School climate and teacher commitment for empowering leadership in Ethiopia's resource-poor secondary schools

Zinabu Tesfaye
Dilla University, Ethiopia
Dawit Legesse Edamo
Hawassa University, Ethiopia
Misganu Legesse Bareke
Dilla University, Ethiopia

Ethiopia has prioritised instructional leadership to address a severe learning crisis, yet student achievement remains low. Our sequential explanatory mixed-methods study investigates this paradox by examining the mechanisms linking principals' leadership to academic achievement in underperforming secondary schools in the Gedeo Zone of Ethiopia. Quantitative data from 180 teachers and archival records, analysed via PLS-SEM, were followed by qualitative interviews. The findings reveal a fully mediated pathway: teachers' organisational commitment fully mediates the effect of principals' instructional leadership on student achievement. Furthermore, fostering a positive school learning climate was the strongest predictor of teacher commitment, significantly outweighing the dimension of managing the instructional program, which was crippled by contextual barriers. The study concludes that in resource-poor contexts, leadership development must prioritise empowering principals to build supportive climates over direct instructional management. This offers a critical refinement to internationally prescribed leadership models for similar constrained educational systems.
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Authors: Mr Zinabu Tesfaye (corresponding author) is a Lecturer in the Department of Educational Planning and Management at Dilla University, Ethiopia, and a current PhD candidate in Educational Policy and Leadership at the same university. His research focuses on educational leadership and policy. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8457-7027 Email: zedtesfaye@gmail.com Dr Dawit Legesse Edamo is an Associate Professor at Hawassa University, Ethiopia. He holds a PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy. His work centres on educational policy, leadership, and management, and he advises PhD students in this field. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8764-2361 Email: ketajoredawit@gmail.com Dr Misganu Legesse Bareke is an Associate Professor of Educational Planning and Management at Dilla University, Ethiopia, where he serves as Director of the Center for Educational Studies and Research (CESR). His research interests include educational leadership, policy, and higher education. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9774-5863 Email: misganulegesse@gmail.com, misganul@du.edu.et Please cite as: Tesfaye, Z., Edamo, D. L. & Bareke, M. L. (2026). School climate and teacher commitment for empowering leadership in Ethiopia's resource-poor secondary schools. Issues in Educational Research, 36(2), 785-805. http://www.iier.org.au/iier36/tesfaye.pdf