Digital Commons Network^™

Diversity Management And Organizational Resilience Among Midsized Cccu Institutions In Christian Higher Education, Kristopher M. Sutton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory qualitative cross-case analysis was developed to investigate how diversity management strategies were implemented and whether they coexist with organizational resilience capabilities at three U.S. private, midsized Christian-affiliated institutions of higher education associated with the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. The researcher collected data from a senior-level chief diversity officer at each institution to determine how their diversity strategy was managed and whether a mature diversity program was concurrently present with organizational resilience capabilities. Data were collected using two primary instruments: the Diversity Management Competencies Questionnaire and semistructured interviews focused on organizational resilience. The collected data were supplemented …

Transforming School Leadership: An Examination Of The Impetus And Evolution Of An Internal District Principal Preparation Program, Whitney Szoke

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

School districts, faced with increasing shortages in the education profession, are leveraging internal district strategies to recruit and grow their educators. In addition to preparing and credentialing new educators, districts are turning inward to cultivate their leadership pipeline. This case study explores a post-credential inner-district principal preparation program in a large school district in the Mid-Atlantic region. Participants were central office leaders involved in creating and developing the program. This study's findings reveal insights into the creation and development of an inner-district principal preparation program and how initiatives are shaped and influenced during the development phase. Central office leaders were …

The Future Of Nursing Leadership: Incorporating E-Learned Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Pathways With A Precautionary Focus On Patient-Centered-Care, Jamie Anne Marcus Dr., Bonnette Villalba Webb

FDLA Journal

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a data-driven mathematical process that incorporates machine-based-logic, usually in the form of algorithms. Education, training, and competencies are now conducted through virtual reality, robotics, simulation, and technology learning-based-platforms by healthcare organizations. This represents a significant change in the future of nursing practice. The adaptability of technology-based-learning platforms can impact the quality and efficiency of learning for some of the workforce population. Nurses' perception of technology and AI-driven nursing practice may vary based on generational orientation and can be a potential barrier to learning, practicing, and adaptability of this framework. The forging of well-trained resilient nurse leaders …

How Do Teachers Make Sense Of New Learning About Culturally Responsive And Sustaining Education?, Kristine Mustillo

Student Theses

The education of Black citizens has historically been unequal and plagued with deficit based approaches that result in the under-education and over-disciplining of Black youth in schools, with dire implications. Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education (CRSE)aims to change the narrative by honoring the racial, ethnic, linguistic and cultural differences of students of color who are marginalized in a school curriculum, featuring a pedagogy that empowers students (Ladson-Billings, 2021). Educators often report that they understand CRSE in theory but there is confusion when putting the theory into action and there are other challenges faced when working in current social and political …

Exploring School Leadership Styles Used To Improve Instruction And Learning In Schools, Nana Yaw Agyeman Mr, Venessa Aphane Ms

Journal of Research Initiatives

Schools are under intense pressure to improve quality and achieve long-term educational outcomes. To improve education, schools' teaching and learning environments must be improved. This research evaluated the various leadership philosophies used in South African schools to improve teaching and learning. The study's qualitative methodology included in-depth interviews with open-ended questions. A purposeful technique was used to select 16 participants from four different schools. The participants included four principals, four school management team members, four department heads, and four teachers. Themes guided the data analysis, focusing on patterns and resemblances while maintaining data quality. The study's findings revealed that school …

Black Superintendents’ Perceptions On The Effectiveness Of Diversity And Equity Professional Development In New Jersey Schools, Tanisha Hinton

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Providing an accessible and equitable education for all students has been an ongoing process mandated by the Managing for Equality and Equity initiative to close the achievement and opportunity gaps among students. This qualitative study examined Black superintendents' perspectives about the effectiveness and impact of diversity, equity, and inclusive initiatives in majority White staffed school districts in New Jersey. Furthermore, the study explored the perceptions of Black superintendents across different regions of New Jersey to understand if there were significant differences in how DEI initiative was perceived. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 Black superintendents and the data was analyzed …

Principals As Instructional Leaders: Supporting New Middle School Principals To Implement Systems Allowing For Instructional Leadership, Jason Kaiz

Dissertations

This study is a collection, interpretation, and, eventually, recommendations based on data collected through interviews with current middle school principals. The research questions examine how middle school principals can increase their effectiveness as an instructional leader within the building. The research begins by examining the factors contributing to the principal being an instructional leader and what systems can be implemented to support this goal. These systems should include the ability for principals to facilitate learning for staff, just as staff facilitate learning within their classroom. Policy implications and recommendations highlight the need to look at resources available for principals as …

1 A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experiences Of Hospital-Based Physical Therapy Department Leaders’ Most Successful Change Management Initiative, Joseph Patanella

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

ABSTRACT

A phenomenological study of the lived experiences of hospital-based physical therapy department leaders’ most successful change management initiative

Problem: Change management initiatives are consistently employed in healthcare to promote quality care. Of concern is that not all initiatives are successful. Individuals involved in successful change management can offer insight to those approaching initiatives.

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe the lived experiences of hospital-based physical therapy department leaders’ most successful change management initiative.

Methods: The research design was a qualitative approach. A phenomenological research design was employed, using the voice of a group that has …

The Patterns And Structures Of Information Technology Departments In Higher Education, Curt Herridge

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the patterns and structures of the Information Technology (IT) department in US colleges and universities. It seeks to understand to whom the Chief Information Officer (CIO) reports, how the top level of the IT department is organized, and what functions the IT department offers. It then examines the university factors that are associated with variations. This quantitative case study uses primary data from the EDUCAUSE Core Data Survey (CDS) and IPEDS, combined with a novel dataset collected from university websites and AAU membership. The study employs Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) using IT variables to classify institutions into …

The Lived Experiences Of High-Performing Black Male Students With Advanced Placement Courses, Griselda Almonte-Delgado

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Black male students are underrepresented in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Studies on the perspective and experiences of high performing Black male students with Advanced Placement (AP) is limited. Available research indicates that high performing Black students are enrolled at half the rate of White students both nationally and locally in Advanced Placement (AP) courses (Dept. Of Civil Rights, 2021). Research uncovers multifaceted factors influencing enrollment, ranging from personal motivation to systemic barriers. To qualitatively address this dissonance, this research used Attribution Theory as its framework to examine the lived experiences and perceptions of eight high performing Black male students from …

Sustaining Principals In Native Serving Schools, Marsha Hubbell-Espinosa

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Rural schools struggle to recruit and sustain quality educational leaders and systems that contribute to student success. Rural Native American schools pose more of a challenge because of the unique cultures that play a role in sustaining leaders in their communities. I explored the reasons for high principal turnover in rural Native American serving schools. I conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews to collect narratives related to turnover from eight current, former, and retired principals. The stories of these principals provide a direction for recommendations for approach, strategy, and fundamental culturally responsive leadership that is unique to rural Native …

Indigenous Leadership: Leading The Journey So Others Follow, Ophelia M. Sanchez

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Leadership is a ceremony. All leaders need to envision a sense of purpose as the journey begins. I examined interactions among attitudes, perceptions, and decisions through Indigenous female leaders’ personally identified leadership styles and how to integrate Indigeneity for positive change in their environment. The purpose of this study was to help guide school leaders through initiating educational change and to give courage to Indigenous female leaders to continue to lead or step into leadership. In exploring these interactions, I examined Indigenous women’s leadership experiences, values, and beliefs. This study provided valuable insight to women of all ages, educators, school …

A Phenomenological Study On The Impact Of The Experience Of A College Merger On Employee Engagement, Satisfaction, And Burnout In Faculty, Staff, And Administrators At Minnesota North College, Molly Elise Franz

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Higher education institutions were becoming more competitive due to meeting the needs of changing demographics of prospective students, increasing costs of tuition, fees, and operations, meeting workforce demands, providing access to high quality technology tools, and more. A merger process impacted employee engagement, satisfaction and burnout. It was important for administrators in higher education to create and maintain a supportive and inclusive culture for employees, especially during each stage of the merger process. It was also important to clearly communicate the purpose of the merger, and to provide employees an opportunity to engage with the planning and implementation stages of …

The Impact Of Cognitive Coaching On Educator Identity And Teamwork Through Classroom Observation As Perceived By Teachers And Administrators., Carrie Elizabeth Wade

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Classroom observations are meant to help teachers improve their instructional practice and improve learning outcomes for students. But for many educators, traditional, in-person classroom observations can not only be difficult to arrange but difficult to truly gain valuable feedback from when teachers can’t see what was happening in the moment (Drago-Severson & Blum-Stefano, 2017). Teaching and leading in an environment characterized by a constant state of change is more likely to cause stress and negative feelings when the employees care deeply about the outcome (Wisse & Sleebos, 2016). Cognitive Coaching methods, applied to classroom observations, aim to reduce focus on …

Examining Formative Leadership Experiences Of District Science Coordinators Using Collective Case Study, Khushbu Singh

All Dissertations

Leadership in educational institutions can significantly impact the quality of education and student outcomes (Ferrell & Garner, 2023; Leithwood et al., 2008). District Science Coordinators (DSCs) play a pivotal role as district-level leaders responsible for enhancing science education (Whitworth et al., 2017). Despite increased attention from researchers and policymakers, a knowledge gap persists regarding DSCs' formative experiences in their leadership roles and their impact on teachers and students (Whitworth & Chiu, 2015). This dissertation focused on two research questions: first, the challenges and/or supports that DSCs encountered during their formative years, and second, the knowledge, practices, and attributes they considered …

Transformative Leadership: Possibilities And Contradictions In The Lives Of Four Early Childhood Directors, Sara Jill Wasserman

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the ideas of transformative leadership when applied to the context of early childhood education, creating opportunities and challenges for the directors who lead the schools. More specifically, to better understand how ECE directors, who were trying to be transformative, interpreted their experiences and constructed corresponding realities as leaders. Through a series of individual and group interviews, I tried to answer the guiding research question about how ECE directors, working in private, preschool settings, navigate the tensions between a neoliberal system of schooling and the practices of transformative leadership. While there …

Organization Of Change: The Journey From Probation To A Successful Accreditation Review, Erin Dail

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Regional accreditation, seen as a necessary hurdle by many in higher education, is required to participate in Title IV funding. However, several studies indicate that the current accreditation process is broken. Institutions with more resources, both in staffing and funding, and more academically ready students are at an advantage for favorable accreditation outcomes. Those institutions serving the most at-risk students rely on Title IV funding the most and may be participating in a process in which they are less likely to succeed. This study seeks to explore the experiences of Accreditation Liaison Officers (ALOs) at Higher Learning Commission (HLC)-accredited community …

Exploring Teacher Agency And Student Engagement: A Case Study Of An Urban High School In The United States, Alexandra M. Kirby

Educational Studies Dissertations

Using a mixed-methods case study design, this study explored teacher agency, student engagement, and the relationship between these two complex constructs at a Northeastern urban high school, “City High School” (CHS). Teacher agency refers to the level of control or power teachers have in their classrooms and in a school system as well as to feelings of belonging, of being supported, and of competency. Fredricks et al. (2004) suggest student engagement is an intricate construct that includes behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement. A social constructivist and critical theory lens informed the research. Three guiding research questions focused on teacher agency …

Burnout And Work Fatigue In Contingent Faculty During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Gina Dimartino

Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic and immediate shift to remote learning had a major impact on faculty and students in higher education institutions (HEIs). As a result of the pandemic, many stakeholders in HEIs have experienced burnout and work fatigue, specifically, contingent/adjunct faculty. Contingent/adjunct faculty comprise a majority of faculty who serve students in colleges and universities across the country.

As the needs of students increased during the pandemic, contingent/adjunct faculty experienced increased workloads due to the additional support needed by diverse and challenged students. This further intensified the unique challenges faced by contingent faculty that existed prior to the pandemic in …

Exemplary Elementary School Principals’ Use Of Emotional Intelligence As They Lead Their Organizations In Rural Areas, William Cook

Dissertations

The roles of school leaders have evolved from a more conventional focus, one encompassing independent leadership, to a relational leadership approach that is more open and personable (Hoyle et al., 2005). The purpose of this qualitative multicase study was to describe the emotional intelligence strategies that exemplary elementary principals in rural areas use as they respond to leadership challenges in their school organizations based on Goleman’s (2006) four domains of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management). A secondary purpose of the study was for exemplary elementary principals in rural demographics to explain how their use of emotional …

Perception Of Emotional Intelligence And Self Efficacy For School Business Officials At K-12 Districts, Agha Mirza

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy in Chief Business Officials (CBOs) working in School Districts in the state of California.

Methodology: The primary objective of this study was to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy characteristics, employing a quantitative, correlational research design. The study involved a non-experimental approach to establish correlations between the identified variables and an explanatory design to elucidate the relationship between variables. Correlational research has been established as the most effective approach for examining correlations between phenomena and distinct population samples, which made …

Exploring Superintendents’ Understandings On Virtual Learning Responses, Kate Maxlow, Karen Sanzo

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

In this study, the authors sought to explore superintendents’ understandings of the various influences on how their districts implemented a 100% virtual learning experience for students for the 2020-2021 academic year. Understanding these influences allowed the authors to develop a framework for leading redesigns of learning systems in long-term crisis situations. In this qualitative study we conducted semi-structured interviews with fifteen superintendents in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Findings showed that districts sought to plan equitable virtual learning experiences for all students based on unintentional influences and the district’s intentional responses. We found that during an educational crisis, learning plans emerged …

Harnessing The Power Of Cliftonstrengths®: How Multinational Corporations Can Use Deep-Level Diversity To Enhance Organizational Inclusion, Trapper Kay Pace

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research explicitly investigated how multinational corporations can enhance workplace inclusion through the novel use of the CliftonStrengths® assessment as a dimension of deep-level diversity. The study gleaned insights from employees’ perspectives, employing a constructivist grounded theory approach to explicate their experiences in rich qualitative narratives. Through open-ended surveys and intensive interviews, participants were selected using purposeful sampling to ensure meaningful data collection from the study organizations’ three global regions. The researcher conducted the analysis systematically through the constant comparison of data utilizing the NVivo14 software to assist in constructing codes, themes, and a theoretical schema. Results highlighted the significance …

Understanding The Relationship Between Perceived Organizational Support And Psychological Well-Being: Perspectives Of Turkish Faculty Members, Ünal Deniz, Cihan Kocabaş

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objective: The purpose of our quantitative correlational study is to investigate the relationship between the perceived organizational support of faculty members and their psychological well-being.

Methods: Our study included 450 faculty members from state universities in Istanbul who were selected using a simple random sampling method. We used descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and linear multiple regression analyses.

Results: We found that faculty perceptions of organizational support and psychological well-being vary according to academic title and tenure and are not different by gender. Perceived organizational support significantly predicted psychological well-being while controlling for gender, academic title, and tenure.

Conclusions: Ensuring …

Medical School Middle Managers Learning To Successfully Work With Leadership To Navigate Organizational Change, Elizabeth G. Smith

Doctor of Education Program Dissertations

There is a lapse in research exploring middle managers at medical schools during an organizational change. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the perceptions of middle managers during an organizational change to mitigate burnout and build resilience. The literature reviewed explored how stressors from organizational changes may impact medical school middle managers, leading to feeling less secure about their position and increasing middle managers’ stress leading to burnout. For an organizational change to be successful, middle managers must build trust with their staff, communicate with middle managers, and engage middle managers in the change process. Burnout …

"It’S Hard To Be An Enemy Of Student Success”: A Qualitative Case Study Of A Cultural Shift Towards Student Success, Lisa R. Lawless

Dissertations of Practice

Literature on how colleges change is limited and theoretical in nature. The purpose of this qualitative case student was to explore how Retention University changed their culture and norms to increase student persistence and retention. Data was collected with semi-structured interviews with 16 participants at a large, public university in the southeast. Four primary themes emerged from data: (1) leaders play an important role in fostering organizational change; (2) leaders need to be strategic about how they foster change; (3) leaders need to consider how organizational contexts might hinder change; (4) and value the people and process. Implications for further …

Twenty First Century Principal Leadership, Shannon R. Goodacre

Dissertations

With the shifts and newly evolving complexities of the 21st century, the significance of what is needed from a successful school principal has reached a critical point. Today, one of the most vital roles of an effective principal is to, "Create a climate hospitable to education so that safety, a cooperative spirit, and other foundations of fruitful interactions prevail" (Foundation, 2013, p. 6). Therefore, the present study, using a constructivist research approach to conduct a phenomenological study, strove to understand a phenomenon, in this case, the phenomenon of leadership as it is practiced by high school principals (Adom, 2016). This …

Charting New Paths: Exploring The Influence Of Followership Perspectives On Millennial Career Behaviors In The Changing University Workplace, Kimberly M. Stapleton

Dissertations

This dissertation will explore the attributes and application of the Reversing the Lens Approach (Shamir, 2007) to followership and its influence on career advancement strategies for millennials working at universities. The research will assess millennials as being born between 1980 and 1995 and currently working at universities in the southeast United States. This is a phenomenological study with an exploratory qualitative research design that seeks to uncover and understand to what extent millennials' roles as followers and their interactions with their leaders influence their career advancement strategies and what, if any, are the implications for their current institutions and higher …

Ngo Navigators, Information Support, And Parental Assistance With Pk-12 School Decisions, Jason E. Saltmarsh

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

This study provides empirical insights into the perceptions and agency of navigators who provide school selection assistance and this NGO’s unique insider–outsider status. As semi-private actors, navigators offer an important bridge between two kinds of social capital: the informal types of trust and legitimacy that families rely on, and the skills, knowledge, and networks necessary to access higher-quality schools in choice policy contexts. Data for this study are derived from an exploratory case study, including 13 in-depth interviews, documentary and social media analysis, and informal conversations. The findings illustrate the benefits and shortcomings of NGO information support in choice policy …

The Experiences Of Women College Presidents While Leading Through An Institutional Crisis: The Perceived Successes And Failures Of Crisis Communication Strategies, Madison Marie Speck

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This multi-site case study explored the uncommonly discussed yet organic intersection between the study of crisis communication and the study of crisis leadership and in turn, what it means in the context of a college presidency. This study has a unique focus on women presidents at small, private colleges and the ways in which they communicate with various stakeholders during a crisis environment. The research is guided by Boin’s Model of Crisis Leadership which guides and assesses crisis leadership performance; however this study introduces nuances to the framework that are suggested as a result of the findings; most of which …