Teachers Followership towards School Principal’s Leadership

A Qualitative Approach

Abstract

The aim of this research is to study the leadership-followership among principals and school teachers by focusing on followership. This qualitative study used three methods to collect data which were then triangulated. The first method employed a semi-structured interview with two principals, one from a secondary school and a primary school in Kedah, Malaysia respectively. Data was also collected through observation of video recordings of the principals and lastly through document analysis of articles and databases. The findings showed that followership exists in both schools; teachers were independent and had autonomy; levels of teachers’ involvement in school discussions and decision-making was average in both schools; levels of teachers’ collaboration in helping the school principals were high; levels of teachers’ knowledge and skills were good; levels of professionalism in both schools could be considered high; levels of teacher’s taking responsibility of their teaching, classroom and accountability was also high. Teachers of one of the schools had an average level of discipline in doing their job as ‘trust’ and commitment was generally high among teachers of both schools, but decision-making among followers was average in both schools. It is recommended that a quantitative study be carried out to support this study to justify the relationship between followership and leadership. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.