Browsing by Author "Turner, Jeffrey Warren"

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    An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Study of Pedagogical Leadership: High School Principals’ Influence on Innovative Pedagogical Practice
    (2020-03) Turner, Jeffrey Warren; Brandon, James; Friesen, Sharon; Jacobsen, Michele; Gereluk, Dianne; Ryan, James
    The primary purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study was to understand how high school principals enact a conceptual model of pedagogical leadership as they develop, support, and sustain a community of adult learners focused on innovative pedagogical practice. Multiple cases were drawn from three urban public high schools that were identified based on the significant work they have demonstrated in the development and implementation of innovative pedagogical practice. The first, quantitative phase, focused on the degree to which high school principals shaped their pedagogical leadership practices within elements of instructional and transformational leadership, and five leadership dimensions of effective leadership. Descriptive and inferential analysis revealed an integrated approach of instructional and transformational leadership in the enactment of pedagogical leadership. The analysis also indicated higher levels of transformational leadership within each of the leadership dimensions. In the second, qualitative phase, data analysis identified 10 leadership practices within three leadership dimensions, (a) shared vision and goals, (b) quality teaching, and (c) teacher learning and found that these practices interacted reciprocally between instructional and transformational leadership. The results of the quantitative and qualitative data analysis phases were then integrated in order to illuminate key principal leadership practices associated with pedagogical leadership. Based on the integrated analysis, principals, assistant principals, learning leaders and teachers, within the study, agreed that principals influence pedagogical practices through a set of key leadership practices. The study acknowledges the complexity of the practice of pedagogical leadership. There are degrees of practice that both contextual and personal variables can influence, and these in turn impact the ability of principals to integrate these leadership practices within instructional and transformational leadership. This study adds to a growing body of research that suggests principals, who are focused on influencing teaching, extract different elements of instructional and transformational leadership and adjust their leadership practices in response to the school’s context. These insights also contributed to the revision of a model of pedagogical leadership conceptualized within the study. With a focus on the central core task of schooling, teaching, and learning this conceptual model provides a responsive leadership framework in a time where high schools need to be adaptive to the fast pace of the knowledge driven world.