Today's schools need to be restructured or redesigned to meet the needs of an ever-growing diverse student body. Global interdependence and competition have made this mandate necessary, and the business community has pressed for it as a result of entry-level workers failing to meet minimum standards. This reality, coupled with a greater number of students dropping out of school, spurs an imperative need to create some changes in our public schools. This study suggests that change cannot come with the same type of leadership that has been at the public education forefront. Schools can only develop new paradigms, systemic reform, and continuous improvement efforts when they are led by individuals who possess the skills, characteristics, understandings, and practices necessary to transform the existing system. This transformation can only come through transformational leaders. To institutionalize and sustain these changes, the key player is the superintendent, who must possess this knowledge and be the primary structure builder of transformational ideology throughout the organization. The purpose of this study was to identify transformational superintendents, and to study their leadership principles and practices, particularly toward a view of how these leaders create change in their organizations. Selected superintendents were identified through administration of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire created by Bass and Avolio (1997). Visits to districts were made, and data gathered through a number of means. The results identified thirteen transformational superintendent attributes; twelve beliefs; three perspectives on assessing organizational effectiveness, several key processes of communicating transformational ideology throughout an organization; seven aspects of creating change in existing school cultures; and five structures for creating systemic change and sustained continuous improvement. The findings indicated that transformational leaders do have a district-wide felt impact that results in positive leadership outcomes for the organization.

This study provided case studies of three female elementary school principals, identified by their supervisors and administration of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire as transformational. Data collected included the Organizational Culture Inventory, principal and teacher interviews, observations, and artifacts. Qualitative data were analyzed utilizing the computer program, HyperQual2. The data were used to determine how these principals articulated their vision, shared leadership, empowered their teachers, and demonstrated transformational behaviors. The principal behaviors were consistent with transformational research. They interacted with others to articulate their vision. They were respected by teachers as educational leaders and were seen as child-centered and facilitative. These principals were comfortable with shared decision-making and encouraged teachers to assume leadership positions. Suggestions for supporting and promoting transformational leadership behaviors were made. They included administrative coursework and district policies and practices that develop the transformational skills of educational administrators. The characteristics of transformational leaders in these case studies also provide models for administrators who are restructuring their schools.

This transformational leadership project addresses the numeric decline of historic Black churches in urban centers across the United States. The focal church of this task, Nineteenth Street Baptist Church (NSBC) in Washington, D.C., which was the founding church of seven Black historic congregations in the District, and home of several revered pastors who started Postbellum churches on the Atlantic Coast, has joined dialogs about Black Church declines since the year 2000. Speaking to the concern, this work builds on Robert L. Smith’s Black Existential Theological Hermeneutic, called the BETH approach, a practical theology method that assist leaders with African American church revitalization processes. Using NSBC’s Christian Education Ministry as the focal ministry, this project engaged the three stages of Smith’s BETH approach: Analyze, Assess, and Act. The outcomes of these stages led to offering a transformative framework for assisting the ministry’s leadership in the practices of creating a prophetic mission statement. Chiefly, this development will lead to developing and/or renewing practices authentic to Black Church witness, faithful to the mission of God in the Bible, consistent with Christian history, and relevant to the 21st Century society, all from a People of Color perspective. / 2025-03-26T00:00:00Z

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