Date

4-2020

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (EdD)

Chair

Michelle J. Barthlow

Keywords

Educational Leadership, Feedback, Social-role Theory, Teacher Perception

Disciplines

Education | Educational Leadership

Abstract

Determining the criteria necessary for an educational leader or principal to be effective by including employees, such as teachers in evaluating their principals, may aid in strengthening educational leadership overall. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to determine if there is a difference between teacher perception of their administrator’s leadership qualities of inspiring a shared vision, modeling the way, and enabling others to act based on the biological sex of their administrator. The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) Observer form was used to measure the leadership quality of educational administrators as perceived by their teachers. The population for the study was 107 Kentucky Pre-K–12 public school teachers from five different school districts. A quantitative causal-comparative design was used to determine if a difference exists between the independent variable, biological sex of the administrator, and the dependent variable of teacher perception of their principal’s leadership qualities inspiring a shared vision, modeling the way, and enabling others to act. An independent samples t-test was used to test the null hypotheses. The results revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in teacher perception of their principal’s leadership qualities of inspiring a shared vision, modeling the way, and enabling others to act based on the biological sex of the principal. The small and very small effect sizes found between male and female principals on each leadership quality indicate that the gender gap in educational leadership is narrowing. Recommendations for future research include expanding higher education leadership programs to promote doctrines that address the gender gap in leadership and enlarging the collection site to increase participation in the study.

Share

COinS