Emotional Intelligence of Headteachers in the Senior High Schools in Ghana: A Conundrum?

The study employed the explanatory sequential mixed methods design where quantitative and qualitative data sets were collected to address the research problem. Two hundred and sixty-two (262) headteachers were sampled randomly from the Central and Greater Accra regions of Ghana for the quantitative phase of the study whilst eight (8) headteachers were subsequently sampled purposively for the qualitative phase of the study. The quantitative data were analyzed using means and standards deviations whilst the qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. The study found that the emotional intelligence of the headteachers was low. The study further established that the academic qualification of the headteachers was not a significant predictor of their Emotional Intelligence (EI). However, the gender and age of the headteachers predicted their EI significantly. It was concluded the EI level of the headteachers may affect how they lead and manage their respective schools. It is recommended that periodic pragmatic and purposeful in-service and workshops in EI should be provided for headteachers in the study area by the Metro Directorate of Education. Furthermore, the Circuit Supervisors, Metro Directors and the Ghana Education Service should liaise with the Ghana Psychological Council to provide psychological support for the headteachers in the Senior High Schools within the study area. Finally, the Ministry of Education through the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission should ensure that teacher education programmes that are offered in the institutions of higher learning in Ghana have contents in the area of emotional intelligence and educational leadership to equip headteacher in the management of their schools.


Introduction
Varieties of external influences have had a direct impact on the experiences of students, teachers, and school administrators. These have fundamentally transformed the character and nature of schooling (Harris, 2007). Coupled with this, the widespread reforms around the world aimed at making education systems fit for their purpose in an increasingly virtual, global context have placed a herculean task on school leaders to ensure that schools are effectively managed. Subsequently, the issues of school accountability and scrutiny have had a deleterious effect on the decision-making practices of school leaders throughout the world (Day & Sammons, 2014). Meanwhile, one of the most important aspects of leadership practice is decision making as good decision making is heavily dependent on the capacity of leaders to understand and control their own emotions (Wirawan, Tamar, & Bellani, 2019). School leaders' cognitive capacities are informed and influenced by their emotions and these emotions are successfully controlled (George, 2000). As a result, leaders' capacity to retain emotional control may have an impact on their behaviours and decision abilities. This practice has been termed Emotional Intelligence (EI). Pope and Singer (1990) see EI as a subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to distinguish between them, and use this information to guide one's thinking and action. Similarly, Mayer and Salovey (1997) define EI as the capacity to reason about emotions, and of emotions to enhance thinking. It includes the abilities to accurately perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth. It is evident from these two definitions that regulation of emotion is of primary importance to emotionally intelligent individuals. their teaching staff. Irrespective of this, research findings remain inconclusive as to whether school leaders possess the level of EI required for school management in the 21st century. For instance, a comparative study of teachers' and headteachers' EI conducted by Gutierrez-Cobo et al. (2019) in Spain revealed that the headteachers had higher EI than the teachers. In Ghana, it appears the emotional intelligence of headteachers remains one of the least recognized problems when it comes to tracing and attributing the factors affecting the academic achievement of students. Meanwhile, substantial evidence shows that the academic achievement of students rests on the emotional intelligence of its leader. As such, this study sought to investigate the level of the emotional intelligence of the headteachers of the Senior High Schools in the Greater Accra and Central Regions of Ghana.
Additionally, it is inconclusive to state that the demographic characteristics of headteachers influence their emotional intelligence. In the area of gender, for instance, Mayer, Caruso and Salovey (1999) indicate that women may have a little advantage over men when it comes to emotional intelligence. On the contrary, Bar-On and Parker (2000) found significant differences between males and females in terms of overall emotional and social competence, although there are differences for a few factorial components of the concept. Females, according to Bar-On and Parker, appear to be more conscious of emotions, show more empathy, have stronger interpersonal relationships, and act more socially responsible than men. Men, on the other hand, tend to have higher self-esteem, are better at coping with stress, solving issues, and being more self-reliant, flexible and optimistic than women. In totality, there are considerably more parallels than differences in terms of emotional intelligence.
With regards to age, unlike Intelligent Quotient which increases until a person reaches adolescence, emotional intelligence appears to be an unending process. People's emotional intelligence improves when they gain knowledge from their experiences (Cook, 2006). Studies on people's emotional intelligence over time have concluded that the older people get, their emotional intelligence improves.
Impliedly, age has a significant influence on the emotional intelligence of school heads. Bar-On and Parker (2000) for instance established in a study that old people have higher emotional intelligence than young ones, where people beyond 40 years scoring higher than those below.
In 1990, Salovey and Mayer were the first to coin the phrase "emotional intelligence," and their model of EI centered on three mental processes: emotion assessment and expression, emotion control, and emotion utilization. Their approach was built on Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theory, which was first published in 1983 and comprised musical, linguistic, spatial, mathematical-logical, intrapersonal, body-kinesthetic, naturalist, intrapersonal, and interpersonal intelligence. EI, according to Salovey and Mayer, is a type of social intelligence that involves a person's ability to watch one's own and others' moods and emotions, to differentiate among them, and to utilize this knowledge to guide one's thinking and action. The Salovey and Mayer trait model of EI has changed over time as the authors' study into not only intelligence but also emotions progressed. This approach divides emotional intelligence into four categories: recognizing emotions, reasoning with emotions, comprehending emotions, and managing emotions (Caruso, Mayer, & Salovey, 2002). Emotional intelligence, according to Salovey and Mayer, is  "a subset of social intelligence that comprises the ability to monitor one's own and others' moods and emotions, to distinguish between them, and to use this information to guide one's thoughts and actions" (1990, p. 189). Originally, their idea had five components, but after more investigation, it was reduced to four (Caruso et al., 2002). The key components of emotional intelligence according to Salovey and Mayer are emotional perception, assimilating emotions in thought, understanding and analysing emotion, and reflective regulation of emotion (Mayer et al., 2001). The current study investigated EI and its relation to head teachers' leadership roles and behaviour management using the Salovey and Mayer ability model of emotional intelligence because it includes both social and emotional intelligence dimensions as fundamental components of school leadership, this model was adopted for the study.

The Context
Being brighter or harder is not necessarily a prerequisite for successful leadership. It is about to drive, empathy, integrity, and intuitive ability, all of which go under the umbrella of emotional intelligence (Lununburg & Ornstein, 2004). Besides, headteachers work in a highly emotional and demanding environment, and they require a diverse set of professional skills to deal with the issues they face on daily basis in their classrooms. Literature suggests that headteachers in public Senior High Schools have exhibited enough professional dexterity in the management and administration of their schools for a very long time (Dampson, 2015). However, current occurrences in most of the renowned Senior High Schools in Ghana have led many to question the emotional intelligence and the ability of the leadership of these schools (Dampson, Havor, & Laryea, 2018). For instance, in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, it has been reported within the media circle that two brilliant students with dreadlocks were denied admission based on their dreadlocks even though the Computer School Placement System had placed these students in the school; a saga that had to be later overturned by the High Court of Ghana (Aklorbortu, 2021).
Again, in the Central Region of Ghana, the headmistress of Wesley Girls High School; the most prestigious girls' school in Ghana is reported to have prevented a Muslim student from fasting during the month of Ramadan (Boakye, 2021). These two scenarios appear to be the only current reported cases within the educational landscape at the SHS in Ghana. However, informal interactions and observations with teachers and other stakeholders in education seem to suggest that a lot of these scenarios are untold, swept under the carpet and most of these happenings may due to the low level of emotional intelligence among the headteachers in the Senior High Schools in Ghana.
Generally, head teachers are the managers and administrators of Senior High Schools in Ghana with support from two assistant heads that provide administrative and academic support to the headteacher (Dampson, 2015). Notwithstanding, research remains inconclusive on the level of teacher and student participation in decision-making in Ghanaian schools and how they are often influenced by their intelligence. For instance, Agebure (2013) argues that decision-making at the Senior High Schools in Ghana is often characterized by the frequent involvement of teachers in consultative decision-making with their head teachers. Dampson (2015) on the other hand found a moderate level of teacher involvement in the management and administration of second cycle schools in Ghana, whiles Mankoe and Maynes (2013) exposed that headteachers, teachers and students in Ghana lack the levels of empowerment and ownership in decentralizing decision making in their schools. Evidently, the level of teacher and headteacher involvement in decision-making is tied to their emotional intelligence (Corcoran & Tormey, 2013). In these situations, there is no doubt that emotional intelligence is required to administer and manage schools in Ghana.
Meanwhile, it appears few empirical studies has been conducted on the level of emotional intelligence of the headteachers in Ghana (Nyarko, Peltonen, Kangaslampi, & Punamä ki, 2020;Boateng, 2019;Ghanaweb, 2020). Furthermore, Bardach, (2008) argues that most research conducted in emotional intelligence among headteachers seem skewed to the extent which does not include issues of human diversity. Besides, majority of the studies on emotional intelligence applied either quantitative or qualitative approach, with few mixed methods (Wijayati, Kautsar, & Karwanto, 2020). However, the fluidity nature of emotional intelligence requires the application of both the quantitative and qualitative approaches in its investigation. As a result, the current study sought to fill the contextual and methodology gaps identified in the Ghanaian literature by answering the following research questions: 1. What is the level of EI among headteachers in the Central and Greater Accra regions of Ghana?
2. What are the effects of gender, age and educational qualification on the dimensions of emotional intelligence (EI) of headteachers in the Central and Greater Accra Regions of Ghana?
H1: Gender, age and educational qualification will predict total emotional intelligence (EI) of headteachers

Method
To help analyze and explain the results received from one source via another, the study used the pragmatic research philosophy, which drew data from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). The study used an explanatory sequential mixed-method design, in which quantitative data results were supplemented and explained by data from the qualitative source. The population of the study included all school managers and administrators of the Senior High Schools in the Central and Greater Accra Regions of Ghana. However, the accessible population included headteachers and their assistant headteachers in all the public Senior High Schools in the two regions.
Data from the headquarters of the Ghana Education Service (2021)  management as theorized by Goleman (1998). The scale was internally consistent with a Cronbach Alpha value of .88. Each headteacher was scored on all these five dimensions and in their overall emotional intelligence. Even though the scores on the instrument ranged from 0 to 100, it was scaled to 59 or below as significantly low, 60 to 79 moderate, 80 to 100 is significantly high. However, the overall EI of the headteachers was calculated using means and standard deviations. Subsequently, a semi-structured interview guide was developed based on the findings from the quantitative results to help triangulate and further explain the quantitative results. Regarding the qualitative data, the researcher studied the field notes, transcribed the audio interview data, and analyzed them into the content analysis.

Result
The outcomes of the data acquired in the field are discussed in this portion of the study. The data collected on the demographic features of the respondents was presented in the first aspect, while the outcomes of the data obtained to address the research questions that led the study were presented in the second.

Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents
In this section, data collected on the background characteristics of the headteachers who participated in the study were reported. Table 1 presents the results.

Research Question One: What is the level of EI of the headteachers in the Central and Greater Accra regions of Ghana?
Research question one sought to find out the level of EI of the headteachers. In answering the research question, thirty-two (28) items were used. The responses were scored using agreement and disagreement dimensions but the determination of level was based on low, moderate and high. In this sense, the observed mean similar to the determination range becomes the description of headteachers' level of EI in the study. Table 2 presents the results: The excerpt from these responses from the headteachers indicate that they lack all the five components of EI such as self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, and empathy and relationship management.

Research Question Two: What are the effects of gender, age and educational qualification on the dimensions of emotional intelligence (EI) of headteachers in the Central and Greater Accra regions of Ghana?
The study sought to determine the impact of gender, age and academic qualification on the EI of headteachers. To make this possible, standard multiple linear regression was deemed appropriate for the analysis. Preceding the analysis, certain assumptions might be met. This included an adequate sample size of 262 cases, normality test, linearity, homoscedasticity and multicollinearity test. The researcher tested these assumptions before conducting the main regression test.  Table 3 indicates the result of regression analysis of gender, age, and educational qualification status against the dimensions of emotional intelligence (EI) among headteachers. Symbol interpretations are the unstandardized beta (B), the standard error for the unstandardized beta (SE B), the standardized beta (β), the t-test statistic (t), the significant value (sig), the ANOVA value (F), the ANOVA p-value (p), the correlation (r), the R square value (R2), and the Adjusted R Square value (Ad R2).
The results for gender, age and educational qualification on self-awareness indicates that gender (using male as a baseline) (r=.250) has a significant positive but limited relationship with Self-awareness. The results of the regression indicated the gender explained 6.2% of the variance (R2=.062, F (1, 260) =24.85, p=.000). It was found that gender significantly predicted self-awareness (β = .250, p=000). In this, male respondents are likely to possess higher EI than their female counterparts. However, respondents' age and educational qualification did not predict the EI of headteachers. With regards to social regulation, gender, age and educational qualification, the result shows that gender and age individually, have a significant positive but small relationship with social regulation (r=.148

Discussion
The results of this study have shown that majority headteachers in the Senior High Schools in the Central and Greater Accra Regions of Ghana to a large extent lack the desired emotional intelligence expected of them to manage their schools. Presumably, these headteachers are likely not to have the needed Intelligence Quotient, the lack of EI is likely to affect the productivity levels of their teachers, thereby affecting the academic achievement of the students. It is also easy to speculate that the lack of EI among the leadership of the schools might cause most of the teachers to worry about various incidents that may occur in their schools. As indicated by Pearson and Porath (2012), the lack of EI in schools often leads to a decline in teacher performance, loss of work time due to unpleasant incidents in the schools, wasted time tiring to avoid an offender and wane in employee commitment as well as teacher attrition. The occurrence in most public schools coupled with the surge in the number of teacher attrition cases in Ghanaian schools annually seems to buttress the argument that most of the leaders in public schools lack EI. This result is quite expected given the fact that the appointment and selection of headteachers in Ghana have been more politically, socially and religiously influenced in most cases. In some other instances, the appointment is based on long service instead of merits such as the qualification of the headteachers (Dampson, 2015). It is therefore common to find headteachers with limited or without any training or less qualification in the various positions they occupy. The only source of training and knowledge about leadership is normally through workshops and seminars. However, with the current high demands on school leaders, limited workshops and seminars which seems to be the only professional development tool available to them may not be adequate to put them in shape to manage the affairs the schools they head. In this regard, most of the headteachers may exhibit low level of basic leadership skills which will intend impede their effective and efficient practices in the schools. It is therefore not surprising that most headteachers have been found to make decisions that increased the stress and decreased the motivation of their teachers (Alugchaab, 2011). The lack of EI may further explain why headteachers often spend about 25% of their office time resolving conflicts in the staff room shown that only gender predicted all the five dimensions of EI. This result refuted the findings of previous studies (Bosu, Dare, Dachi, & Fertig, 2011;Edwards & Aboagye, 2015) in Ghana that gender should not be used as a basis to select and appoint school leaders. It further debunked earlier claim from Mayer, Caruso and Salovey (1999) that women may have a little urge over men when it comes to emotional intelligence but corroborated that of Bar-On and Parker (2000) which found significant differences between males and females in terms of overall emotional and social competence for a few factorial components of the concept.

Conclusion and Implications for Policy and Practice
This study sought out to assess the EI of the headteachers in the Central and Greater Accra regions of Ghana. The study found that the emotional intelligence of the headteachers was low. The study further established that the academic qualification of the headteachers was not a significant predictor of their EI.
However, the gender and age of the headteachers predicted their EI significantly. To navigate the complexities of school leadership in the 21st Century, it is expedient that headteachers possess the highest level of EI. The results of the study, however, have shown that the EI level of the headteachers may affect how they lead and manage their respective schools. It is recommended that periodic pragmatic and purposeful in-service and workshops on Emotional Intelligence and leadership skills should be