Much of the recent literature on effective schools has intuitively connected the leadership role of the school principal , and school learning environment, to the achievement of organisational outcomes such as those related to teacher performance. Transformational leadership theory has cast these relations in a new perspective, where advocates have claimed that transformational leaders are more able to manipulate environmental contexts so as to achieve their organisational objectives compared to transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles. This study examines the effects of different types of secondary principals’ leadership behaviours on aspects of a school’s learning environment, and selected teacher outcomes. A synergy was achieved by undertaking two studies drawing upon a multi-method approach. Results are significant for those who exercise leadership authority in schools, and are contrary to the findings suggested by transformational leadership literature. Practitioners will welcome the opportunity to tailor leadership behaviours to achieve specific school learning environment and teacher outcome objectives, while those involved in principal training will recognise the potency of the behavioural aspects of the transformational and transactional paradigms / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study examined the literature on leadership and counselling to determine their similarities, and investigated how principals perceived their leadership role in terms of the theories of counselling and contemporary leadership. It further explored the implications of the findings for the selection, performance appraisal and professional development of principals. The research was divided into four stages. Firstly, the literature of effective counsellors and educational leaders was reviewed to find their significant similarities. Secondly, 116 principals from Government and Catholic primary, secondary and special schools in Sydney, NSW, Australia were involved in a Q-sort survey to prioritise what they deemed to be the essential emphases of effective educational leaders in schools. Analysis was by descriptive quantitative methods to provide a basis for subsequent interviews and qualitative analysis. Thirdly, structured interviews were carried out with thirteen of these principals to cast further light on the Q-sort survey results. Qualitative analysis was largely based on Bohm???s interpretation of Strauss???s axial coding paradigm. Fourthly, content analysis was carried out on formal documents of the NSW Department of School Education and the Catholic School System of the Sydney Diocese to determine the degree of congruence between selection criteria, criteria for performance appraisal and components of professional development programs for principals and the emphases in the literature and the responses of principals in this study. Contemporary literature on both leadership and counselling emphasised the importance of the leader???s/counsellor???s authenticity, empathy, respect, and effective communication skills. Principals prioritised these counselling-related attributes after a focus on students and strategic leadership but ahead of organisation, resource management, evaluating and controlling. Some ranking differences by gender, years of experience, type of school and school system were noted and discussed. Document analysis revealed that the criteria by which principals are selected, appraised and professionally developed do not include an emphasis on the counselling-related attributes which is commensurate with the importance afforded these attributes both in contemporary leadership theory and from the principals??? own view of their role. Implications of these findings for theory, practice and further research were explored and recorded.

The focus of this research project was the changing perception amongst practising Catholic school principals of the nature and purpose of the contemporary Catholic school. This examination was set within the changing social, ecclesial and educational contexts within which the Catholic school has operated in the decades following the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). The research which was conducted amongst principals in the Archdiocese of Brisbane, Australia, was focused by two research questions. These were:How do principals currently perceive the purpose of Catholic schools? How do they perceive Catholic schools changing? The review of the literature examined elements of the changing environment of the contemporary Catholic school. It also surveyed the ways in which that literature described the effects of changing social, ecclesial and educational contexts upon the sense of purpose amongst principals of Catholic schools. The demise of “inherited meanings” and the reconstruction or reimagining of a new meaning structure provided the conceptual template for the study. Since the study explores the perceptions of leaders concerning their schools in times of extensive and foundational contextual change, it involved an interpretive research design. An epistemological stance of constructionism was adopted because it acknowledges the impact which engagement with the research exerts upon participants’ construction of meaning. An interpretivist theoretical perspective served to structure the research in a manner that was congruent with the philosophical foundations of the research questions. The employment of the research orientation of symbolic interactionism was appropriate because it holds that meaning and interpretation of phenomena are to be understood by listening to the voices and perspectives of the participants within a given context. A case study approach was utilised in the execution of the research design which allowed for flexible, systematic and continuing data collection, analysis and participant feedback. Data were collected through the use of personal, open-ended questionnaire, semistructured interviews, critical review interviews, focus groups and independent review and were analysed using constant comparative method. The research led to the conclusion that in the contemporary Catholic school, a high priority is given to the offering of a holistic educational experience to students. This, in turn, is predicated upon an anthropology which adopts a more unitive rather than dualistic view of the human person. This represents a significant conceptual movement within the period under study. A greater emphasis is also placed upon the evangelising role the Catholic school, which, in turn, acknowledges the increasingly secular environment within which it operates. At the same time, there is a strong, expressed belief amongst its leaders that the contemporary Catholic school offers an experience of a redemptive community in which its members can find acceptance, inclusion and a sense of the spiritual dimension of life which transcends the status of affiliation with the institutional Church.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007. / Title from title screen (site viewed Dec. 5, 2007). PDF text: 151 p. ; 7 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3275078. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 89-96). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2005. / Title from title page screen, viewed on April 12, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Linda Lyman (chair), Patricia H. Klass, W. Paul Vogt, Carol Struck. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-168) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Graduate School of Education, Oral Roberts University, 2006. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-157).

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2006. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Carolyn Riehl; submitted to the School of Education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-162).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed on Mar. 13, 2007). PDF text: 115 p. : col. ill. UMI publication number: AAT 3225886. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche format.

The study was designed to (1) identify perceptions of teachers about actual and desired level of need fulfillment; (2) identify deficiency of need fulfillment of teachers; (3) examine the leader behavior of principals as perceived by teachers; and (4) investigate the relationship between teacher perceptions of principal leader behavior and teacher perceptions of deficiencies in need fulfillment.Two questionnaires were used in the study. The Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire--Form XII was utilized to obtain teacher perceptions of principal leader behavior. Four of the twelve subscales of the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire--Form XII were used: Tolerance of Uncertainty, Tolerance of Freedom, Consideration, and Initiating Structure. Teacher perceptions of actual and desired level of need fulfillment were obtained by use of a questionnaire developed by Porter for industrial research and adapted by Sergiovanni for use in schools. The difference between desired level of need fulfillment and actual level of need fulfillment provided a score for deficiency of need fulfillment. Statements on the questionnaire assessing need levels were grouped according to an adaption of the Maslow Hierarchy. Need categories represented on the questionnaire were: Security, Social, Esteem, Autonomy, and SelfActualization.The population of teachers for the study was middle/junior high teachers in schools in East Central Indiana with enrollments between 150 and 500 students per grade. A random sample of twenty schools was obtained for use in the study. Teachers in the selected schools completed both questionnaires. Twelve questionnaires were randomly selected from the group of returned questionnaires from each school. Only nineteen schools were represented in the final sample because fewer than twelve questionnaires were returned by the teachers of one school.Twenty null hypotheses were generated for the study. Each hypothesis was concerned with the relationship between a leader behavior and the deficiency of need fulfillment of a need category. Hypotheses were tested statistically by use of Pearson Product-Moment Correlations. Decisions about significance were made at the .05 level.Among the teachers in the sample, Social needs were most satisfied. Security needs were next in order of satisfaction. Esteem needs were least satisfied. Autonomy and Self -Actualization needs were found to be rated closer to the low satisfaction level given Esteem needs than to the rating given Security needs.The range of mean scores of actual need fulfillment was greater than the range of mean scores for desired need fulfillment. Greater agreement existed among teachers in the sample about desired level of need fulfillment than the level of actual need fulfillment.Correlations significant beyond the .05 level were found between teacher perceptions of principal leader behavior in each of four areas --Consideration, Tolerance of Freedom, Tolerance of Uncertainty, and Initiation of Structure--and teacher satisfaction in each of four need categories--Security, Esteem, Autonomy, and Self-Actualization. No significant correlation was found between teacher satisfaction of Social needs and teacher perceptions of principal leader behavior.The set of principal leader behaviors was found to be predictive of teacher satisfaction of Security, Esteem, Autonomy, and Self-Actualization needs. Including Tolerance of Freedom in the predictive equation resulted in a statistically significant increase in the multiple R between the set of principal leader behaviors and teacher satisfaction of Security and Autonomy needs. Including Consideration in the predictive equation resulted in a statistically significant increase in the multiple R between the set of principal leader behaviors and teacher satisfaction of Esteem needs. The person-oriented principal exhibiting behaviors perceived by teachers as Considerate and Tolerant of Freedom may be most effective in bringing about teacher satisfaction of higher order needs and thus creating a high level of staff motivation.