Assessing the Relationship Between Servant Leadership Behaviors of Teachers And School Culture

 Link: https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/assessing-relationship-between-servant-leadership/docview/2478001835/se-2

 

Assessing the Relationship Between Servant Leadership Behaviors of Teachers And School Culture

 

Submitted by Edlyn Beckles-Morgan

A Dissertation Presented in

Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree Doctorate of Education

Grand Canyon University Phoenix, Arizona

November 6, 2020

ProQuest Number: 28261041

Analyze and present by: Punnarat Chinnapha, Ph.D. (Student ID: 244511003)

 

Overview

This study aimed to find the relationship between the self-perceived servant leadership behaviors of teachers and school culture. Servant leadership behaviors of teachers are identified as agape love, empowerment, vision, and humility. The six sub-divisions of school culture were the level of supportive, direct, and restrictive behavior of the principal, and the degree of collegial, intimate, and disengaged behavior of the teachers. Thus, 10 variables are identified in the study, 4 for servant leadership behaviors of teachers and 6 for the school culture. Interestingly, the author proposed 24 hypotheses in this study. Each servant leadership behavior was individually measured for correlation with each of the six sub-divisions of school culture.

This quantitative study used the web-based survey method to collect data from Math and ELA teachers in participating middle schools, within a select district in the New York City public school system. The servant leadership instrument used was the SLAI, and the culture of the school was measured using the OCDQ-RE. The findings showed that out of 24 hypotheses, eight correlations were established.

 

Research Design & Methodology

The target sample of N=100 teachers was selected from the select district, which consisted of three schools that consented to participate in the study and meet similar descriptive criteria such as mixed-gender, middle school, etc. A priori power analysis was performed using G*Power to determine the sample size required to have an alpha error of 0.05, a sufficient power level (0.80), while also assuming a moderate correlation (0.30).

This quantitative correlational study utilized the Servant Leadership Assessment Instrument (SLAI) and the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire—Revised Edition (OCDQ-RE) as a web-based survey. The survey was completely anonymous to ensure validity and reliability throughout the data collection process.

The authors of SLAI, Dennis & Bocarnea (2005) used DeVillis’ (1991) eight well-established steps to ensure face and content validity were built into the test development process. According to Dennis and Bocarnea (2005), the criterion-related and construct-related validity of the instrument were established empirically and have been supported. This instrument recorded alpha reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha) ranging from .89 to .92. This instrument has been used effectively in the past in correlational studies, (Boyer, 2012; Herndon, 2007; Pattison, 2010).

Similarly, the OCDQ-RE, developed by Hoy et al. (1991) has a very high reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) ranging from .75 to .95 (Hoy et al., 1991). This instrument has been used effectively in the past in correlational studies (Black, 2010; Jankens, 2011).

The statistical analysis the author used was:

1) descriptive statistic analysis with the “Identify Unusual Cases” function of SPSS for mean and standard deviations.

2) Shapiro-Wilk tests for normal distributions, and

3) Spearman’s rank-order correlations

Findings

Thus, of the 24 correlations between the four servant leadership variables and the six school culture variables, eight correlations were established.

1)    Agapao love was found to be correlated with restrictive principal behaviors only.

2)    Empowerment was found to be correlated with restrictive principal behaviors, as well as collegial and disengaged teacher behaviors.

3)    Vision was correlated with restrictive principal behaviors and collegial teacher behaviors.

4)    Humility was correlated with supportive principal behaviors and collegial teacher behaviors.

 

Limitations & Recommendations

There are some limitations of the present study which must be mentioned. Firstly, the size of the sample was small because of the low number of respondents, only three schools from seven selected target schools permitted the study, hence the results might not be generalizable. Moreover, there is a need to validate further the tools employed in the study in order to guarantee their effectiveness and precision. Next, the inclusion of qualitative methods would be useful in offering a more rounded and in-depth view of the items studied.

This study can help identify the leadership traits that are most and least effective in fostering a culture that supports teaching 21st-century students in today's classrooms. It may also assist researchers in evaluating how well the findings of similar studies can be applied in different contexts. The correlations found in this research could reveal the leadership style most likely to enhance a school's culture. Additionally, this study may provide insights into how previous studies' results can be generalized across various school demographics.