Educators are frequently faced with the challenges of politics, hostility, selfishness, and violence; it is unwise to think that the principal is the only one providing leadership for school improvement. Thus a distributed perspective of leadership urges us to take leadership practice as the focus of interest and address both teachers and administrators as leaders. The purpose of this descriptive statistical study was to explore principals’ leadership practices as perceived by teacher leaders and its possible affect to student achievement. Data were collected by using the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) (self and observer) instrument (Kouzes & Posner, 2003) from all willing teacher leaders to determine the leadership practices of the principals in Region VI, Texas. Also, statewide assessment data available from three school years (2004-2006) were obtained from the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) report. In order to answer research questions one to four, descriptive statistics including frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were calculated for the LPI results. The distributed framework offers considerable influence for studying leadership as a schoolwide rather than individual practice. Based on the literature, six conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made regarding practice, future study and policy. First, the findings indicated that principals’ collaborative working style with teacher leaders seems to have positive impact on student achievement. Second, failing to enlist teacher leaders in a common vision might have a negative affect on student academic performance. Third, the perceptions of teacher leaders in School 7, School 5 and School 16 reflected a need for the principal to take challenges and seek challenging opportunities to change and grow. Fourth, recognizing teacher leaders’ contributions and celebrating team accomplishments is likely to have a positive and indirect impact on school academic performance. Fifth, schools that had higher principal self and observer LPI scores tended to have better TAKS scores. Last, the findings from the study complement studies of the effects of site-based management teams. The positive impact of “Enabling Others to Act” and “Inspiring a Shared Vision” on student achievement implies that distributed leadership is most likely to contribute to school improvement and to build school capacity for improvement.

Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho / This case study of a public school district in the Northeast United States explores the leadership practices of elementary and middle school counseling staff and principals in supporting SEL, using a distributed leadership framework (Spillane, 2006). Data sources included 24 interviews with administrators, guidance counselors and social workers and document review. Findings indicate counseling staff support students and staff in a variety of ways through both formal and informal leadership practices. Principals support SEL by establishing SEL programs or strategies to match the needs of their student population. Two different models were found for how guidance counselor and social worker responsibilities are structured. The most common model, in six of the nine schools, is a tiered model where guidance counselors work with the majority of students on academic support/monitoring and delivering SEL lessons. Social workers focus on smaller numbers of students with more intensive needs. The second but less common model, in three of the nine schools, does not differentiate the roles of social workers and guidance counselors and instead assigns responsibilities by grade level. Concerns with this second model were raised by some administrators and several counselors. The quality of peer and administrator relationships was reported to be supportive and collaborative in the schools with differentiated roles. In the non-differentiated schools, it varied, and was related to shifting staff, a misunderstanding of the role differences, and challenges in developing collaborative relationships. Recommendations include assessing support structures to ensure the model adequately supports the SEL needs of the school. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Since the turn of the century interest has grown in alternative models of leadership to reflect increased complexity and ambiguity, the need to respond faster to complex market conditions, and new patterns of accountability, inter- dependency and co-ordination within organisations of all types. This has led to the emergence of alternative models of leadership including shared and distributed leadership. In many organisations, such as those with matrix structures, many leaders need to accomplish organisational goals without formal line management authority over employees. This is also the case in many professional services (e.g. law and consultancy) that operate partnership models whereby individuals have little direct authority over their peers. In University settings the governance structure also impedes traditional hierarchical leadership. The tenure system, operated by many universities and colleges in the United States and Canada, provides intellectual autonomy, protects academics from external pressure and offers job security. Despite a growing literature on shared and distributed leadership, few studies have empirically examined the nature of leadership distribution, the contextual factors that impact leadership, and how those in senior positions (e.g. university department chairs) achieve organisational goals when employees (e.g. faculty members) possess significant authority and autonomy. This study addresses this gap. In so doing the study aims to contribute to the literature on shared and distributed leadership and provide important insight to assist positional leaders who possess limited direct authority in more effectively accomplishing their leadership goals. ...[cont.]

Since the turn of the century interest has grown in alternative models of leadership to reflect increased complexity and ambiguity, the need to respond faster to complex market conditions, and new patterns of accountability, inter- dependency and co-ordination within organisations of all types. This has led to the emergence of alternative models of leadership including shared and distributed leadership. In many organisations, such as those with matrix structures, many leaders need to accomplish organisational goals without formal line management authority over employees. This is also the case in many professional services (e.g. law and consultancy) that operate partnership models whereby individuals have little direct authority over their peers. In University settings the governance structure also impedes traditional hierarchical leadership. The tenure system, operated by many universities and colleges in the United States and Canada, provides intellectual autonomy, protects academics from external pressure and offers job security. Despite a growing literature on shared and distributed leadership, few studies have empirically examined the nature of leadership distribution, the contextual factors that impact leadership, and how those in senior positions (e.g. university department chairs) achieve organisational goals when employees (e.g. faculty members) possess significant authority and autonomy. This study addresses this gap. In so doing the study aims to contribute to the literature on shared and distributed leadership and provide important insight to assist positional leaders who possess limited direct authority in more effectively accomplishing their leadership goals.

Bush and Glover (2003) argue that, in order for principals and other leaders to focus on the management of teaching and learning, they need to be instructional leaders. Instructional leadership focuses on teaching and learning in a school, with a major emphasis on the man-agement of teaching and learning as a key activity of the principal. This research is, however, underpinned by Lambert‟s argument (2000), cited in MacNiel and McClanahan (2005:1), that one administrator cannot serve as the instructional leader for an entire school and that the par-ticipation of all other educators is necessary. This sharing and participation is necessitated by the fact that the task of management of teaching and learning is too huge a task for one per-son to accomplish. Furthermore, Elmore, cited in Harris (2004), points out that teaching and learning is a „knowledge-intensive enterprise‟ involving many complex tasks that cannot be performed without distributing the responsibility for leadership amongst others in the school. The inception of the new democratic dispensation in South Africa in 1994 has been associ-ated with a move to a decentralized system of schooling – a site-based education system. Thurlow (2003:27) has argued that inherent in this new model is a move towards institutional autonomy, to a more school - based management system (SBM). SBM involves the devolu-tion of power and responsibilities to principals, the empowerment of educators and increased participation of parents in the decision making process. This new system is vastly different from the „control‟ model of school leadership during the Apartheid era (Chisholm 1999), cited in Moloi (2007:466). Within the SBM system it becomes necessary for the school prin-cipal to share and distribute his/her leadership role in order to cope. Rutherford (2006), cited in Khumalo and Grant (2008:3) points out that the decentralizing of management in schools lends itself to the distribution of leadership throughout a school. Distributive leadership in-volves the view that leadership can be distributed or shared among those not only in formal leadership positions but those members of staff not in leadership positions. The movement towards a decentralized or school based management system falls within the transformation agenda of education in the new South Africa, which is committed to building democracy in schools by emphasizing the sharing or distribution of school management. This study entailed a small scale purposeful case study of two secondary schools in Gauteng, investigating the role of the principal in managing teaching and learning. It examined how vi and to whom principals distributed the management of teaching and learning in schools. Various qualitative research methods and approaches were used to collect relevant informa-tion on the role of the principal in the management of teaching and learning, and on how the management of teaching and learning was distributed in the two schools. Questionnaires and structured interviews were used to collect relevant data from Principals, deputies and HODs. The research findings revealed that the principal‟s role in managing teaching and learning is to create the necessary environment that will enable effective teaching and learning to take place. Principals therefore ensure that educators have all the necessary resources to teach, that educators are in class, that discipline is maintained and that educators are prepared to teach. It can therefore be argued, as Kruger did (2003:209), that the principal‟s role in managing teaching and learning is an indirect and supportive role. The study did, however, show that the task of managing teaching and learning was predomi-nantly that of the HODs. They were involved in monitoring of educators‟ work through learner‟s books, conducting class visits on a regular basis to observe educators teaching, en-suring that educators planned for lessons and had the necessary resources to teach. The study revealed that the leadership distribution in both schools was based either on the hierarchy of the school or distributed among staff as a whole. An important criterion for choosing who would be involved in sharing tasks was the skills and knowledge of the staff. Both schools tended to distribute tasks among those staff that had the necessary skills and knowledge to complete tasks successfully.

Thesis advisor: Lauri Johnson / This qualitative case study examined the perceived influence of distributed leadership on the job satisfaction of novice teachers in one Massachusetts school district. Dinham and Scott’s “Three Factor Theory” (1998), which emphasizes the role of school-based factors on job satisfaction, was utilized as a conceptual framework to guide the study. Data were gathered from interviews with novice teachers, school leaders, and district leaders and document review. The results of the study found that novice teachers involved in leadership activities via a distributed model perceived increased job satisfaction. Novice teachers who did not participate in leadership activities expressed a neutral or negative feeling towards their lack of involvement. A key determining factor in whether novice teachers participated in leadership activities was having a principal who encouraged this practice. However, all novice teachers interviewed reported that collegial staff relationships, regardless of their direct participation in leadership activities, positively influenced their job satisfaction. This study confirmed many of Dinham and Scott’s findings about the influence of school-based factors on job satisfaction; however, a conflicting finding about the relationship between school-based factors and intrinsic factors was identified. Recommendations include aligning school leaders’ practices in supporting the participation of novice teachers in leadership activities and mapping distributed leadership structures using a tool such as social network analysis. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Diana C. Pullin / As district- and school-level leaders face increasing pressure from federal, state, and local accountability mandates there has been increased dependence on using and analyzing student data to help improve student performance. While the reporting of disaggregated data by student subgroup confirms that achievement gaps exist, it does not provide district- and school-level leaders with the diagnostic data needed to identify key factors inhibiting student performance. Identifying and understanding factors hindering student performance is critical knowledge for leaders to cultivate as they work to address elements within their school or district that may need to change if student learning is to improve. This research study examined specific ways district- and school-level leaders go about challenging and helping their community to face the problem of student performance disparities, as well as specific aspects of the situation that may be contributing to the community's collective capacity, to address student performance disparities. Without proper district-level leadership, effectively addressing operational conditions that may lead to disparities in student learning is unlikely. Yet, little is known about which structures and routines district- and school-level leaders perceive to be important when analyzing student data. This single case study presents the results of an examination of student data analysis structures and routines within a small diverse urban Massachusetts district designated by the state as low-performing based on state indicators. In order to further understand structures and routines, interview and document data were reviewed. Four primary findings identified the district leadership's response to educational inequities: (1) a mandate for using data war-rooms and student data walls; (2) a traveling cabinet to ensure uniform review of student data across the schools in the district; (3) a mandate for individual school improvement plans; and (4) the use of school-based instructional coaches. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Distributed Leadership is often considered an optimal form of leadership to improve student achievement. The challenge though is that previous research on distributed leadership has often described what distributed leadership is as opposed to what distributed leadership's impact on student achievement might be. Since leadership has an indirect effect on student achievement, exploring organizational factors that may have a more direct impact on student achievement is important. Academic optimism describes teachers' perceptions of the staff's collective efficacy, the trust experienced between teachers, and between teachers and administrators, and the extent to which academic press (high expectations) is evident in the school. Academic optimism is an organizational factor that improves student achievement according to previous research. This thesis examined patterns of distributed leadership and their correlation to academic optimism. Further I examined the impact that academic optimism has on student achievement. By surveying 2122 teachers in 113 schools in a large school board in south-central Ontario, I determined that planfully aligned distributed leadership had a significant correlation to academic optimism but academic optimism did not have a significant correlation to student achievement. Rather, academic press, one of the variables within academic optimism, did have a significant correlation to student achievement in language and math. This study concluded that planfully aligned distributed leadership mediated by academic press had a significant impact on student achievement.

This is a phenomenological study of the experiences of three teacher leaders in the context of high school reform. It examines the essence of teacher leadership and how these teacher leaders made sense of their experiences. At the outset is a portrayal of my position and connection to the phenomenon of teacher leadership. This study reviews literature within three distinct areas. First, the nature of school reform is examined, including the rationale for reform, the challenges associated with reform, how to achieve sustainable reform, and a review of six drivers for effective reforms. Then, an investigation of distributed leadership follows which includes a discussion of the processes and forms of distributed leadership and a description of the facilitators and tensions for distributed leadership. The third area of the review is focused on teacher leadership including the roles and characteristics of teacher leaders, their connection to staff development, issues of effectiveness, and tensions for teacher leaders. Following this review, the research design and methodology is presented. Transcendental phenomenology including the concepts of phenomenological reduction and imaginative variation are explored in detail. Protocol writing was utilized to select participants for this study. From collected writings by formal teacher leaders, participants suited for phenomenological research were selected. Three teacher leaders participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed by the researcher. Participants shared their experiences as teacher leaders. Additional questions were asked to elicit more details about their experiences and to find out how participants made sense of their experiences. In the experiences of the participants, five themes emerged: Grappling with teacher leadership identity, facing the uncertainties of sustaining the reform initiative, negotiating the tensions between management and leadership, experiencing challenges of leading, and feeling the empowerment of success. Participants made sense of their experiences in these four ways: learning, communicating, doing, and reflecting. Several forces that impact the experience of teacher leadership and facilitate the formation of teacher leadership identity emerged. Through the process of making sense of their experiences, teacher leaders came to understand theory, which they termed getting it, and then enacted their learning. The ways in which teacher leaders made sense of their experiences were influenced in part by their leadership persona and in part by the culture and context within which they lived. Among the implications for theory from this study is that more needs to be learned about the leadership identity of teacher leaders leading reforms. Implications for practice include the provision of time for teacher leaders to reflect on and discuss their experiences, as well as the provision of professional development focused on change praxis and leadership praxis for teacher leaders and instructional leadership for in-school administrators. Among the implications for research are the need to investigate teacher leaders association with administration, both in their aspirations and in how they are perceived towards administration, the cognitive changes that occur for teacher leaders, whether a context of instructional leadership eases tensions in teacher leadership, and whether formal teacher leader roles are an effective way for school divisions to plan for leadership succession. In addition, the phenomenological research method is reflected upon.

This is a phenomenological study of the experiences of three teacher leaders in the context of high school reform. It examines the essence of teacher leadership and how these teacher leaders made sense of their experiences. At the outset is a portrayal of my position and connection to the phenomenon of teacher leadership. This study reviews literature within three distinct areas. First, the nature of school reform is examined, including the rationale for reform, the challenges associated with reform, how to achieve sustainable reform, and a review of six drivers for effective reforms. Then, an investigation of distributed leadership follows which includes a discussion of the processes and forms of distributed leadership and a description of the facilitators and tensions for distributed leadership. The third area of the review is focused on teacher leadership including the roles and characteristics of teacher leaders, their connection to staff development, issues of effectiveness, and tensions for teacher leaders. Following this review, the research design and methodology is presented. Transcendental phenomenology including the concepts of phenomenological reduction and imaginative variation are explored in detail. Protocol writing was utilized to select participants for this study. From collected writings by formal teacher leaders, participants suited for phenomenological research were selected. Three teacher leaders participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed by the researcher. Participants shared their experiences as teacher leaders. Additional questions were asked to elicit more details about their experiences and to find out how participants made sense of their experiences. In the experiences of the participants, five themes emerged: Grappling with teacher leadership identity, facing the uncertainties of sustaining the reform initiative, negotiating the tensions between management and leadership, experiencing challenges of leading, and feeling the empowerment of success. Participants made sense of their experiences in these four ways: learning, communicating, doing, and reflecting. Several forces that impact the experience of teacher leadership and facilitate the formation of teacher leadership identity emerged. Through the process of making sense of their experiences, teacher leaders came to understand theory, which they termed getting it, and then enacted their learning. The ways in which teacher leaders made sense of their experiences were influenced in part by their leadership persona and in part by the culture and context within which they lived. Among the implications for theory from this study is that more needs to be learned about the leadership identity of teacher leaders leading reforms. Implications for practice include the provision of time for teacher leaders to reflect on and discuss their experiences, as well as the provision of professional development focused on change praxis and leadership praxis for teacher leaders and instructional leadership for in-school administrators. Among the implications for research are the need to investigate teacher leaders association with administration, both in their aspirations and in how they are perceived towards administration, the cognitive changes that occur for teacher leaders, whether a context of instructional leadership eases tensions in teacher leadership, and whether formal teacher leader roles are an effective way for school divisions to plan for leadership succession. In addition, the phenomenological research method is reflected upon.