Date of Award

5-2005

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Program

Educational Administration

Department

Educational Leadership, Counseling, and Foundations

Major Professor

Kirby, Peggy

Second Advisor

Riedlinger, Brian

Third Advisor

Theodore, George

Fourth Advisor

Paradise, Louis

Abstract

This study employed a quantitative research design using a mail survey to explore leadership style in Islamic schools in the United States. The purpose of the study was to describe levels of transformational and transactional leadership of American Muslim principals. Correlational analyses were used to determine the relationship between principal and teacher reports of principals' use of transformational leadership and the relationship of demographic variables to perceptions of transformational leadership. Multiple regression analyses showed that none of the six demographic variables were significant predictors of the variance in principal- or teacher-reported use of transformational leadership. Thirty-three principals responded to the MLQ 5X selfrating form and 143 teachers responded to the MLQ 5X otherrating form. Principals rated themselves higher than their teachers on transformational leadership and lower than their teachers on transactional leadership. Both principals and teachers ranked principals highest in Inspirational Motivation and lowest in Management-by-Exception Passive. Principals rated themselves as being more intellectually stimulating and less often using contingent reward. In schools where teachers were more congruent in their ratings of the principal, they tended to perceive the principals as more transformational than did teachers in schools where teachers were less congruent in their ratings. It appears that where principals are more consistent in their interactions with teachers, teachers have higher opinions of the principal as a transformational leader. Both teachers and principals rated principals of American Muslim schools as fairly high in the use of both transformational and transactional leadership. Comparisons of these findings to other research in the U.S. suggest that American Muslim principals exhibit leadership characteristics very similar to those of other U.S. principals.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

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