Education Commons^™

Teacher Retention In Independent Schools, Charles Maddox Jr.

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Teachers in public and independent schools have left the field of education at a staggering rate. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand what factors kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers describe as influencing their decisions to remain in independent day schools in Florida. For the purpose of this study, independent education is defined as private schools. Five participants were interviewed for the study. The two themes developed in the study were differences from public schools and school leadership. The subthemes for differences from public schools were flexibility, teacher autonomy, and freedom from government control while subthemes for school …

Ineffective School Leadership: Teachers Weigh-In, Jerry Burkett, Sonya D. Hayes

School Leadership Review

Effective school leaders are essential to the success of the school environment. Teachers have left schools due to poor and ineffective campus leadership, but often do not report the reasons why they left or do not have a safe mechanism in place to support their claims and drive campus change. The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand the perceptions of teachers who work in elementary, middle, and high schools in Texas on the qualities of ineffective principals and how these qualities affect teacher retention. Respondents in an open-ended survey reported that ineffective principals lacked character, professionalism, and ethics; …

Book Challenges Popping Up All Over: What Do School Principals Need To Know?, Samantha Laine Hull, Sue Kimmel

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This chapter provides practical advice and reasons for school leaders to support students' intellectual freedom through their support of school libraries and school librarians. The chapter begins with a short but critical literature review that includes case law on the topic of censorship in schools. The concerns of teachers and librarians from a recent study are summarized and help build the foundation for practical and ready to use advice for any school leaders to uphold the intellectual freedom of all students.

A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Leadership Experiences Of School Leaders During Covid-19 Changes, Margaret H. Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative, transcendental phenomenological study was to explore the leadership experiences of school leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theory guiding this study was Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory as it focuses on the idea that leadership is contingent and can be adjusted based upon the factors of a situation. The situational leadership theory can help to explain the adjustments in leadership practices that could be made when the employee’s task changes, or their relationship needs change. The relationship between the situational leadership theory and this study was the change in faculty task and setting situations …

Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask First: Exploring School Principals’ Stress And Workplace Well-Being, Dl Alex Alexander

Education Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to highlight the importance of studying and promoting well-being to help manage stress and prevent burnout among school principals, examine potential gender disparities, and to consider implications for future practice. Grounded in a positive psychology framework, this study examined the correlations among school principals’ workplace well-being, perceived stress, self-compassion, and intent to remain in their roles using a non-experimental, descriptive survey method. In Washington State, 124 school principals responded to an online survey over a span of 11 weeks. Descriptive, correlation, moderation, independent t-test analyses were performed on quantitative data, and qualitative data was …

"I Just Feel Worn Out”: Constraints To Teacher Agency Throughout Covid-19, Andrew Kipp, Spencer Clark, Carl Fahrenwald, Gustavo Perez

School Leadership Review

COVID-19 created serious and long-lasting difficulties within educational systems resulting in higher rates of teacher attrition in the U.S. Teacher agency, which is the teacher’s capacity to act professionally, is a predictor of teacher attrition. The school environment, through policies and practices, can inhibit teacher agency, and the constraint of agency promotes teacher attrition. As school structures shift to address new post-pandemic needs, there is an increased need to understand how school structures throughout the pandemic inhibited teacher agency and drove teacher attrition. We examine how school systems constrained the agency of three veteran high school teachers from March 2020 …

A Qualitative Descriptive Study On High School Teachers’ Perspectives Regarding School Safety And Lockdown Drills, Hector Leija

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study addressed teachers’ perceptions of safety and emergency preparedness. The problem that was addressed in this study is that lockdown drills are regularly being conducted at public high schools, but it was not known how teachers perceive their role in safety and emergency preparedness, which is important to teachers’ sense of security. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how lockdown drills negatively or positively affect high school teachers’ perceptions of emergency preparedness to answer the research questions regarding school safety. This study was grounded in the cognitive mediation processes framework of protection motivation theory. Data …

Qualitative Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study: The Lived Experiences Of School Leaders Who Have Worked Through A Merger, Olga Nelly Collazo

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study describes the lived experiences of school leaders who worked through the processes of school mergers in New York State. The central research question that guided the study was: What are the lived experiences of school leaders who worked through the processes of a school merger? In addition, guiding questions were implemented to understand the phenomenon of school mergers. The guiding questions are: How do school leaders maneuver and manage the organizational structures impacted by the processes of a school merger? What role do school leaders play in the environmental demands influencing the processes of a …

Administrators' Perceptions Of Reducing Exclusionary Discipline In Black Girls In K - 12 Urban Schools: A Qualitative Study, Lorraine Reeves

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership Dissertations

Abstract

“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” —Ida B. Wells

The use of exclusionary discipline has an impact on all stakeholders in the educational system. This includes Black girls, teachers, administrators, and parents. The current study provides an in-depth view of the lived experiences of school administrators when implementing exclusionary discipline and their methods to mitigate the use of such discipline practices in urban K-12 schools. While research is available on the experiences of Black girls and Black boys with exclusionary discipline, there is scant literature on the experiences of the school …

Evaluation Of A District’S Leadership Development Pipeline, Alyta T. Harrell

Education Theses and Dissertations

Leading a school campus is an increasingly challenging and critical task that requires effective leadership. It is important to identify the specific leadership skills needed to create a culture conducive to learning, meet the unique needs of a particular campus and community, and enable continuous improvement. The leadership development pipeline aimed to identify, develop, and support potential school leaders, fostering their growth through targeted professional development, mentoring, and support. This mixed methods embedded experimental model study evaluated the effectiveness of a district's leadership development program, focusing on best practices for school leaders. The study employed a combination of quantitative data …

Drawing On The Locus Of Control Framework To Explore The Role Of School Leaders In Teacher Well-Being., Inga Venema-Steen, Anne Southall, Anna Bortoli

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This scoping review explores the role of school leadership in the improvement of teacher well-being by utilizing the Locus of Control (LOC) Framework identified by psychologist Julian Rotter in 1954. The internal and external environments impacting teacher well-being were explored, and the specific responsibilities of school leadership were identified. The literature reports that while teachers are responsible for many aspects of their well-being, school leaders can improve a teacher’s mental health and create a positive school culture by taking responsibility for factors external to the teacher’s LOC. This paper outlines school leadership responsibilities in actively implementing strategies to improve staff …

Leading With Equity Through Action: The Theory Of Racial And Gender Equity Advancement In Rural Schools, Anna Gross

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

All students deserve an equitable education. Rampant misinformation has flooded the educational world, and society as a whole, turning the concept of “equity” into something that has become politically charged. However, all students are different, and differences must be acknowledged and celebrated to ensure all students receive the education they need to thrive both academically and socially.

The purpose of this study is to examine equitable practices in rural schools. Using a constructivist paradigm, a grounded theory research approach was utilized through collection of qualitative data to theorize why some rural schools are further advanced than other rural schools of …

Exploration Of The Relationships Between Principal Preparation Program Admission Requirements And Program Performance, Summer Pannell

School Leadership Review

Admission criteria for principal preparation programs vary from state to state and even amongst universities within the same state. Despite the recommendation nearly two decades ago to connect admission criteria to leadership standards, little research has been done to help develop such criteria. This study examined principal preparation program admissions requirements at one southern university to determine if a relationship existed between admission criteria, academic program performance, and performance on educational leadership licensure assessments. The Pearson product-moment correlation found a statistically significant correlation between, both, the GRE and GRE Writing assessments and the School Leadership Licensure Assessment for educational administrator …

None Of Us Are Safe: How Leaders Sustain Culturally Responsive Elementary And Middle School Improvement Planning, Jerry B. Michel

Dissertations

In the spring of 2020, school leaders, school boards, and teachers faced challenges beyond the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, finding themselves under attack for the perceived applications of critical race theory in school curriculum. These conditions made active engagement in equity-focused school improvement planning more challenging. School leaders and leadership teams may benefit from using an established framework to identify strengths and areas for growth around culturally responsive pedagogy for effective school improvement planning. This article explores the use of Hammond’s (2015) Ready for Rigor Framework as a tool for identifying prioritizing which conditions for culturally responsive pedagogy …

School Principals’ Emotionally Draining Situations And Student Discipline Issues In The Context Of Work Intensification, Katina Pollock, Ruth Nielsen, Fei Wang

Education Publications

Over the past decade, research into principals’ work intensification has revealed that principals spend significant work hours on student discipline and attendance issues, and that they report high levels of emotionally draining situations. In the current study, we examined the relationship between student discipline issues and principals’ emotionally draining situations to determine if variables related to student discipline issues affected principals’ experiences of emotionally draining situations. Using a correlational research design with hierarchical regression, we analysed data from a digital survey of school principals in Ontario, Canada. A total of 1434 surveys were included in the final analysis, with respondents …

Trauma-Sensitive School Leadership, David Tranter, Katina Pollock, Nadine Trépanier-Bisson

Education Publications

Public schools welcome and support students from all walks of life. As a result, educators in public schools are responsible for meeting multiple and divergent student needs. Events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic – such as increased anxiety, domestic abuse, neglect and school closures – as well as growing awareness of systemic societal inequities for many under-represented groups, and historical atrocities such as the discovery of unmarked student graves at residential schools, have led to an increased public awareness of student and staff trauma.

Examining Attention To Leadership When Hiring School Administrators In A High Poverty, Ethnically Diverse School District: A Case Study, Veronica A. Tigert

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods case study was to understand the hiring practices of a school district when considering a principal and how the school district attends to leadership within those hiring practices. The central premise of the study was leadership matters and is second to teaching in student achievement. However, the historical record paints a picture of less than adequate attention to effective hiring practices and a limited scope when addressing leadership. A small school district in California was selected to participate in the study. The design incorporated mixed methods to analyze the hiring practices through a survey …

A Statewide Network’S Impact On School Leaders’ Self-Efficacy For Transformational School Change, Karen Perry

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

Changing educational practice is widely understood to be a challenging endeavor, even for experienced school leaders. Much of the research on school networks focuses on building teacher capacity for improving student performance, but less evidence exists relating to increasing school leaders’ self-efficacy, specifically for the purpose of transformational school change. Building on the body of research of school networks and leaders’ self-efficacy, this mixed methods participatory action research study investigates how a network, facilitated by university faculty, impacts the leadership self-efficacy of high school principals for the purpose of leading transformational school change. Self- efficacy is both malleable and essential …

The Power Of Place-Based/Outdoor Education In A Rural District: Effective Leadership To Increase Learning, Engagement, And Belonging Through Place-Based Education, Mary Sewright

WWU Graduate School Collection

The research for this qualitative bounded case study on place-based/outdoor education in Mount Baker School District focused on fourth through sixth grades. The research was done mainly through interviews collecting the voices of 37 students including 16 fourth graders, 11 fifth graders, and 10 sixth graders. Twenty of those students were boys and 17 were girls. A total of nine District staff were interviewed including seven teachers and two administrators. Leaders at each of our Community-Based Organizations from Common Threads Farm, Wild Whatcom, Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, Camp Saturna, North Cascades Institute, and Whatcom Environmental Education Coalition making up our …

Leading In Liminality: Implications On Individual And Collective Identity, And Knowledge Creation For School Leaders, David Sorkin, Melodie Wyttenbach, John Reyes, Michael Warner

Journal of Catholic Education

In the spring of 2020, schools of all sectors across all nations were forced to close their doors as COVID-19 rippled through communities. Drawing upon the concept of liminality, which refers to a stage, state, or period of transition (Soderlund & Borg, 2017), this study investigated the intersections of the experience of liminality during the pandemic and functioning for Catholic school leaders. Interviews with urban school leaders were analyzed to understand key characteristics of liminality as experienced by school leaders within organizations. Findings indicate that school leaders responded to the liminal experience by sharpening the focus of work, which simultaneously …

Examining K-12 School Leadership Through A Complexity Theory Lens, Mandi Lehnherr

Theses and Dissertations

Observing the connection between complexity theory and the K-12 education field, I conducted an extensive literature review to discover much research had already been undertaken. However, given the pervasive, wicked problems that still exist, there may be gaps in the operationalization of the findings. The purpose of this research is to determine how school leaders understand the complexity of their school system and if examining school leadership from a complexity lens may uncover practices that could create more effective school operations in dynamic environments. Ten school principals and leaders were interviewed. Five major themes were derived from the data: a) …

Social Media Practices Of School Administrators: The Time Is Now, Heather Bowman, Michelle Giles, Amy Orange, John Decman, Jana M. Willis

School Leadership Review

The educational disruption caused by COVID-19 increased awareness of the value of organizational resiliency/sustainability and the critical need for administrators to provide timely communication among all stakeholders. If preparation programs are to provide administrators with the skills and knowledge to effectively use social media as a communication tool, we must explore the practices and perceptions of school administrators’ use of social media to communicate with stakeholders and to identify their recommended social media communication practices. The Social Media as a Tool to Effectively Communicate with Stakeholders Survey and interviews were used for data collection. Findings are focused on comfort levels, …

School Leadership Assessment Of Teachers’ Work-Life Balance: Perceptions And Professional Learning Needs During A Global Health Pandemic, Juliann Sergi Mcbrayer, Summer Pannell, Alissa Sasser, Katherine Fallon, Katarina Evans

School Leadership Review

The purpose of this study was to better understand the work-life balance of educators teaching students during the Covid-19 health pandemic. Teachers face a multitude of challenges during this unprecedented time with a rapid shift from traditional face-to-face class to online learning resulting in a cyclical phenomenon for many teachers as schools have shifted back and forth between virtual and in-person settings in response to constantly changing coronavirus messaging. The findings identified three overarching themes related to teachers’ needs including Boundaries with Time and Commitments, Mentally Processing Daily Stressors, and Healthy Lifestyle. Implications for practice denote that …

Interpreting Social-Emotional Learning: How School Leaders Make Sense Of Sel Skills For Themselves And Others, James Bailey, Randy Weiner

School Leadership Review

The need for social-emotional learning for adults has emerged due to accountability stressors and the Covid-19 pandemic. While many school leaders believe in SEL for adults, major disconnects exist between their understanding and belief in SEL and their plans to implement it. The main problem this research sought to address integrated two ideas in the affective world of school leaders: First, research literature today does not describe what competencies from the most commonly used framework for SEL, CASEL, mean concerning school leadership. Second, research literature today does not describe how school leaders explicitly develop SEL skills and operationalize these competencies …

School Leadership Support: Understanding The Experiences Of Elementary-Level Teachers During A Global Health Pandemic, Kathleen M. Crawford, Pamela Wells, Juliann Sergi Mcbrayer, Kristen N. Dickens, Katherine Fallon

School Leadership Review

The purpose of this study was to better understand how the current COVID-19 global health pandemic has professionally and emotionally impacted elementary-level teachers. Teachers experienced diverse challenges during this unprecedented time with a rapid shift from in-person to online learning. Two overarching themes emerged based on participant experiences: abandoning best practices and increased stress and emotional pain. Implications for practice included the need for school leaders to evaluate the current level of support being provided to teachers and assess areas of need to support professional and emotional growth with the backdrop of the pandemic. We encourage future research with all …

School Leadership That Impacts Student Achievement In Blue Ribbon Schools In The Rio Grande Valley Of Texas, Sonya Y. Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to determine the leadership actions, behaviors, and practices of effective school leaders in Blue Ribbon Schools in South Texas who resulted in the schools receiving the distinction by the U. S. Department of Education of being a Blue Ribbon School. Data were collected through a series of interviews with principals and teachers from the selected sample of Blue Ribbon Schools in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using inductive coding to determine themes.

Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Impact Of Principal Leadership Style On Teacher Transfers In International Schools In South Korea, Caleb Philip Coleman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study determined the perceptions of international school teachers regarding leadership and how these perceptions influenced their turnover decisions. Research completed largely in the United States shows that principals are a major factor in teachers’ decisions to stay or leave their schools, primarily due to teachers rating their principals highly in communication and support. Over the last 25 years, international schools have experienced a boom in growth, yet research into international schools has lagged. This study sought to build on previous research to find if teacher perceptions in international schools in South Korea mirror those of teachers in previous …

Tech-Savvy School Principals Leveraging Crisis Leadership To Support Teaching And Learning In Their Schools Through Covid-19 Pandemic, Mohsen Alzahrani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory case study was to learn about the effective practices that recognized tech-savvy principals enacted to support teaching and learning in their schools during the first academic year of the COVID-19 crisis. The study involved semi structured interviews with five recognized tech-savvy school principals. It also involved analyzing supporting materials and documents.

The findings of this study indicated that tech-savvy principals were not stuck in the structural rut that most principals found themselves in during the COVID-19 crisis. Four main themes emerged from the data. The first theme addressed how recognized tech-savvy principals demonstrated decisive decision …

Impact Of Covid-19 On New Teacher Retention And Perceived Supports In A Northern California Public School District, Rebecka Maxkenzie

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study examined teachers, schools, and district approaches to new teacher retention with a COVID-19 spin. In the changing world of a global pandemic and shifting teaching modalities, including distance or hybrid learning environments, teachers reflected on their experiences of adaptation. Interviews with teachers in their first three years in the profession were conducted to share the stories of new teachers amid COVID-19. New teachers were recruited through a snowball sampling technique from a large school district in the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. To answer the research questions, participants were interviewed about the presence or absence …

Women Seeking The Public School Superintendency: Navigating The Gendered And Racialized-Gendered Job Search, Rachel M. Roberts

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

I have been an educator for my entire career. First, as a teacher and over the last decade as a school administrator. During my tenure, I have continually noticed the underrepresentation of women in the highest office: the school superintendent. This has vexed me over the years, and as a scholar practitioner in leadership and change, I have devoted my research to unearthing the inequalities and disproportional realities that exist within high-profile leadership, particularly the public school superintendency. Utilizing a grounded theory approach, this dissertation sought to better understand what happens at the micro-level, especially during and after the superintendent …