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A recent article in this journal by John Smith and Joseph Blase criticized empiricism as a theoretical base for theories of educational leadership, suggested hermeneutics as a replacement host theory and then, in its terms, advanced some views on leadership. Without rejecting their thoughts concerning proper leadership, argues that much of what they say is consistent not just with hermeneutics but with versions of empiricism less “straw‐mannish” than the view they reject. Identifies difficulties in the hermeneutical theories advanced by Smith and Blase and advances an alternative philosophical framework for educational leadership theory.

The study reported in this paper examines teachers' perspectives on ineffective school leadership. Unstructured and structured interviews, open‐ended questionnaires, and observations were used to collect data from teachers in one urban high school in the southeastern United States. Data were collected and analyzed according to guidelines for grounded theory research. This paper describes factors teachers identified with ineffective school principals and the impact of these factors on the teachers and their relationships with other faculty, students, and parents. Theoretical ideas derived from the data are discussed. These ideas focus on relationships between school principal factors and the sociocultural context of the school.

This study seeks to identify 172 American elementary, middle, and high school teachers' perceptions of the major sources and intensity of the experience of mistreatment by a principal, the effects of such mistreatment, how these perceptions varied by demographic variables, teachers' coping skills, and teachers' perceptions of contributing factors.

Participants completed a piloted, validated online questionnaire.

The participants reported experiencing a wide range of abusive principal behaviors that resulted in serious or extensive harmful psychological/emotional, physical/physiological, and work‐related effects to themselves, their work, and their families. An overwhelming majority (77 percent) indicated they would leave their job for another because of the harm caused by the principal's mistreatment. Mistreated teachers typically did not enact problem‐focused coping strategies. Differences were found among teachers of various demographic categories for several variables.

The findings of this current, quantitative study expand the authors' earlier qualitative research on the topic of teacher mistreatment; these are the only studies on this topic completed in the USA. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are included.

While there has been considerable research in the general area of teacher stress, little attention has been given to studying how teachers actually cope with work stress. A review of the available literature reveals that no models of teacher coping exist which have been developed directly from the study of teachers. This paper describes a data‐based taxonomy of behaviors that teachers use to cope with work stress and the perceived effectiveness of such behaviors in dealing with stress. The taxonomy was constructed from data collected from school teachers located in several regions of the United States. How educational administrators can promote “organizational literacy” in teachers, thereby preparing them for the realities of the school as a work setting, is discussed. In addition, the proposed taxonomy is discussed in terms of its theoretical significance for future organizational research.

Describes the practices, thoughts, and feelings of shared‐governance principals as they confront the challenges of school restructuring. The focus is on the principals’ perspective on shared governance and democratic schooling; the challenges of becoming involved in collaborative decision making with teachers, parents, and students; and the principals’ own professional growth as they strove to become “one among equals” with their colleagues. The data discussed here were drawn from a qualitative study of principals in nine schools affiliated with Glickman’s League of Professional Schools in Georgia. A protocol of open‐ended interview questions designed by the researchers, according to general guidelines for grounded theory inquiry, provided principals with the opportunity to identify and describe in detail their perspective on shared governance leadership in schools. Inductive analysis of the data generated a description of the implementation of shared governance that includes five salient themes: meanings, becoming involved, letting go of power, supportive processes, and supportive structures. Discusses findings in terms of the relevant empirical and theoretical literature.

This article, the first empirical study of its kind, presents findings from a larger qualitative study of principal mistreatment of teachers. A grounded theory method was used to study a sample of 50 US teachers who were subjected to long‐term mistreatment from school principals. The authors discuss descriptive, conceptual, and theoretical findings about principals’ actions that teachers define as mistreatment. In addition, the inductively derived model briefly looks at the harmful effects of principal mistreatment and abuse on teachers, psychologically/emotionally and physically/physiologically. Implications of study findings are discussed for administrator and teacher preparation, for school district offices, and for further research.

Describes the everyday micropolitical facilitative strategies and personal characteristics of exemplary school principals who have influenced and enhanced teachers’ sense of empowerment. The data discussed here were drawn from a qualitative study of teachers in 11 schools affiliated with Glickman’s League of Professional Schools in Georgia. An open‐ended questionnaire designed by the researchers, according to general guidelines for grounded theory inquiry, provided teachers with the opportunity to identify and describe in detail characteristics of principals that enhanced their sense of empowerment. Inductive analyses of the data generated a description of facilitative leadership that includes seven major “facilitative” strategies and one set of facilitative personal characteristics that enhanced teacher empowerment. Focuses on the strategies and characteristics teachers identified as facilitative principal leadership. Discusses findings in terms of the relevant empirical and theoretical literature.

Few studies have directly examined teachers’ perspectives on principals’ everyday instructional leadership characteristics and the impacts of those characteristics on teachers. In this study, over 800 American teachers responded to an open‐ended questionnaire by identifying and describing characteristics of principals that enhanced their classroom instruction and what impacts those characteristics had on them. The data revealed two themes (and 11 strategies) of effective instructional leadership: talking with teachers to promote reflection and promoting professional growth.