Enabling district structure: The relationship between perceived district structure and principal self-efficacy

Kathleen Elizabeth Landy, Fordham University

Abstract

American public school districts must deal with increased turnover and a shortage of qualified leadership due in part to the daunting responsibility associated with the increasingly complex role of the school principal. As more schools deal with difficulties associated with principal recruitment and retention, those qualities of effective leaders and the antecedents thereof are receiving more attention in educational research. Principal self-efficacy (PSE) is a powerful construct, yet little is known about its antecedents. This quantitative study was framed using Giddens’ structuration theory and built upon Hoy and Sweetland’s construct of enabling school structures to establish the construct of enabling district structure (EDS) and explore the interaction of EDS and PSE. This study confirmed that these two constructs share a moderate, statistically significant correlation and that these variables were moderately and significantly predictive of each other, lending support to the assertion that these constructs share a mutually reinforcing relationship. These findings are consequential not only because they offer evidentiary support of the identification of a structural antecedent of PSE, but also because they support the suggestion that EDS is a viable and influential construct.

Subject Area

Educational leadership|School administration

Recommended Citation

Landy, Kathleen Elizabeth, "Enabling district structure: The relationship between perceived district structure and principal self-efficacy" (2013). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3558426.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3558426

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