Leadership Styles of Social Studies Teachers and Academic Achievement of Junior Secondary School Students in Social Studies in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine leadership styles of Social Studies teachers and academic achievement of junior secondary school students in Social Studies in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State-Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was adopted. The simple random sampling technique was used in selecting the six public secondary schools used for the study. A sample of two hundred junior secondary school three students (JSS 3) was drawn from the population and used for the study. Three research questions and hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Data were collected using two researcher made instruments tagged “Social Studies Teachers Leadership Styles Questionnaire (STLSQ) and Social Studies Achievement Test (SOSAT) The Data Collected was analysed using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the Fisher Least Square Difference (SLD) was used in the multiple comparism. The findings of the study revealed significant differences in the academic achievement of students based on  their teachers’ leadership styles. Students taught by teachers with autocratic and laissez-faire leadership styles had a lower LSD  value compared to students taught by teachers with democratic leadership styles. Students taught by teachers with democratic styles  performed academically higher than those taught by teachers with either autocratic or laissez-faire leadership styles. Based on this, it was recommended amongst other things that Social Studies teachers imbibe more of democratic rather than autocratic or laissez faire leadership styles in their classroom and that educational administrator should organize workshop and seminars for teachers on proper classroom management.