Date

4-26-2024

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (EdD)

Chair

Gregory Mihalik

Keywords

teacher leadership, distributed leadership

Disciplines

Education | Educational Leadership

Abstract

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of teachers in leadership roles in a rural, secondary school setting. The theory guiding this study was the theory of distributed leadership created by Spillane and developed by Groff, as it explained the power of teacher leadership as a method of distributing leadership to promote teacher retention and motivation alleviating some principal stress and burnout. Data was collected using interviews of the ten participants to better understand how teachers experience leadership and how administrators can promote it, focus groups to understand the phenomenon in more depth, and journals to understand the role of the teacher leaders clearly. Data was analyzed based on the procedures outlined by Moustakas for transcendental phenomenological research including transcription of interviews, collection of statements of the phenomenon, reduction and elimination of invariants and duplicates, documenting emergence of themes, and compilation of a textural-structural description of the phenomenon. Data collected through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and journaling revealed the following three themes: teacher leadership requires active participation, there are requisite characteristics of teacher leaders, and teacher leadership has costs and benefits. The essence of teacher leadership can be summarized this way: an impassioned, accountable service for the purpose of school improvement. Theoretical and empirical implications, limitations and delimitations, and recommendations for future research are all discussed.

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