Authentic Principals as Leaders in Educational Responsibility and Morality

• In Event: Innovative Approaches and Considerations for Educational Leaders and Their Preparation

Abstract

This study focuses on teachers’ perceptions of their principals and the principals’ impact on teachers’ moral behavior. In a study of 605 teachers from 41 Israeli schools, a model was developed for understanding how teachers’ workplace attitudes mediated their perceptions of the principal, as an authentic leader, and teachers’ positive or negative behaviors. The data analysis, based on multi-level structural equations, found that the more that a school was perceived by teachers as having an authentic leader, the teachers’ workplace attitudes improved and were negatively associated with negative behaviors toward their colleagues and school. The study shows that when principals are responsible for their moral behavior, this can have a positive impact on teachers’ moral behaviors in school and beyond

Authors

• Sigalit Tsemach, Orot Israel College of Education (ISRAEL)

• Orly Shapira-Lishchinsky, Bar-Illan University