Secondary Education Teachers
OBJECTIVE The purpose of the study was to evaluate the self-perception of transformational leadership practices of middle and high school computer technology teachers in an urban public school environment.
METHODOLOGY The population consisted of all middle and high school computer technology teachers of an urban public school district in the state of Connecticut, of which 27 responded (87% response rate). Each completed the Leadership Practices Inventory. There were 13 women and 14 men in the sample and most respondents were either between the ages of 41-50 (30%) or 51-60 (30%) years of age. Eleven teachers were at the middle school level and the others at the high school level. Forty-one percent had a master’s degree, and two-thirds had taught computer courses between 1-10 years.
KEY FINDINGS Computer technology teachers’ self-perceived leadership practices were average when compared to the Kouzes Posner normative data base. The most frequently engaged in leadership practice was Enabling, followed by Encouraging, Modeling, Challenging, and Inspiring. No significant differences were found on any of the demographic variables: age, gender, school level, and total years of teaching experience.
“Transformational leadership training for computer technology teachers is necessary. Transformational leadership will prepare these important individuals to go beyond their ‘comfort zones’ to find and implement what is needed. Leadership training may support computer technology teachers so that they may rise above the norm to better handle the challenge of technology integration and implementation. It is necessary to improve the quality and frequency of each of the five leadership practices among this group of teachers” (p. 146).