-players meet to review the term, including learner behaviour. Any learner behaviour problems are discussed then and there with both the parents and learner. There is a strong emphasis on pre-empting further behaviour problems, that includes parental involvement throughout the process. Ms Anna explains:

We sometimes have cases of learner problem behaviour, for example fighting, although this is rare. What we do, we call in the learners involved in the fight for us to investigate and understand why the fight. If there is a need to call in the parents, we call in the parents and together with the parents we talk to the learners. Calling the parents allows us to establish collaboration, cooperation, involvement as well as developing healthy relationships with parents in guiding the learner’s behaviour.… When a learner sees this relationship between the teacher or school and parents, he or she is likely to change his or her behaviour and develop self-discipline.

The principal’s garnering of parental support for and engagement with the school is seen to be a crucial component of the positive learner behaviour in the school. As Mr Nkosi said, ‘One gets demoralized if parents are not supporting your efforts’.

In addition to the parental role, the teachers are expected, encouraged and supported to take responsibility for misbehaviour management themselves.

The principal motivated me as teacher to not only wait for somebody to come and put order in our classrooms or discipline our learners for us. We as teachers should do it ourselves, although some of us did not receive training in this. But, you learn from others, how they do it (Ms Ndati).

And Mr Nkosi, ‘My principal gave me that authority to manage my learners’ behaviour in the classroom’. And, ‘Our principal also always encourages us to deal with problem behaviour in our own classroom and not always run to his office. If you run there, the principal asks you ‘what have you done?’’ (Ms Tuyeni). Mr Polly observed that, ‘The disciplinary committee is the last resort when addressing our learner behaviour.’

The values, such as respect and care, presented in the preceding sections are reflected in the handling of misbehaviour. For example:

The way you approach the learner is important in changing the learner behaviour. Your attitude and the way you talk to this learner also has impact on this learner behaviour. We look for long term change in the learner’s behaviour and encourage the learner to develop a sense of self-discipline. That is why we make the learner understand why he or she needs to behave in an appropriate manner (Mr Polly).

Mr Martin cited the case of Tommy:

I give you one example of how I dealt with Tommy, who disturbs others. To get desired behaviour I call these learners and try to understand what the cause of the problem was. I realized that Tommy regards himself as a big man and he is in control of everybody. I talk to him privately and ask him about what the rule says about disturbing others. Tommy explains the consequences of disturbing others as negative to himself. The important thing to me was not to get Tommy out (of the school), but to guide him and see if he can change his behaviour. So, what I did was to show him that I care about him and I want him to have a successful life. That is why I do not send him to the disciplinary committee because once he gets there, the disciplinary committee may expel him. I explain to him the disadvantages of being referred to the disciplinary committee, which he clearly knows and understand. I encourage him to change his behaviour. I keep on monitoring his behaviour. I further praise him because of his behaviour. This was an encouragement to him to continue behaving well. He stops the behaviour of disturbing others. This was because I engage Tommy and tell him the importance of a healthy atmosphere and in the whole school at large.

Other teachers shared similar stories. Ms Helen:

Some of our senior learners and especially those who are coming to our school for the first time, because of the way they used to behave at schools they are coming from, they find it a challenge to adapt to our rules here. We do not tolerate misbehaviour at our school. And we make them aware of what the Education Act says if a learner is charged with misconduct – suspension of the learner. But, you know, it does not benefit us to suspend a learner, simply because that learner may not come back to school. He or she ends up in the street. So, we look at the nature of the misbehaviour and see how we can deal with it instead of causing more problems by suspending the learner. We have a life skill teacher here, who also does a great job when it comes to the counselling of our learners. And we also involve other people, like the social workers, to talk to our learners because learners today have so many problems whether personal or social that may be the cause of their behaviour.