The focus of this study was to investigate the attitude of teachers toward female administrators and the differences in male and female teachers' perceptions of their effectiveness. The study also investigated the influence of demographic characteristics (age, education, experience, sex) on teachers' attitudes and perceptions of effectiveness and the correlation between attitudes and perceived effectiveness.
The population of this study consisted of teachers from a large urban school system in northwestern Georgia. The study looked at forty randomly chosen elementary schools, half headed by female administrators and half by males. Eight hundred twenty seven teachers participated.
The instruments used to gather data were the Women As School District Administrators: A Measure of Attitudes Toward Women In Administrative Positions (WASDA), used to assess attitudes toward women as administrators, and the Profile for Assessment of Leadership (PAL), used to assess administrators' competencies. A personal Data Sheet was used to collect demographic data. This study utilized the descriptive survey method.
With the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), a Factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test for differences between male and female teachers on their attitudes toward female administrators as well as on their perceived effectiveness of male and female administrators. A Pearson's correlation was used to assess the relationship between teachers' demographic characteristics and their attitudes toward female administrators. This statistical technique was also used to measure the strength of association between attitudes and perceived effectiveness.
Correlations between gender and attitude were statistically significant for Factors 2 (stereotypic barriers) and 3 (stereotypic traits) on the WASDA. The results of the PAL indicated that male principals were perceived to be significantly more competent in (1) supervision and evaluation and (2) protecting time on task. The perceived difference between male and female administrators on these two factors were about 8 and 6 percentage points respectively.
Implications and findings were discussed and recommendations were presented.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:auctr.edu/oai:digitalcommons.auctr.edu:dissertations-4671 |
| Date | 01 May 1990 |
| Creators | Orr, Leola |
| Publisher | DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center |
| Source Sets | Atlanta University Center |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | ETD Collection for AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library |
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