Degree Name

EdD (Doctor of Education)

Program

Educational Leadership

Date of Award

12-2005

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Louise L. MacKay

Committee Members

Cecil N. Blankenship, Eric S. Glover, Terrence A. Tollefson

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if the teachers in Sullivan County perceive that principals used the same leadership practices as the principals reported they use.

The researcher used the survey method of data collection in which 897 teachers were given the opportunity to participate and 576 teachers returned completed surveys (63.2%). In addition, 29 out of 29 principals participated in the research (100%). The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) (Kouzes & Posner, 2003a) was used to gather information regarding the principals' leadership practices. Principals self-reported their perception of their leadership practices, whereas teachers reported their perceptions of their principals' leadership practices.

Two major findings of this study were that principals reported significantly higher levels of each leadership practice than both the Kouzes-Posner norms and their teachers' perceptions of their principals' leadership practices.

In addition, there was no difference between male and female teachers' perceptions of their male principals' leadership practices. However, there were significant differences between male and female teachers' perceptions of their female principals' leadership practices for all five behaviors. In each case, male teachers evaluated their female principals' leadership practices higher than did female teachers.

Document Type

Dissertation - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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