Effective principal leadership practices as perceived by elementary, middle, and high school teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of elementary, middle, and high school teachers as they relate to the leadership behaviors principals should exhibit that would assist teachers in becoming more effective. The Principal Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ) (McLean, 1998) was distributed to randomly selected classroom teachers in three Southern Arizona K--12 school districts in Fall 2001. Similar attribute behaviors were grouped together under four themes: functional, programmatic, interpersonal, and contextual. The data were disaggregated using elementary, middle, and high school teachers as the independent variables. The following conclusions were based on the findings of this study. (1) Elementary, middle, and high school teachers found the 21 domains and four general theme areas identified by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (1993) to be important. (2) Analysis of the data indicated a strong similarity among the rankings of leadership behavior domains of principals of elementary, middle, and high school teachers. (3) Elementary teachers ranked the domain of providing student guidance and development significantly more important than did high school teachers and the domain of influencing policy and politics significantly less important than did middle and high school teachers. (4) Elementary teachers ranked the theme of contextual leadership significantly less important than high school teachers. Researchers have linked principal behaviors to effects on school climates, which in turn have been shown to indirectly affect student achievement (Bredeson, 1989; Halpin & Croft, 1963). Leithwood (1994) linked principals' transformational leadership to measures of improvement in teachers' classroom behaviors, attitudes, and effectiveness (i.e., student achievement). The findings of this study should be utilized to assist principals to ensure that they demonstrate the leadership behaviors perceived necessary by classroom teachers. Doing so will assist teachers in becoming more effective classroom teachers.