Digital Commons Network^™

Factors Associated With The Success Of An African American College President, Tyvi T. Small

Doctoral Dissertations

This narrative study examines the experiences of Dr. George Wright, a successful African American college president. Dr. Wright had 14-year career at the helm of Prairie View A&M University, an Historically Black College or University (HBCU), where he changed the trajectory of the institution. His story begins with seminal experiences in the segregated schools of Lexington, Kentucky and continues to Duke University, where he became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in History. In this study, Dr. Wright relates critical moments in his childhood, educational, and career experiences that put him on a path to success. This narrative …

Principal In Name Only: A Mixed Methods Study Of How Catholic School Governance Models Affect Leadership, Davis H. Bodie

Doctoral Dissertations

Catholic school principal effectiveness has been studied for years, along with the retention and attrition rates of Catholic school principals. Throughout the long history of Catholic education in the United States and around the world, there has not been a meaningful study of how the different governance models available to Catholic schools affect these school leaders. Through this explanatory sequential mixed methods research study, connections between different governance models and interactions with religious authority figures and offices and principal job satisfaction, retention, and attrition were evaluated. Results will allow current and future principals to be more informed concerning the best …

Hearing Impaired And Leadership: Struggles Of Individuals With Hearing Loss In The Workplace, John Cleese Relihan

Doctoral Dissertations

With the passing of federal legislations such as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Americans believe all issues relating to disability have been addressed. While Americans with disabilities gained civil rights under these two federal laws and educational opportunities have expanded, they are still struggling against the stigma of disability. They encounter many barriers as they enter the workplace and navigate toward leadership roles in their organizations. This narrative phenomenological qualitative study seeks to understand the experiences of individuals with hearing loss as they enter and navigate through their careers. Its purpose is …

A Collaborative Autoethnography: Your Passport To Immigrant Women Of Color Leader's Stories Of Identity Exploration And Leadership Barriers And Possibilities, Fraylanie Adan Aglipay

Doctoral Dissertations

The study of the personal and career narratives of immigrant Women of Color can lead to more appropriate standards in mainstream work environments and to the expansion of professional leadership opportunities for immigrant Women of Color. The experiences of immigrant Women of Color leaders are varied and complex, with each leader’s experience offering unique perspectives on their leadership journey. Additionally, it is important to analyze their identities because they contain multiple layers, serving as the foundation that has shaped them into the authentic leaders they are today. As scholars, researchers, and activists, we have a duty to address the lack …

Professional Learning Cultures At Work: How Principals Serve As Catalysts For Learning, Christopher J. Tranberg

Doctoral Dissertations

Principals are an influential factor in a child’s academic success (Manna, 2015; Louis et al., 2010; Waters et al., 2003). Although the path of influence is often indirect, principals affect student learning by developing and sustaining strong professional learning cultures (Hattie, 2009; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2012). As a result of the complexities surrounding principalship, a desire to understand the attributes, skills, and leadership actions of successful principals persists as an international focus of educational research. This study examines principalship through the experiences of various stakeholders within a school system utilizing a descriptive single case study ethnographic qualitative approach. This approach …

The Student-Athlete Leadership Academy Experience: A Case Study, Hannah M. Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations

This study sought to advance the understanding of how leadership education affects student-athletes interpersonally, as athletes, and as students while providing insight into the importance of leadership development for institutions and athletic departments for student-athletes who participate in a yearlong leadership program. The purpose of this study is to explore how a yearlong leadership development program influenced the personal and leadership growth and development of student-athletes during the 2020-2021 academic year. Two research questions guided the present study: How does the Student-Athlete Leadership Academy curriculum and experience contribute to student-athletes’ progress through the theory on leadership identity development and understanding …

Women In Senior Leadership Roles Career Mobility, Challenges, Success Stories And Need For Future Research, Giselle Flores Martin

Doctoral Dissertations

Women in Senior Leadership Roles Career Mobility, Challenges, Success Stories and Need for Future Research Women represent 57.4% of the US working population (~77M in 2019). From this, 51.8% held positions in managerial or professional roles. Although women represent over half of the working population and have demonstrated success in management and professional roles, they face challenges in attaining senior level leadership roles across multiple fields. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to look at how women respond to these challenges as they navigate their careers and ultimately the tools they used to successfully advance to senior level leadership …

Local Control Over Education: Perceptions Of Tennessee And Florida County School Board Members, Joseph G. Jarret

Doctoral Dissertations

Historically, local boards of education have been viewed as community stewards who are responsible for providing local children with a quality education that reflects the values and mores of the locality in which they serve (Rice, 2014). However, in recent years, many states have significantly expanded their roles in public education. Quite often, this expansion results in an erosion of local control. For instance, in 2019, the State of Florida, which presently has a mix of elected and appointed school superintendents, considered a state constitutional amendment which would have moved the state to a wholly appointed school superintendent model. In …

A Narrative Inquiry On Experiences Of Title Ix Coordinators In The Southeastern Conference, Laura Bryant

Doctoral Dissertations

There is a lack of understanding about the leadership experiences of Title IX Coordinators in higher education. Title IX Coordinators are not only compliance officers; they are campus leaders, positioned within the university’s organizational structure with the authority to impact their institution around the issue of discrimination on the basis of sex. Currently, there is a lack of scholarly research about the experiences of Title IX Coordinators as they work to create and sustain living, learning, and working environments free from sexual misconduct. Therefore, the purpose of this narrative study is to understand the stories of Title IX Coordinators in …

A Critical Feminist Case Study Of The Northern California Cherry Blossom Queen Program, Alison Kepola Nishiyama-Young

Doctoral Dissertations

Asian American women are chronically underrepresented in leadership positions in almost every sector including higher education, government, private, and non-profit (Youngberg et al., n.d.). Many researchers have suggested the need for more leadership development programs specifically designed to support the needs of Asian American women (Akutagawa, 2014; Canlas, 2016; Gee & Peck, 2015; Lin, 2007; Youngberg et al., n.d.). Though there are a number of leadership programs geared towards Asian Americans, there are very few that cater to Asian American women explicitly. Historically, cultural pageant programs in the Asian American community have played this role and one such program is …

Critical Followership: Faculty And Leader Relations Impact On Leadership Turnover At A California Community College, Erik William Christianson

Doctoral Dissertations

Community colleges are experiencing higher levels of executive leader (chancellor, vice chancellor, and dean) turnover than four-year universities. Many different factors account for the high turnover and low retention: the need for dynamic leaders, the leadership succession process, the lack of professional training and development, as well as stakeholders and outside forces. The relationship dynamic between faculty and leaders as a contributing factor has not been previously studied. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine leaders’ misperceptions of faculty’s needs. Surveys and interviews were utilized to cross-examine data and perceptions from faculty and leaders. Through the lens …

The Role Of The Academic Dean In Higher Education In The United States, Jason Daniel Smethers

Doctoral Dissertations

The role of the academic dean in higher education in the United States is continuously evolving. What are the priorities of the people who hold these positions? What form of leadership do these people use to administer their college? This study seeks to examine the priorities of academic deans. The leadership frameworks of Bolman and Deal (1991) are replicated and tested utilizing confirmatory factor analysis on a national sample of deans. This study then explores managerial roles (Mintzberg, 2007) in the context of various tasks of the deanship gathered from previous literature (Gmelch & Wolverton, 2002) to propose a new …

Secondary School Athletic Trainers: Examining Leadership Development, Kelly Coleman

Doctoral Dissertations

Background: In order to fully comprehend leadership, it is not only important to consider characteristics that define effective leadership, but also to determine behaviors that are deemed important in athletic training leadership practice. Previously, leadership behaviors have been examined in collegiate educators and head athletic trainers (ATs), but not in the secondary school athletic trainer population.

Purpose: To explore the frequency with which ATs in the secondary school setting practice leadership behaviors within and outside their professional roles across various demographic characteristics, and to investigate the leadership styles of secondary school ATs and determine what demographic characteristics influence the use …

Splinters From The Bamboo Ceiling: Understanding The Experiences Of Asian American Men In Higher Education Leadership, Jerald Adamos

Doctoral Dissertations

Asian Americans continue to confront perceptions connected to the perpetual foreigner and model minority concepts which challenges their acceptance as leaders in mainstream American culture. Asian men have recently been able to attain higher levels of education that opens doors to higher level positions and organizations yet still face barriers to career advancement opportunities. In consideration of the American higher education system, Whites continue to exceed their proportional representation in areas of the institution while Asian Americans do not. The purpose of this study is to understand how the intersection of racial and gender identity has influenced leadership through the …

Empirical Analysis Of Factors Impacting Turnover Intention And Termination Intention Among Manufacturing Workers, Yuting Li

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate how turnover intention relates to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, leadership, job performance, work-family conflict among manufacturing workers in Tennessee, USA. A causal model was proposed and a turnover intention survey questionnaire was set up for manufacturing workers. The data was collected from a large manufacturing company in the East Tennessee area and was analyzed by SPSS and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of our study indicated that job satisfaction and organizational commitment have negatively and significantly affected the manufacturing worker’s turnover intention while the work-family conflict has positively and significantly affected …

Support Provided By Administrators For Mathematics Teachers: A Case Study Of One North Louisiana High School, Jessica M. Hunter

Doctoral Dissertations

National and International assessment results as well as general student unpreparedness for college and beyond in terms of mathematical abilities indicate a need for increased student achievement in mathematics (Hart, 2005; National Center for Education Statistics, 2017; Peterson, Woessmann, Hanushek, & Lastra-Anadon, 2011). The purpose of the study was to explore effective leadership traits of secondary school administrators that foster and support teachers of mathematics. Research specifically made connections to instructional and transformational leadership practices, actions, and traits. This exploration was investigated through a case study using interviews completed by high school educators, administrators, and district leaders.

A sample of …

The Purpose And Value Of Agricultural Experiment Stations Today: A Perception Study Of The Directors Of State Agricultural Experiment Stations, Lori Wright

Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the dynamic relationship of the purpose and value of state agricultural experiment stations today as perceived by a sample of the directors of state agricultural experiment station in the United States funded by the Hatch Act of 1887. State agricultural experiment stations are a fundamental component of the land-grant university system; they are the original model and the first centers for applied research at most flagship state land-grant research universities in the United States (Kerr, 1987; Knoblauch, 1962). The purpose of state agricultural experiment stations has evolved since their inception as new agricultural issues have arisen, new …

Transformational And Transactional Leadership Outcomes On The City Of Oakland By Demographics, Jason W. Mitchell

Doctoral Dissertations

This study utilized a quantitative method, using surveys of workers in the public sector in the City of Oakland to determine the barriers that make it difficult to manage performance and tackle complex issues of that organization. Further, this study delved into the possibility for these leaders to create transactional or transformational environments in this sector. The goal was to find issues that make it difficult for public-sector executives to lead effectively; that is, the goal was to discern factors that prohibit executives from delivering high-quality and efficient services to the public and developing change management. This survey is vital …

Differences In Leadership Behaviors Of Principals And Success In The School Turnaround Processes, Annette Lee

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine leadership behaviors of principals associated with public elementary schools that were either in the school turnaround process or had already transitioned out of school academic turnaround from 2011 through 2016. Transformational leadership guided the study to determine whether leadership behaviors differed among leaders of schools associated with academic failure. School accountability data were initially gathered through the Louisiana Department of Education website. Academically unsuccessful schools (AUS) were identified. Schools that were deemed failing at least one time during the 2012-2016 timeframe were grouped as follows: (a) Group A consisted of two schools …

Unlocking Creative Potential: Catholic Elementary School Principal Perceptions Of Creativity, Kellie Scherer

Doctoral Dissertations

Church documents and scholars affirm that traditional pedagogies are ineffective in preparing students for the demands of the 21st century (CCE, 2014, p. 13, Darling-Hammond, 2010; Hartley, 2003; Kampylis, 2010; Skiba, Tan, Sternberg & Grigorenko, 2010). A review of the literature revealed that a gap in research on the Catholic elementary school principal’s understanding of and commitment to creativity exists. Even teachers who value creativity cannot fully support its development in the classroom without proper training. Continuing education coordinated by principals is one of the few opportunities for teachers to identify and confront their creativity misconceptions. The purpose of this …

Improvisation And Leadership Development: Understanding Improvisational Theater Arts As Leadership Skills, Jack Skalican

Doctoral Dissertations

Leadership development is immersed in a philosophical struggle. Past efforts at developing leaders have missed a set of skills important to the role of today’s leaders. Since Frederick Taylor invented the practice of scientific management, the study of management and leadership has largely focused on traits, practices, and behaviors that conform to this model such as planning, analysis, control, and monitoring. Missing in this focus, however, are less transactional leadership skills like intuition, improvisation, and creativity. As a result, organizations have begun drawing on improvisational theater skills as one answer to fill this leadership development gap.

This case study focuses …

An Exploratory Study Of Followership In New Hampshire High Schools, Matthew S. Hicks

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores followership theory and practical application in schools, extending Robert Kelley’s previous research from business to education. The study investigates three questions: 1) What is the distribution of Kelley’s five followership types in schools? 2) What is the relationship between teachers’ followership types and their demographic characteristics? 3) What leadership functions support teacher followership? These questions were explored using a modified 20-item version of Kelley’s The Followership Questionnaire and open-ended responses from teachers. A total of 559 New Hampshire public high school teachers completed the survey. Results were analyzed for associations between teacher demographic characteristics and followership types. …

The Leadership Experiences Of Female Special Education Administrators, Kerry E. Weir

Doctoral Dissertations

When Ella Young Flagg, the first female superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools, proposed that educational leadership was a woman’s “natural field” she could not have predicted that one hundred years later women would have neither a majority of school leadership positions, nor would they be proportionally represented when compared with female teachers (Grogan & Shakeshaft, 2011). Unlike the school leadership positions of the principal and superintendent that have been traditionally dominated by men, female leaders have achieved greater parity in special education administration (Keefe & Parmley, 2003). Although female special education administrators represent an exception to this phenomenon of …

Can Everyone Be A Leader? A Multi-Contextual Study Of Leadership, Xueting Jiang

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation is composed of three independent but interrelated essays. Each essay focuses on a specific perspective to study leadership at the individual level or at the team level and beyond. My first essay, Consequences of Leader Self-Efficacy Dissimilarity in Self-managing Teams, looks at the impacts of leader self-efficacy dissimilarity upon shared leadership and the consequent effects on team effectiveness in self-managing teams. My second essay, A Longitudinal Study on Leadership Identification in Self-managing Teams, explains why leadership structures may vary in self-managing teams and how individuals develop their leadership roles in a non-hierarchical organizational context. My third …

Social Dynamics Of Leadership: Is There Value In Considering Multi-Source Feedback Ratings From A Social Relations Model Perspective?, Andrea M. Bizarro

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study challenges conventional use of multi-source feedback (MSF) assessment data for both leader differentiation and leader development purposes in a real organizational setting. Leadership theory was considered from an individual differences as well as a relational process perspective to investigate whether conventional MSF scoring provides adequate information regarding social processes of leadership, and whether analyzing MSF data with the Social Relations Model (SRM) provides better insights into relational processes of leadership and leader self-awareness. Application of item response theory indicated that MSF assessment items do not provide sufficient differentiation among average and above-average ability leaders. Furthermore, analysis of …

Leader-Member Exchange As A Predictor Of Leaders’ Positive Work Outcomes: A Field Study, Matthew Jason Shaffer

Doctoral Dissertations

Prior research found that the quality of the working relationships between leaders and their followers, or Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) quality in leader-member dyads, predicts positive work outcomes for followers, including job satisfaction, engagement, and performance. Though leaders might be expected to receive similar benefits from high quality LMX with their followers, almost no published, empirical research to-date has reported benefits of LMX for leaders. The current study tested the relationships of LMX and positive work outcomes for leaders among middle managers and their direct supervisees in a large manufacturing company. Hypotheses predicted that average leader-rated LMX and average follower-rated LMX …

Understanding The Relationship Between Teacher And Organizational Intercultural Competency In International Schools: A Mixed Methods Study, Sally Emily Hirsch

Doctoral Dissertations

The number of international schools and their student populations are increasing around the world. These schools are culturally diverse educational spaces, providing opportunities for cultural understanding but also cultural conflicts. Teachers working in international schools need to be able to provide culturally relevant and responsive curriculum as well as be able to communicate effectively and appropriately with students, other teachers, administrators and parents. Research shows that students do best academically when taught by teachers who are interculturally competent yet there is a gap in current research on how this skill is developed in international teachers, and identified by school leaders. …

Self-Efficacy Of Middle School Teachers Responsible For Teaching Struggling Readers, Alison Burdick

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study answers questions about school reform by utilizing professional learning for teachers who lack self-efficacy to teach reading to middle school students. The findings included higher self-efficacy and lower burnout rates for teachers. Implications from this study include a model for professional learning that recognizes teachers as adult learners and a system of professional development that provides daily opportunities for teachers to work together over problems of practice.

Enriching Teacher Self-Efficacy Through A Support Centric Evaluation Model: A Mixed Methods Study Of Team's Impact On Teacher Self-Efficacy, Elizabeth Marie Norton

Doctoral Dissertations

The effectiveness of teacher evaluation systems is determined by the extent to which they can support improved instructional practice. Research suggests that implementation factors such as attitudes of school leaders (Kimball & Milanowski, 2009), perceptions of fairness (Delvaux, Vanhoof, Tuytens, Vekeman, Devos, & Petegem, 2013), the relationship of the evaluator and the teacher (Weber, 1987), and the quality of the feedback provided can all impact the effectiveness of the evaluation system (Conly & Glasman, 2008; Danielson, 2012; Delvaux et al., 2013; Weber, 1987). This mixed methods study attempted to determine the extent to which these implementation characteristics occurring within the …

Special Education Leadership Practices That Support Postsecondary Transition Service Delivery For Students With Severe Disabilities, Laurel A. Peltier

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT SPECIAL EDUCATION LEADERSHIP PRACTICES THAT SUPPORT POSTSECONDARY AND TRANSITION SERVICE DELIVERY FOR STUDENTS WITH SEVERE DISABILITIES SEPTEMBER 2015 LAUREL A. PELTIER, B.A., GORDON COLLEGE, WENHAM M.A., UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND, KINGSTON C.A.G.S., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ed.D. UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by Dr. Mary Lynn Boscardin In the past decade, researchers have made new forays into understanding educational leadership and the connections between leadership practices and outcomes for students. While evidence-based leadership practices at the building and district level are critical to the success of students in general and special education settings as a whole, the need for …