Degree Name

EdD (Doctor of Education)

Program

Educational Leadership

Date of Award

5-2015

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Dr. James Lampley

Committee Members

Dr. Pamela Scott, Dr. Virginia Foley, Dr. Cecil Blankenship

Abstract

Most research indicates that effective principals usually involve teachers in some of the decision-making processes that take place in a school. When teachers feel they have a voice in decisions, they are more likely to take ownership in their school. Great leaders have the power to change their school either for the advancement of the establishment, or they can bring about negativity in the workplace.

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences on the 5 dimensions of the Kouzes-Posner Leadership Practices Inventory (Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart) between teachers’ scores and their principal’s score for participants in this study, and to determine if a relationship existed between teachers’ scores on the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire and their principal’s Leadership Practices Inventory score.

For this research data were collected from 10 schools in a school system in East Tennessee that contained kindergarten through eighth grade. These schools are classified in 3 categories: kindergarten through eighth grade, third through fifth grade, or sixth through eighth grade.

There were 208 participating teachers in the school system who teach kindergarten through eighth grade. One-sample t-tests were used to compare the principal’s Leadership Practice Inventory score to teachers’ Leadership Practice Inventory scores at each of the 10 participating schools. Scores for teachers and their principal were not significantly different for any of the 5 dimensions for Schools 1, 2, 9, and 10. School 8 displayed a significant difference for 3 of the 5 dimensions. The means were significantly different for Schools 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 on all 5 of the dimensions. The relationship as measured by Pearson correlation coefficients between the Leadership Practices Inventory and the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire for teachers at the 10 participating schools displayed similar mixed results.

Document Type

Dissertation - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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