“Soft-Skilled” Principals and Building Teacher Self-Efficacy Through the T-Tess: A Descriptive Embedded Case Study

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Department

Educational Administration

Date of Award

Fall 2024

Abstract

The Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS) redefined expectations for the role of the principal from teacher appraiser to instructional coach (Templeton & Hammett, et al., 2016). The T-TESS is perceived to be better than its predecessor, the Professional Development and Appraisal System (PDAS); however, teachers most consistently relate negative feelings about the system to how principals are implementing it and their evaluator’s expertise in leading them through it successfully (Oliveras-Ortiz, 2018). Principals have a key role in developing self-efficacious teachers and effective implementation of emotionally-laden teacher evaluation systems (Derrington & Campbell, 2015; Lochmiller & Mancinelli, 2019a; Templeton & Hammett, et al., 2016). Therefore, principals must change their instructional leadership approaches in response to the demands of new teacher evaluation systems like T-TESS by using emotional intelligence to build relational trust with teachers (Donaldson & Mavrogordato, 2019; Lochmiller & Mancinelli, 2019a; Reid, 2020). However, principals are often poorly equipped with emotional intelligence and do not know how to use it to move teachers toward self-efficacy (Chen & Guo, 2020; Schmidt, 2010; Wallace, 2010). The purpose of this descriptive, embedded case study was to investigate how a principal in a small rural public school leverages emotional intelligence in T-TESS conferencing to move teachers toward professional efficacy and improved practice. An ancillary purpose was to describe how the principal’s emotional intelligence informs their use of situational leadership in leading each teacher on a unique, contextualized path of professional growth. Purposeful sampling in a small rural school district in the Texas panhandle was used to select principals and teachers to complete two surveys and a semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis, the logic model, and the analytic strategy of rival explanations evaluated three theoretical propositions that postulated that the more capable a principal is at employing emotional intelligence and situational leadership, the more empowered teachers are to meet their professional goals. Further, a principal who uses emotional intelligence and situational leadership in tandem is more effective than a principal who uses them in isolation.

Advisor

Nathan Templeton

Subject Categories

Education

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