Leadership in New Hampshire Independent Schools: An Examination of Trust and Openness to Change

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study were to examine leadership in private schools and how leaders build trust to see if they create a faculty open to change.

METHODOLOGY
There were 18 schools identified as National Association of Independent Schools member schools with an appropriate membership status as possible participant schools in January of 2015 in New Hampshire, and five participated (three of which were boarding/day schools; four were coed and one boys only, and all enrolled under 500 students). Five headmasters (two females and two males, and one unknown gender) completed the Leadership Practices Inventory, the Omnibus T-scale (Hoy and Tschannen-Moran (2003), the Faculty Change Orientation Scale (Smith & Hoy, 2005), open-ended questions about leadership, trust and openness, and demographic information. The experience of headmasters ranged from 21-28 years and 3-13 years in their current position. Fifty-nine faculty members also participated, 59 percent were women, with an average of 15 years of experience overall and 8+ years with their current school, and all but four were Caucasian.

KEY FINDINGS
The author concludes: “None of the headmaster participants exhibited all five leadership practices consistently based on their own assessment; however, faculty member participant references do align with the exemplary leadership practices” (p. 87).