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Thesis/Dissertation Information
- Degree Disciplines:
- Education
Notes
- Abstract:
- This transcendental phenomenological study was conducted to understand how ethnically diverse elementary teacher leaders in South Florida perceive teacher leadership and how being in a teacher leadership role impacts curriculum and instruction, their self-efficacy, and promotes collegiality. Little is known about the concept of teacher leadership, how it affects teachers’ leadership skills and student achievement, and what defines the constructs of teacher leadership. Additionally, an emphasis on teacher leadership from an ethnically diverse perspective was explored to investigate how these ethnically diverse teacher leaders perceive the broader ethnic and social implications of their work. This was done in order to promote greater understanding of ethnicity in teacher leadership as it relates to themselves, their colleagues, their students, their students’ families, the communities, and the possibility of training, and mentoring future teacher leaders to meet the challenges of the significant demographic changes in the population of the United States of America. Data was collected from ten participants through purposive sampling using a criterion sampling technique. These ten ethnically diverse teacher leaders described their lived experiences as teacher leaders in their elementary classrooms. The data was collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews which were audio taped. An analysis was done to identify themes, patterns, or essences to provide the rich, thick description of the phenomenon. The findings revealed that all of the participants (100%) perceive that having ethnically diverse teacher leaders in schools is an important aspect of school leadership that can effectively support the daily operations of schools especially because they understand the various ethnic and cultural within the school environment. They believe that having more ethnically diverse teacher leaders within the elementary schools will significantly benefit curriculum and instruction; improve student achievement; build parent, school and community relationships; and develop an overall appreciation for different ethnicities. This is because ethnically diverse teacher leaders bring into their practice diverse perspectives on issues pertaining to curriculum and instruction which positively influence student learning. The findings further revealed that the challenge of providing conceptual clarity to teacher leadership is yet to be realized as seventy percent (70%) of the participants defined it as the contextual roles in which they operate. Finally, all of the participants expressed enthusiasm about their roles as teacher leaders and implore future teacher leaders to focus on life-long learning.
- Thesis:
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--Barry University, 2009
- Bibliography:
- Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-124).
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Barry University
- Holding Location:
- Barry University Archives and Special Collections
- Rights Management:
- Copyright Jennie Ricketts-Duncan. Permission granted to Barry University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
- Resource Identifier:
- LB2805.R53 2009_Ricketts-DuncanJennie ( BU-Local )
- Classification:
- LB2805.R53 2009 ( lcc )
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