Leadership Competencies of the Clergy and Lay Person Administrators in the Church-Owned Preschools

Abstract

The body of knowledge is luxuriant with studies delving into leadership competencies; however, there are meager studies conducted to contrast the competencies of the clergy and layperson school administrators, the fact that many church-owned schools have this kind of set up. This study addressed this gap by looking into the governance of church-owned preschools in the Philippines. It detected the significant differences of such competencies between the lay and the clergy-administrators. It used the descriptive-comparative design. Moreover, the cross-sectional survey method was used to gather data through questionnaires. This study adopted The Leadership Domains checklist developed by Douglas Reeves (2009) as the data gathering tool. Twenty church-owned preschools participated in the study, and informal follow-up interviews were also conducted to triangulate the results. The data were analyzed and interpreted using both descriptive and inferential statistical tests. The t-test for independent groups was used to identify differences in the leadership competencies of the school administrators. This study found out that the clergy group is "exemplary" while the laypersons are "proficient" in the ten leadership competencies. They are both equipped with the necessary leadership competencies needed in managing their respective preschool institutions. Although the clergy and the lay administrators excel differently in terms of their leadership competencies, the clergy-administrators possess the highest level of competency, specifically on “communication.” On the other hand, the highest leadership competency of the lay administrators is “decision making.” This study implies trying a lay-and-clergy tandem of administering the church-owned preschools. Furthermore, the School Board might want to focus on developing potential educational leaders from their existing human resources through “shepherding” and “mentoring.