Participative Governance and School Effectiveness: The Mediating Roles of Professional Development, School Discipline, and Curriculum Governance

Shared decision-making has increasingly emerged as a central dimension of participative leadership within educational administration, yet the mediating institutional processes through which it influences school effectiveness remain insufficiently theorised in African educational contexts. This study investigates the mediating roles of staff professional development, school discipline, and curriculum governance in the relationship between participative governance and school effectiveness in secondary schools in Cameroon. Using a mixed-methods research design, quantitative data were collected from 480 principals and teachers across 30 secondary schools in Fako Division, South West Region of Cameroon, while qualitative interviews were conducted with 24 purposively selected participants. Quantitative findings reveal that shared decision-making is significantly associated with staff professional development (rₛ = 0.631), school discipline (rₛ = 0.584), and curriculum governance (rₛ = 0.592), all of which are positively associated with school effectiveness (p < 0.001). Multiple regression analysis further demonstrates that shared decision-making makes a statistically significant independent contribution to school effectiveness (β = 0.176, p = 0.007) after controlling for delegation and financial transparency. Qualitative findings indicate that the effectiveness of participative governance depends less on formal participatory structures than on the authenticity, deliberative quality, and communicative openness of leadership practices. Drawing on Hargreaves’ concept of contrived collegiality, the article argues that many schools reproduce symbolic forms of participation rather than cultivate genuine collaborative governance cultures. The study contributes theoretically to the scholarship on participative leadership and, practically, to leadership development policy in African schools.