| The purpose of this study was to identify creative communication practices recommended by educational leaders to articulate (send) their vision and have their vision and/or mission received. Therefore, the researcher's purpose in this study was three-fold: first, identifying creative communication practices pertaining to "sending skills" second, identifying school board members', level I administrators', and level II administrators' subsequent similarities, differences, and identities and third, potentially developing an orientation for curriculum development gathered through this study's findings to train school administrators in creative vision communication.Students and practitioners of education leadership state that communication is an essential skill however, literature and training is limited for educational leaders to develop this skill (Brown, Martinez, & Daniel, 2002 Daresh & Male, 2000 Gamage & Ueyama, 2004). Therefore, a precedent was set for cross-fertilization from other fields within this study (Bennis & Nanus, 1985 Emrich, Brown, Feldman, & Garland, 2001 Wendt & Fairhurst, 1994). Data collection was conducted in a suburban region of a metropolitan area in the southwestern United States. Data were gathered in a multi-method triangulation design using convergent validation with in-person interviews and mailed surveys. The researcher surveyed and interviewed three level I administrators, 9 school board members, and 29 level II administrators.Participants described themselves as role models whose actions transmit their vision, which many described as "walking the talk." Participants employed sending techniques, such as recognition and awards ceremonies, to support their visions. Some participants recommended intertwining or weaving into their rhetoric their followers' values and beliefs through programs such as Character Counts or movies and famous quotations. Three out of 41 participants referred to storytelling as a useful communication tool. Participants employed technologies such as websites, podcast, telephone dial-outs, e-mails and a.m. announcements as communication tools for getting messages broadcasted. Most participants engaged in some form of discussion meetings in coffees or board meetings to gather patron input. Visual props such as posting test scores around campuses were used as a sending tool. |
