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This research aims to explore the influence of teacher quality and instructional leadership on the school environment as perceived by students in Somaliland.

March 27, 2026Open Access

Student voices from an under-researched context: the relative impact of teacher quality and instructional leadership on school environment in Somaliland

Key Points

This research aims to explore the influence of teacher quality and instructional leadership on the school environment as perceived by students in Somaliland.
Survey conducted with 373 students from seven public secondary schools in Somaliland.
Analyzed data using multiple linear regression to assess the impact of predictors on the perceived school environment.
Examined perceived teacher quality and four types of leadership routines as predictors.
Model explained 45% of the variance in perceived school environment (R² = .45, p < .001).
Perceived teacher quality was the dominant predictor with a coefficient of β = .55 (p < .001).
Significant leadership routines included principal curriculum awareness (β = .13, p = .003) and principal presence (β = .09, p = .022).

Abstract

This study examines how teacher quality and instructional leadership shape the school environment in Somaliland through student voice. Guided by Educational Effectiveness perspectives and Transformational/Instruction-oriented leadership traditions, we model the school environment as a proximal outcome of teaching, with leadership effects expected through visible, instruction-facing routines. A survey of students from seven public secondary schools (N = 373) was analysed using multiple linear regression. Predictors included Perceived Teacher Quality others were not. Findings confirm teaching's proximal dominance for students' experience and show that in centralized, resource-constrained settings, leadership "travels" through concrete, curriculum-focused behaviours students can see. Policy should prioritise classroom-embedded professional learning and routinise visible instructional leadership. The study demonstrates the value of student-reported indicators for evaluating school conditions in fragile contexts.

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