Candidate: Pamela J. Miller

Degree of: Doctor of Philosophy

Department: Teaching, Learning and Leadership

Title:Teacher Leadership in Community Colleges: Transforming Teaching and Organizational Governance

Committee: Dr. Richard Zinser, Chair
Dr. William Pearch
Dr. Carl Woloszyk

Date: Wednesday, March 8, 2006 3:00 p.m.- 5:00 p.m.
The Graduate Center, Room 2007, East Beltline Campus, Grand Rapids

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to describe and interpret the experiences of community college teachers in order to understand their perception of their leadership role and the impact of teacher leadership on institutional governance and student success. The concept of teacher leadership has the ability to transform higher education by: (1) developing teachers' knowledge, skills, and confidence to assume leadership roles, (2) attracting and retaining teachers by providing a “combination of classroom and leadership duties that is sufficiently challenging and satisfying”, (3) creating a flattened organizational structure that is more flexible and responsive to change, (4) increasing opportunities for content experts to inform local, state, and national educational policy making, (5) increasing institutional effectiveness, and, ultimately (6) increasing student success.

As institutions have realized expanded leadership to include more individuals, there has been limited examination of how leadership might be interpreted differently by groups and individuals on college campuses, in particular, faculty, other levels of administration, and staff. (Kezar, 2000, p1) The concept of distributed leadership, and teacher leadership specifically, enjoys a great deal of support in the literature but lacks sufficient empirical evidence to document resultant improvements in learning. This research addressed gaps in the teacher leadership literature by contributing a quantitative analysis of the leadership experiences of community college faculty. The results of the study should be of interest to community college faculty and administrators, teacher educators and teacher preparation institutions, and policy makers as they work to identify and implement change efforts related to curriculum and instruction, professional development, institutional leadership and governance.

Related Topics

Main List of Archives:
Dissertation Defenses

Current Dissertation Defenses