Teacher Perceptions Of Leadership Potential Of Gifted And Talented Students
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Date
2016
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Department
Education and Urban Studies
Program
Doctor of Education
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This item is made available by Morgan State University for personal, educational, and research purposes in accordance with Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Other uses may require permission from the copyright owner.
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Abstract
The problem that this study addressed is the general awareness of a growing leadership shortage in today's workforce. The exit of the Baby Boomers who have been the dominate generation in leadership has created an urgent need to fill the leadership vacancy caused by their retirement. Further changing demands of the workplace an the growing importance of technology imply that the leaders who fill these vacancies need a different skill set from the ones held by the previous generation of leaders. It has become apparent to some in the field of leadership research and development that early identification of leadership potential lies in early cultivation of that potential in youth in K-12 settings. This study was designed to contribute to the challenge of early identification and is based on the assumption that the Gifted and Talented population in schools is likely to be the best place to begin, since many of the characteristics that define Gifted and Talented students mirror those of effective leaders. Framed by the Trait Model of Leardership (Locke, 1996), the study developed an instrument to rate the leadership potential of students based on the perceptions of their teachers. Teacher perceptions of leadership potentials of students who were identified as gifted and talented were compared with students that were not identified as gifted and talented. Leadership potentials of gifted and talented students were further explored by looking at the perceived leadership potentials of gifted males and females and the perceived leadership potentials of gifted students within different ethnic groups. This study used quantitative methods to allow the researcher to obtain perceived leadership potential ratings from teachers. It used a Ex Post Factos research design involving T-tests of significance of the differences between means and ANOVA. Data were collected using a leadership survey instrument. The leadership survey measured twenty different characteristics of leadership using a likert scale consisting of three subscales measuring different levels of perceived leadership potential from low leadership potential, moderate leadership potential, to high leadership potential. Findings of the study revealed that the average perceived leadership potential for all of the participants in the study was in the moderate range. Gifted students were however, perceived by teachers to possess higher levels of leadership potential than non-gifted students. The findings of the study also revealed that gifted females were perceived to have more leadership potential than males and gifted African American students were perceived to have lower levels of leadership potential than the Whites and other ethnic groups. The results of the study suggests that further research is still needed to assist teachers in rating students' levels of leadership potential so that the cultivation of this potential can be done.