Exploring Perceptions of Leadership for School Staff

Abstract

The study presented here uses Q methodology to explore the perceptions of
teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and head teachers about
leadership. Altogether, 84 employees from four different Norwegian
primary schools were asked to rank-order 27 statements related to
leadership. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions of
leadership for the staff of a primary school. The results present two
perspectives: Appreciates Faculty and Appreciates the School.
Appreciates Faculty seems to prefer leadership that has a focus on
individual staff development over management practices and setting
directions. The people whose sorts loaded significantly on Appreciates
the School, on the other hand, had quite the opposite view. These people
saw management practices and setting directions as the most important
leadership traits, as opposed to leadership with an individual staff
focus which they saw as least important. The findings are discussed in
light of research and theory on the topic of transformational and
transactional leadership. This study contributes to the literature on
subjectivity and school leadership by revealing the opinions about what
leadership practices are important.