Leadership Practices of Exemplary Principals in Malaysian Secondary Schools: Evidence from Pahang

Abstract

School leadership is widely recognized as the most significant school-level organizational factor after classroom teaching in influencing student learning. Aligned with the aspirations of the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013–2025, this study evaluates exemplary principal leadership practices using the Successful School Leadership (SSL) framework and examines the reliability of the Successful School Leadership Survey (SSLS) in the context of Pahang state secondary schools. This quantitative survey involved three national secondary schools selected through purposive sampling based on exemplary principal criteria, including recent excellence awards, consistent top-quartile academic performance, and State Education Department recommendations. Respondents comprised 152 teachers (98.1% response rate) from two urban schools and one rural school. The teacher version of SSLS (22 items across four domains: Setting Directions, Building Relationships and Developing People, (Re)Designing the Organization, and Improving the Instructional Program) was administered using a five-point Likert scale. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha, one-way ANOVA with Games-Howell post hoc comparisons, and independent samples t-tests (Welch), with Cohen's d effect sizes reported. Findings indicated that exemplary principal leadership practices were rated highly (M = 4.40, SD = 0.56), with Setting Directions recording the highest mean (M = 4.46). The SSLS demonstrated excellent internal consistency (overall α = .977; domain α = .904-.943). Comparative analyses revealed significant differences across schools (all p < .001), with rural schools reporting higher scores than urban schools across all domains with large effect sizes (d = 0.70–0.86). These findings provide strong reliability evidence supporting the use of SSLS in the Malaysian context and offer practical implications for leadership development and benchmarking exemplary leadership practices across diverse school contexts. However, findings should be interpreted within the context of three purposively selected schools and require replication using larger and more diverse samples.