The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between teacher’s perceptions of their principal’s level of emotional intelligence and teachers’ job satisfaction level. Nine elementary schools within a small rural school district in a southern state were the selected cite for the research. Thirty-nine teachers completed two on-line surveys. One survey was intended to report their perceptions of their principal’s level of emotional intelligence and the second survey was intended to report their level of job satisfaction. The primary research question was: What is the relation between elementary teachers’ perceptions of their principal’s emotional intelligence and the teachers’ level of job satisfaction? The independent or predictor variable was emotional intelligence: others emotional appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion. The dependent variable was teacher job satisfaction: supervision, contingent rewards, operating procedures and communication. A simple regression was conducted to investigate the impact of principal’s perceived emotional intelligence level and the teacher’s job satisfaction level. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to examine the factor structure of teacher’s perceptions of their principal’s emotional intelligence and their level of job satisfaction. A one factor solution was sufficient in capturing most of the variability for both survey instruments. The findings indicated a strong relation between teacher’s perceptions of their principal’s emotional intelligence and the teachers’ level of job satisfaction. Further research to improve principal’s emotional intelligence and improve teacher’s job satisfaction levels is recommended to increase applicants to teacher preparation programs and to increase teacher recruitment and retention.

Abstract Fundraising is a critical element for the success and survival of higher education institutions. These institutions are all dependent on financial contributions from alumni as well as philanthropic organizations and private benefactors to support the institution. The presidents of these institutions are instrumental in seeking and obtaining funds in order to maintain the stability of these colleges and universities. Presidents should be knowledgeable of the nuances that make an institution successful and must aim to create those environments. The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to examine college presidents’ approaches to fundraising at selected Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs) in the South Eastern region of the United States (US). This study examined the strategies employed by these institutions and particularly their presidents. It also examined the philosophies, experiences, and fundraising strategies currently being employed by the selected college and university presidents. In this study a blend of existing theories was used to construct the conceptual framework. Therefore, the conceptual framework addressed the cultural and social aspects of race and the role it plays in the participant’s environment through the use of Critical Race Theory and the relationship between presidents and benefactors through Social Exchange Theory. Stakeholder Theory defines those groups within an organization without whose support the organization would cease to exist (Freeman, Harrison, Wicks, Parmar, & DeColle, 2012). In this study, stakeholder theory was used to address and identify the parties that exist to support the organization such as the Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, students and alumni, as well as how these stakeholders’ interests are met. Lastly, Transformational Leadership Theory was used to address the leadership elements of the participants and how they communicate their vision and strategies for their fundraising campaigns. The results of the study, which intended to explore the experiences of presidents as they seek funds on behalf of their college or university, revealed that while the president of the institution is responsible for leading the fundraising efforts, additional entities also play a major role in the institution’s ability to successfully raise funds. Analysis of the data using a thematic approach produced themes regarding the president’s role in fundraising, the importance of messaging, fundraising strategies and barriers to fundraising. Implications for leaders of HBCUs include investing in and providing resources for the advancement office as that is the foundation for successful fundraising, actively and aggressively embracing fundraising as the primary duty in their role as president and selecting members with proven track records of giving for the Board of Trustees as they play a critical role in fundraising for the institution. Understanding the participants’ experiences and the challenges they face can greatly assist others currently in the field as well as incoming presidents as they assume the role as leaders of an HBCU institution.

The purpose of this study was to identify the key components of the policies that designate ownership of faculty-created online course materials at public higher education institutions that offer distance education in order to establish the key components of those policies and learn how they differ within higher education institutions. The researcher utilized a document analysis procedure with both qualitative and quantitative characteristics to identify the key components of the polices under consideration. The findings of the study demonstrated that there are a wide variety of ownership policies in place, but the content of the policies generally fit into six categories: (a) types of ownership; (b) financial considerations; (c) control of faculty-created content; (d) underlying rationale for claiming ownership of content; (e) settlement of disputes; and (f) disclosure and assignment of rights. Moreover, the results of the study demonstrated that many institutions seem to believe that the teacher exception to the U.S. Copyright Law no longer applies. Indeed, recent court cases have shown that the courts look to the institution’s intellectual property policy when deciding questions of ownership. Furthermore, some courts have ruled that the policies need to be signed by both the institution and the faculty in order to be enforceable. The study demonstrated that some institutions have made note of this requirement and they have begun to require faculty to assign title to the institution for material that the policy designates as institution owned. The author includes recommendations for creating or updating intellectual property policies that were based on the review of literature and the results of this study. Further recommendations are provided for future research related to faculty motivation to teach distance education, intellectual property policies regarding student-created material, and research examining how these policies develop and change over time.

This dissertation examines teacher’s perspectives regarding the classroom strategies, behaviors, and approaches they believed best support the development of African American students. Educator perceptions are valuable to understand because perceptions and attitudes undergird behavior and practices. This study focused on perceptions of teachers toward pedagogical strategies, approaches, and teacher behaviors that perceived to best support African American students because of the persisting achievement gap between African American students and their White, middle class counterparts. Culturally Relevant Pedagogy was used as the theoretical framework for this study as it describes approaches to teaching students from historically marginalized groups in ways that are more relevant to their cultural strengths, assets, and knowledge-bases. Q methodology was selected for this study because it was designed to examine human subjectivity using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Forty-two teachers sorted 36 statements, each representing a practice, strategy, or behavior identified by participants as being culturally relevant to African American students, based on their perceived effectiveness. These 42 Q sorts were then correlated. Principal component analysis and Varimax rotation were used to examine the relationships among the correlations and extract 4 factors, 1 of which was bipolar, or containing two different, but mirrored perspectives. The factor arrays of these 5 perspectives were then examined, described, and named: Responsive to Students Cultural Backgrounds, Responding through Honoring and Exploring Culture, Responding through Structure, Routines, and Direct Advocacy, Conducive and Inclusive Learning Environment, Non-responsive Culture Free Pedagogical Practices. Implications and recommendations for practice, theory, and policy were also discussed.

This study investigated the effect of the integrated learning environment fostered by Living-Learning Communities on students’ self-efficacy towards their social and academic transition to college at a large regional institution in the Southeast. Grounded in a theoretical framework guided by Schlossberg's Model for Analyzing Human Adaptation to Transition and Bandura's Triadic Reciprocal Determinism, a two-part structural equation model analysis was conducted with SkyFactor survey data from 427 first-year students. The first analysis, which compared outcomes for LLC participants with non-participants, demonstrated a small statistically significant positive effect for LLC-participants perception of their housing environment. Regardless of LLC participation, the general housing environment had a positive direct effect on students' perception of their social and academic transition to college. Furthermore, the perception of social transition had a greater effect on students’ academic transition as a mediating factor, when compared to the direct effect of the general housing environment. The second analysis, which only used data from LLC-participants, investigated the relationship between the LLC environment and perceived transition outcomes. The results showed the LLC environment did not have a statistically significant direct effect on students’ perception of their academic transition. However, the support fostered by LLCs had a relatively large and significant effect on social transition and an indirect positive effect on academic transition. Implications for program structure, student outcomes, methods to cultivate meaningful relationships for shared leadership, and future research are discussed.

Online distance learning is an essential element in the continuing education of law enforcement officers across the nation. However, little research has been conducted into the use of learning management systems by law enforcement agencies as a tool for professional development. This study attempts to assess the attitudes, preferences, and influences that impact distance learning for professional development work for state law enforcement officers and their agencies. Law enforcement agencies and law enforcement training centers have failed to utilize or embrace distance-learning technologies, or they have adopted distance-learning technology without knowing the effectiveness of the training or learning. For adult learning to be active, the learner must embrace the subject and the training delivery method. The law enforcement profession has historically used traditional classroom lectures for education and hands-on demonstration for training. This study focuses on the attitudes, preferences and other factors that influence the use of distance learning for professional development by state law enforcement officers. This study incorporated an online survey of 496 Florida state law enforcement personnel employed by the Florida Highway Patrol and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, Division of Law Enforcement. The survey consisted of 64 questions that were analyzed and results into categories of descriptive demographics, work-related, reading and writing skills, technology use, software use, self-belief, self-management, ease of use, and learning preference for a review of factors that influence the attitudes and perceptions of state law law enforcement personnel on the use of learning management systems for profession development learning. This quantitative study revealed wireless connectivity variations between metropolitan and rural counties does not influence the perception or attitude of state law enforcement personnel on the use of a learning management system. The research also revealed the learning management system does not influence their perception of online, classroom or blended learning for professional development. This research also revealed little correlation to age, race or national origin, sex, and years of experience to the preference for a learning management system for distance learning. The research suggests that level of education does not influence the attitude or perception of users on the use of a learning management system but personnel who are certified instructors do have a stronger preference towards the use of a learning management system for professional development learning. The duty assignment of patrol, investigations, supervisory and administrative, or other duties does not influence the attitude or perception of users of a learning management system.

This qualitative case study examines the perspectives of leaders of five intensive English programs (IEPs) about their departments’ positions at U.S. public universities as well as their perceptions of the directors’ roles in developing visibility on campuses. The data was collected through interviewing and analyzed using the Constant Comparative Method which produced five distinctive themes: planned happenstance; belonging; funding; work with university; director’s role. The cross-case findings presented similar ideas from all of the participants – intensive English program legitimacy and visibility on campuses have still not been achieved. The findings from the study can aid IEP directors, and especially their supervisors, in understanding the need to create belongingness for those programs and to provide better involvement of members into university communities.

This quantitative study investigated the effects of an online training program in applied behavior analysis (ABA) on stress levels of parents that have a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The online ABA training program is comprised of 22 videos which take a total of 4½ hours to complete. Parenting stress levels were assessed using the Parenting Stress Inventory Short Form (PSI-SF, Abidin, 1995) and general stress levels were self-reported scores immediately before and after the training. The assessment and questionnaire were completed online immediately before the ABA training was made available and immediately after the ABA training was completed. The final PSI-SF was distributed one week after the ABA training was completed. This study confirmed that the ABA training decreased stress from the pretest to posttest but slightly increased after the delayed posttest, although delayed posttest scores remained below baseline levels. Results of the data analysis also found that general stress reduced significantly from baseline to posttests. In conclusion, the online ABA training program was an effective tool in decreasing parenting stress and general stress levels.

Although, the concept of instructional leadership is a not a new idea, it has become an increasingly popular term in education in recent years. Instructional leadership provides the foundation for teaching and learning within a school. Such federal educational initiatives as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have sought to improve student achievement have also changed the landscape of school leadership. As accountability and high-stakes testing measures continue to rise, the need to closely explore and understand the ideology of instructional leadership has become more prevalent. Qualified school leaders with a keen focus on instruction must be well-prepared to lead schools and meet the needs of 21st century students. Specifically, the role of assistant principal is called upon to expand in instructional leadership to help meet ever evolving school challenges. From a historical perspective, within the literature, little attention has been given to the development, selection, training, and support of assistant principals. This has led to the increasing marginalization of this group of school leaders. The purpose of this study is to explore the shared perceptions that secondary assistant principals hold toward their development as instructional leaders given the support from their principals’ leadership actions and transformational practices. Thirty-four secondary middle and high school assistant principals’ perspectives were explored using Q methodology. Participants performed a Q sort of thirty-eight statements to examine their subjective viewpoints toward their own development as instructional leaders. Four perspectives emerged from the study, Relational & Support, Coaching & Collective Collaboration, Data-Driven & Feedback, and Professional Development & Strategic Planning. Each perspective leads to a deeper understanding aligned with the development of the assistant principal as instructional leader.

Mentoring is an effective tool for the professional development of novice teachers (Eby & Lockwood 2005; Kram, 1985; Stanulis & Ames, 2009). Mentors to preservice teachers have conveyed that they receive benefits and face barriers when mentoring (Ambrosetti, 2014; Burk & Eby, 2010; Hobson, Ashby, Malderez, & Tomlinson, 2009; Iancu-Haddad & Oplatka, 2009). Graduate students who serve as mentors to undergraduates have also reported advantages and drawbacks to being a mentor (Conway, Eros, Pellegrino, Kras, Gale, & Campbell, 2009; Reddick, Griffin, & Cherwitz, 2011). This study examined the perceived benefits and barriers for graduate students serving as mentors to undergraduate, preservice teachers. It also considered the affect that graduate school had on a teacher’s decision to engage in a mentoring relationship. The participants were all PK-12 teachers who were also graduate students in the College of Education and Human Services (COEHS) at the University of North Florida (UNF). The data for this qualitative case study was collected through semi-structured interviews. Findings yielded three themes (helps me, helps others, helps profession) which summarized the perceived benefits and barriers for graduate students mentoring preservice teachers. The results were connected to the Social Exchange Theory and it was determined that some graduate students will weigh rewards and costs before deciding to mentor, while others will lean more towards rewards or costs regardless. This study may have implications for undergraduate and graduate curriculum, mentor matching, and for mentor training.