Administrators and principals and the implementation process of the leader in me initiativ

Principals and administrators are crucial to the success of an initiative such as the Leader in Me. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to identify the strategies, practices, and processes utilized by elementary school principals to initiate and implement initiatives or programs such as the Leader in Me. Eight elementary school principals and administrators in a Southern state have successfully assisted in implementing initiatives such as the Leader in Me at their schools. The eight principals and administrators were interviewed by telephone. Data was collected during one-on-one semi-structured interviews and analyzed through the following coding procedures: (a) initial coding, (b) focused coding, (c) axial coding, and (d) theoretical coding. Initial coding analyzed the emerging concepts from interview data and provided relationships and differences were revealed from the data. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) professional development, (b) language, (c) administrative support, and (d) whole school transformation. The data was decontextualized and micro analyzed through axial coding. The axial coding process revealed interrelationships between the data gathered during the process of research. Theoretical coding was the final step of the coding process and focused on the reflective process that was yielded in the narrative description of the research. The narrative description of the research synthesized the emerging data from the categories, described the findings of the research, and described the relationships that were yielded from the categories. This research outlined the strategies, behaviors, processes, and practices that elementary principals utilize to initiate, implement, and sustain successful change within the school.