Teacher age associated with leadership-style perceptions in two Ghanaian public senior high schools

A cross-sectional survey of 168 teachers in two public senior high schools in Ghana’s Atwima Mponua District found that teachers’ age was associated with their perceptions of all five headteacher leadership styles examined, while gender was associated only with democratic and transformational leadership and educational qualification was not significantly associated with any style.

The quantitative study used a structured, self-administered questionnaire to measure teachers’ perceptions of transformational, democratic, authoritative, situational and laissez-faire leadership. Respondents rated statements on a five-point scale ranging from 1, “Strongly Disagree,” to 5, “Strongly Agree.” The instrument’s internal consistency was satisfactory: Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.761 to 0.852 across the leadership subscales, and the overall coefficient was 0.82.

The two schools were selected purposively because they were the principal public senior high schools in the district and had comparable administrative structures. All 310 teachers employed at the schools were invited to participate. The researchers received 180 completed questionnaires, excluded 12 because of substantial missing information or inconsistent responses, and retained 168 complete questionnaires for analysis, a response rate of 58.1%. The final sample included 93 male teachers and 75 female teachers.

Age was the demographic characteristic most consistently associated with leadership perceptions. One-way analysis of variance detected statistically significant differences across age groups for every leadership style: democratic, F(6, 161) = 4.52, p = 0.001, η² = 0.144; laissez-faire, F(6, 161) = 2.98, p = 0.005, η² = 0.100; authoritative, F(6, 161) = 3.66, p = 0.001, η² = 0.120; situational, F(6, 161) = 2.91, p = 0.006, η² = 0.098; and transformational leadership, F(6, 161) = 3.52, p = 0.001, η² = 0.116. The effect sizes were small to moderate.

Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference tests showed that the age-group differences were concentrated primarily between teachers aged 26–35 and those aged 41–50. Older teachers generally reported higher mean perceptions of democratic and transformational leadership than their younger counterparts. The authors said age should not itself be treated as an explanation for these differences; it may instead reflect career stage, accumulated professional experience and organisational exposure that shape how teachers interpret leadership behaviours.

Gender showed a more selective association. Independent-samples t-tests found that male teachers reported higher mean perceptions of democratic leadership, with a small effect size of d = 0.33, and transformational leadership, with a moderate effect size of d = 0.57. The corresponding tests did not identify statistically significant gender differences for authoritative, laissez-faire or situational leadership, and their confidence intervals included zero. The researchers characterized the observed gender differences as context-specific and modest rather than evidence of a broad, universal pattern.

Educational qualification was not significantly associated with teachers’ perceptions of any of the five leadership styles. The analyses produced small effect sizes ranging from η² = 0.006 to 0.030. This result requires particular caution because 87.5% of the respondents held bachelor’s degrees: only four held diplomas and 17 held master’s degrees. The limited variability and small comparison groups may have reduced the study’s statistical power to detect small differences among qualification groups.

Findings remained statistically significant after the researchers examined Holm-adjusted significance levels. The analysis also included Shapiro–Wilk tests, histograms, normal Q–Q plots and Levene’s tests to assess assumptions. Minor departures from normality or variance homogeneity appeared in some comparisons, but supplementary Welch analyses produced conclusions consistent with the conventional ANOVA results. Because demographic characteristics and leadership perceptions were measured through the same questionnaire, common method bias could not be eliminated, although anonymity, confidentiality, voluntary participation and neutral wording were used to reduce it.

The study supports an associative, follower-centred interpretation of school leadership rather than a causal one. It examined perceptions in only two public senior high schools, relied on teachers’ reports rather than direct observations or headteachers’ self-assessments, and used a cross-sectional design, so it cannot establish that age, gender or qualification caused changes in leadership perceptions or that the findings represent all Ghanaian secondary schools. The authors proposed that leadership development should recognize teachers’ varied professional experiences through dialogue, mentorship, collaborative decision-making and professional learning, rather than assigning different leadership styles to demographic groups. They also called for longitudinal, mixed-method and multi-source studies across more varied educational settings to examine how leadership perceptions develop over time.

Subject of Research: Associations between teachers’ demographics and perceived headteacher leadership styles in two Ghanaian public senior high schools

Article Title: Impact of teachers’ demographic characteristics on their perceptions of headteachers’ leadership styles in selected public senior high schools, Ghana

Article References: Adom, D., Asiamah, Y., Boakye, A. A., Danso, D. K., Camara, J. S., & Pek, L. S. (2026). Impact of teachers’ demographic characteristics on their perceptions of headteachers’ leadership styles in selected public senior high schools, Ghana. Discover Education, 5(1), Article 903. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-026-02045-0

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44217-026-02045-0

Keywords: school leadership, teacher perceptions, Ghana, senior high schools, demographic differences, cross-sectional survey, transformational leadership, democratic leadership, career stage, Impact, teachers, demographic