Leadership capacity: Principal and teacher perceptions of Lambert's essential elements (Linda Lambert)

The purpose of this research was to determine the extent of agreement among principals and teachers on their perceptions of whether building leadership capacity exists in their schools according to Lambert's (1998) six critical elements: broad-based participation in the work of leadership, shared vision, inquiry-based use of information to inform shared decisions and practice, roles and responsibilities that reflect broad involvement and collaboration, and reflective practice and high student achievement.; A questionnaire was used to gather the data from elementary principals and teachers that reflected items describing the six elements according to Lambert's (1998) model that indicate behaviors that support building leadership capacity. In this study of leadership capacity perceptions this researcher sought to identify if elementary schools were moving in the direction of developing teacher leadership.; This investigator revealed that teachers and principals considered teaching and learning at the forefront of what is established in their schools. Individual question items such as focus on student learning and practice, and support new ways of doing things were both included in the top five responses for all teachers and principals. This was also the perception of the groups by gender. Included in the other top five responses for teachers was communication with families about student performance and teaching and assessing student progress. Principals' responses included in their top items addressed leadership and attending to developing a learning community that works together.; However, when the questions were regrouped under the six elements, the results showed a difference in principal and teacher responses. The principals rated Element 1, broad-based participation in the work of leadership, as their highest response from the survey. The teachers rated Element 6, student performance as their highest response. Each of these elements contained 5-7 questions that explained the kind of practices reflected for each element.; Overall, the elementary staff perceptions is that progress is being made in moving toward establishing leadership capacity.