0.2 Beach, g., & Keiser, k. (october 2011). to be or not to be..  (Page 6/10)

Cronbach’s alpha was computed to see if participants were consistent in their responses on the survey. The career subscale had a reliability estimate of .81, the reputation subscale had a reliability estimate of .71, and the legacy subscale had a reliability estimate of .78.

Data collection

Surveys were distributed by university faculty members during the spring of 2010 to educational administration candidates enrolled in an educational administration master’s degree program. Completing the survey was voluntary and anonymous, and no grade or other incentive was given for participating.

The AIM was distributed to 86 educational administration candidates, and complete data sets were returned by 81, or 94% of the educational administration candidates. Thirty-six males and 45 females participated, ranging in age from 22 to 57 ( M = 34, SD = 9.60). The range in years as an educator was from 2 to 33 ( M = 10, SD = 6.00). Thirty-six (44%) held bachelor’s degrees and 45 (56%) held master’s degrees. Forty-five (56%) of the candidates had coached an athletic team, and 60 (76%) of the study subjects had sponsored a co-curricular activity.

Data analysis

The following statistical analyses were conducted to explore the educational administration candidates’ perceptions, or awareness, of what factors motivate their decision whether or not to pursue building leadership positions:

1. Respondents’ perceptions of their motivators were summarized by calculating mean scores for each of the AIM subscales.
2. For each of the AIM subscales, two-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted with a career goal factor (likelihood of seeking a building leadership position in the next 10 years) and a motivation factor (to what extent would their decision be influenced). A .05 level of significance was employed.

Results

Survey participants identified themselves in relation to how likely it was that they would be an assistant principal/principal in the next 10 years, with survey participants falling into one of four categories – slightly possible ( n = 13), somewhat possible ( n = 9), quite likely ( n = 31), and almost definite ( n = 28). Among study participants, responses for the career factor, professional reputation factor, and legacy factor responses fell between “low extent” and “high extent” when indicating the impact a factor had on the decision to seek or not seek a position as a school assistant principal/principal (Appendix). The AIM identified incentives and disincentives related to what educational administration candidates perceived as conditions affecting their decision to seek school administration positions.

Survey items found in the career factor of the AIM survey included descriptors such as “lack of clarity about the job expectations of principals,” “expectation for the principal to attend extracurricular activities,” and “expectation for the principal to spend more time in the building.” Yet, survey results and analysis indicated that across the categories, these incentives, or motivators, were not significant F (3, 77) = 1.45, p = .24.