The Extent to which Principals’ use of Democratic Leadership Style Influences Students’ Academic Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Kenya

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of Democratic leadership style on students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Mwala Sub-county, Kenya. This study used a descriptive survey research design. Target population of the study was all the 72 schools, all the 72 principals, and all the 471 teachers in Mwala Sub-county public secondary schools. Out of the population of 72 schools, 36 were chosen through stratified random sampling technique. All the 36 principals of the sampled schools were purposively included in the study. Yamene (1967) formula was used to give a sample of 216 teachers. Proportional allocation method was used to identify a weighted teachers’ sample for each school. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select the participating teachers in each school. The instruments were validated through piloting and by research experts to ascertain content validity while reliability was achieved through piloting using the test-retest reliability technique. Data were coded and entered into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 for analysis. Inferential statistics which involved running correlation analysis at a 0.05 level of significance were employed to test the nature and strength of relationships between variables. The results established that there was a weak positive but statistically significant correlation between democratic leadership style and students’ academic performance (R=.365, p=.043). Based on the findings, the study recommends to the Kenya Institute of Educational Management (KEMI) and the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) to regularly in-service teachers on leadership styles; principals to enhance practices associated with democratic leadership practices since it improves academic performance.