Date of Award
Winter 11-29-2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctorate of Education, Ed.D.
College
College of Education
Department
Education
First Advisor
John Mendes, Ed.D.
Second Advisor
Monica Nagy, Ed.D.
Third Advisor
Patricia Easley, Ed.D.
Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative, single-embedded multiple-case study was to explore the perceptions of teachers’ working in a transformational and distributed leadership style at a large comprehensive rural high school in South Central Texas. The research was conducted on a campus that has a total teaching staff of 170 and serves approximately 2,000 socioeconomically and racially diverse students. The sample consisted of 15 teachers, approximately one third of the purposive sample pool, with 1–6 years of teaching experience. For each participant, a preinterview open-ended questionnaire, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), and a semistructured in-person interview provided data. The research results showed that teachers reported high levels of self-efficacy working in a transformational and distributed leadership style, viewing both leadership behaviors and practices as positively impacting their job satisfaction. Professional learning communities (PLCs) were seen as both positive and negative as vehicles for transformational and distributed leadership depending on how they were implemented. Overall, teachers stated that they felt encouraged to remain in the profession of teaching and that they felt encouraged to continue teaching at the study site because of the leadership styles.