Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Cognitive Engagement of Teachers in Secondary Schools in Bugiri District

Florence Tikabula and Suubi Ujeyo Stella Margaret
Directorate of Graduate Studies, Research, and Innovation,
Busitema University
Email: Tikabulaflorence1981@gmail.com

Abstract: The study examined the relationship between ethical leadership and cognitive engagement among teachers in secondary schools in Bugiri District. The study followed a cross sectional design with purely a quantitative approach to data collection and analysis from a target population of 450 respondents (439 teachers and 11 headteachers) leading to a sample size of 212 respondents (201 teachers and 11 headteachers). The use of structured questionnaires enabled the researcher to generate findings that were entered in statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) for automatic generation of statistics. The relationship between variables was established using Pearson correlation analysis while simple linear regression as used to respond to the null hypotheses. Findings show a significant statistical relationship between ethical leadership and cognitive engagement of teachers in secondary schools in Bugiri District (Beta = 0.520; p<0.05). Based on these scores, ethical leadership contributes much more to cognitive engagement of teachers. Conclusively, ethical leadership demonstrates weak to moderate statistically significant relationship with cognitive engagement among teachers in secondary schools in Bugiri District. It is thus recommended that stakeholders such as ministry of education officials, school administrators and well-wishers support efforts that are geared towards establishing an environment that enable teachers register cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagements.