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Collaborative/democratic leadership. This theme emerged as the primary response to
interview question one with nine instances (36%) of being directly or indirectly mentioned by the research participants. This theme’s relationship to research question one indicates that the best practices and strategies employed by a high school principal for students’ higher education and future career preparation require leadership oriented towards working with others, providing opportunity for others’ input to decisions made regarding instruction and school policies and procedures as shared leadership. P4, P5, P10, P12, P13 specifically mentioned they use a collaborative style of leadership; P5 connected use of the collaborative style with democratic leadership, “I like to lead; I like to demonstrate democratic and shared leadership” (P5, personal communication, February 3, 2017). Another response made by P4 stated, “…collaborative; it felt natural to be collaborative with the people already here; working alongside with teachers is very natural for me” (P4, personal conversation, February 1, 2017). Responses by P10 and P12 resonated the other research participants’ responses in that administrators collaborated with teachers, staff and other constituency groups in discussing what is and is not working to create buy-in to decisions made regarding instructional practices and school policies.
Student-centered leadership. This theme emerged as a secondary response to interview
question one with five instances (20%) of being directly or indirectly mentioned by the research participants. This theme’s relationship to research question one indicates that the best practices and strategies employed by a high school principal for students’ higher education and future career preparation require leadership oriented towards students’ student learning outcomes. P4 maintained the leadership focus of the student population served by the school for student learning outcomes stating, “…we still want to see those kids (1st generation college) because that’s where our passion is. That’s really the kids that we’re trying to serve,” (P4, personal
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communication, February 1, 2017). Another comment by P12 indicated, “Every decision I make has to benefit students” (P12, personal communication, March 2, 2017)
Relational leadership. This theme emerged as another response to interview question
one with three instances (12%) of being directly or indirectly mentioned by the research
participants. This theme’s relationship to research question one indicates that the best practices and strategies employed by a high school principal for students’ higher education and future career preparation require relationship as the key to effective leadership. Research participants who contributed this response were P7, P9 and P12. The participants indicated that building trust, exhibiting respect towards everyone, and being a family and creating a community created a positive school culture. According to P7, “…everything is defined by our relationships with people. It’s about relationships; it’s about creating trust; it’s about creating approachability; it’s about acknowledging and recognizing other’s importance, whether we’re talking about teachers or custodial staff” (P7, personal communication, February 23, 2017).
Transformational leadership. This theme emerged as another response to interview
question one with three instances (12%) of being directly or indirectly mentioned by the research participants. According to P1, P3, and P9, this theme’s relationship to research question one indicates that the best practices and strategies employed by a high school principal for students’ higher education and future career preparation require leadership that develops another’s leadership potential. Research participant P3 indicated, “I hire people and treat them as professionals; then allowing them to do their job and to grow. I will definitely provide
feedback” (P3, personal communication, January 26, 2017). Research participant P9 stated, “I might change, but my staff will stay. If I can build that leadership and motivate them to make changes and improvements constantly; …it’s the most important thing because they’re the heart
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of the school” (P9, personal communication, February 28, 2017). Finally, P1 epitomized
transformational leadership in the statements, “I believe in the program. I wanted to come here. My overall mission is to help everybody around me achieve their own personal goals while maintaining a focus on what the school site’s supposed to be accomplishing” (P1, personal communication, January 24, 2017).
Servant leadership. Another theme emerged in response to interview question one with
three instances (12%) of being directly or indirectly mentioned by the research participants. Responses by P2, P6, and P8 to this theme’s relationship to research question one indicates that the best practices and strategies employed by a high school principal for students’ higher education and future career preparation require a servant-minded leadership style. Responses made by research participants reflect this theme as P8 stated, “I am here to serve” (P8, personal communication, February 24, 2017). P6 comments, “I am a servant-leader who believes in a student-centered learning environment that meets students’ needs” (P6, personal communication, February 7, 2017). Another research participant responds, “Servant leadership is my focus, of doing. The reason I entered into the business of education, in the first place, is to help kids grow; it’s not just academics but it’s also social, emotional, and just developing future leaders” (P2, personal communication, January 25, 2017).
Other leadership styles. This category encompasses responses to interview question
one with two instances (8%) of different leadership styles directly or indirectly mentioned by research participants. Four different types of leadership styles emerged in response to research question one indicating the best practices and strategies employed by a high school principal for students’ higher education and future career preparation. Other leadership styles presented by
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research participants included: (a) situational leadership, (b) distributed leadership, (c) culturally responsive leadership, and (d) student-centered leadership.
The situational leadership style proposes the efficient use of teacher and staff skillsets in the situations in which required. Responses made by research participant P8 indicate the manner an administrator exhibited situational leadership in the performance of his/her responsibilities. Requesting further clarification to respond to another interview question, P8 commented, “The principalship is one that is incredibly broad. We are leaders of instruction. We are leaders of culture. We are leaders of school operations. We leaders of the school mission. There’s leadership of effective talent management” (P8, personal communication, February 24, 2017). This response corroborates the literature that a principal is required to wear many hats in
performing the different duties of the position and required by various situations. Another aspect of situational leadership involved the employment of staff in the performance of activities in which they have the competence and therefore, enjoy. P6 stated, “It’s not difficult to get people to comply. Allow them to do what they love” (P6, personal communication, January 26, 2017).
The distributed leadership style has similar components of democratic and shared
leadership within education. One research participant referenced distributive leadership with the collaborative/democratic styles of leadership. On the small campus site, the principal
“empowers staff to lead the learning” with the results being “distributed leadership that has worked really well for this school” (P9, personal communication, February 28, 2017).
The culturally responsive leadership theme emerged as a response to interview question one as it relates to research question one indicates that the best practices and strategies employed by a high school principal for students’ higher education and future career preparation require behaviors that are inclusive of students intentionally or unintentionally marginalized. Responses
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made by research participants P11 and P12 addresses equity and diversity in the school’s
instructional program. In response to the leadership style exhibited, P8 indicates, “My leadership is culturally responsive in support of the community needs, based on demographic, geographical, academic data, being very conscious of ensuring that all leader moves and decision making is student-centered, culturally responsive to the community I serve” (P8, personal communication, February 24, 2017).
Interview question 2a: What category of underrepresented student populations exist on your campus? Data analysis of responses to this interview question developed
characteristics from which the following five themes emerged as presented here in alphabetical order: (a) African American, (b) English Language Learners, (c) first-generation college, (d) Latino/Latina, and (e) low socioeconomic status (SES) (see Figure 10).
Figure 10. What category of traditionally underrepresented student population exist on your
campus?
Note. This figure demonstrates the five themes that emerged from responses that answered the stated interview question, presented here in decreasing order of frequency. The numbers above each theme indicate the number of times a direct or indirect statement made by an interview participant fell into the respective theme category.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 LOW SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS LATINO/LATINA FIRST GENERATION COLLEGE AFRICAN AMERICAN 13 13 13 12 6 F re q u en cy
Traditional Underrepresented Student Demographics