Lenters, Kimberly A.Pelling, Melody Lyn2018-09-172018-09-172018-09-04Pelling, M. L. (2018). Understanding the Leadership Role in Literacy Programming of Elementary School Principals (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/32923http://hdl.handle.net/1880/107747Elementary school principals play a key role in leading the pedagogy in their schools. Among their many responsibilities is to ensure that all students have access to quality teaching and learning experiences. Arguably, one of the most important skills that an elementary student will learn in school is to become a confident, fluent reader, who can use their literacy skills to navigate in a complex and progressive society. Teaching children to read is multi-faceted and requires educators to have significant background knowledge and skill. Given this context, it is necessary to ask what role principals play in providing leadership and guidance specific to literacy, in their schools. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between elementary school leadership and literacy programming in elementary schools. This inquiry was done through a qualitative research approach that employed case study methodology. An anonymous survey, individual semi-structured interviews with five elementary school principals, and a document review were used to explore principals’ perceptions of their role in literacy leadership. The findings of this inquiry revealed principals do have an important role in literacy leadership in elementary schools, and that their work as a literacy leader is often facilitated through a distributed leadership model. This inquiry also revealed that, although principals feel they must understand the literacy process themselves to lead the work, they do not necessarily enter the role of principal with this requisite knowledge. Further to this, principals feel that a large part of their role as literacy leader is building the capacity of teachers’ literacy pedagogy, so that in turn, teachers can respond to students’ literacy needs through the lens of the school’s literacy leadership.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.Education--AdministrationEducation--Early ChildhoodEducation--ElementaryEducation--ReadingEducation--Teacher Trainingdoctoral thesis10.11575/PRISM/32923