Date of Award

1983

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

College

College of Education and International Services

Program

Higher Education Administration EdD

First Advisor

Edward A. Streeter

Second Advisor

George H. Akers

Third Advisor

Wilfred G. A. Futcher

Abstract

Problem

In the Seventh-day Adventist educational system, a need exists for research concerning the interpersonal relationships between school principals and teachers, particularly regarding the way in which teachers perceive the principal's role. A school principal is in the unique position of being able, independently, to affect the functioning of an entire school staff. The teachers' perceptions of the principal affect their interpersonal relationships and, consequently, the school climate. There is a need to know about this aspect in order to work cut effective ore-service and in-service training for school principals.

Method

All teachers in the ten academies of the Lake Union Conference served as the population sample. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the teachers regarding their perceptions of an SDA academy principal's effectiveness in five functional areas of administration. The data were first analyzed descriptively. Then four hypotheses were tested for statistical significance by independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance for repeated measures.

Conclusions

(1) Teachers differed slightly in their perceptions of the principal's effectiveness in the five functional areas of administration. (2) Overall results showed that teachers strongly agreed that the principal was effective in spiritual climate. (3) Teachers also agreed that the principal was effective in management. The school principal needed to improve in the other areas, especially in school-community relations. (4) Teachers with most experience in teaching (ten or more years of teaching) perceived the principal to be most effective in school management and least effective in curriculum and instruction.

Recommendations

(1) Academy principals should attempt to discover how the classroom teachers perceive the principals' effectiveness and try to enter into some kind of dialogue between themselves and the teachers for mutual development in their relations. (2) When hiring academy principals, preference should be given to candidates who demonstrate ability to listen to others and are skillful in human relations as well as in administrative and supervising competencies. (3) Teachers' perceptions of principal's effectiveness can be used as part of a needs assessment in order to plan a practical and effective in-service training for those academy principals already on the job.

Subject Area

Teacher-principal relationships; Seventh-day Adventist secondary schools--Lake Union Conference

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/477

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