Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho / The purpose of this study was to explore the strategies districts use to retain principals in their complex roles through the framework of culturally responsive district leadership. This qualitative case study explored how district leaders in one Massachusetts school district focused on principal retention and whether their actions influenced a principal's decision to remain in their role. The study took place during a global health pandemic placing principals at the center of navigating this crisis. This study is part of a larger study that investigated how principals benefit from and shape professional capital to improve schools. Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews with district level leaders and principals. Findings demonstrated that there are things districts can do that positively influence principal retention, although these practices are not necessarily culturally responsive. Data supported the literature that professional development and mentoring, improved working conditions, and autonomy all positively influence principal retention. In addition, this study concluded that focusing on positive relationships and “growing your own” leadership are also key strategies to promote principal retention. Inorder to enact culturally responsive retention, recommendations include exploring whiteness in leadership and the influence of race on principal retention. Additionally. further investigation needs to be done examining the influence of higher accountability for student outcomes on principal retention. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho / This individual case study is part of a larger group study examining how principals benefit from and shape professional capital to improve schools. Limited studies consider how the recruiting principal’s individual pathway may impact who they chose to recruit. Accordingly, this qualitative study examined the factors that influence educators to become principals and how these factors influence principals' decisions to recruit other potential candidates into the principalship. This study explored the professional journeys of eight school principals from one large urban school district in Massachusetts and how their principal pathways impacted their recruitment strategies. Findings revealed that building principals often credited their collegial relationship and interactions as playing an important role in their pathway to the principalship. Another finding from this study revealed that principals recruited potential leaders with the same qualifications or characteristics as themselves through the informal recruitment practices of tapping and their narrow definition of fit. Recommendations of this study suggest that districts should develop more formal social networks that ensure all educators have access to the necessary support and pipelines to consider the principal pathway. And, principals must reflect on their own principal pathway and potential bias to disrupt the cycle of recruiting a homophilous leadership workforce. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Lauri Johnson / While the academic and social success of two-way immersion programs in the public school sector is widely documented, little research has been conducted on how US Catholic school leaders have managed this whole school reform. Through an exploratory case study, the motivations and perceptions of 28 Catholic school administrators and change agents/key informants (including teachers, assistant/vice principals, board members, and consultants) from ten Catholic elementary schools were interviewed regarding the conversion to a dual language immersion model. Findings considered how Hargreaves and Fullan’s (2012) concept of professional capital and Grace’s (2002; 2010) notion of spiritual capital contributed to the leaders’ capacity to meet the school’s change needs. Most schools began with limited resources and knowledge about the technical aspects of dual language immersion, but made use of key local and national social networks as well as drew upon their own biographies and Catholic vision to increase enrollment and engender professional learning among faculty. Implications for future research and practice include attention to the nuances of academic excellence and the complex language history of Catholic schools. The study concludes with recommendations for Catholic school principals. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

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Criticism of the public school system tends to be aimed squarely at teachers in the classroom (Karpinski, 2012). As school principals lead in this current educational climate, it is incumbent upon them to provide their teachers an environment that is conducive to job satisfaction, emphasizing teacher retention, and mitigating the deleterious effects of teacher turnover on students’ academic achievement. To understand the practices of the principal, this study investigated teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ practice, asking the following questions: What is the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of their principal’s practice of building professional capital and teachers’ job satisfaction? What are the experiences of teachers in relation to their perception of their principal’s practice of building professional capital and job satisfaction? Research was conducted employing an explanatory sequential mixed-methods correlational study; utilizing a researcher-created on-line survey and semistructured interviews. The results of this study indicate that teachers’ job satisfaction is independent of principals’ practice of building professional capital. The quantitative findings found no correlation between teachers’ perceptions of their principal’s practice of building professional capital and teacher job satisfaction. The qualitative data indicate that teachers attributed their job satisfaction to factors that are independent of their relationship with their principal; commitment to their students and colleagues and sense of purpose were cited as sources of job satisfaction.

A growing body of work has emerged regarding the responsibilities required of district leaders in establishing plans that initiate and create conditions for sustainability of continuous improvement achieved through a systemic reform structure such as professional learning communities. However, limited research exists in respect to sustaining cultures of continuous improvement in rapid growth districts. Rapid growth districts can be described as school systems, which construct and open multiple campuses annually. The underlying premise of this study considered how humans interact with one another within a rapidly changing professional organization. Change theory, professional capital, organizational learning theory, and system reform emerge as the conceptual framework in this study of district support of professional learning communities. Data collection for this qualitative descriptive case study included interviewing six K-12 principals, administering the PLCA-DS survey to 247 K-12 staff members, and document review. Recognition of the importance of the PLC framework, building capacity, development of collaborative culture, and issues resulting from constant change due to rapid growth were the four themes generated by the participants to support continuous improvement in a rapid growth district. The four themes combined with the components of the conceptual framework outline how district leaders in a rapidly changing environment cultivate a process leading to system-wide improvement.

The goal of this study was to investigate the interaction between professional development and professional capital within international schools in Asia. The researcher employed a multi-site case study to inform the research goals. A conceptual framework based on Hargreaves and Fullan’s (2012) professional capital theory was used to guide the study’s methods and data collection. The data were collected in two phases. The first phase consisted of a digital survey that was distributed to ten international schools associated with the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS) and the Office of Overseas Schools (OSS). The survey was analyzed to identify the experiences and perceptions of professional development within international schools. The second phase was comprised of semi-structured interview data from twelve international educators to explore the relationship between professional development and professional capital. The findings of this study helped outline themes of how a professional development fosters professional capital within the international schools. Specifically, international educators use professional development to increase human capital through their experiences to improve personal practice, while developing, retaining, and attracting educators to the international schools. Social capital is impacted through the amount of time international educators allocate to collaborative and networking experiences with other international educators within their field through professional development. By increasing decisional capital, international educators develop expertise with effective professional development guided through the support of mentors by increasing decisional capital. The findings suggest professional development within the international schools studied is connected to an increase in professional capital. The findings also suggest international educators need to maintain a level of autonomy in regard to decision making to continue to increase professional capital within international schools. Suggestions for a refinement of the theory of professional capital leadership include a balanced approach to professional development where teachers use their human capital and school leaders use their social capital collectively to make professional development decisions.

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