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 Subject "Educational administration"
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Item A Case Study of Leadership and Disciplinary Practices Used by Secondary School Leaders to Support Equity for Black Male Students(Florida Southern College, 2017) Haggins, JazrickThe school-to-prison pipeline has plagued black males for many years. When school leaders apply disciplinary consequences such as in-school and out-of-school suspension, they inadvertently foster the push-out of black males by removing them from the classroom. When black males are removed from the classroom through suspension, the opportunities to excel in social and academic environments significantly decrease. The social construction of race in the context of school discipline supports how black males are stereotyped by the way they dress, their cultural background, and their everyday demeanor (Simson, 2014). Because of this stereotypical societal perception, black males are often generalized as being defiant, disrespectful, and dangerous. It is important for educational leaders to have an awareness of how black males are perceived in school and create opportunities for equitable disciplinary practices towards black male students. The purpose of this study was to explore leadership and disciplinary practices used by secondary school leaders to support equity for black male students. The researcher used qualitative research to conduct three instrumental case studies. Three high schools were used as part of this research: one suburban and two urban. The researcher interviewed and observed three high school principals and high school assistant principals. The exploratory questions that guided this research are listed below: 1. What factors, as perceived by school leaders, play a role in equitable school disciplinary practices for black male students? 2. What data sources do school leaders principals utilize that may influence disciplinary practices towards black male students? 3. What discretionary practices do school leaders use or take into consideration that support equity when handling a disciplinary incident that directly involves black male students? 4. How do school leaders develop and train faculty and staff members to reflect a shared vision to support equity for black male students? This study was designed based upon research done on the Critical Race Theory and the Racial Threat Theory. The racial threat theory suggests that minorities are perceived to present an economic, political, and criminal threat to the dominant social group. The Critical Race Theory suggests that racial stigmatization, stereotyping, and implicit biases are based on a long history of racial prejudice in the United States. Inequity in school discipline for black males has been an ongoing issue for several years. Qualitative research examined how school leaders support black males and maintain equity in leadership and disciplinary practices for black male students. Several components are considered to support equity, and those components range from building positive relationships to promoting parental involvement in education. The researcher offers policy implications on disciplinary practices and recommendations for further research for school leadership.Item Phenomenological Study: Recruitment and Retention of Highly Qualified Teachers in North Florida Title I Elementary Schools(Florida Southern College, 2022-08) Johnson, Cynthia L.On average, about 50% of teachers leave within the first five years of entering the classroom with the attrition rate for teachers in Title I schools being almost 50% greater than non-Title I schools. Principals know and understand the pressures that cause teachers to leave the profession; however, little research has been done on how to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers. This qualitative phenomenological study was designed to investigate practices of high-performing elementary Title I school principals in their quest to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers. This study explored the purposeful practices of principals to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers, as well as the perceptions of their teachers in these practices. Interviews with five principals and eleven teachers from high-performing Title I schools across north Florida served as the basis for this study. Horizontalization of the data was conducted through multiple readings and pulling significant quotes and ideas that provided an understanding of the individual’s lived experiences. This study revealed that word of mouth, networking, and requesting interns are three practices principals use to recruit highly qualified teachers. An assessment of retention practices showed that principals strive to create a positive environment and support teachers in their practice. This study also looked at teachers’ perspectives in the practices of principals to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers. Results of the data show that a positive environment was most important, followed by support of teachers in their accepting a position and their decision to stay in a position.Item A Quantitative Study of P-12 Public, Rural Principals' Self-efficacy with Florida's Principal Leadership Standards(Florida Southern College, 2019) Crawford, Teresa McKenzieThe purpose of this study was to determine what variables increase self-efficacy for public, rural P-12 principals in Florida’s principal leadership standards. The study’s intent was to also determine what sources principals acknowledged as their source of self-efficacy in each standard. For the context of this study, sources of self-efficacy were operationalized and ranked by respondents. Self-efficacy in each standard was determined by a continuous rating 0-10 in each of the skills established by the Florida Department of Education as comprising each of the nine standards evaluated in this study. The data was analyzed using non-parametric measures because of the skewness of the data as determined by the Kolmogorow-Smirnov test. Pearson’s, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis were used to determine relationships of the variables studied with principals’ self-efficacy in each standard. The number of years a principal has served in that capacity had the greatest significance with having weak, positive correlations in four of the nine standards. Females had higher rates of self-efficacy in two of the nine standards, and race, ethnicity, school and school site had no relationship with self-efficacy in the nine standards. As a principal’s age increased, so too did self-efficacy in two standards. Years of teaching and years as an assistant principal had no relationship with a principal’s self-efficacy in the standards. The greatest source of self-efficacy, ranking number one, was performance outcomes, while verbal feedback was the second, and vicarious experiences ranked as third.