Date of Award

1-1-2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education

First Advisor

Susan Korach, Ed.D.

Second Advisor

Kent Seidel

Third Advisor

Linda Brookhart

Keywords

Innovative, Leadership, Preparation, Principal, School, Transformational

Abstract

Since traditional principal preparation programs were scrutinized for inadequately training 21st century principals, alternative principal programs were designed to prepare principals to improve the US educational system and student achievement. One particular innovative program, the Daly Leadership Program, was collaboratively developed between the Pintler School District and the Intrepid University. The Daly Leadership Program was not only designed to balance leadership theory and practice, but also to produce transformative leaders capable of to navigating a moral dimension and promoting second order change.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the leadership style of graduates from the Daly Leadership Program that were employed by the Pintler School District. First, it was determined if the program graduates identified themselves as transformative leaders or leaders who have the capacity to make second-order changes. Then it was determined if program graduates serving as school principals were perceived as transformative by the teachers on their staff. The leadership style of graduates was measured using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire created by Bass & Avolio to define leadership behaviors on a Full Range Leadership continuum from Laissez-Faire to Transactional to Transformational.

The results revealed that Daly graduates perceived themselves to be transformative leaders at a higher rate than the national norms. Teachers who worked with program principals perceived their principals as transformative as well. However, principals perceived themselves more transformative than their teachers perceived them to be in the areas of intellectual stimulation (encourages innovative thinking), individual consideration (coaches people), and contingent reward (rewards achievement). In fact, teachers perceived their principals lower than national norms in these three factors, but higher than national norms for inspirational motivation (inspires others) and idealized influence (builds trust and acts with integrity).

This study indicated that there was alignment between the goals of the program and the perceived leadership style of graduates. It also indicated that the context of formal leadership roles might impact the perceptions of principals and teachers regarding leadership style.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Julie Catherine Murgel

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

108 p.

Discipline

Educational administration

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