Leadership Studies Ed.D. Dissertations

Leading the heist to restore American childhood and teacher autonomy through finnish principles of joyful leading, teaching, and learning

Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Judy Jackson May (Committee Chair)

Second Advisor

Andrea Cripps (Other)

Third Advisor

Patrick Pauken (Committee Member)

Fourth Advisor

Deborah Margolis (Committee Member)

Fifth Advisor

Christy Galletta Horner (Committee Member)

Abstract

This qualitative study used Glaser and Strauss’ (1967) grounded theory design and explored leader and teacher perspectives of driving and restraining forces when implementing Finnish strategies for joyful leading, teaching, and learning. The study examined teacher perceptions of autonomy as well as differences between Ohio school district typologies with higher or lower populations of students from historically marginalized groups. Twelve participants, including six leaders and six teachers represented five of the eight Ohio school district typologies. Participants completed a Qualtrics demographic survey and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) (Hills & Argyle, 2002), had a pre-implementation and post-implementation Zoom interview using Seidman’s (2019) semi-structured interview protocol, completed three weekly Qualtrics journal entries, and a member checking Qualtrics survey. Participants implemented strategies for joyful leading, teaching, and learning using a Joy Menu created by the researcher, which condensed strategies from Timothy D. Walker’s (2017) book Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms. Dedoose software was utilized along with memo writing and a hybrid coding approach to analyze transcripts with constant comparative methodology. Through the lens of Kurt Lewin’s Force Field Analysis Model, findings from the analysis were condensed into eight emergent themes, five driving forces, and five restraining forces, all of which were synthesized to create a theoretical model. Findings suggested that benefits of joy included improved connections and relationships, improved school culture, increased student engagement, and stress relief, all from a cost-effective initiative. Barriers to joy included overarching stress, changes to childhood, limited background knowledge, perceptions of joy, and a culture of accountability. Mastery and autonomy may need to coexist to fully realize joy in education, and leaders should provide explicit permission for teachers and students to experience joy. Schools with higher groups of students from historically marginalized populations may experience different barriers to joy including chronic absenteeism and trauma, whereas schools with more affluent populations may experience increased stress from increased academic expectations. Fullan’s (2011) vision of being a change leader was used to create an operational model with recommended action steps leaders could take to prioritize joy in schools today.

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