The College of Education, Health and

Human Sciences

Announces the Final Examination of

Virginia Meadows McNeil

for the degree of

Doctor of Education

November 6, 2014, 1:00 PM

Ball Hall 123

University of Memphis

Memphis, TN

Biographical Sketch

Bachelor of Science, Elementary Education, Memphis State University

Master’s Degree, Education, Administration and Supervision, University of Memphis

Advisory Committee

Larry McNeal, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Leadership, Committee Chair

Reginald Green, Ed.D., Professor, Department of Leadership

Charisse Gulosino, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Leadership

Louis Franceschini III, Ph.D., Senior Research Consultant, Center for Research in Education

Policy

Major Field of Study

Leadership and Policy Studies

Period of Preparation:  1992 – 2014

Comprehensive Examination Passed: October 2008

An Investigation of the Perceptions of Elementary and Middle School Teachers Regarding their Participation in Distributed Leadership and Decision Making

McNeil, Virginia Meadows, Ed.D.  The University of Memphis, December 2014.  An Investigation of the Perceptions of Elementary and Middle School Teachers Regarding their Participation in Distributed Leadership and Decision Making.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which elementary and middle school teachers perceived they were being treated as leaders at their schools and were being provided with a substantial role in making school decisions. With respect to their perceived leadership status, elementary and middle school teachers differed only in their assessment of the effectiveness of teacher leadership at their institutions, with elementary teachers offering statistically significant but only slightly more positive ratings than their middle-level counterparts (c²(1) = 6.30, p = .012, f = -0.04).

In examining the perceptions of subgroups of elementary and middle school teachers, teachers’ years of experience and their tenure at the school were both observed to mediate their responses to particular teacher leadership items but the effects were small and not directionally consistent. Much more frequent, however, were statistically significant differences in the size of the role that elementary and middle school teachers perceived they played in school decision making. While more middle-level than elementary level teachers held that their role was moderate to large in decisions involving devising teaching techniques (c²(1) = 7.81, p = .005, f = 0.05) and setting grading and student assessment practices (c²(1) = 16.90, p < .001, f = 0.07), more elementary than middle school teachers claimed a substantial level of influence with respect to such matters as the content of professional development (c²(1) = 6.17, p = .013, f = -0.04), student discipline procedures (c²(1) = 9.36, p = .002, f =- 0.05), the selection of teachers new to this school (c²(1) = 6.80, p = .009, f = -0.05), and school improvement planning (c²(1) = 14.83, p < .001, f = -0.07).

Analyses of these decision making issues, by subgroups of teachers, indicated that, at both levels of schooling, more years of experience and longer tenure at a school tended to interact with the level of schooling and to expand the teacher’s perceived role. Consistently evidencing the most robust effects by experience and tenure was teachers’ perceived level of involvement in school improvement planning.