Effects of distributed leadership practices on educational environment and achievement in Nepali schools

ABSTRACT

This study aims to assess the status of distributed leadership (DL) in Nepali schools and examines its effect on school performance (educational environment and achievement). Survey research was conducted among 750 teachers from 51 schools across the country. A five-point Likert scale survey questionnaire was developed to assess four components of DL (supportive, supervisory, coherent team leadership, and parents and community partnership roles). The findings indicate that the level of perception toward DL was significantly high; where female teachers, teachers of private schools, and schools of urban areas (contexts of school leadership) rated their school leaders at a higher level of DL. Further, the types of school (private schools with reference to public schools) was a significant factor in explaining the educational environment and achievement. Regarding the four elements of distributed leadership, the school leaders with a good educational environment were more likely to exhibit DL with the supportive, coherent team leadership and parents-community partnership roles, whereas two elements, namely, supportive and coherent team leadership, were significant for educational achievement as compared to the schools with normal or improvement needed schools. The supervisory role of school leaders was insignificant and is to be considered for further improvement of the schools.

Acknowledgments

We express our sincere thanks to all MPhil scholars of the Education Studies group at Nepal Open University for their support in collecting data and also to all school teachers who participated in this survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jiban Khadka

Dr. Jiban Khadka is an Associate Professor at Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, Nepal Open University. He received a PhD in Education from the School of Education at Kathmandu University. He has more than two decades of experience of teaching, researching leading and managing in different schools, colleges and universities in Nepal. He has specialized in teaching Quantitative Research, Education Theories, Educational Leadership and Management, and Governance and Accountability. Dr. Khadka has published a research book and several research papers in a wide range of national and international peer-reviewed/ranking journals. Along with the editing of books related to education and research, He has also supervised PhD/MPhil/Master level Theses and Dissertations. Dr. Khadka has presented papers at several international conferences. As a trainer of the British Council, and TOT, he has conducted numerous trainings to education leaders and teachers.

Rebat Kumar Dhakal

Dr. Rebat Kumar Dhakal is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at the School of Education, Kathmandu University, Nepal. He holds PhD in Education with a research focus on school governance. He speaks and writes about pedagogical innovations, education policymaking, transformative learning, and implementation research. He also works as the Coordinator of the Research and Innovation Center (RIC) at the School of Education – in which capacity, he coordinates all the collaborative research and knowledge exchange programs across the School. He is also the Managing Editor of the Journal of Education and Research, a flagship biannual peer-reviewed journal of the School. He is an expert in education policy analysis, curriculum mapping, academic audit, and program design/evaluation. He is actively involved in helping education agencies and actors build their capacity in evidence-informed policymaking.

Dirgha Raj Joshi

Dr. Dirgha Raj Joshi is a faculty of Mahendra Ratna Campus Tahachal, Tribhuvan University Nepal. He completed his Ph.D. in Education from Banaras Hindu University India and earned M.Ed. in Mathematics Education from Tribhuvan University. His research interest includes Educational Technology, ICT in Education, applied mathematics, quantitative research, structural equation modeling, machine learning, and other issues related to digital pedagogy and applied mathematics. He has been working as a facilitator in digital pedagogy, mathematics teaching-related software and application, quantitative data analysis tools (SPSS, JASP), Structural Equation Modeling (AMOS), referencing tools (Mendeley, Zotero), qualitative data analysis tools (Atlas.ti), academic/scientific writing, and other teaching-learning-related software and applications.