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Perceptions of Transformational Leadership Behavior by Secondary
Principals and Teachers in Diverse and Non-Diverse Schools
Dr. Fernando Valle and Gionet L. Cooper
Teachers and principals across the country are continuously called to improve and
transform underperforming secondary schools. Today, accountability requirements for
ALL
students place teacher effectiveness and the improvement of student learning in the educational
spotlight. To improve schools, the examination of teacher and principal disposition toward the
diversity in public schools is part of the import work to meet the diversified set of challenges
faced by secondary campuses. School leaders and teacher alike must embrace their school
context and the demographic as strengths to succeed in today’s public school accountability
climate. Effective transformational school leaders enact the principles of transformational
leadership across and within schools to begin the transformative process of improving student
achievement. This explanatory, sequential mixed method study focuses on principals and
teachers perceptions of these transformational practices in diverse and non-diverse secondary
schools.
Purpose of the Study
Leadership studies support a belief that one of the primary goals of twenty-first century
public school leaders is to lead schools with the purpose of sustained and substantive
improvement (Eaker, 2008; Green, 2010; & Spillane, 2006). The impetus for this study was to
delve deeper into the transformational leadership style and practice of secondary school
principals in diverse and non-diverse secondary campuses. Principals and teachers participating
in this study were given the opportunity to report the frequencies of transformational leadership
characteristics being practiced by their administration through the Leadership Behavior
Inventory (Kent, 2007). For the purpose of this study, a school population consisting of a
proportion or combination of less than 40% of African American, Hispanic, and Asian students
within a school campus was defined as non-diverse. Both diverse and non-diverse campuses
provided the backdrop for authentic discourse and the continued examination of current
secondary school leadership practice.
Review of the Literature
The Transformational School Leader
Secondary public schools in the twenty-first century are faced with the challenge and
opportunity to educate a more diverse student population. Current literature (Shields, 2013;
Shields & Sayani, 2005) suggests that educational leaders must embrace this cultural and
linguistic diversity as a valuable educational resource rather than as a detrimental complication.
Cooper (2009) further asserts educational leaders must strive to become cultural change agents
that equip themselves with current knowledge, support, strategies, and valor to make curriculum,
instruction, student engagement, and family partnerships culturally responsive.