Master's students' perceptions toward teacher leadership

Abstract

This study investigated master's level student perceptions of teacher leadership attributes, roles, and responsibilities upon completion of an online Master of Arts in Education, with a concentration in teacher leadership, at a large public university. As an inductive, qualitative case study, responses to an open-ended questionnaire were analyzed with coding schemes to establish patterns and trends using grounded theory to categorize responses. Deductive coding schemes were used to establish theories comparing the teacher leadership competencies established by the Center for Teacher Quality, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and the National Education Association (2014). Findings indicate alignment to the literature on teacher leadership, specifically with clarity around teacher leadership competencies.