The Effect of Leadership Knowledge on Performance of the Newly Appointed Primary School HeadTeachers in Kahama Town, Tanzania

The study was conducted in Kahama Town Council, Shinyanga Region with the general objective of examining leadership knowledge of head teachers. The study intended to explore how appointed head teachers were prepared to understand their responsibilities, assessing the leadership styles that were highly adopted by head teachers, assessing the factors behind the adopted leadership style and examining the challenges encountered by head teachers in the process of school leadership. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 70 teachers, where 30 were classroom teachers, 30 were head teachers and 10 were ward education officers. The questionnaires were close, open ended and there were unstructured interview questions. The main approach of the study was qualitative since it aimed at exploring in depth information from informants. A descriptive survey design was employed in collecting data where probability sampling was used to obtain a sample of 70 teachers. The findings revealed that head teachers lacked leadership knowledge since no any special training was offered to them when they were appointed to their new posts. Authoritative leadership style was identified as the most style applied by most of the head teachers. The study also found that head teachers faced some challenges in their institutions, such as conflicts, inadequate fund and lack of leadership knowledge among head teachers The study therefore recommended that, the government should prepare a special programme for new appointed head teachers to enable them understand their responsibilities in the process of school leadership and administration. This will enable them to make appropriate decisions for their schools and thus avoid conflicts among staff and improve the quality of education. The following areas for further study were recommended, a similar study to be conducted using a larger sample so that more generalisable data could be generated since the current study focused only on one district, other researchers to study on leadership knowledge of headmasters in Secondary Schools since this study concentrated on Public Primary Schools, the study on leadership knowledge of education administrators at the council level and its impact to teachers performance