Teachers’ Expectations of Educational Leaders’ Leadership Approach and Perspectives on the Principalship: Identifying Critical Leadership Paradigms for the 21st Century

Using an exploratory design, with a sample of 97 teachers, this research sought to ascertain teachers’ perspectives on the behaviours and approaches that educational leaders, particularly their principals, should display. This exploration was done against the backdrop of the attitudes to, and expectations of, leaders that are deemed to be characteristics 21st century perspectives on leadership. The research uncovered four main behaviours that teachers expected their principals and other educational leaders to employ in their leadership approaches. These behaviours are: recognition of staff’s commitment, facilitation of participation in decision-making, embrace of teachers’ diverse strengths, and openness to criticism. The four behaviours are captured under the acronym RePaDo and designated “Paradigm RePaDo”. The factors account for 54.53% of the variation in the data which were extracted from a 33-item self-designed instrument. The data analysis was conducted using SPSS V 22. The study makes four recommendations for how principals and other educational leaders may improve their leadership practice