Principal’s Participatory Leadership Approaches: An Effective Tool for Teacher Effectiveness in Fako Division, Cameroon

Aim: This study intended to investigate the relationship between principal’s participatory leadership approaches and teacher effectiveness in Fako Division, Cameroon. Methods: Given a correlational design purpose, data were assembled by drawing a sample of six hundred (600) that is 588 teachers and 22 principals spread across five (5) sub-divisions in Fako Division Cameroon. The first instrument titled “Questionnaire for Principal’s Participatory Leadership Approaches” (QPPLA) comprises three subscales all reflecting a high degree of internal consistency, namely, participatory decision-making (α = 0.843), democratic leadership (α = 0.759), and collective leadership (α = 0.834). The second tool, Questionnaire for Teacher Effectiveness (QTE), also indicates good reliability (α = 0.813). Regarding the verification of the research questions and hypotheses, Pearson's correlation coefficient was subsequently performed at the significance level of p < 0.05. Results: The study found that participatory decision-making, democratic leadership and collective leadership styles significantly exerted a strong and positive impact on teacher effectiveness. Ultimately, the findings suggest that the principals should properly use the combinations of participatory decision-making, democratic leadership and collective leadership styles since they are significant in teacher effectiveness in secondary schools in Fako Division, Cameroon. Conclusion: The study concluded that there is a strong relationship between principal’s participatory leadership approaches and teacher effectiveness. Recommendation: This study recommend principals to enhance and foster teacher effectiveness by adopting participatory leadership approaches in schools.