Educational Leadership Commons^™

Examining Teacher Leadership: Phenomenology Of The Perceived Challenges Of Being A Teacher Leader, Noelle H. Green

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

Today’s school leaders recognize that one person, mainly the principal, cannot adequately address the needs of all members of the school community. Many principals rely on teacher leaders to lead alongside them to further school improvement, knowing that the traditional way of thinking of school leadership as being the sole role of the principal is no longer effective or efficient. While K-12 teachers typically have a strong background in child development, psychology, and pedagogy, many lack experience in leading and facilitating adults and have little background in adult learning theory.

The purpose of this research is to determine how K-12 …

Designing Effective Online Courses: Exploring The Relationships Amongst Online Teaching Self-Efficacy, Professional Development, Online Teaching Experience, And Reported Implementation Of Effective Higher Education Online Course Design Practices, Elizabeth Mcmahon

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

How best to prepare and support higher education faculty to design and teach effective online courses is a topic of great significance to higher education institutional leaders and faculty developers. This study explored how hours of professional development along with online teaching and learning experiences were related to online teaching self-efficacy and the extent to which participants reported implementation of effective online course design practices. Using a non-experimental quantitative correlational explanatory research study design, data were collected using a questionnaire. Participants included 104 online faculty from a large public higher education system located in the upper Midwest that includes both …

Core Self-Evaluation Theory In Qualitative Research: Extending A Quantitative Theory Into A Qualitative Framework To Study Community College Faculty., Patria Lawton

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

The use of qualitative research in higher education has long been underutilized, specifically when examining community colleges. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the need for more qualitative research focusing on the lives and work of community college faculty and to introduce the reader to Judge et al. (1997) Core Self-Evaluation Theory (CSE). The article describes the rationale and process of utilizing CSE as a viable theoretical framework in qualitative research. The author discusses the way in which CSE was extended from a traditional quantitative measure to a qualitative framework by walking the reader through a study which …

Self-Evaluation Of Educational Leadership Practices During Covid-19, Mike Coquyt

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts, and specifically, superintendents, are under increased pressure to lead. Irregularity and ambiguity are now the mantras of those tasked with leading in our schools. Many current research studies aim to evaluate the possible effects of COVID-19 on the system of education (Azorín, 2020; Hargreaves & Fullan, 2020), and advice on how to lead during a crisis (Harris & Jones, 2020; Leithwood et al., 2020, Netolicky, 2020). There are no standards or benchmarks to follow that could potentially aid school leaders as they navigate, lead, and make important decisions that affect how quality instruction …

Identifying Key Success Indicators In Student Letters For Reinstatement From Suspension, Angela Bowlus, Jamaica Delmar

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

Retaining and graduating students continues to be an issue that higher education institutions are longing to solve, especially for the growing non-traditional student body whose list of competing priorities continues to grow. As academic suspension hinders persistence, this article examines a key aspect of the reinstatement from suspension process for students: the letter of appeal. The narrative provided is impacted by how the writer expresses their acknowledgment of what went wrong and what changes will be made to ensure administrators of future success, it too is impacted by the interpretation of the institutional decision maker. By reviewing a sample of …

A Survey Of Faculty Perceptions Of Community College Career And Technical Education, Thomas Gauthier Dr.

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

Community colleges are the leaders in facilitating career and technical education (CTE), and faculty help develop program offerings on campus. This study explored faculty perceptions of community college CTE programs using the survey research method. Participants included 36 faculty members from various disciplines from 15 state colleges in Florida. Participants were sent a digital survey and asked to use a scale from 0 (do not agree) to 8 (agree) to score their agreement level with 43 statements of opinion. Data revealed that community college faculty perceive CTE as beneficial, but CTE programs must include the habits of mind and support …

Personal Development Planning And Vertical Leadership Development In A Vuca World, Kevin Coopersmith

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

To explore how personal development can be utilized as a tool for leaders to adapt to our VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world, a qualitative study was conducted on the narrative experiences of eight leaders who had successfully completed personal development plans. The emerging field of vertical leadership development, recognized as a unique developmental approach towards overcoming complexity and uncertainty, was connected to the key themes of personal development planning. Vertical leadership development and personal development planning were united across five conceptual themes: development and application of skills, self-awareness, self-efficacy, self-exploration, and continuous improvement. The experiences of the participants …

Engaged Social Media In Higher Education While Avoiding The Label Of "Striving", Jessica Nerren

Journal of Critical Issues in Educational Practice

Striving has become a word laden with problematic meanings in the world of higher education. For instance, if a university is too aligned with business, or becomes overly selective, or deviates from original purpose or mission, then, at times, those actions are seen as striving (O’Meara, 2007). O’Meara (2007) defines striving as participation in efforts to improve status and prestige in line with the hierarchy. Allen (2021) echoes the problematic nature of this practice witnessed abroad, equating striving educational practices with neoliberalism, potentially overshadowing primary purposes of the institution, such as learning and teaching, or drowning out important parts of …

A Case Of Shifting Focus Friction: Extension Directors And State 4-H Program Leaders’ Perspectives On 4-H Lgbtq+ Inclusion, Jeremy Elliott-Engel, Donna Westfall-Rudd, Eric Kaufman, Megan Seibel, Rama Radhakrishna

The Journal of Extension

Contemporary Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ+) youth are identifying and communicating their identities earlier in childhood than generations before as a result of more awareness and more acceptance of gender identity and sexual minorities by society. A qualitative study of U.S. 4-H program leaders and Extension directors generated an emergent theme around the importance of serving LGBT youth and the resulting implementation challenges. The administrators of 4-H, the largest youth serving organization in the country, recognize the presence of LGBTQ+ youth in 4-H and believe the organization must be inclusive. But challenges remain in ensuring youth experience inclusion at …

Remembering The 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Missouri Education Policy And Lessons For Covid-19, Phi Nguyen

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Amid the disruptions of COVID-19 are opportunities to reimagine schooling and education. Taking a historical perspective, this article analyzes education policy following an earlier pandemic, the influenza pandemic of 1918-19, to explore if and how educational change might be possible. Drawing on primary source analysis of Missouri education policy, I argue that influenza-related policy talk was practically non-existent, and the talk that was present mainly focused on how the flu disrupted, but not changed, school operations. Without policy talk advocating for change, policy action the years following the influenza pandemic continued along the lines of Progressive reforms that were already …

Perceptions Of Self-Efficacy & Support Among Secondary Early-Career Teachers And Their Principals During The Covid-19 Pandemic, James A. Martinez, Kelly Gomez Johnson, Frances E. Anderson, Frederick L. Uy

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

In response to challenges faced by middle and high school educators during the COVID-19 pandemic, a study was conducted in the Spring of 2021 involving 33 early-career mathematics teachers and eight supervising school principals in the State of California. These participants completed detailed surveys which provided demographic information, as well as perceptions of support, efficacy and job satisfaction. Findings show a variety of associations among teacher perceptions of support and their efficacy and job satisfaction in the face of challenging circumstances. As it related to principal support and recognition, principal participants expressed confidence in their ability to support teachers as …

(Re)Imagining A Dialogic Curriculum: Humanizing And Epistemically Liberating Pedagogies, Parise Carmichael-Murphy, Josephine Gabi Dr

Race and Pedagogy Journal: Teaching and Learning for Justice

This paper is a call to university leaders across the United Kingdom to stand in solidarity with racialized and racially minoritized students by embracing humanizing and epistemically liberating practices that open up possibilities for authentic dialogue and action. This dialogue should seek to resist the barriers which have resulted in the marginalization, and often systemic discrimination of racially minoritized students within higher education. We seek to illuminate the revolutionary leadership of university students, who have initiated the movement toward racial representation, multiple truths, and a more equitable curriculum that subverts the violence of Western cognitive imperialism. Black feminist thought informs …

Work Environment And The Teacher: A Qualitative Case Study Of Public Secondary Schools In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Edomgenet Hiba Issa

The Qualitative Report

This study examined the nexus between the public secondary school teacher and his/her work environment. To capture the nature and substance of this nexus, the study was mainly directed towards answering the following two research questions: Which attributes of work environment matter most to the public secondary school teacher? And why do they matter? The study was conducted on teachers in public secondary schools of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It adopted a qualitative case study design where data were collected through semi-structured interviews and then analyzed using a thematic analysis technique. The results show that basic school facilities, teacher-principal and teacher-student …

Iranian Students’ Experience Of K-12 And Higher Education: Use Of Drawings To Convey The Difference Between Ideals And Reality, Iman Tohidian, Abbas Abbaspour, Ali Khorsandi Taskoh

The Qualitative Report

The focus of education during K-12 and Higher Education (HE) in Iran is on theoretical empowerment of students; therefore, our students get an illusion of knowing. In fact, what happens is not learning and understanding; rather, it is verbatim transfer of available information in the textbooks into the students’ minds. It might be because the students and teachers (as the main stakeholders of the education) are the least powerful parties within the pyramid of power amongst educational practitioners and policymakers. It means their voice, feedback, needs, and ideologies have no place in the educational decisions and policies. In alignment with …

The Cynefin Framework: A Retrospective Application To University Library Leadership Covid-19 Responses, Alexis M. Eberth

Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how university library leadership retrospectively applied the Cynefin framework to COVID-19 responses. Developed using the principles of complexity theory, the Cynefin framework is a sense-making framework that assists those who use it with decision making in ordered and un-ordered situations. The framework comprises five domains: (a) clear, (b) complicated, (c) complex, (d) chaotic, and (e) aware and confused. Because problems are ever-evolving, the cyclical nature of the Cynefin framework allows for and encourages transitions between domains. Through reflection on their experiences during the pandemic, library leaders can utilize the framework’s tenets to …

Education And Entertainment: Developing New Pathways To Student Engagement Through Library Services And Student Life Partnerships, Ruth A. Monnier, Mary Mercer, Anna Stark

Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings

The COVID-19 pandemic caused higher ed professionals to pivot how they engage students in programs and events. For the 2020-2021 academic year, Pittsburg State University’s Student Life and Library Services created a series of virtual trivia nights. This paper will use the virtual trivia series as a case study to demonstrate the beneficial partnership between Student Life and Library Services at Pittsburg State University. This paper will highlight successes and suggestions on bridging the gap and replicating such a partnership at your institution.

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 5, 2021

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Resiliency And Goals: A Phenomenological Exploration Of African American Male Attrition In High School, Dwayne H. Gatson, Christine Enslin

The Qualitative Report

This article describes a phenomenological study that explored the lived experiences and perceptions of African American males with high school attrition. Sixteen event dropouts participated in individually taped semi-structured interviews, producing descriptive themes that were analyzed. Results from this study revealed eight major themes of (a) school climate matters, (b) social and emotional skills enhance development, (c) share responsibility of educational expectations, (d) support lacking, (e) engaging at-risk behavior, (f) apathetic view of education, (g) motivation is the education multiplier, and (h) respect is key to graduation. Findings and implications for stakeholders and future research are included that might prove …

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 4, 2021

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This is the complete volume 4 of the Journal of Communication Pedagogy.

Principal-Led State Evaluation Policy: Teacher Perceptions At Four High Schools, Amanda S. Frasier

The Qualitative Report

While policy makers have attempted to standardize teacher evaluation, policy is implemented and enacted by school administrators. This study addresses the following question: Considering the legislative efforts to remove control of evaluation from local figures, do teachers perceive school principals as influencing the implementation of state-level evaluation policy and, if so, in what ways? I examined interviews from 14 teachers across four high schools within a district in North Carolina derived from a larger mixed method case study of teacher perceptions of evaluation policy and classroom practice. The results suggest a state-centralized teacher evaluation policy, such as the one utilized …

Optimistic Leadership For The 21st Century And Beyond, Vincent P. Techo

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

This paper proposes a future-driven leadership theory—the optimistic leadership theory—suitable for leading global organizations in the 21^st century and beyond. The author argues that a new leadership approach is needed for these organizations due to the complexities that come with globalization, including the high need for knowledge and experience, distance decay, and cultural amalgamation. Five leadership approaches (Visionary Leadership, Differentiated Leadership, Servant Leadership, Flexible Leadership, and Reflective Leadership) are identified as the components of optimistic leadership. Following a review of the rare literature on these five leadership approaches, they are found to constitute the best determinants of successful future-driven …

Teacher Professionalism In Light Of Biometric Controls On Teacher Mobility And Autonomy, David L. Knott

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, I investigate the introduction of biometric technology, specifically fingerprint scanners, for the purposes of managing faculty members’ working hours at a higher education institution (HEI) located in the Middle Eastern Gulf States. Utilizing semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative data, three expatriate teachers of English discussed their experiences before and after management installed the fingerprint scanners, discussing the influence such a change has on their professional identities and the additional impacts on their teaching, their identification with the institution, and the overall culture of the HEI. The results show that the existence of the fingerprint scanners adversely affects …

The Effects Of A Shared Vision Of Teacher Leadership On Classroom Teachers’ Instruction, Tiffany L. Bockelmann

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

Many models of instructional teacher leadership exist in schools with various outcomes for teachers. The aim of this illustrative case study was to understand systemic alignment in a formal teacher leadership system and how this alignment impacted instructional change. This dissertation was framed by three research questions: 1) How do the rationales of teachers, teacher leaders, and administrators regarding teacher leadership in their school align? 2) How does the coherence of a system of leadership impact classroom teachers’ abilities to engage with formal teacher leaders? 3) How does the coherence of a system of leadership impact classroom teachers’ abilities to …

Narrative Inquiry In Practice: A Study Identifying Themes Of Persistence And Barriers In The Educational Journeys Of American Indian Students In Higher Education, Kristina Cirks

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

Increasing in popularity, the use of narrative inquiry in qualitative research study offers a unique perspective and context in sharing lived experiences. This article utilizes a narrative inquiry study to improve the knowledge of why American Indian students have the lowest college graduation rates in the United States. These narratives helped define the barriers that have discouraged American Indian students from persisting in higher education. Predominantly, participants identified the lack of financial support, lack of cultural competency, emotional distress, time poverty, afraid to ask for help, afraid to succeed, and navigating through the college processes as barriers to their educational …

Microaggressions In Academia: One Black Woman’S Story, Victoria Carter Jones

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Abstract

As a Black instructor in higher education, I know all about the challenges that marginalized people face on a regular basis. After all, racism is deeply rooted in the foundation of our American culture and society. So, I guess I should not have been surprised when two senior professors made assumptions about who I am as a Black American woman and my intelligence in academia. This paper gives a subtle and brief look into my experiences of microaggressions as a new Black woman instructor at a predominantly White institution.

Servant Leadership, Optimal Experience, And Meaningful Life, Kong Wah Cora Chan

Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice

Optimal experience – also known as Flow – was coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975 in his research study of joy, creativity, and the total involvement with life. Optimal experience is about focused attention and control of consciousness. Likewise, servant leadership is a conscious choice which aspires one to lead (Greenleaf, 1970). After a close examination of the philosophy of servant leadership by Greenleaf (1970), the attributes and behaviours of servant leaders by Laub (1999), Russell and Stone (2002), Patterson (2003), Keith (2008), Spears (2010), and Sipe and Frick (2015), it is argued that the work of a servant leader …

Correlation Between Servant Leadership And Organizational Commitment Within An Academic Health Center, Cheryl Bellamy

Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice

Correlation Between Servant Leadership and Organizational Commitment

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of a study of the relationship between servant leadership and organizational commitment. The study included a convenience sample of 84 full and part-time employees of a health professions education unit within an academic health center. Participants were surveyed using the Executive Servant Leadership Scale (ESLS) to assess servant leadership and the Klein Unidimensional Target-free (KUT) instrument to assess organizational commitment. Data analysis was conducted using Kendall’s tau-b and Spearman’s rho. Results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between servant leadership and organizational commitment.

Keywords: Servant …

Proximity To Power: The Challenges And Strategies Of Interviewing Elites In Higher Education Research, Kevin Mcclure, Jon L. Mcnaughtan

The Qualitative Report

Presidents, provosts, deans, and other upper-level administrators in higher education fit common definitions of “elites” in the context of qualitative research. Scholarship on methods specific to the field of higher education has not identified or described the unique challenges of interviewing these and other elites. The purpose of this paper is to examine challenges and share strategies for elite interviewing, with specific application to qualitative research in the field of higher education. We provide three examples of empirical studies involving elite interviewing and, using literature from other fields, highlight challenges and strategies. By anticipating challenges and implementing these strategies, researchers …

Complete Spring Issue

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

No abstract provided.

Leading Organizational Learning, Jessica C. Wells

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Leadership is hard to define but easy to recognize and is found in every facet of life. Leaders themselves range from good to bad, the extremities of which are determined by their character, actions, perception of self, how they are perceived by others and their worldviews. An individual’s values provide the basis for ethical decisions, which makes self-awareness a critical element in the development of one’s leader identity. This article provides an overview of leader identity development and offers ways for leaders to apply ethics in their everyday lives.