Psychodynamics in Pedagogic Leadership Practices and Professional Performance of Public School Teachers: Evidence from Karachi

Abstract

Pedagogic leadership is the most operational tool of influencing people so that they strive willingly and enthusiastically towards the accomplishment of goals. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the pedagogic leadership practices and public school teachers’ performance in secondary schools of District East Karachi. The study employed descriptive research design. The study was carried out with n =28 secondary schools of District East. A random sample of 283 individuals participated in the current study employing a simple random sampling technique. Questionnaire and interview were the main instruments of data collection. Principal’s leadership practices and teachers' performance were independent and dependent variables. The questionnaires on conflict management, decision making, communication, and delegation of duties were used to describe the principal’s pedagogic leadership practices. While lesson plan, assessing students, and involvement in co-curricular activities of teachers determined teacher’s performance. The analysis of the data was carried out by using descriptive analysis, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation and multivariate regression analysis. The finding indicates that there is a significant positive relationship between pedagogic leadership styles and public school teachers’ performance.  Co-efficient were also statistically significant with a p-value < 0.05. It was also found that delegation of duties was positively correlated with lesson planning, a negative correlation with assessment of students, and a positive correlation with co-curricular activities at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the democratic style was the most practiced leadership style. The teachers’ performance was found to be moderate. The study concludes that pedagogic leadership practices have significant effects on conflict management, decision-making, communication, and delegation of duties. Based on the findings by interview, it is recommended that the principals need a mixture of autocratic and democratic styles of pedagogic leadership. While impartiality in resolving conflict, shared decision-making maintains communication between teachers and principals, and fair distribution of duties can significantly enhance the performance of public school teachers.