This document summarizes a study on the perceptions of private Christian school administrators regarding their leadership roles and supporting teacher professional development. Six administrators participated in a questionnaire and focus groups. Three key themes emerged: 1) The administrators saw their primary role as casting and sharing the school's vision and mission. 2) They viewed success in terms of spiritual impacts on students and teacher growth. 3) The administrators focused on their daily administrative duties and decision-making responsibilities over collaborating with teachers. The study suggests supportive discussions between higher education and private schools could foster administrator growth opportunities regarding servant leadership and mentoring. It also recommends research on teacher perceptions of shared leadership in private schools and supporting pedagogical growth.

1. Janine Allen, EdD & Suzanne Harrison, PhD
ICCTE Conference, Azusa Pacific University
May 24, 2012
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2.  Interested learning more about private K-12
school communities
 Philosophically and programmatically, both
higher education institutions include teacher
education that focus on collegial teamwork
 We encourage the “voice” of the preservice
& inservice teachers; teacher leaders
 Alignment or misalignment?
 Goal: Retention in the profession [private
setting] = fulfillment of calling
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3.  Purpose of the Study
* To discover perceptions of administrators in private
Christian schools about leadership characteristics,
roles, and teacher professional development.
 Research Questions
 1. What are the perceptions of private Christian
school administrators regarding the role and
attributes of a school administrator?
 2. What are the perceptions of private Christian
school administrators regarding their view about
success as administrators?
 3. What are the perceptions of private Christian
school administrators regarding their role in
supporting teacher professional development?
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4. *Transformational Leadership: Leithwood’s (1994)
transformational model of school leadership which is based
upon the theoretical models of Burns (1978), Bass (1985),
and Bass and Avolio (1994).
1. Attend to the needs & give personal attention to
individual staff members;
2. Help staff members think of old problems in new ways;
3. Must communicate high expectations fro teachers &
students alike; and
4. Through personal accomplishments & demonstrated
character, the principal must provide a model for behavior
of teachers.
(Marzano, Waters & McNulty, 2005, p. 15).
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5. Servant Leadership: Attributed to Robert Greenleaf (1970,
1977).
Places the leader centered within the organization rather
than a position at the top of a hierarchy.
1. Understand the personal needs of those within the
organization;
2. Healing wounds caused by conflict within the
organization;
3. Being a steward of the resources;
4. Developing the skills of those within the organization;
5. Being an effective listener.
(Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005, p. 16-17).
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6.  Effective School Leaders
 Roles of the leader (Brown, 2006)
 Guide towards deeper spirituality, teacher ministry
 Collective leadership (Samuels, 2010)
 The influence of educators, parents, and others on
school decisions
 Life as community (Sergiovanni, 2005)
 Encourages others (Kouzes & Posner, 2002).
 Teamwork, fostering collaboration
 Theoretical framework
(Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005)
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7.  Christian School Leadership
 Spiritual leader for school; Directs school
values (Brown, 2006; Cardus, 2011)
 Help others to grow in their relationship with
God; focus on the mission and vision of the
school. (Banke, Maldonado, Lacey, &
Thompson, 2005)
 View role as spiritual leader rather than intellectual
leader
 Leadership values not primarily focused on
rigorous education (Cardus, 2011)
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8.  Teacher Professional Development
 Often regarded as presentations but should
have active engagement and build capacity
(Reeves, 2010)
 School culture supports or hampers, positive
and healthy school culture strongly correlates
to increased student achievement and teacher
productivity and satisfaction (Stolp, 1994).
 PD must have coherence, agreed upon vision
and aims, focus on educators as learners,
student centered (Headley, 2003)
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9.  Setting & Participants
*Participants: 6 private Christian school administrators
who were participating in a workshop/training.
*Setting: Conference room located at 1 private
Christian university in the Northwest.
 Research Design
Exploratory Qualitative Study (Creswell, 2007, p. 73).
Purposeful Sampling (Creswell, 2007, p. 73).
Instruments:
1. Written Questionnaire
2. Two Focus Group Interview Sessions (Krueger, 2002)
3. Co-Researcher Observations/Field Notes
Validation of Data (Creswell, 2007, p. 207-209): Use of
triangulation, co-research debriefing sessions
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10.  Written questionnaire given to the 6
participants
--demographic information
--ranking of leadership
characteristics/attributes
 Two focus group sessions with the 6
participants
 Researcher observations during focus group
sessions
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11.  Held two focus group sessions with same 6
participants.
Duration: 2 hours each session
First session: disseminated written questionnaire
and conducted group interview using guided
questions. While one researcher asked questions,
the other researcher observed the group taking
field notes.
Second session: follow-up group interview with
additional questions that unfolded from the first
interview session. While one researcher asked
questions, the other researcher observed the
group taking field notes.
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12.  Tabulation of data from written
questionnaire based on demographics and
ranking of leadership
characteristics/attributes
 Transcription of focus group interviews
 Written field notes from the researcher
observations during the focus group sessions
Analysis
 Coding
 Seeking themes and patterns
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13. Demographics
Six private Christian school administrators
4 principals, 2 superintendents
3 doctorates, 3 master’s degrees
3 with state administrator licensing, 3 do not
3 administrators work in secondary schools, 3 K-12
schools
1 with more than 25 years of experience ,1 with 14
years of experience, the other 4 with less than 6
years in the private Christian schools as an
administrator
2 of the 6 have public school experience
THREE EMERGENT THEMES
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14. The participants discussed the vision and mission
of the school most frequently.
 “[Educational leadership] means casting a
vision.”
 “A leader takes a vision and then converts it into
a shared vision.”
 “A leader should inspire people to lead and to
equip them to lead as well. It is important to
understand the overall culture of the school and
the learning environment that you are trying to
establish.”
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15. Attributes/Characteristics (based on mean score on written questionnaire):
*Most important attributes: trustworthy, administratively skilled,
communicative, team builder, and confidence builder.
*Least important attributes: motive arouser, coordinative, just, dynamic,
and effective bargainer.
What we celebrate:
success stories from teachers or staff about a spiritual moment for a
student,
“See a life transformed”
“Seeing a dormant seed [child] fall on fertile soil in the school and they get
to grow, their life has changed…”
“We have a student back years later and they say their life was changed.”
What success means to us:
“When you hear God say „well done‟” you know you‟ve been successful.”
“When the student becomes better than the teacher, that‟s when I know
I‟ve been successful.”
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16. Decision makers:
“In a smaller setting it seems mostly about
making decisions all day long.”
Teacher Professional Development:
“Until recently we’ve probably had a fairly
traditional model for professional
development once a week, on Monday’s we
have a late start, we bring in somebody on a
topic to talk to our teachers…”
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17. The participants…
*highlighted the role and characteristics of a
leader focusing on mission/vision,
*suggest the importance of developing a shared
mission/vision and collaborative action. Is
Administrator professional development needed?
(Leithwood as cited in Marzano et al., 2005;
Reeves, 2006; Dufour, Dufour, & Eaker, 2010;
Schmoker, 2006)
*mentioned shared leadership but never stated
who the partners would be…teachers???
*focused on daily administrative tasks & decision
making,
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18. *mentioned working with parents, school
boards, and students, but little mention
about work with the teachers.
*little time spent on professional development
opportunities for teachers or opportunities
for professional growth.
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19.  Supportive discussions needed between CCCU
Higher Ed and private school administrators
for possible growth opportunities
 Servant leadership
 Definition needed for clarity
 Mentoring opportunities for private school
administrators may be of benefit
 Research in the area of teacher perceptions
of shared leadership in private schools and
pedagogical growth
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20.  Researchers’ Lens
*Both researchers are Christians who have spent most of
their professional educational career within the
public school arena.
*Both researchers have or currently work with
preservice teacher training programs and work with
inservice teachers as well in private Christian
universities who train educators primarily for the
public school environment.
*Both researchers instruct “current practices in
effective teaching” in their respective universities.
*Both researchers view collaborative efforts as well as
professional development as imperative for teachers.
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24. Janine Allen, EdD
Dean of Education & Counseling
Corban University
5000 Deer Park Drive SE
Salem, OR 97317
Phone: 503-589-8158
Email: jallen@corban.edu
Suzanne Harrison, PhD
Assistant Professor
George Fox University
Newberg, OR 97132
Phone: 503-554-2855
Email: sharrison@georgefox.edu
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