Principals' experiences in rural schools often differ from that of their urban and suburban counterparts. They often experience challenges that are not only unique to their specific contexts but influence their roles as instructional leaders. With instructional leadership at the forefront of the principalship, it is important to explore how rural…

K-12 Florida Christian schools were disrupted due to the advent of a global crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Flexibility was needed by educational leadership during this time of crisis. For that reason, this study will aim to understand the leadership principles necessary to provide leaders with the flexibility to adapt to extreme…

School safety is a primary societal concern due to catastrophic incidences of violence and educational leaders have a duty to ensure children's security. School shootings spotlight failures in school safety but educators and scholars cannot use tragedy to bridge the gap in high-efficacy practice. The problem is that school safety needs to improve…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine if, and to what extent, a relationship existed between teachers' perceptions of their evaluator's instructional leadership and the teachers' evaluation scores at the middle and high school levels in one Florida school district. Ozcan's theory of teacher motivation states that…

This study investigates how the perceptions of graduate students within a doctoral program in a midsized higher education institution in Southwest Florida evolved over a semester regarding multicultural education and impacted their careers and professional lives. A qualitative case study method was utilized with multiple data sources collected,…

Writing is an essential life skill. It is a critical area of literacy instruction and high-stakes assessments. However, emphasis on writing instruction and assessment has not correlated with widespread writing proficiency. Within this context, teachers experience the phenomenon of writing instructional leadership. Teachers' preparation as writers…

In March 2020, emergency school closings as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic initiated a sudden widespread use of virtual learning and brought new challenges that affected teaching and learning across multiple contexts. The complex change caused school district leaders to make plans to reinvent and reimagine schools and created a need for teacher…

As the complexity of school and district contexts continue to evolve, there is a need to prepare leaders at various points along the leadership continuum. Through this survey research, we analyzed student perceptions of program effectiveness (N = 408) from 2013 to 2020 in one educational leadership program through the lens of student professional…

Principals have traditionally served as the instructional leader in a school, significantly impacting school culture and effectiveness. Despite this importance, little work has been conducted to examine how administrators view and impact school-based agricultural education programs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how the…

In this study the experiences of Black (a.k.a. African Americans/ Negroes) educational leaders were explored focusing on the period during the transition to a more desegregated public- school setting in the state of Florida. Using retrospective storytelling and reflections of 'leading' during desegregation, the lived experiences of those in…

In recent years, Florida has become increasingly hostile toward issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in public education. This poses challenges for principals who need to ensure that students, particularly from marginalized backgrounds, have the opportunity to succeed. This case explores the social justice practices of a self-identifying…

The aim of this study was to investigate the conceptualizations and early childhood education (ECE) leadership practices among teachers and administrators. A case study was conducted at a community ECE center that mainly serves Hispanic and Haitian immigrant children and families in Southwest Florida. Three administrators and four ECE teachers…

Teacher turnover is a problem in all types of schools at all levels and is especially troubling in low-performing, high minority, urban schools. School principals have the challenge of building relationships with teachers in order to improve teacher retention while also balancing the many tasks and responsibilities they have throughout the day.…

With the number of Hispanic students increasing in public schools across the United States, especially in Florida, instructional leaders should recognize Hispanic students being identified for special education programs. The problem was that Hispanic students may be misclassified, inappropriately identified, or disproportionately represented in…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how elementary teachers rate their level of self-efficacy and to examine the characteristics of school leaders influencing teacher self-efficacy, including when teachers worked from home during the COVID-19 school shutdown. On the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES), all 287 participating teachers…