The Influence of the Principal's Leadership Style on Teachers' Use of Technology in the Instruction of Secondary Mathematics and English

Abstract

The study sought to advance knowledge between leadership style and teacher's use of technology. This quantitative research study investigated the relationship between principal leadership style determined by the MLQ (Bass & Avolio, 1989) and the perceived Role Messages (Katz & Kahn, 1978) teachers' receive about the use of technology in English and Mathematics. The Role Messages teachers receive from the principal influence the teachers' use of technology. A qualitative instrument, The Role Message Perception Interview for Administrator (RMPI-A) was used to confirm principal's leadership style in the transformation, transactional, and passive/avoidant areas.A transformational leader builds trust, inspires teachers, acts with integrity, encourages innovative thinking, and coaches people to move the teachers to a higher level of commitment. A transactional leader is more concerned with monitoring for mistakes and rewarding achievement. A passive/avoidant leader chooses to use his time dealing with crises and avoids involvement (Bass & Avolio, 1994). Sixty-three teachers of Mathematics and English at each of the five urban high schools responded to the Perceived Role Message Survey for Teachers (RMPS-T), a 56-question survey about the use of technology. The principal's leadership style was compared to their teachers' perception among the five high schools. The responses by teachers on the RMPS-T for the transformational sub-section showed significant differences among teacher responses on school culture (p = 0.0159), there were no other significant differences among transformational sub-sections. On the transactional sub-section showed significant differences among teacher responses on evaluator monitors (p = 0.122), and differences among the my principal rewards me sub-section, but not significant (p = 0.009). On the passive/avoidant the sub-section there were no significant differences.The study sought to show connection between teachers' gender, age, subject taught, the number of college credits earned, and the number of hours of professional development when compared to the number of uses of technology. The findings showed a difference among teacher responses based on gender, but not significant. There were no other significant differences. The results will assist high school principals in understanding how leadership style can impact the use of technology.