The Impacts of the School Principal on Building Leadership Capacity and Teacher Leaders

Leading the organization of schools has become a daunting task for school principals and requires broader forms of leadership. Researchers have cited a correlation between extending leadership to teachers and increased school improvement efforts, but have highlighted limited leadership opportunities for teachers due to top-down management practices. The purpose of this mixed methods case study was to understand the phenomenon of leadership capacity development in a single K-12 school district. The research questions were focused on understanding teachers and principals' current perceptions according to Lambert's Leadership Capacity School Survey (LCSS), as well as the role of school principals in encouraging and supporting teacher leadership. Quantitative data were reported using descriptive statistics to capture the perceptions of staff (N=51) relative to the LCSS's 6 critical aspect areas. Qualitative analysis followed and provided insights from 9 nominated teacher leaders and 3 building level principals using semistructured interviews. Interview data were transcribed and coded to identify emergent themes. According to study results, there is a need to develop a K-12 professional learning community model to increase leadership capacity and achieve the district's strategic objectives. This study contributes to social change by providing a professional learning community model that can be used in K-12 school districts to increase leadership capacity development and improve organizational learning.