Aligning an Approach to Principal Efficacy with School Improvement Urgency: A Design-Based Implementation Research Study

• In Event: Building Capacity and Coherence for Instructional Improvement and Systemwide Reform

Abstract

The application of social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) to district effectiveness scholarship holds potential to illuminate how district leaders optimize conditions for principal development and success. The Internal Coherence (IC) Framework (Forman et. al, 2017) provides a pathway to grow principal efficacy for instructional leadership. However, IC is a research-based, multi-year model. The required time investment in professional learning has proven out of sync with district accountability pressures. This study uses Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) to understand how system leaders and principals from one rural Mississippi district experienced a multi-year IC partnership. The goal of the study is to better align the substantive learning required to generate leadership efficacy with the pace and action-orientation of collaborative school improvement work.

Authors

• Paula Tharp, Mississippi State University

• Michelle Forman, SERP Institute