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THE ROLE OF THE PRIVATE CHRISTIAN

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR ON

TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & THE

NEED FOR RELATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS

Janine Allen, EdD & Suzanne Harrison, PhDICCTE Conference, Azusa Pacific University

May 24, 2012

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BACKGROUND Interested learning more about private

K-12 school communities Philosophically and programmatically,

both higher education institutions include teacher education that focus on collegial teamwork

We encourage the “voice” of the preservice & inservice teachers; teacher leaders

Alignment or misalignment? Goal: Retention in the profession

[private setting] = fulfillment of calling

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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Purpose of the Study* To discover perceptions of administrators in private Christian schools about leadership characteristics, roles, and teacher professional development.

Research Questions 1. What are the perceptions of private Christian school

administrators regarding the role and attributes of a school administrator?

2. What are the perceptions of private Christian school administrators regarding their view about success as administrators?

3. What are the perceptions of private Christian school administrators regarding their role in supporting teacher professional development?

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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

*Transformational Leadership: Leithwood’s (1994) transformational model of school leadership which is based upon the theoretical models of Burns (1978), Bass (1985), and Bass and Avolio (1994).

1. Attend to the needs & give personal attention to individual staff members;

2. Help staff members think of old problems in new ways;

3. Must communicate high expectations fro teachers & students alike; and

4. Through personal accomplishments & demonstrated character, the principal must provide a model for behavior of teachers.

(Marzano, Waters & McNulty, 2005, p. 15).

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CONTINUED:Servant Leadership: Attributed to Robert Greenleaf

(1970, 1977).

Places the leader centered within the organization rather

than a position at the top of a hierarchy.

1. Understand the personal needs of those within the organization;

2. Healing wounds caused by conflict within the

organization;3. Being a steward of the resources;

4. Developing the skills of those within the organization;

5. Being an effective listener.

(Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005, p. 16-17).

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REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Effective School LeadersRoles of the leader (Brown, 2006)

Guide towards deeper spirituality, teacher ministry

Collective leadership (Samuels, 2010) The influence of educators, parents, and

others on school decisionsLife as community (Sergiovanni, 2005) Encourages others (Kouzes & Posner,

2002). Teamwork, fostering collaboration

Theoretical framework (Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005)

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CONTINUATION Christian School Leadership

Spiritual leader for school; Directs school values (Brown, 2006; Cardus, 2011)

Help others to grow in their relationship with God; focus on the mission and vision of the school. (Banke, Maldonado, Lacey, & Thompson, 2005) View role as spiritual leader rather than

intellectual leaderLeadership values not primarily

focused on rigorous education (Cardus, 2011)

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CONTINUATION Teacher Professional Development

Often regarded as presentations but should have active engagement and build capacity (Reeves, 2010)

School culture supports or hampers, positive and healthy school culture strongly correlates to increased student achievement and teacher productivity and satisfaction (Stolp, 1994).

PD must have coherence, agreed upon vision and aims, focus on educators as learners, student centered (Headley, 2003)

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RESEARCH METHODS Setting & Participants

*Participants: 6 private Christian school administrators who were participating in a workshop/training.*Setting: Conference room located at 1 private Christian university in the Northwest.

Research DesignExploratory Qualitative Study (Creswell, 2007, p. 73).Purposeful Sampling (Creswell, 2007, p. 73). Instruments:

1. Written Questionnaire2. Two Focus Group Interview Sessions (Krueger, 2002)

3. Co-Researcher Observations/Field NotesValidation of Data (Creswell, 2007, p. 207-209): Use of

triangulation, co-research debriefing sessions

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INSTRUMENTATION Written questionnaire given to the 6

participants--demographic information--ranking of leadership characteristics/attributes

Two focus group sessions with the 6 participants

Researcher observations during focus group sessions

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RESEARCH PROCEDURES Held two focus group sessions with same 6

participants.Duration: 2 hours each sessionFirst session: disseminated written questionnaire and conducted group interview using guided questions. While one researcher asked questions, the other researcher observed the group taking field notes.Second session: follow-up group interview with additional questions that unfolded from the first interview session. While one researcher asked questions, the other researcher observed the group taking field notes.

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DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Tabulation of data from written questionnaire based on demographics and ranking of leadership characteristics/attributes

Transcription of focus group interviews Written field notes from the researcher

observations during the focus group sessions

Analysis Coding Seeking themes and patterns

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FINDINGSDemographicsSix private Christian school administrators4 principals, 2 superintendents3 doctorates, 3 master’s degrees3 with state administrator licensing, 3 do not3 administrators work in secondary schools, 3 K-

12 schools1 with more than 25 years of experience ,1 with

14 years of experience, the other 4 with less than 6 years in the private Christian schools as an administrator

2 of the 6 have public school experienceTHREE EMERGENT THEMES

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WHAT LEADERSHIP IS…The participants discussed the vision and

mission of the school most frequently.

“[Educational leadership] means casting a vision.”

“A leader takes a vision and then converts it into a shared vision.”

“A leader should inspire people to lead and to equip them to lead as well. It is important to understand the overall culture of the school and the learning environment that you are trying to establish.”

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WHO WE ARE AS LEADERSAttributes/Characteristics (based on mean score on written questionnaire):

*Most important attributes: trustworthy, administratively skilled, communicative, team builder, and confidence builder.

*Least important attributes: motive arouser, coordinative, just, dynamic, and effective bargainer.

What we celebrate:

success stories from teachers or staff about a spiritual moment for a student,

“See a life transformed”

“Seeing a dormant seed [child] fall on fertile soil in the school and they get to grow, their life has changed…”

“We have a student back years later and they say their life was changed.”

What success means to us:

“When you hear God say ‘well done’” you know you’ve been successful.”

“When the student becomes better than the teacher, that’s when I know I’ve been successful.”

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WHAT WE DO AS LEADERSDecision makers:

“In a smaller setting it seems mostly about making decisions all day long.”

Teacher Professional Development: “Until recently we’ve probably had a fairly traditional model for professional development once a week, on Monday’s we have a late start, we bring in somebody on a topic to talk to our teachers…”

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SUMMARYThe participants… *highlighted the role and characteristics of a

leader focusing on mission/vision,*suggest the importance of developing a shared

mission/vision and collaborative action. Is Administrator professional development needed? (Leithwood as cited in Marzano et al., 2005; Reeves, 2006; Dufour, Dufour, & Eaker, 2010; Schmoker, 2006)

*mentioned shared leadership but never stated who the partners would be…teachers???

*focused on daily administrative tasks & decision making,

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CONTINUED*mentioned working with parents, school

boards, and students, but little mention about work with the teachers.

*little time spent on professional development opportunities for teachers or opportunities for professional growth.

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RECOMMENDATIONS Supportive discussions needed between

CCCU Higher Ed and private school administrators for possible growth opportunities

Servant leadershipDefinition needed for clarity

Mentoring opportunities for private school administrators may be of benefit

Research in the area of teacher perceptions of shared leadership in private schools and pedagogical growth

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REFLECTIONS Researchers’ Lens

*Both researchers are Christians who have spent most of their professional educational career within the public school arena.

*Both researchers have or currently work with preservice teacher training programs and work with inservice teachers as well in private Christian universities who train educators primarily for the public school environment.

*Both researchers instruct “current practices in effective teaching” in their respective universities.

*Both researchers view collaborative efforts as well as professional development as imperative for teachers.

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BIBLIOGRAPHYAllen, J. (2007). Mentoring influences on retention of the early career teacher and enculturation

of leadership behaviors in standards-based schools. (Doctoral Dissertation). George Fox University, Newberg, OR.

Banke, S., Maldonado, N., Lacey, C., & Thompson, S. (2005). The role of spirituality in Christian school leadership: A qualitative study. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of

the Florida Educational Research Association, November, 2005, Miami, FL.

Berg, B. (2007). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences. (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Cardus Education Survey. (2011). Cardus education survey: Do the motivations for private religious catholic and protestant schooling in north America align with graduate outcomes? www.carduseducationsurvey.com

Creswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Donaldson, G., Marnik, G., Mackenzie, S., & Ackerman, R. (2009). What makes or breaks a principal? Developing School Leaders, 67(2), 8-14.

Eaker, R. , Dufour, R., & Dufour, R. (2002). Getting started: Reculturing schools to become

Professional learning communities. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree

Headley, S. (2003). Professional development policies and practices in schools affiliated with the Association of Christian Schools International. Journal of Research on Christian Education, 12(2), 195-215. Retrieved December 27, 2010, from ProQuest

Religion. (Document ID: 810801261).

.

 

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CONTINUEDHouse, R.J., Hanges, P.J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P.W., & Gupta, V. (Eds.). (2004). Culture, leadership

and organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 societies. In Northouse (5th ed.). 2010. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2002). Leadership challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Krueger, R. (2002). Designing and conducting focus group interviews. University of Minnesota,

  St. Paul, MN.

Lunenburg, F., & Irby, B. (2006). The principalship: Vision to action. Belmont, CA:

  Wadsworth.

Marzano, R., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. (2005). School leadership that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Northouse, P. (2010). (5th ed.). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Reeves, D. (2006). The Learning Leader: How to Focus School Improvement for Better Results.

Alexandria, VA: ASCD

 Reeves, D. (2010). Transforming Professional Development into Student Results. Alexandria, VA: ASCD

 Samuels, C. (2010). Study: Effective principals embrace collective leadership. Education Week, 29(37), 14-114.

Sergiovanni, T. (2005). Strengthening the heartbeat. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Smylie, M., Conley, S., & Marks, H. M. (2011). Exploring new approaches to teacher leadership for school improvement. In E. B. Hilty (Ed.), Teacher leadership: The “new” foundations of teacher education (pp. 265-282). New York: Peter Lang.

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CONTINUEDStolp, S. (1994). Leadership for school culture. Clearinghouse on Educational Policy and

  Management. Retrieved September 27, 2011 from

  http://eric.uoregon.edu/publications/digests/digest091.html

 Vaughn, S., Schumm, J., & Sinagub, J. (1996). Focus group interviews in education and psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Wheatley, M. (2002, September). Spirituality in turbulent times. School Administrator. Retrieved June 17, 2003, from http://www.aasa.org/publications/sa/2002_09/wheatley.html.

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CONTACTSJanine Allen, EdD

Dean of Education & Counseling

Corban University

5000 Deer Park Drive SE

Salem, OR 97317

Phone: 503-589-8158

Email: jallen@corban.edu

Suzanne Harrison, PhD

Assistant Professor

George Fox University

Newberg, OR 97132

Phone: 503-554-2855

Email: sharrison@georgefox.edu