Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Organizational Leadership

First Advisor

Timothy McCarty

Second Advisor

Martinrex Kadziora

Third Advisor

Bradly Tooker

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative, multicase study was to determine challenges that high school administrators experience when they establish the elements of collective teacher efficacy (CTE) based on the elements of common purpose, collective teacher accountability practices, protocols for collective practices, and interventions in their mathematics department and to determine the strategies that high school administrators use when they establish CTE in their mathematics department.Methodology: In this qualitative, multicase study, five interviews were conducted with public high school administrators in California. The researcher employed qualitative methods to explain the challenges that high school administrators experience when they establish the elements of CTE in their mathematics department and the strategies they use.

Findings: This multicase study found that high school principals faced challenges while establishing CTE in math departments. Progress toward CTE was a long-term process. First, teachers slowly and unevenly developed mastery of collective practices because of limited collaborative time and insufficient professional training. Second, they lacked the belief that all students can achieve grade-level standards. Principals used strategies to establish CTE by strengthening student support through school-wide systems, multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) and response to intervention (RTI), multidisciplinary intervention teams, mastery-focused professional learning teams, and protocols that promoted psychological safety. However, limited mastery of collective practices led to resistance among teachers to implement in-class intervention practices.

Conclusions: The foundational conditions that develop CTE are (a) teachers master shared collective practices and (b) teachers believe all students can achieve grade-level standards. The foundational conditions cannot happen without the existence of structural and organizational conditions, specifically protected collaborative time and purposeful professional development. Without mastery of shared collective practices and belief, MTSS and RTI are not a guarantee of consistent in-class intervention. CTE is a developmental process that requires time to implement the foundational conditions provided that the districts and schools secure the existence of the structural conditions.

Recommendations: It is recommended that, first, more research be conducted to investigate how training principals, focused explicitly on Bandura’s (1997) four sources of efficacy, can speed up the development of CTE in high school. Second, it is recommended to conduct research by focusing on Donohoo’s (2020) most essential enabling conditions that move teachers from belief to action. Last, it is recommended to conduct research using DuFour’s (2004) professional learning community (PLC) centered on collective practices and their effects on the acceleration of the development of CTE among teachers in schools.

Download

Share

COinS