Date

9-2016

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Chair

Scott Watson

Keywords

consideration behaviors, initiating structure behaviors, leadership behaviors, teacher retention

Disciplines

Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Leadership

Abstract

Teacher retention has been at the forefront of educational concerns for many years and continues to be a legitimate issue for public and private education alike. Most available research, however, addresses public education with very limited research in this regard addressing Christian education. Evidence from public education research has highlighted the principal’s important role in teacher retention. Therefore, the principal’s role is a legitimate focus for research in the field of teacher retention in Christian education. The purpose of this correlational study is to determine if there is a relationship between the principal’s consideration or initiating structure leadership behaviors and teacher retention in the American Association of Christian Schools (AACS). The independent variables were the leader’s behaviors, and the dependent variable was teacher retention rates of those leaders’ schools. A random sample of 100 teachers from the American Association of Christian Schools participated in the study. Pearson correlations were conducted to test the null hypotheses and to determine if there were any statistically significant relationships between the principals’ behaviors and teacher retention in the American Association of Christian Schools. The results of analysis yielded a non-significant correlation of leader’s consideration behaviors and teacher retention and a significant negative correlation of a leader’s initiating structure behaviors and teacher retention. Although causation cannot be assigned, initiating structure behaviors had a negative relationship to teacher retention in the American Association of Christian Schools. Thus, a subsequent experimental research, which would address the gap in the literature, would be to determine if there is a causal relationship between initiating structure leader behaviors and teacher retention.

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