Date of Award

2002-04-18

Degree Name

EdD Doctor of Education

Dissertation Committee

Mary Woods Scherr, PhD, Chair; Paula A. Cordeiro, EdD, Member; Susan Zgliczvnski, PhD, Member

Keywords

adolescents, collaborative leadership, correlational, job satisfaction, middle schools, principals, qualitative, quantitative, school administration, teachers

Abstract

This correlational study examined the relationship between the leadership practiced by middle school principals and the job satisfaction reported by their teachers. Data were collected from 10 middle school principals who completed a demographic survey and the Principal Leadership Survey-Self (PLS-S). Data were also collected from 183 teachers who completed a demographic survey, the Principal Leadership Survey-Other (PLS-O), the School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES), and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ). Sub scale scores from the PLS-O and the SPES were used to measure collaborative leadership. Telephone interviews were conducted with nine of the teachers who reported the highest degree of job satisfaction and nine of the teachers who reported the lowest degree of job satisfaction. Two-sample t-tests, Pearson product moment correlation coefficient, and multiple regression were used to address the following research questions: (1) Is there a relationship between the collaborative leadership practiced by middle school principals and the job satisfaction reported by their teachers? (2) Are there other variables related to teacher job satisfaction? (3) Is there a difference between principal self-rating of collaborative practice and teachers' perception of the principals' collaborative practice? Findings from this study suggest there is a relationship between collaborative leadership and teacher job satisfaction. A moderate positive correlation was found between the SPES score and the MSQ score. In addition, a low positive correlation between the PLS-O score and the MSQ score was found. The additional variables of age, gender, level of education, type of teaching credential held, years of teaching experience, years teaching at this school, and years working with this principal at the school failed to significantly impact teacher job satisfaction. Both quantitative and qualitative data analyses revealed a relationship between principal self-rating of collaborative practice and teachers' perception of their principals' collaborative practice. Principals rated themselves higher in collaborative practice than did their teachers. Although the findings from this study suggest that teachers value principal collaborative practices more than any of the other job satisfaction variables, the qualitative data revealed that administrative support of teachers provided the most positive influence on teacher job satisfaction.

Document Type

Dissertation: Open Access

Department

Education

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