Date of Award
2008
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Educational Leadership
First Advisor
T. Gregory Barrett, Ph.D.
Abstract
The leadership approach of five deans of teacher education from institutions in a southern state were examined using a cross case comparative qualitative analysis to determine how the dean's leadership approach along with organizational factors and environmental conditions influence the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) accreditation process within their respective institutions. Five institutional sites were selected for the case studies based upon the institutional head count, number of teacher education candidates, institutional type, and date of the next NCATE accreditation visit. The five institutions included one doctoral intensive, one doctoral extensive, one master's granting, one private, and one historically Black institution. This process provided requisite variety across institutions. The study was organized around a conceptual framework that identified variables for leadership approaches, task environment, institutional environment, organizational factors, and accreditation processes. The conceptual framework provided a means for integrating the established leadership theories with more mainstream organizational behavior theories, including environmental conditions and organizational factors. The deans of the school and colleges of education, NCATE coordinators, and faculty members from each of the five institutions provided the interview data and documentary evidence used to develop the case studies. The qualitative data were collected and the findings reported. Findings indicated that a dean's leadership approach is influential on the NCATE accreditation process within their institution. The research findings supported the theoretical basis that the dean's leadership approach may be categorized as either the Contingency Theory and or Leader Member Exchange Theory. Additional findings supported the concept that the environmental conditions and organizational factors impact the leadership approach that the dean demonstrates. Other findings included: the importance of leader-member relations in the accreditation process, evidence of the importance of in-groups in which the accreditation coordinator is a member for successful accreditation, the importance of market and resources to faculty recruiting, and a disconnect between activities involved in accreditation and the research function. Unanticipated findings included state-run non-traditional licensure programs that compete with the university-based accredited teacher education licensure programs, and difficulties arising from differences between accrediting agency expectations and those of the State department of education.
Recommended Citation
Hunnicutt, Donna R., "Institutional processes intended to achieve accreditation: An investigation of how the leadership approaches of deans of schools and colleges of education, organizational factors, and environmental conditions influence the process" (2008). Theses and Dissertations. 95.
https://research.ualr.edu/etd/95
