A Study in Leadership Practices that Cultivate Elementary School Teachers' Well-being During a Global Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic placed greater demands on school leaders and caused ongoing disruption to teaching and learning. Faced with unprecedented challenges, school leaders have made critical changes in how they lead their school communities (Brinkmann et al., 2021). The study aimed to investigate the perceptions of elementary teachers within the United States concerning the identified leadership practices needed to cultivate teacher well-being before and during the global pandemic. A literature review revealed the commonalities in what highly effective principals do and their impact on student achievement (Grissom et al., 2021a). Researchers synthesized five practices of effective principals: instructional-focused interactions, building and fostering a productive school climate, facilitating collaboration, strategic management, and leading for equity (Grissom et al., 2021b). The study involved interviewing twelve elementary teachers' working in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. The interview questions investigated the perceived leadership practices implemented by principals to foster teacher well-being before and during the pandemic. The research questions were as follows: (1) What leadership practices of elementary school principals do teachers perceive have positively impacted teacher well-being prior to the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) What leadership practices of elementary school principals do teachers perceive fostered teacher well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic? The outcomes of the study offered awareness of elementary teachers' perceptions of school leadership practices that cultivated teacher well-being before and during the global pandemic.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Department dc:contributor.department

Counselor Education

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Jones, Courtney Elizabeth

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Cash, Carol S.
• Price, Ted S.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Nabors, Autumn Nicole
• Gratto, John Robert

• global pandemic
• organizational leadership
• teacher efficacy
• teacher well-being
• school leadership

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:36295

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/113690