Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Kathryn Swetnam

Abstract

Administrator support of classroom behavior management increases teacher retention and improves student academic achievement; consequently, campus-level, district-level, and principal preparation personnel need to understand how to prepare principals to support teachers. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to understand how middle and high school principals and assistant principals provide classroom behavior management support to novice teachers in an urban school district in a southern state. Alig-Mielcarek and Hoy’s simplified model of instructional leadership formed the conceptual lens. The research questions focused on administrators’ perceptions of classroom-management support for novice teachers. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 11 middle and high school principals who had 2 or more years of administrative experience at their campuses in the southern United States. Content analysis using a priori, open, and pattern coding was employed to identify the following themes: helping teachers become more skilled and comfortable with building relationships with students and parents, providing accountability to novice teachers to address instructional challenges and improve classroom management, and offering professional development to assist novice teachers with classroom management skills. Participant administrators recommended one-to-one administrator mentoring with the teacher, peer mentoring, peer observations, classroom walkthroughs, and classroom observations with critical and constructive feedback to enable new teachers to manage and instruct classes. Positive social change may occur if administrators support novice educators to develop classroom management skills that improve the classroom learning environment and increase student academic achievement.

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