Congratulations to Dakota Keyes who on Thursday, February 26, 2026, successfully defended her dissertation proposal.
The title of Dakota’s dissertation is "TEACHER FOLLOWERSHIP IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LEADERSHIP: EXPLORING SELF-PERCEIVED PRACTICES, FOLLOWERSHIP PROTOTYPES, AND IDENTITY FORMATION."
Overview of Problem: This dissertation proposal defense outlines a qualitative interpretive inquiry examining how tenured elementary school teachers understand and enact followership within the school leadership contexts. Grounded in Implicit Followership Theory and Identity Theory, the study explores how teachers’ self-perceived followership characteristics, followership prototypes, and identity construction shapes their behaviors and meaning-making as followers”.
Research Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative interpretive study is to examine the social constructs, assumptions, and worldviews held by tenured teachers in Pre-K to Grade 5 schools regarding followers (also referred to as followership), including their behaviors and characteristics.
Research Design: The purpose of this qualitative interpretive study is to examine the social constructs, assumptions, and worldviews held by tenured teachers in Pre-K to Grade 5 schools regarding followers (also referred to as followership), including their behaviors and characteristics. This analysis will be conducted from the perspective of teachers, using Implicit Followership Theory (IFT) and Identity Theory as the theoretical frameworks.
Sample:
· Participants: Elementary teachers of grades Pre-K to Grade 5
· Setting: New York State School District
· Gender: All-inclusive gender identities
· Ethnicity/Race: All-inclusive races
· Age Group: 25 years-62+ (retirement age)
· Sampling size: minimum 15; maximum 20
· Convenience Sampling Nonprobability sampling method
· Socioeconomic status: Education level, master’s degree and above
· Recruitment Strategy: Online and/or in-person communication with district superintendent and principals, flyers, emails, staff meetings
Data Collection: Using a qualitative interpretive inquiry design, data will be collected through a:
· Pre–self-assessment semi-structured interview,
· The Courageous Follower Self-Assessment Tool (Chaleff, 2009),
· Post–self-assessment semi-structured interview to capture identity reflection and meaning-making.
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE CHAIR:
Dr. Yiping Wan
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Dr. Martin Fitzgerald
Dr. George Hong
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