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Basic education headteacher leadership in Ghana: A review of empirical studies from 1994 to 2022
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Basic education headteacher leadership in Ghana: A review of empirical studies from 1994 to 2022

Philip Saagyum Dare, Linda Henderson and Robyn Babaeff
Educational management, administration & leadership, Vol.First online
12/01/2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432241310555
Appears in  Recent Faculty of Education Publications
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Basic education headteacher leadership in GhanaView
Published (Version of record)CC BY-NC V4.0,  Open

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Abstract

Basic education headteacher leadership Review school leadership
This review examines the landscape of Ghana's Basic Education (BE) Headteacher Leadership (HTL) literature, revealing essential insights from empirical studies conducted between 1994 and 2022. It originated from the lack of a systematic review summarizing evidence on HTL training, preparation, and practices implemented across the sector. However, research shows Ghana does not provide formal HTL training programs for BE Headteachers before recruitment. Employing the PRISMA framework, we analyzed 23 peer-reviewed empirical studies related to BE HTL, published across ERIC, ProQuest, Scopus, EThOS, and Web of Science databases. The purpose was to identify the key characteristics that define Ghana's BE HTL. Findings reveal the absence of formal HTL training before recruitment, non-conventional recruitment criteria, and diverse leadership practices, predominantly transformational leadership, shaped by international training programs like Leadership for Learning. The literature also offers cultural factors that may inhibit training programs' learning transfer and ways to mitigate them. A trend towards self-directed and informal professional development among Headteachers was identified, suggesting a resilient but unstandardized approach to leadership development to address these systemic gaps. These findings provide a reference for present and future Headteachers and point to the essential need for developing leadership frameworks tailored to Ghana's BE HTL context.

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