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Assumptions

The validity of using the population in a principal preparation program is that this group, once credentialed, represents those most likely to make the decision of whether or not to become school leaders. Several assumptions were made relative to student responses in their writing journals. First of all, it was assumed that aspirants entering our master’s level, administrative credential program in educational leadership would provide valuable insight into why they aspire to be principals. Secondly, aspirants would be forthright in sharing their reasons for entering the program. Third, 83 aspirants’ responses would be representative of the general population of those students in our program; and finally, the results would provide useful information for educational leadership programs.

Findings

In reporting findings, analyzing the content of each journal entry in terms of the frequency with which labels of coded responses were cited was determined to be an efficient and effective method to utilize. The following key describes the ten labels of coded responses that appear in Table 2: (1) Leadership Mentioned means that some mention of leadership skills or experiences they possessed which influenced their decisions to pursue administrative credentialing were cited in the journal entry; (2) Leadership Only means that the entire journal entry discussed only leadership skills; (3) Internal Mentioned means that some mention of internal motivation influenced their decisions to pursue administrative credentialing; (4) Internal Only means that the entire journal entry cited internal motivation without mentioning any other motivating force; (5) External Mentioned means that some mention of external motivation influenced their decisions to pursue administrative credentialing; (6) External Only was the label given to journal entries where only external motivating factors were expressed; (7) Leadership&Internal means that both of these motivations were evident in these journal entries; (8) Leadership&External was the label given to entries where both elements were expressed; (9) Internal&External Motivation means that the entire journal entry cited both internal and external motivating forces; and (10) All Three means that Leadership Skills, Internal Motivation, and External Motivation were cited in the journal entry.

Several observations resulted from this study. First, nearly 60 percent of the entries, or 48 of 83, revealed a single motivating force in pursuing an administrative credential – leadership skills or experiences, internal motivation, or external motivation. Secondly, just over one-fourth of the written journal entries, or 23 of 83, reflected a combination of leadership skills with either internal or external motivation. Third, seven aspirants (less than 10 percent) wrote that they were motivated by both internal and external factors. And lastly, five aspirants discussed a combination of all three - leadership skills, internal and external motivating factors in response to the journal prompt Why Me?

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Source:  OpenStax, Educational leadership and administration: teaching and program development, volume 23, 2011. OpenStax CNX. Sep 08, 2011 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11358/1.4
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