Effective Leadership Practices: A Qualitative Study of School Superintendents’ Perceptions

Garber, Timothy D.

Effective Leadership Practices: A Qualitative Study of School Superintendents’ Perceptions

上市 Deposited

分析

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of successful school superintendents concerning how they carry out effective, research-based leadership practices and to discover if there are additional leadership practices these superintendents incorporate to be successful in leading their school districts. In this qualitative study, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six school superintendents from Southwest Missouri to determine the answers to the following research questions: (a) “How” do successful superintendents carry out effective, research-based leadership practices? and (b) Are there additional leadership practices that successful superintendents utilize in order to be effective, district level leaders? The six participants in this study were the only superintendents in the region who met all the specific criteria established by the researcher to ensure the selection of quality participants. The review of literature identified nine effective district-level leadership practices: (a) establishing and promoting a school vision, (b) serving as instructional leaders, (c) communicating effectively, (d) building and sustaining relationships, (e) employing collaborative and shared leadership, (f) functioning as change agents, (g) displaying ethical and professional behavior, (h) navigating school politics, and (i) effectively managing school operations. These nine leadership practices form the basis of the interview guide and serve as the structure for exploring “how” successful superintendents operate as effective leaders. Descriptive data was gathered from the interviews and analyzed using constant comparative analysis. The main results of the research include the 24 themes that emerged from the descriptive data pertaining to how the participants carried out each of the nine, research-based leadership practices, and that no other themes emerged pertaining to additional leadership practices that successful superintendents utilize as effective leaders. The overall findings from this study support the notion that effective leaders employ a certain set of leadership practices that are valuable in most educational settings. All the participants in this study utilized the nine effective district-level leadership practices identified in the literature. Furthermore, the data identified 24 common strategies concerning how the participants carried out each of the leadership practices.

标题