Leadership strongly influences the quality of education. A leadership with a great vision may greatly enhance academic output and learning outcomes and vice versa.

Due to their varying levels of influence, Leaders influence various factors related directly to the quality of learning at all levels. A case in point would be the prevalent learning culture within learning institutions. You may find this article helpful:

https://dx.doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2017.s31.453466

Regards,

Thanks, to everyone who contributed to this question. Your articles and comments are very insightful.

Dear all, 

Thank you for your wonderful ideas and documents  you shared with us. That is valuable!

I am not sure that I understand your concern, but, I shall try to answer it . If I have mis-understood you , I apologize. You see when it comes to teaching and learning processes, it makes more sense to talk about a conducive  environment rather than an impressive atmosphere. This is because the concept of quality in education can be understood from different perspectives.

Teaching staff (and others who are engaged actively in pedagogy and andragogy) look at what is going on in higher education institutions terms of its educational value. The valuations on which their estimates of quality are based will relate, therefore, to intrinsic considerations such as how to raise the educational achievement levels of students of students who come to them at very different levels of development Thus, quality will be understood partly in terms of efficiency relative to the standard of intake. And this has nothing to do with style of leadership.

Economists,  politicians and planners, on the other hand, refer to extrinsic valuations of quality because they  envisage different objectives for higher education generally. They look at institutions of higher learning  in a much more instrumental way because they may be primarily interested in ensuring the right amount of relatively trained human resources. Quality will , therefore, depend on valuations which ascribe importance to different elements in Universities and colleges.

In fact, according to Galabawa (2003), educational quality and its provision need to be planned from four standpoints:

 1. Organization of the education system (which includes the structure as well as legal, policy and institutional arrangements).

2. The quality of inputs (which would include students·, teachers, learning/teaching materials and general infrastructure).

3. Quality of educational processes (which includes pedagogy and interaction)

4. Quality of outputs (which include utility of learning experiences and transition of graduates)

 This, ipso facto, gives two categories of leaders in higher education. The first category consists of Institutional leaders, such as Vice Chancellors, Deans, Directors and Chairpersons of Departments, who are mostly concerned with Administrative functions  explained in standpoints 1 and 2. These are the ones whose leadership style can be examined. The second category consists of academic leaders such as professors, lecturers, thematic heads and programme developers  who are mostly associated with standpoints 3 and 4.  It is much more difficult to isolate and study their leadership styles.

Dear Genevievr,

Thank you very much for your beautiful explanations, You truly understood what I mean and I respect your point of view. Indeed, when it comes to quality of education, there are many factors, rather than leadership styles affect the quality of education, for example, higher tech. But, the case is here, what leaders can do for promoting the quality not quantity of higher education. These two types of leaders you mentioned earlier can play their roles in enhancing the quality of learning, in particular if the institutional leaders use the transformation leadership style by sharing their clear vision and mission with the academic staff.

Interesting , may you can find this title in the sociology or psychological studies , hope i can found this topic for you.

Thanks- much,  Dastan Faeq.

First a Leader should be perfect in all aspects such that he becomes a role model to the students in higher educational Institutions. The education system should be autonomous and free from any kind of politics which facilitates the better student learning and outcomes. Better qualified people should come to the noble profession of teaching to develop innovative mechanisms in education system. For instance, an impressive atmosphere to teach in educational Institutions can only be possible when the current curriculum in the education system is updated with the preventive measures that can be helpful to reverse the current situation of global warming.

Ha ha!  I am amused by this answer. I can understand your desire to have HEIs be "free from any kind of politics"  Perhaps you mean free from political interference - I would like you to consider the fact that    Institutions of higher learning are basically social institutions which sometimes come in the form of government intervention and require government spending/funding. I do not know about your situation, but, a public university for instance – as we all know -  emerged from the rough-and-tumble of political support , opposition and bargaining. The policy and legal framework guiding the operations of a public institution of higher learning as well as the programmes the said institution implements are creatures of political decisions in the sense that they are proposed , defined , debated , enacted and funded through political processes. In fact I think that a competent leadership of HEIs is one that understands that public institutions will always  remain  subject to  pressures both supportive and hostile , which arise out of the play of politics  I want to agree with Talib Omar in that a transformative leader will ensure that his or her institution will have a vision and have a mission to strive and maintain or improve its autonomy , morale , essence and its role.  He or she must be perfect in all aspects? I doubt that – they wouldn’t  be human then!

Yes, I agree that public funded Institutions / Universities will have to be run through a Government system and is bound to have a political leaders interference in its administration and decision process. For example, appointment of a Vice-Chancellor in a public funded University is a policy decision taken by the ruling State / Central Government which is in power at that point in time. However, my concern was that the political party which is in power should follow a stringent unbiased criteria in selection and appointment of the Vice-Chancellor, who should be a distinguished academic leader and has commitment to the values for which the universities stand and must have the ability to provide leadership by his or her academic worth, administrative competence and moral structure. This will always create an atmosphere for better student learning and outcomes of an education system by accomplishing its stated VISION and MISSION. So, I mean free from any kind of politics is nothing but the government decisions should always be public favor at large and not towards to the benefit of a section of society or group of vested interested people.

And he or she must be perfect in all aspects - I mean that these leaders should possess all the qualities that enable the accomplishment of VISION and MISSION of a higher educational institution. 

Hi, you may find this paper of interest. Regards,

Article TOWARDS AN EFFECTIVE TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

I have read this paper and I like the recognition made of the fact that “Teachers are the key elements in the success of any educational system”. Mangaleswarasharma (2017 :317) This means that in the Basic Education level , teachers are the equivalent of academic leaders found at the Higher Education level. And my point is that the creation of a conducive environment or what Talib i Omer calls s an impressive atmosphere is basically the responsibility of institutional leaders ; such as the school principal or head-teacher together with their Boards of Management. These are the School leaders who have a key role in building and developing a culture that promotes learning as a way of school life with the goal of improving teachers‟ practice and their students‟ learning

Absolutely Genevieve Wanjala ,the basic School principals along with teacher can play a big role in creating a conductive environment for learning.

Nice Contribution Genevieve Wanjala