Influence of Democratic Leadership Style on Teachers’ Performance in 12 Year-Basic Education in Nyaruguru District, Rwanda

Numerous studies have found that democratic leadership style is commonly applied in Rwanda schools. However, less is known about its influence on teachers’ performance in 12 year-basic education. This article intends to investigate the influence of democratic leadership style on teachers’ performance in terms of instructional planning, student assessment, and teacher-parent collaboration. A quantitative method was used for data collection, utilizing a correlational research design with a sample size made of 164 teachers and 12 head teachers for 12 schools. Proportional sampling was used in determining the number of teachers from each school, simple random sampling to select teachers from the total number of teachers at each school, and purposive sampling to select all head teachers. Data were gathered through the questionnaires distributed to the teachers. Regression and correlational analyses were conducted using SPSS (version 27). The findings revealed that the democratic leadership style has a positive influence on teachers' performance in 12-year basic education. Specifically, 94.7% of the variation in teachers' performance is explained by the democratic leadership style, as indicated by an R-square value of 0.947. The results show that as head teachers increase the use of democratic leadership, teachers' performance improves in areas such as instructional planning, student assessment, and teacher-parent collaboration. Based on these findings, government is recommended to establish a policy framework that explicitly explains and encourages the application of democratic leadership style in 12 year-basic education.