Date of Award

2020

Degree Type

Open Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Education, PhD

Program

School of Educational Studies

Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair

David Drew

Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member

Mary Simpson Poplin

Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member

Lucrecia Santibañez

Terms of Use & License Information

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Rights Information

© 2020 David G. Grant

Keywords

instructional leadership, integrated leadership, principal effects, teacher effectiveness, teacher morale, transformational leadership

Subject Categories

Educational Leadership | Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching | Secondary Education and Teaching

Abstract

Two leadership styles have dominated the literature- instructional leadership and transformational leadership. No study could be found quantitatively integrating principal practices from these styles in ways that simultaneously predicted teacher effectiveness and teacher morale. Therefore, this study sought to better understand the complex relationships between principal practices, teacher effectiveness and teacher morale. First, this study synthesized meta analyses of principal effects for studies produced between 1978-2008 and presented a unique empirically grounded integration framework summarizing principal effects for student achievement and teacher morale. Second, the study used this framework to explore four research questions. An online survey was utilized to collect data from a snowball sample of middle school teachers. The study compared teacher perspectives on principal practices, teacher effectiveness and teacher morale in low and high poverty middle schools in California. Second, this study analyzed the relationships between twelve leadership dimensions and five teacher outcomes. Next the study tested the predictive effects of school level variables and twelve leadership dimensions. Finally, this study explored if and how diverse leadership practices could be integrated to predict burned out, ineffective, overextended , or engaged teachers. Results of this study demonstrated no significant difference between the perspectives of teachers in low or high poverty middle schools. Correlations were stronger between dimensions of instructional leadership and dimensions of teacher effectiveness. Laissez-faire leadership correlated with increased emotional exhaustion and depersonalization experienced by teachers. Regression analyses found that each dimension of leadership predicted one or more dimensions of teacher effectiveness and teacher morale, confirming the effort to integrate leadership practices. Finally, discriminant function analysis substantially improved prediction of teacher effectiveness and teacher morale. Practices from transformational, transactional, instructional, and even passive-avoidant leadership loaded on one or both functions. Each integrated function identified a specific set of principal practices. The optimal frequency of these practices for function one (improvement-responsivity) was “sometimes” whereas the optimal frequency for function two (community learning) was “frequently.” The two functions can be interpreted as a theory of action principals can enact inter-dependently with teachers.

ISBN

9798664766479

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