Abstract
Various leadership theories and practices, along with state and federal policies, have beenimplemented to improve school performance; however, turnaround principals (TAPs)
have been considered hallmarks of school turnaround. While the key practices for TAPs
to navigate school improvement are known, little is known about how TAPs shepherd the
humanistic aspects of change for school improvement. This qualitative study aimed to
discover how the words, behaviors, attitudes, actions, and philosophies of TAPs serve as
administrative encouragement to teachers needing to improve performance. The study
utilized a generic qualitative approach with TAPs interviews to answer the research
question regarding how turnaround principals’ leadership of low-performing schools
encourages teachers to make necessary changes to improve school performance. Through
coding and thematic analysis, two themes confirmed the literature reviewed. TAPs’ have
students, and those students are their teachers, and TAPs’ distribution of responsibilities
promotes a culture of problem-solving. The third theme, not found in the literature,
revealed that TAPs’ authoritative approach upholds trusting relationships with teachers.
The study's implications included the need for principals within low-performing schools
to build a collaborative, but highly structured, culture of improvement where teacher
needs are supported. Furthermore, the results support a need for principal preparation
programs (PPP) to improve coursework and opportunities for practitioners to experience
servant, instructional, and authoritative leadership with appreciative inquiry.
Keywords: turnaround, principals, leadership, school, improvement,administrative, encouragement