Education Commons^™

Personal Power Tactics African American Female Superintendents Employ To Overcome Four Identified Self-Sabotaging Behaviors, Angela Brantley

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed-method study was to identify and describe personal power tactics that African American female superintendents employ to overcome the four identified self-sabotaging behaviors from the Self Sabotaging Framework adapted from Lerner (2012), Ryder and Briles (2003).

Methodology: This study identified and described the lived experiences of seven female African American superintendents across the United States. This research design encompassed a sequential data collection method using an electronic survey instrument, followed by one-on-one interviews. Based on the quantitative and qualitative data, the researcher was able to triangulate data using the trends, categories, and patterns …

Impact Of Administrative Support On Staff Mental Health, Crystal L. Capps

Doctor of Education Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the impact of administrative support on staff mental health. Research questions were created for this research study and were investigated throughout its design and implementation. This research study involved participation from three district-approved schools: one elementary, one middle, and one high school in eastern North Carolina. Two surveys were designed, one for educators and one for administrators. Once the research was completed, the data were analyzed for key themes regarding how mental health affects educators in the classroom. Themes were identified to determine the impact of administrative support on staff …

Practices To Recruit And Retain Teachers Of Color In Rural Minnesota Schools, Eric Hudspith

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study delves into the relationships between strategic recruitment and retention practices implemented by rural Minnesota school districts and the recruitment and retention rates of teachers of color within these districts. The research assesses whether districts implementing strategic recruitment practices demonstrate a higher proportion of teacher candidates of color and subsequent hiring rates compared to their peer districts. The study also investigates the relationships between strategic retention practices and the actual retention data observed in districts. Participants included administrators representing districts identified as rural that have a significant percentage of students of color. were selected based on predetermined criteria encompassing …

"I Think There Is A Place For Small Programs:" Advocating, Implementing, And Sustaining Tpc Programs In Small Us Institutions, Martha Lynn Russell

English Theses & Dissertations

Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) programs in small institutions compose of over a third of all programs in the US, yet this space has been understudied by most scholars. To fill this gap, this dissertation presents findings from one-hour interviews with twenty-six TPC program directors in small US institutions with undergraduate populations of less than six thousand. The results of this dissertation include the ways that small institutions are advocating, implementing, and sustaining their TPC program in unique ways with implications for how any TPC programs regardless of size can learn from these findings.

Administrator Perspectives On Teacher Recruitment And Retention During A Pandemic, Matthew Aaron Carr

Dissertations

The global COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed education across the United States leaving a shortage of highly qualified teachers to fill positions in classrooms (Nguyen et al., 2022; Schmitt & deCourcy, 2022). This research study utilized the theoretical framework of the Four-Capital Theoretical Model of Teacher Retention and Attrition (Mason & Matas, 2015). This qualitative study utilized open-ended survey questions and follow-up interviews to elicit the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and to determine effective strategies to the recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers. Sixty-two public school administrators shared their perspectives through the survey, while eight administrators participated in follow-up interviews. …

Blurred Boundaries: Sussing Out Thresholds Between Wac And Wpa In Administrative Professionalization, Amy T. Cicchino, Mandy Olejnik, Christina Lavecchia, Al Harahap

Publications

Over the past 50 years, the field of WAC has increasingly shifted from discussions of starting programs to efforts of sustaining programs (Cox, Galin, & Melzer, 2018). Similarly, WAC pedagogical support has moved from the oneoff workshop model of “writing-to-learn” pedagogy (Walvoord, 1996) to other models of effecting long-term change with faculty (Glotfelter, Updike, & Wardle, 2020; Martin, 2021). Alongside these programmatic and pedagogical trends, we argue that WAC administrative support and professionalization need to similarly grow. To work toward sustainability as a field, we need to (re)consider the professionalization of WAC administrators—both in graduate school and throughout their careers.

Relational Leadership: Reconceptualizing How School Districts Address Teacher Attrition, Nila J. Burt, Joseph R. Jones

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

American education is in crisis. Teacher attrition rates are astronomical and continue to rise post-pandemic. In his executive summary, Pelfrey (2020), a policy and research analyst in the Georgia governor's office, revealed that new teachers are abandoning their careers at steadily increasing rates within the first five years of service. As such, we must further examine teacher retention and the influence of school administrators. In this capacity, this study utilized a qualitative methodology to examine teacher attrition in a high school in Georgia. Specifically, narrative inquiry provided the framework to examine the lived experiences of teachers in this southern school. …

Transforming Leadership Pathways For Humanities Professionals In Higher Education, Roze Hentschell, Catherine E. Thomas

Navigating Careers in Higher Education Series

Transforming Leadership Pathways for Humanities Professionals in Higher Education includes thirteen essays from a variety of contributors investigating how humanities professionals grapple with the opportunities and challenges of leadership positions. Written by insiders sharing their lived experience, this collection provides an authentic look at the multiple roles humanities specialists play, as well as offers strategies for professional growth, sustenance, and satisfaction. The collection also considers the relationship between disciplinary areas of study, academic training, and the valuable skill sets and habits of mind that serve higher education leaders.

While Transforming Leadership Pathways emphasizes that a leadership route in higher education …

College Reconfiguration: Building Faculty Support, Maureen E. Wilson, Dawn M. Shinew, Tracy L. Huziak-Clark, Deborah Wooldridge

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Following a year-long discussion, deliberation, and feedback process, faculty and staff in the College of Education and Human Development at Bowling Green State University voted overwhelmingly in support of reconfiguring from five schools and one department to three schools. We discuss our journey and outline the initial benefits, challenges, and lessons of this new configuration.

Fighting For Resources: Using Data To Effectively Advocate For Your Department, Craig D. Hlavac

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

The Department chairperson is the primary spokesperson and advocate for the academic department. As many institutions continue to see enrollment declines and shrinking revenues, the ability for chairpersons to advocate effectively for limited resources has become even more important. Operating budgets, reassigned time, course offerings, and tenure-track faculty lines are all scrutinized with a focus on finding efficiencies. Today’s department chairperson must be adept at advocating for their department using data-based arguments. This session will review the most common data metrics used by deans to assess academic departments, and provide participants with clear, concise methods for using this data to …

How Elementary School Principals Manage Their Workload, Cynthia Ann Mccabe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Elementary school principals in a suburban, Mid-Atlantic public school system may face challenges when balancing their workload. This problem is significant as an elementary school principal’s workload could contribute to ineffective leadership. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore how these principals balance their workload and obtain their perceptions of the administrative support required to meet the daily challenges of their job. The conceptual framework is Gronn’s distributed leadership model which is based on the purposeful sharing and disseminating of leadership responsibilities. The research questions explored how elementary school principals describe the challenges they have in balancing …

The Effect Administrators Have On Employee Morale Within The University Of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, Sherry L. Beaty-Sullivan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between Arkansas County Extension County staff morale and their perceived relationship county staff had with their County Staff Chair. The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service (UAEX) can utilize the results from this research to identify individuals who have the capacity to build high-quality relationships with staff members, thereby promoting higher levels of morale within the organization. Administrators can use this study to identify current or future leaders within the organization by identifying those who can promote high-quality relationships with county-level staff. Results from this study may also be used …

The Role Of Self-Efficacy And Emotional Exhaustion In Teacher Considerations Of Job-Related Stressors And Attrition: A Mixed-Methods Study, Raymond Nance

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Teacher attrition is a problem currently afflicting classrooms around the world. Emotional exhaustion and teacher self-efficacy have been demonstrated to be factors in attrition. This study assesses the efficacy of potential tools for use in evaluating emotional exhaustion and self-efficacy before problems arise and to guide professional development in efficacious directions.

This parallel-convergent mixed-methods study performed quantitative regression analyses on the joined effects of emotional exhaustion and self-efficacy to assess their potential mediating role between teachers’ job stressors and considerations of leaving the job. The existence of mediation was demonstrated. Qualitative thematic analysis of transcripts from six interviews with current …

An Instrumental Case Study Of Confirmative Evaluation In The Continuous Improvement Of Online Remote Leaders’ Work, Chad Lawrence Mclane

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Confirmative evaluation is often noted as an important element of models of Human Performance Technology and Performance Improvement, but there exists confusion around what is and what is not confirmative evaluation. A significant issue limiting the use of confirmative evaluation is the Performance Improvement field’s inability to clearly classify confirmative evaluation in terms of its purpose and scope. Additionally, the performance improvement field lacks sufficient examples of confirmative evaluation in the literature necessary to adequately define confirmative evaluation and demonstrate its use. Without sufficient examples of confirmative evaluation, practitioners of performance improvement are left without a clear path of how …

Culturally Relevant Practices And Community: Increasing Minority Leadership In School Administration To Improve School Climate, Cassandra Suggs, Joy N. Rogers

Dissertations

This dissertation and research looks into the area of Culturally Relevant Practices and Leadership in K-12 schools and the potential effect on all students in having minority leadership present. The research dives into interviews of teachers, hiring leaders, district leaders and building leaders. It also uses survey results from over 700 students, with the central theme of the questions around school safety, climate, culture, support, academics and a sense of belonging. The research purpose was to look into the potential positive effect on students and staff, if Culturally Relevant Practices and hiring of minority leadership was in place within school …

Shared Academic Governance.. A Historical Perspective, Domenick J. Pinto

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Shared academic governance is a key to ensuring that faculty and administration can work collaboratively to reach strategic planning outcomes, maintain excellence and show continued growth and collegiality in higher education. This workshop will elaborate on experiences I have had in both a university senate and academic assembly, present scenarios that the group can brainstorm on, and conclude with suggestions on how all faculty can become involved.

Not Your Typical Administrator, Shaunda French-Collins, James F. Koehn, Wendy Waugh

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenters will examine the trend of “wearing many hats” in higher education leadership. For example, being both a department chair and faculty member. In addition, the notion of successfully managing up, the importance of understanding each role you have, and understanding your situational role and the communication we use will be discussed. Lastly, participants will engage in case study scenarios challenging participants to consider various administrative situations and identifying reasonable approaches based on which “hat” you are wearing.

Shared Academic Governance : A Historical Perspective, Domenick Pinto

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

Shared academic governance is a key to ensuring that faculty and administration can work collaboratively to reach strategic planning outcomes, maintain excellence and show continued growth and collegiality in higher education. This workshop will elaborate on experiences I have had in both a university senate and academic assembly, present scenarios that the group can brainstorm on, and conclude with suggestions on how all faculty can become involved.

Perceptions Of K-12 School Principals Regarding The Use Of Exclusionary Discipline Practices, Shalonda W. Adams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Exclusionary discipline practices (EDPs), including suspensions and expulsions, are used in public schools, from kindergarten to 12th grade (K–12). Excessive use of EDP can have a negative impact as students face delays in completion of their academic work. The problem of increasing use of EDPs at a suburban public school district located in a southern state was addressed in this study. Hallinger and Murphy’s instructional leadership model was used to examine the perceptions of K–12 school principals regarding their use of instructional leadership practices to reduce the use of EDPs. Purposeful sampling was used in this basic qualitative study to …

Disciplinary Practices Among High School Administrators, Stephanie Ganaway-Pasley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

School administrators are responsible for the safety and physical well-being of the students. Although school disciplinary policies are in place, there is a problem with school administrators' practices and decisions when administering discipline for students' inappropriate behavior. The purpose of this mixed-method study was to explore the disciplinary processes used by school administrators when administering student discipline to determine the relationship between levels of offenses and the gender and race of students. Guided by the theory of justice, this study investigated the relationship between the level of offenses and disciplinary processes that reflect the level of offenses, as described in …

Applying Derailment Advice: How Educational Leaders Can Use Job Loss Lessons To Navigate The Covid-19 Crisis, Jeff Strietzel, Ryan W. Erck

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended life and work for people around the globe. This upheaval has created new challenges for those serving in or studying at higher education. College administrators have been forced to adapt, and many have used wisdom gained from past crises as proxies for the current crisis. After many months in a pandemic, however, many leaders are still searching for effective frameworks and mental models to guide their efforts. In this article, we offer the concept of derailment as a proxy for leaders in challenging times. We examined interview data from a recent in-depth study of 25 …

Next-Level Leadership: Preparing Assistant Principals For Campus Leadership, Jerry R. Burkett

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

The workload of campus leaders continues to increase with new expectations for evaluation and supervision, changing legislative mandates, and mounting pressures for improved school accountability. Educational Leadership preparation programs are built on national and state standards related to principal leadership and competency. However, while principal preparation programs have focused intently on instructional leadership development for future principals, most educational leadership candidates do not immediately enter the principalship but rather start their administrative careers as assistant principals. School districts can implement a comprehensive training protocol for their emerging principals using research-based practices to ensure assistant principals have the training, coaching, and …

Up Close And Personal With Mr Sundar Selvam: Hitting Zero Targets, Sundar Selvam

Oral History Collection

He might not be one you would have come across on campus. And not one you might read much about in SMU news or in the limelight for its achievements, preferring to remain in the background. But look around the SMU campus and you will see the fruits of his work and that of his team. Meet Sundar, SMU’s Vice-President for Campus Infrastructure and Services. Since January 2015, he has been at the forefront of driving SMU’s own sustainability journey which has resulted in several “firsts”. This interview was published in the August edition of SMU CIRCLE.

The Novice Assistant Principal: Support Needs In The Transition To The Administrative Role, Alyssa Nicole Maestas

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Novice assistant principals are expected to be ready to serve as key leaders in a school from the first day of their appointment as a school administrator. Research has shown that the role of assistant principal is multi-faceted, the pace of the job is unrelenting, the level of responsibility is overwhelming, and the number of new tasks encountered is daunting (Barnett, et al., 2012; Craft et al., 2016). This study examined how novice assistant principals experienced support as they transitioned into the administrative role. The researcher used a phenomenological research design for the collection of data. The results indicated that …

Up Close And Personal With Hugh Edmiston: Engineering Smu Towards Growth And Excellence, Hugh Edmiston

Oral History Collection

So what can a chartered engineer from the United Kingdom tell us about our aspirations to contribute to growth in Asia, as a young university in Singapore? As I found out…plenty. And then some. Meet SMU Senior Vice-President (Administration) Hugh Edmiston, who joined us just as COVID-19 hit our shores (“Little did I know there was a global pandemic on the horizon when I moved!”); and read on to learn more about his multiple roles and responsibilities in SMU as he drives our growth in Asia. This interview was published in the June 2021 edition of SMU CIRCLE.

Deliberate Indifference: An Exploration Of The Student Survivor Activism Group Movement, Shyla Kallhoff

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

#MeToo. It’s On Us. End Rape on Campus. #BeTheSwede. Dear UNL. These phrases have united people all over the world to use their voices and speak out about sexual violence. In higher education, these statements empower students to make their voices heard, and simultaneously invoke fear in campus administrators who do not want to be held accountable for the mishandling/lack of Title IX cases. Student survivor activism groups, the subject of this study, have formed at universities around the country and often use similar statements to advocate for changes they feel need to happen. Finding no previous research, it is …

Principal Mentoring As A Retention And Effectiveness Strategy In Comprehensive Improvement Schools., Robert Fulk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines Comprehensive Improvement Schools (CSI) principals’ experiences with mentoring programs and their perceptions of how such programs may mitigate administrative attrition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight practicing CSI principals and the study utilized the pragmatic framework. The interviews captured principal’s experiences with being a principal mentee during their first year of CSI principalship, and what actions or activities in their mentorships aided their retention in the position. The analysis suggested several recommendations for practice in principal mentoring programs to increase school leader retention. At the heart of these recommendations was an emphasis on the importance of …

Urban School District Principals’ Perceptions Of Job Satisfaction, Darcy Lynn Woodcock

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Principals in urban school districts directly and indirectly affect school communitiesthrough student achievement, teacher retention, and school climate. When a high-quality school principal leaves a school, it can negatively affect these areas due to the interruption of progress toward school improvement goals to increase student achievement. Seeking to address this issue, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the perceptions of job satisfaction among urban school district principals. The conceptual framework was Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory. The key research question concerned investigating the perceptions of job satisfaction among urban school district principals. Qualitative data were collected via virtual, …

Mental Health And Discipline In California Community Schools, Damien Phillips

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed method study was to determine if there is a difference in achievement, absenteeism, graduation rates and suspension for students enrolled in community schools that do and don’t have access to school-based mental health services. In addition, it was the purpose to identify and describe the practices most effective in improving attendance, reduction of suspension, achievement and graduation as perceived by community school employees.

Methodology: This mixed-method dissertation attempted to determine the difference between California county community schools for expelled students who have had access to school-based mental health and those who do not as …

Reasons For The Theory-Practice Gap In Education Administration, Gary Houchens, Ysuf Badavan, Nuray Kisa

School of Leadership & Professional Studies Faculty Publications

The theory-practice gap can be defined as "a failure to apply or to relate the concepts, ideas and theories to professional conditions". The aim of this research was to explore the reasons for the theory-practice gap in the field of educational administration. Participants included 380 school administrators working in primary, secondary and high schools and 57 researchers working in different higher education institutions in Ankara. The views are collected through the questionnaire with two different forms, namely Reasons of Theory-Practice Gap in the Field of Educational Administration developed by the researchers. Data were interpreted by percentages, frequency distributions and chi-square …