Building leader self-efficacy in Kenyan teenage girls

Authors

• Maureen Malomba, James Madison UniversityFollow

Preferred Name

Maureen O. Malomba

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0852-383X

Date of Graduation

5-9-2024

Semester of Graduation

Spring

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

School of Strategic Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Margaret F. Sloan

Second Advisor

Adam J. Vanhove

Abstract

Most social-cultural problems are wicked problems that require innovative and sustainable solutions. Gender equality is just one of them, and this study looked at the approach of leadership development in teenage girls as a strategy to make advances toward gender equality. I conducted this study in Kenya, in a small, rural girls’ primary school that incorporates a leadership development curriculum to assess the duration and the types of interventions in leadership development programs, and how they relate to self-efficacy. The school has 40 girls aged between 12 and 16 in their first and third years. This study incorporated a convergent mixed method design that used the Children’s Perceived Self-Efficacy (CPSE), a children’s version of Bandura’s (1990) Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Self-Efficacy (MSPSE), and focus group discussions with open-ended questions. I analyzed the data using descriptives, paired t-tests, ANOVA, ANCOVA, and Grounded Theory Analysis (GTA). I was open to interpreting the data as it emerged, and I used findings to determine the impact of duration on leader self-efficacy and to understand the effectiveness of the two instructional methods the academy uses (mentorship and role-playing). Results indicated that both duration and instructional methods play a critical role in leadership development and self-efficacy for the girls at Mara Girls Leadership School. Even though leader self-efficacy increased over the years, the findings indicated more gains at the beginning of the program. The study hopes to advance knowledge and theoretical frameworks that support leadership development and self-efficacy in teenage girls.