Classroom Teachers' Perceptions Of Seventh-Day Adventist Academy Principal's Effectiveness In The Lake Union Conference

CLASSROOM TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST ACADEMY PRINCIPAL'S EFFECTIVENESS IN THE LAKE UNION CONFERENCE by Ritch Enos Kacelenga Chairman: Edward A. S tree te r, Ed.D. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH Doctoral D issertationOF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH Doctoral D issertation Andrews University Department of Education T it le : CLASSROOM TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST ACADEMY PRINCIPAL'S EFFECTIVENESS IN THE LAKE UNION CONFERENCE. Name of researcher: Ritch Enos Kacelenga Name and t i t l e of faculty adviser: Edward A. S treeter, Ed.D. Date completed: April 1983. Problem In the Seventh-day Adventist educational system, a need exists fo r research concerning the interpersonal relationshios between school principals and teachers, p a rtic u la rly regarding the way in which teachers perceive the p rin c ip a l's ro le . A school principal is in the unique position of being able, independently, to a ffe c t the func­ tioning o f an en tire school s ta f f . The teachers' oerceptions of the principal a ffe c t th e ir interpersonal relationships and, consequently, the school clim ate. There is a need to know about this aspect in order to work cut e ffec tive ore-service and in-service tra in ing for school principals . ? Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Method All teachers in the ten academies of the Lake Union Conference served as the population sample. A questionnaire was used to co llect data from the teachers regarding th e ir perceptions o f an SDA academy orinc ipa l's effectiveness in fiv e functional areas o f administration. The data were f i r s t analyzed descrip tive ly . Then four hypotheses were tested fo r s ta t is t ic a l significance by independent t te s t and one-way analysis of variance for repeated measures. Conclusions 1. Teachers d iffe red s lig h tly in th e ir perceptions of the prin ­ c ipa l's effectiveness in the fiv e functional areas of adm inistration. 2. Overall results showed that teachers strongly agreed that the orincipal was e ffe c tiv e in sp iritu a l clim ate. 3. Teachers also agreed that the principal was e ffec tive in management. The school principal needed to improve in the other areas, especially in school-community re lations . A. Teachers with most experience in teaching (ten or more years of teaching) perceived the principal to be most e ffe c tiv e in school management and least e ffe c tiv e in curriculum and instruction . Recommendations 1. Academy orincipals should attempt to discover how the classroom teachers perceive the p rincipals ' effectiveness and try to enter into some kind o f dialogue between themselves and the teachers for mutual development in th e ir re lations. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. i.. When h iring academy p rin c ip a ls , preference should be given to candidates who demonstrate a b i l i t y to lis te n to others and are s k il lfu l in human relations as well as in adm inistrative and super­ vising competencies. 3. Teachers' perceptions of p rin c ip a l's effectiveness can be used as part of a needs assessment in order to plan a practical and e ffec tive in -serv ice training for those academy principals already on