Date of Conferral

4-11-2025

Date of Award

April 2025

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

John Harrison

Abstract

The problem that was addressed in this basic qualitative study was that fulltime college faculty was not sufficiently engaged in distributed leadership at a technical college in a western state. The purpose of this study was to explore fulltime college faculty members’ perspective about their engagement in distributed leadership at a technical college in a western state. The research questions explored how fulltime faculty described their engagement in, and knowledge of, faculty leadership, at a technical college, and recommendations for increasing engagement. Using Spillane’s leader plus paradigm as the conceptual framework, semistructured interviews of 14 purposively sampled fulltime college faculty from the study site were conducted. Thematic analysis was used employing inductive coding. Five themes emerged related to faculty perspectives and distributed leadership: (a) leadership and governance, (b) strategic planning and impact, (c) faculty and institutional development, (d) organizational structure and processes, and (e) communication and collaboration. Participants conveyed interest in professional development, connecting leadership to planning and communication. A 5-day professional development project was created focusing on strategic planning, communication, collaboration, and artificial intelligence driven decision making to strengthen the use of distributed leadership in career and technical education (CTE). The findings may contribute to both the practical application and theoretical understanding of distributed leadership in CTE programs and promote positive social change through more engaged leadership.

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