Date of Award

1979

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

College

College of Education and International Services

Program

Higher Education Administration EdD

First Advisor

Rudolf E. Klimes

Second Advisor

George H. Akers

Third Advisor

Kenneth A. Strand

Abstract

Problem

Two important aspects in the life and work of teachers are their values and leadership styles. The values they hold affect the influence they exert and the knowledge they impart, and the leadership styles they practise determine in part their effectiveness in transmitting their knowledge and values to the students. Moreover, teachers' values are often considered to be closely related to their leadership styles. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationships between the values and leadership styles of Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) academy teachers in Michigan. The study also aimed to provide a description of both the values and leadership characteristics of the teachers and to determine if there were any significant differences in their values and leadership styles as related to such selected independent variables as major area of teaching, sex, age, highest academic degree held, years of teaching experience, and years of schooling in SDA institutions.

Method

Two instruments were used to collect data on the values and leadership styles of teachers for this study. The Allport-Vernon- Lindzey Study of Values (SOV) was employed to assess the dominance of six value interests: theoretical, economic, aesthetic, social, political, and religious. The Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) was used to investigate two independent dimensions of leadership behavior: consideration and initiating structure. It was hypothesized that teachers' self-expressed values would correlate with their leadership styles as perceived by their students. It was also hypothesized that significant differences exist among teachers classified according to the six selected independent variables mentioned above. The study involved 72 teachers and 694 students of six SDA academies in Michigan. These teachers and students were administered with the SOV and the LBDQ, respectively. To analyze the data collected, three major statistical methods were used. One-way multivariate and one-way univariate analysis of variance were employed to treat the data on the teachers' values and leadership styles, respectively. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was applied to examine the relationships between the values and leadership styles of teachers.

Results

Significant differences were found on the six value scores of teachers classified according to their major area of teaching, sex, and years of schooling in SDA institutions. However, no significant differences were obtained on the two dimensions of leadership behavior of teachers except for comparisons on the consideration scale in relation to two independent variables: highest academic degree held and years of schooling in SDA institutions. The major findings suggested that no significant relationships existed between teachers' self-expressed values and their leadership styles as perceived by their students.

Conclusions

On the basis of the findings in this study, the following conclusions were drawn:

1. The combination of the six value scores is not effective in predicting the consideration and initiating structure leadership behavior. Thus teachers' self-expressed values do not correlate significantly with their leadership styles as perceived by their students.

2. Bible, humanities, science, and vocational teachers exhibit significant differences in their values. Science teachers hold higher theoretical but lower aesthetic values than the other teachers.

3. Female teachers express significantly higher aesthetic and social but lower theoretical and political values than male teachers.

4. The values of teachers are significantly related to the length of time they spent in SDA institutions for their formal education. Teachers with six years or less of schooling in SDA institutions express higher political and social but lower religious values than those teachers with seven years or more of SDA education.

5. Teachers with Bachelor's degrees and teachers with six years or less of schooling in SDA institutions have higher consideration mean scores than those teachers with Master's degrees and teachers with seven years or more of SDA education.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventist secondary schools--Michigan, High school teachers--Michigan.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/1556

Download

Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS