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How Principals Learn To Be Technology Leaders: A Critical Incident Qualitative Study, Leon R. Edwards Ii

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate how principals learn to be technology leaders by examining the different ways principals learn and exploring the skills principals perceive are needed. The study also examines what principals do differently to develop a successful technology integration (or not). Using the critical incident method, 18 principals were interviewed from across the state. The in-depth interviews were transcribed for all participants interviewed and then analyzed using coding and theming with the aid of memos. From this, three predominant categories emerged: learning, skills, and challenges.

The findings from the study reveal that principals learn primarily …

Culturally Responsive Leadership And Distributed Leadership Practices In A Stem School, Cynthia Bradley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Culturally responsive leadership practices and distributed leadership are strategies that could aid racially diverse students to become successful in STEM courses and later in a STEM field. The purpose of this study was to explore culturally responsive leadership practices and distributed leadership within a STEM school to support racially diverse students. Distributed leadership and culturally responsive leadership practices were the conceptual frameworks of the study used to explore the rationale for the decision-making within a school. The research questions addressed the challenges and opportunities of implementing culturally responsive leadership practices and distributive leadership to enhance the diversity of students in …

Survey Of Teachers’ Use Of And Preferences For Professional Development Regarding Available Technology, Shannon Main-Petelka

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem in a medium-sized school district is the lack of data regarding what currently accessible technology and technology learning activities (TLAs) teachers use, have access to, and for which technology and TLAs they desire professional development (PD). There is a gap in practice in that technology directors lack data-based plans for PD. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative study was to analyze teachers’ ratings of technology access, use, and desire for PD including the correlation between teachers’ use of technology and their previous PD hours as well as between teachers’ desire to use technology and their location in their …

Enabling And Threatening Factors Affecting Persistence. A Qualitative And Quantitative Study On Rural First-Generation Stem Students’ And Stem Faculty's Perspectives., Travis A. Miller

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study focuses on the factors that enable and threaten rural first-generation STEM students’ persistence. Limited empirical studies are available that focus on rural first-generation STEM majors’ persistence. Quantitative analysis was conducted using Kruskal Wallis H and Mann-Whitney U tests to determine any significant differences with the survey results. Content and thematic analysis was conducted on the student and faculty interviews to determine themes of enabling and threatening factors affecting persistence.

Enabling factors affecting persistence were found to be: Drive or Motivation, Experiences and skills, and Support. These were both faculty and student interview themes whereas a …