Researchers have indicated that innovations in schools
often do not have the intended impact leaders hope to see
when implementation occurs. Reasons cited for this failure
include time allotted for the change to occur, failure to
implement change based on research, and leadership
qualities associated with responsible parties. This study
focuses on qualities of leaders who were effective in
implementing an innovation in a school district in a midsized
Central Texas school district. Participants in the
study were technology trainers, principals, and teachers.
Two years of usage reports and teachers surveys were used
to compare data. Interviews were conducted with trainers,
teachers, and principals from high usage campuses. Since the study focused on happenings within a
particular context, an action research model was used. This
model was built upon principles of naturalistic research
and targeted quantitative data.
The results of the study indicate that the leaders on
these campuses possessed certain leadership characteristics
that could be attributed to successful implementation of
the online curriculum management system. Successful leaders
in this study held certain expectations for their faculty,
monitored to see that the expectations were met, and were
flexible enough to meet the needs of all of their teachers.
These characteristics were consistent with the literature
on effective leadership, leadership and professional
development, leadership and technology, and leadership
through the change process. Information from this study was
used by the school district in which the study took place
to guide them in making decisions about the current
curriculum management system they now have in place.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1774 |
| Date | 02 June 2009 |
| Creators | Sanders, Betty Murdock |
| Contributors | Erlandson, David A., Zellner, Luana J. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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