My Capstone, Terry F Erickson [classic novels .txt] 📗

increase of time needed for leadership duties. Time was taken from such things as planning periods, conference times, lunch periods, professional days, and before and after school (Ovando, 1996). Ovando (1996) found that teachers had mixed feelings when asked to perform these dual functions. They often became overwhelmed and frustrated and at times did not enjoy their additional responsibilities. However, Taylor & Tashakkori (1997) wrote, “Indeed, teachers reporting the greatest job satisfaction are those who report high levels of participation…” (p. 623).
Summary
Teacher leadership continues to be a dynamic and important part of the educational reform movement begun in the 1970s. Teacher leadership has been defined both as a concept and by the way it manifests itself in individual schools. The importance of teacher leadership is proven by its positive effects on student achievement, teacher efficacy, and teacher morale. This genie will not be able to be stuffed back into its bottle anytime soon!
It seems that some leaders are born, but many more are made by nurturing and developing their leadership skills and talents. Just like almost any endeavor human beings take on, there are both benefits and costs to assuming leadership. However, even with the enormous risks and challenges teacher leaders face, it appears not to dampen their enthusiasm because of the plentiful opportunities it brings.


Preview of Chapter Three
In the next chapter I will outline the methodology of my research by describing the following:
• the setting and participants
• how I will collect the data to answer my burning questions: What motivates senior teachers to hold leadership positions, or what prevents them from doing so?
• how I will present my findings.


Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE
Methods
"Always, always, always have a plan. And always, always change it." John Rollwagen
Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to describe the setting and participants in my research, and to explain how I collected and examined the data for this paper.
In Chapter One I wrote of my concern about motivating senior teachers to hold leadership roles in my school district. I also wrote about my own experience with leadership, and what things motivated and hindered me. This concern helped form the following research question for my capstone: What motivates senior teachers to hold leadership positions and what prevents them from holding those positions?
In Chapter Two I reviewed a good deal of literature regarding teacher leadership, focusing on four questions: 1. What is teacher leadership? 2. Why is teacher leadership important? 3. What are the benefits and costs of being a teacher leader? 4. Can anyone be a teacher leader? No article or book I reviewed directly addressed my central question. I did find studies that examined the costs and benefits of leadership, but these studies did not break down the data by teacher age or years of service. I found the benefits to include higher student achievement, good morale and job satisfaction, improved professional practice, and a higher sense of efficacy. The costs were conflicts with peers, being unprepared for challenges, lack of autonomy, and the amount of time needed for leadership responsibilities. Would teachers in my district cite the same benefits and costs of holding leadership positions? Would they recognize the benefits as motivators? Would they recognize the costs as hindrances?
There were three possible ways I could collect the data I was looking for: a questionnaire, focus groups, or face-to-face interviews. Each method had strengths and each had weaknesses.
One weakness inherent to all three is the level of skill needed by the person conducting the research. A questionnaire requires a great deal of planning and trial; the validity of a face-to-face interview depends on the expertise of the interviewer; and the potential of a focus group is dependent upon the talents of the facilitator (Anderson, 1998). Since I would be the one writing the survey, conducting the interviews, or facilitating a group -- and I had no experience doing any of those things, -- I ignored this common weakness and instead concentrated on strengths.
The potency of a questionnaire lies in the number of responses that can be generated, thereby making it possible to generalize findings over the entire population of the study. The power of a focus group is the synergy that is created by the conversation between participants. Face-to-face interviews allow the interviewer to probe deeper by asking follow-up questions (Anderson, 1998).
After careful consideration, I chose to collect my data by conducting face-to-face interviews of senior teachers from my school district. According to Anderson (1998), interviews have the advantage of being able to explore and clarify the respondents’ answers, and they are an “incomparably rich source of data” (p. 190).
Setting
I determined the best setting for my research was my own school district, primarily for two reasons: First, I had immediate and uncomplicated access to a pool of teachers to interview. Second, I had the means to make recommendations to administrators when I made my required sabbatical report to the school board.
Participants
I randomly chose three elementary school, three middle school, and three high school teachers who each had at least 20 years of teaching experience. I included both classroom or subject teachers and teaching specialists. There were six female teachers and three male teachers. I first contacted the teachers by email to request their participation. I then followed up with a letter that detailed the purpose of my study, and individual appointments were made over a span of three weeks.
Data Collection
I collected the data by conducting key informant interviews (at the work sites of the participants described above) and by posing the following four questions:
1. Describe all formal and informal leadership roles you have held during your teaching career.
2. What motivates you to take a leadership role(s)?
3. What hinders you from taking a leadership role(s)?
4. Which leadership roles would you like to see yourself hold in the future?
I also asked follow-up questions to clarify or explore their replies. The interviews were recorded for later analysis. The length of each interview varied between 15 minutes to one hour, and they took place before, during, and after school. All of the interviews were held in a quiet, private location -- usually in the teacher’s classroom. I found, for the most part, the teachers to be in a casual and relaxed mood and candid with their opinions and ideas.
Data Analysis
My analysis of the data mirrors what Anderson (1985) recommends for personal interviews.
For key informant interviews you need to use more analytic creativity to process what you have found. Ask yourself to portray the key views of these respondents as a group. What did you learn that you expected? What did you learn that was new? Which views are shared? Which views differ? (p. 188).
In Chapter Four I report the replies to my four interview questions. I did not distinguish the participants by teaching level or gender because I found no significant pattern of similarities or differences in the data based upon these characteristics.
Summary
I determined that face-to-face interviews would be the best way to collect the data I needed for my burning question: What motivates senior teachers to hold leadership positions, or what prevents them from doing so? Interviews have a key advantage over other types of data collection by enabling follow-up questions based upon the participants’ initial response. My school district was an ideal setting because I had immediate and straightforward access to teachers. I also was able to determine who was a senior teacher and who wasn’t by looking at district data. The participants were nine senior teachers, holding a variety of teaching positions.
Preview of Chapter Four
In Chapter Four I present my findings of primary motivators and hindrances and benefits and costs of holding leadership positions, and what the future may hold for this group of senior teachers.

Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR
Findings
“Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.” Benjamin Franklin
Introduction

The nine teachers I interviewed from my district have excellent reputations among students, parents, and colleagues, and are viewed as experts in their areas of teaching. They have earned a name for being tough but fair, forceful but compassionate, and intense but personable. They all have a master’s degree in their chosen field and have a passion for life-long learning. Teaching is their first and only career and most likely their last. I would expect this group of teachers to continue to be active in their communities far beyond their retirements.
My burning question was: What motivates senior teachers to hold leadership positions, or what prevents them from doing so? I presented the following four questions to the teachers:
1. Describe all formal and informal leadership roles you have held during your teaching career.
2. What motivates you to take a leadership role(s)?
3. What hinders you from taking a leadership role(s)?
4. Which leadership roles would you like to see yourself hold in the future?
I also asked follow-up questions to clarify or explore their replies.
Chart 3 is a multi-flow map showing the cause and effects of involving teachers in leadership roles.

Chart 3

WHAT MOTIVATES SENIOR TEACHERS TO HOLD LEADERSHIP POSITIONS, OR WHAT PREVENTS THEM FROM DOING SO?


MOTIVATORS HINDRANCES


1. Sense of duty 1. Lack of time or
or responsibility or too much time needed
for leadership responsibilities

2. Interest in seeing 2. Other
“big picture”
-lack of interest

-not having needed skills

Benefits
-decisions already made
-higher student achievement
-give opportunities to
-improved professional practice younger teachers

-high job satisfaction -philosophical
differences


Costs


-conflicts with peers


Leadership Roles
I expected that the teachers I interviewed would have held many leadership roles over the years and, indeed, they did. The teachers had held an extensive and impressive variety