Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
11-2025
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2670-6004
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Melinda Carver
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Christie Bledsoe
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
John Harrison
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of perceived principal leadership styles and school type on elementary teachers’ self-efficacy. The study examined two research questions. The first examined differences between teachers’ self-efficacy in Title 1 and non-Title 1 schools, and the second examined differences in teacher self-efficacy and perceived principal leadership styles (authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire). The convenience sample included 129 elementary teachers from social media teacher groups that taught in various Title 1 and non-Title 1 school districts. I used a quantitative, causal-comparative method to collect data and survey questionnaires that identified trends in leadership styles within the K–5 grade levels. A Mann- Whitney U test was used to analyze the differences in self-efficacy between Title 1 and non-Title 1 teachers since assumptions 4, 5, and 6 were not met. A Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to establish if there was a statistically significant relationship between principals’ leadership styles and elementary teachers’ self-efficacy. For RQ1, the tests run identified that there was no statistically significant difference between Title 1 and non-Title 1 elementary teachers’ self- efficacy. The study failed to reject the null hypothesis since there was no difference between the groups. The findings for RQ2 revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in elementary teachers’ overall self-efficacy scores among teachers who perceived they reported to principals with different leadership styles, as measured by the principals’ leadership styles survey. The study failed to reject the null hypothesis for RQ2.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Gonzalez, Karen M., "The Effect of Perceived Principal Leadership Styles and School Type on Elementary Teacher Self-Efficacy" (2025). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 954.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/954
Included in
Educational Leadership Commons, Elementary Education Commons, Elementary Education and Teaching Commons