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Leadership Experiences Of Rural School Principals In Culturally-Cohesive Communities: A Phenomenological Study, Paige Ryan Raney

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe leadership experiences of rural school principals in K-12 schools in culturally-cohesive communities in Alabama. Three theories guiding the study were Blanchard’s situational leadership theory (Hersey & Blanchard, 1977) as it described different leadership styles and directing others to desired results, Dweck’s mindset theory (Dweck, 2006) by considering how fixed mindset was the inability to think beyond a situation and growth mindset focused on the process of learning and development, and Burns’ and Bass’s (1978) transformational leadership theory in how principals display leadership. Rural principals’ experiences were defined as ways they …