The relationship between perceived principal instructional leadership behavior and locus of control

The 1970's and 1980's brought about a myriad of studies investigating the essential elements of effective schools. Strong administrative leadership has been consistently identified by researchers as one of these essential elements. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of perceived instructional leadership behavior of principals to the personal factor of locus of control which refers to a person's characteristic attributions regarding events and outcomes in his or her environment. In addition, the extent to which principals and their teachers agreed on the frequency with which instructional leadership behaviors were being used was analyzed. The variables of gender, length of service, and level of school were also investigated to seek their relationships to perceived instructional leadership behavior. The subjects in this study were 28 principals in a suburban school district in Houston, TX. A random sample of between 15 and 25 teachers in each of the 28 schools were asked to assess teacher perceptions of principal instructional leadership behavior. Two instruments were used to collect the primary data for this study: The Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (Ballinger, 1986) and the I-E Scale (Rotter, 1966). A short questionnaire was used to collect the data on principal gender, length of service, and the level of school. [...]