Date

8-20-2026

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)

Chair

Mary Strickland

Keywords

Transformational Leadership, Special Education, Inner-City, Phenomenology, Leadership, Teachers

Disciplines

Education | Educational Leadership

Abstract

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of school leadership among special education teachers in inner-city charter schools in the United States. At this stage in the research, the lived experience of school leadership support is generally defined as how special educators perceived, interpreted, and responded to the leadership behaviors of their school administrators within their professional roles. The theory guiding this study was Burns’ transformational leadership theory. The central research question addressed in this study was: What are the lived experiences of special education teachers in inner-city schools with school leadership support? Data was collected from 10 participants through focus groups, a letter-writing prompt, and individual interviews. Data was analyzed using van Manen's four steps: reflecting on the essential themes that characterize the phenomenon, describing the phenomenon through writing and rewriting, maintaining a strong, focused relation to the phenomenon, and balancing the research context by considering the parts and the whole. Through the data analysis process, five themes and thirteen subthemes emerged. These themes and subthemes informed four overarching interpretations that provided a deeper understanding of the phenomenon under investigation.

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