Ed.D., Antioch University, 2024, Education

Beginning at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education experienced a sea change in reduced enrollment, altered course delivery models, and increased need for student support. While observing staff's actual impact on the student experience during this time, this study will address the question, “How do professional staff in small private universities a) perceive their contributions to the retention of students and b) perceive their overall value to the institutions they serve?” Owing to gaps in research on professional staff experiences, the literature review synthesizes current trends related to enrollment, retention, and persistence, focusing on small, private, non-profit 4-year institutions; discusses the disparate impact of these trends; examines the context of academic staffing trends; reviews the experiences of professional staff, focusing on critical connections between student and institution, student learning within liminal spaces, gender, and relational practice; and, examining social justice leadership in postsecondary education staffing. This qualitative study employs a constructivist grounded theory method using an initial anonymous questionnaire and interviews with volunteers for a deeper exploration of themes. The pool of nine interview participants comprises mid-level professional staff with at least three years of experience in student-supporting roles from five private universities with under 5,000 students. Potential implications relate to improving student retention practices and eliminating barriers by rethinking staff structures, resource allocation, and investment in student support areas. Further implications are related to staff role satisfaction, socially just models for professional development, and training of the next generation of professional staff. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Emiliano Gonzalez Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Douglas Judge Ph.D. (Committee Member); Cristy Sugarman Ed.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Leadership; Ethics; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; Organizational Behavior

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2021, Educational Administration (Education)

The aim of this dissertation is to examine spiritual leadership theory and how spiritual leadership influences the top educational leaders in Appalachian Ohio. While spiritual leadership is a growing field of study, more study is needed to examine its influence on practitioners generally and specifically in Appalachia. What role does personal spirituality play in resilience, ethics, and the treatment of others? This study shows that local school superintendents in Appalachian Ohio largely view themselves as spiritual people. Further, it reveals that their spirituality influences many facets of their work. It also shows that a large percentage of these leaders feel called to their profession, including feeling called specifically to Appalachia. The significance of this study is that it informs our theoretical understanding of spiritual leadership and its practical impacts on the top educational leaders of the region.

Committee: Charles Lowery (Committee Chair); Michael Hess (Committee Member); Leonard Allen (Committee Member); Yegan Pillay (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Leadership; Spirituality

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Leadership Studies

This study addressed the lack of emphasis and understanding related to the benefits of the practice of ethical principal leadership. The purpose of this study, to address the noted problem, was to explore the practice of principal ethical leadership through acts of virtue and was viewed through the Framework of Foundational Virtues of Educational Leadership: consisting of the virtues of responsibility, authenticity, and presence (Starratt, 2004). This phenomenological study consisted of interviewing six principals in Northwest Ohio. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and written personal codes of ethics. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed in conjunction with other noted forms of data. This data produced the essence of the practice of ethical principal leadership through acts of virtue via the following five themes: the virtue of responsibility, the virtue of authenticity, the virtue of presence, the virtue of perseverance, and student centrality. The identified essence and themes of the study provide a greater understanding of, and benefits related to, the practice of ethical principal leadership through acts of virtue. Also, this study expands the literature related to ethical leadership and principal leadership by identifying practical and theoretical implications that impact both areas of leadership.

Committee: Paul Willis EdD (Advisor); Salim Elwazani PhD (Other); Tracy Huziak-Clark PhD (Committee Member); Patrick Pauken PhD (Committee Member); Kevin Pfefferle EdD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Leadership; Ethics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, Educational Studies

It has become commonplace within the educational research community to invoke the transformative power of education. Calls to adopt a “transformative” approach to teaching, learning, pedagogy, assessment and professional education can be heard across the disciplines of educational research today—in fields as different as adult education and school leadership, and as estranged as social justice education and educational psychology. Parallel to this discussion is the increasing usage of the language of transformation by administrators, informational brochures, official websites, and student affairs personnel in higher education. Beyond the English-speaking world, the German fields of educational theory and qualitative educational research have recently seen a flurry of activity on the topic of "transformatorische Bildungsprozesse" (transformative ed-ucational processes). The first aim of this dissertation is to examine some of the common philosophical assumptions that lie behind these various invocations of transformation. What does it mean to undergo a transformative experience? What pedagogical methods are required to bring them about? Where has the idea of a transformative education come from, and what anthropological premises does it assume? These questions are addressed in the first two chapters, which conclude that the various usages of the idea of transformation in education today fall into four different “paradigms” of transformative experience: conversion, overcoming, discovery and initiation. In the third chapter, I explore some of the ethical problems that accompany each of the paradigmatic approaches to transformative education. The central result of this analysis is that only the “initiation paradigm” possesses the necessary resources for addressing the characteristic ethical problems of transformative education, and I therefore defend a revised version of transformative initiation in the fourth chapter. Within the initiation paradigm, educational transfo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Bryan Warnick Ph. D. (Advisor); Bruce Kimball Ph. D. (Committee Member); Jackie Blount Ph. D. (Committee Member); Mark Conroy Ph. D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2016, Educational Leadership

This study demonstrates the value of organization-specific articulations of exemplary leadership. The research topic relates to leadership and organizational studies in general, and higher educational leadership and organizational commitment in particular. The focus of inquiry is the complex, human-organizational phenomenon of exemplary leadership commitment to mission and identity among lay leaders in the Catholic and Marianist tradition of one top-tier research university in the United States. The context of inquiry is the emerging prominence and critical role of lay leadership in Catholic higher education. The researcher offers an in-depth examination of how exemplary lay leaders experience and practice their personal commitment to Catholic-Marianist mission and identity. The research objective is to understand and describe the essential meanings in the lived experiences of exemplary lay leaders, presenting individual descriptions and collective syntheses of the phenomenon in focus. The intended audience includes leaders in Marianist and Catholic higher education; administrators involved in leadership development and mission and identity enculturation; and researchers in higher education, phenomenology, and interdisciplinary studies in leadership and organizational behavior. Using the transcendental phenomenological research method, the researcher generates eight individual “portraits-in-words,” containing multilayered human portrayals that allow the reader to intuit and empathize with the interior experiences and meaning making of the exemplary lay leaders in this study. The researcher also analyzes the experiential data collectively, presenting numerous “composite syntheses” of the apparent textures and underlying structures of the phenomenon in focus. Finally, the researcher describes three “streams” within the lived experience of the phenomenon, namely: exemplary lay commitment, exemplary Marianist leadership, and the experience of Catholic and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Molly Schaller (Committee Chair); Carolyn Ridenour (Committee Member); Joseph Watras (Committee Member); David Fleming S.M. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education Philosophy; Educational Leadership; Ethics; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; Management; Organizational Behavior; Personal Relationships; Philosophy; Spirituality; Teaching

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2014, Educational Administration (Education)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ethical leadership perspectives of Ohio public school superintendents. Secondly, this study examined to what extent ethical leadership perspectives of Ohio public school superintendents vary according to school district characteristics. Furthermore, the study examined to what extent do ethical leadership perspectives of Ohio public school superintendents vary according to leader demographics. A survey was used to collect data of both superintendent demographics and school district characteristics. Included in this survey were an Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS) and Social Desirability Scale (SDS). The ELS was used to measure ethical leadership perspectives of the superintendents. The SDS was used to measure social desirability of the superintendents. The survey was sent to 606 public school district superintendents in the State of Ohio of which 231 responded. Additionally, this study included an ancillary study in which the researcher conducted interviews with 15 superintendents from across the State of Ohio. The goal of these small group and individual interviews was to gain further information regarding ethical leadership perspectives and social desirability of superintendents in the State of Ohio, and furthermore, to identify district characteristics and leader demographics associated with ethical leadership perspectives. Included in these interviews, the researcher administered the ELS and SDS instruments to each participant.

Committee: Gordon Brooks (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education; Educational Leadership; Ethics