Leadership Engagement and the Commitment to the Teaching Profession Among the School Heads and Teachers in South Malungon District

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Today's principals are motivated to become more active instructional leaders due to the standards and accountability movement, and they must have strong instructional skills and knowledge of teaching and learning (Goodwin, Cunningham, & Childress, 2003). With the change in responsibilities, many principals have discovered the exigency to devise more effective techniques in helping teachers as they worked to improve their instructional techniques. The researcher believes that there is a need to examine the school head's leadership engagement and the teacher's commitment to the teaching profession in South Malungon District in the delivery of educational services. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of school heads' leadership engagement and the teachers' commitment to the teaching profession in South Malungon District, Division of Sarangani.

METHODS

The study employed the descriptive-correlational method, with the five (5) school heads and eighty-eight (88) teachers as respondents. The statistical tool used were frequency count, mean, Analysis of Variance and Pearson r. The indicator of the school heads' leadership engagements was limited to organizational effectiveness, the teachers' professional growth and stakeholder relations. The indicators of the teachers' commitment to the teaching profession were limited to doing academic-related tasks, accomplishing non-academic assignments and in participating in community activities.

RESULTS

The results of this study show that as evaluated by the teachers, the school heads in South Malungon District demonstrated High level of leadership engagement. As evaluated by the school heads, the teachers in South Malungon District demonstrated High level of commitment to the teaching profession. The school head's engagement with organizational effectiveness and relationship with the stakeholders had no significant relationship with the teachers' commitment to teaching.

DISCUSSIONS

This study implies that the leadership of South Malungon District should take the lead in organizing team building seminars and training. The teachers should exert more effort in developing their affective commitment to their school head so that their affiliation with the Department of Education will be further strengthened. Meanwhile, the school heads should also endeavor to motivate their teachers to be more committed to the cause of learner development and efficiency in the teaching service. The roles of the school heads and teachers in South Malungon District should be objectively defined, for if these roles are not clearly defined, each may fail to actualize the essence of teamwork. As proven in the past, the level of commitment among the individual members of any organization is made even stronger when they are conditioned that they are an integral part of the team.