Date of Conferral

8-28-2025

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Mary Kropiewnicki

Abstract

The problem addressed in this study was that school leaders are challenged in providing instructional leadership to teachers to advance secondary students' mathematics achievement in a British Commonwealth Country (BCC). The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to investigate secondary school leaders’ perceptions of the challenges to providing instructional leadership practices found to be effective to support teachers to advance secondary students' mathematics achievement in a BCC. The conceptual framework for this study was Hallinger and Murphy's model of instructional leadership. A self-designed semistructured interview protocol with open-ended questions was used to interview participants. Purposive sampling was used to select 10 leaders from four secondary schools. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis with the following themes emerging: school leaders were challenged to effectively implement instructional leadership practices due to the scope of responsibilities in their roles, constraints within the school system, and setbacks when attempting to promote growth in mindsets to create positive school climates; school leaders used motivation, collaboration, assessments, feedback, and empowered teachers through professional development as a means to advance students’ mathematics achievement. Study findings were used to develop a professional development project for school leaders highlighting practices they can use to support teachers who teach mathematics, thereby contributing to better student mathematics learning that might help them gain acceptance to tertiary institutions.

Download

Share

 
COinS