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A Comparison of the Leadership Style Perceptions of School Board Presidents and Public School Superintendents
No full textThis dissertation determined the perceptions of school board presidents regarding their superintendent's leadership style and the self-perceptions of superintendents regarding their personal leadership style. The leadership framework of Bass and Avolio (2004) was used to focus on three specific leadership styles of superintendents: transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership. This information was vital because superintendents are considered the chief executive officers responsible for the day-to-day management of school districts.
The methodology for this study was quantitative with a correlational design. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire ([MLQ], 2004) was used to gather perceptions regarding transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles from school board presidents regarding the leadership style of their superintendent and from superintendents regarding their personal leadership style. Seventy-five matched pairs (school board presidents and superintendents from the same school district) were collected to analyze research questions.
To address research questions one and two, the researcher conducted descriptive statistics on the data to describe the school board presidents’ perceptions regarding superintendent's leadership style. In addition, a one-sample t-test was used to compare the mean leadership style scores to a hypothesized mean. Once analyzed, data indicated that school board presidents perceived their superintendents to exhibit transformational and transactional leadership styles and did not perceive their superintendents to exhibit a laissez-faire leadership style. Superintendents’ ratings of their own leadership style indicated a strong tendency towards transformational leadership, with some tendencies towards the transactional leadership style. Superintendents scored lowest in laissez-faire leadership style. For research question three, the assumption of linearity was assessed using a Pearson r correlation analyses. There were no statistically significant relationships between public school board presidents’ and superintendents’ behavior scores.
This study illustrated the importance of finding a superintendent’s leadership style and skills. It specifically highlighted the importance of ensuring a positive fit between a superintendent’s leadership style, the needs of a school board, and the needs of the district. The research established a statistically strong link between school board presidents’ and superintendents’ perceptions of leadership
A Quantitative Analysis of the Influence of Religion and Spirituality on Therapeutic Alliance with Adolescents in Outpatient Psychotherapy
No full textTherapeutic Alliance had been one of the most comprehensively examined aspects of psychotherapy, and has been understood to be foundational in achieving positive therapy outcomes (Bordin, 1979; Clark, 2013; Norcross & Wampold, 2011; Rogers, 1957; Shirk & Karver, 2003). A strong alliance generally results in client engagement and completion of therapy assignments, which significantly contributes to the successful reduction of client symptoms, and goal attainment. This has been found in both the adult and adolescent literature. Still, while the majority of counseling professionals would agree that a strong therapeutic alliance is an integral part of the therapy process, little is known about the precise mechanisms that contribute to therapeutic alliance (Clark, 2013). This is particularly true of adolescent populations. There have been a small number of studies examining client attitudes toward religion and spirituality in adult psychotherapy, but no studies to date have investigated the influence of religious and spiritually integrated psychotherapy on therapeutic alliance with adolescents. The present study broadly examines this relationship by comparing the scores for therapeutic alliance between two groups. Therapeutic alliance scores, as measured by the Working Alliance Inventory-SR and the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory, were compared between adolescent clients who receive religious and spiritually integrated psychotherapy and adolescent clients who receive traditional secular psychotherapy. Data analysis was conducted using independent t-tests and Pearson’s product-moment correlation. Results indicate that there is no statistically significant difference between the means of scores between both groups, and no correlation between variables
A Mixed-Methods Study Investigating Public Elementary School Teachers' Decision-making and their Application of the Ethic of Care and Justice
No full textAlthough there is extensive research on the ethical decision-making process administrators demonstrate when handling student discipline, there is very little research on the process public elementary school teachers use when making ethical decisions (Begley 2010; Branson, 2007; Gardner, Avolio, Luthans, May, & Walumbwa, 2005; Fullan, 2003; Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2005; Palestini, 1999; Shapiro, 2006; Starratt, 2004; Stefkovich & Begley, 2007). This study focused on the ethical frameworks described by Starratt (2004), Noddings (2005), Shapiro and Stefkovich (2005), Colnerud (2006a,b), Branson (2007), and Begley (2010) who suggest that educators should utilize multiple ethical lenses, including the ethic of justice and care, in order to make informed ethical decisions.
The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine the extent to which an elementary teacher’s orientation toward either the ethic of care or the ethic of justice correlated with the likelihood that a public elementary school teacher would implement a care solution or a justice solution when faced with student behavior requiring disciplinary action. In order to determine each public elementary school teacher’s ethical orientation, the principal investigator used Yacker and Weinberg’s (1990) Moral Orientation Scale (MOS). To determine each public elementary school teacher’s likelihood of applying a care solution or a justice solution, the principal investigator invited public elementary school teachers to respond to three hypothetical scenarios followed by care solutions and justice solutions. The principal investigator determined the types of discipline elementary teachers would assign to students based on three hypothetical scenarios, what they would do if they did not have to follow a code of conduct, whether public elementary school teachers state that handling student behavior challenged them morally, and if they reported that teaching was a moral endeavor.
The quantitative data determined that the public elementary school teachers were generally oriented toward an ethic of justice on Yacker and Weinberg’s (1990) Moral Orientation Scale (MOS), yet the data from the hypothetical disciplinary scenarios indicated that they were more likely to implement a care solution when faced with a disciplinary dilemma. The teachers’ care-orientation on MOS was positively correlated with their likelihood of choosing the care solution in the hypothetical scenarios, and this correlation was marginally significant, r(87) = .18, p = .094. The teachers’ justice-orientation on MOS was also positively correlated with their likelihood of choosing the justice solution in the hypothetical scenarios. The data for second ranked MOS choices and public elementary school teacher’s likelihood of implementing a care solution showed no relationship while the data for second ranked MOS choices and a public elementary school teacher’s likelihood of implementing a justice solution determined that there was a weak-positive relationship. Qualitative data showed that public elementary school teachers expressed both care oriented and justice oriented comments, but this data alone did not mean they implement multiple ethical lenses while solving moral or disciplinary dilemmas