Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership
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This collection includes dissertations from Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership students.
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Browsing Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership by Author "Lamb, Ashlee"
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Item A Mixed-Methods Study on the Relationship Between Elementary School Principals’ Transformational Leadership and Teacher Self-Efficacy(Florida Southern College, 2020-02) Lamb, AshleeSchool reform has evolved into an ever-changing situation that has brought both intended and unintended effects on teachers. Many of these affects come from stronger accountability measures. This level of accountability is likely to increase performance pressure on teachers, which causes many teachers to feel burnout (Hill & Barth, 2004). School principals are responsible for understanding current national, state, and local mandates with a deep understanding of how these mandates will affect their teachers and students. Therefore, principals are faced with being a buffer between the pressure of school reform and how they are implemented at a school level. How these policies are communicated and enforced has a significant impact on teach self-efficacy levels (hbr, 2016). There are many types of leadership styles present in education. Transformational leadership has gained popularity over time due to its perceived successes (Howell, 1993). Care must be used when examining transformational leadership to ensure that the intention of the leader is authentic, and not of selfish gain (Tourish, 2013). This research aimed to examine elementary school principals who are also transformational leaders and illuminate how they increase or decrease teacher self-efficacy levels. This was done through principal and teacher interviews, as well as teacher surveys. This research also compared the teacher self-efficacy levels of schools with a transformational principal to those lacking a transformational principal. It is evident through this research that elementary principals who operate as transformational leaders outshine other leadership styles in the ways in which they run their school and continually reflect on their own leadership practices. No barriers to self-efficacy were reported by teachers who had transformational principals. Teachers at schools with a transformational principal have significantly higher levels of self-efficacy in every category.