Contextualized Principal Preparation for the Improvement of American Indian Education 247METHODS
Thirty-five I LEAD candidates were enrolled in an initial block of instruction that
combined three credits of community and schools content with one credit of field experience.
These candidates were in the first I LEAD cohort comprised of 40 Native American graduate
students. I LEAD cohort 1 candidates were Native American teachers recruited from schools
serving predominantly (40% or more) Native American students. Recruitment was
accomplished by publicizing the program at K-12 schools on or near Indian reservations in
Montana and through the tribal colleges in Montana. A selection board composed of two
faculty members and a superintendent of a school district located on an Indian reservation
reviewed 53 applications to select 43 candidates. Applications consisted of a letter from the
applicant’s current principal or superintendent, an essay explaining the applicants’ experience
as an educator, reasons for wanting to become a school letter, and an autobiographical
summary, and a brief application form containing contact information, tribal affiliation,
education history and current employment information. All students, except three, worked as
full time K-12 teachers or administrators in 15 schools and 11 school districts located on or
near Indian Reservations in Montana. The three remaining candidates worked at a tribal
college.
The instructional block was team taught by an experienced educational leadership faculty
member and an experienced administrator currently working at a school where the majority of
students were American Indian. The course project required students to meet with their
principal and develop plans to increase family engagement at their school. Students working
in the same school could complete the project as a team. Formative assignments were made to
facilitate the successful accomplishment of the course project.
A grounded theory design was used to collect and analyze the information. At the end of
the term, the course projects were collected as artifacts. Interviews were conducted with the
university faculty instructor and one of the two practitioner instructors regarding their
perceptions of the projects and the level of student engagement in developing a school-wide
program. As an additional source of data, the superintendents at five of the eleven districts
and the principals from seven of the fifteen schools where the I LEAD students worked were
interviewed regarding their perceptions of the usefulness of the course project, the level of
leadership exhibited by the I LEAD student in school affairs with particular note of any
changes in leadership behavior during the previous semester. The triangulation of data from
course instructors, course assignment artifacts and information from supervising
superintendents and principals regarding the level of school leadership demonstrated by the
students and usefulness of the projects provided a sound degree of trustworthiness.
The data were analyzed using the inductive method of constant comparison. Several
themes emerged from the data. Categories were established and information was placed into
the various categories discussed in the results section. Once the categories were established,
information for each source was queried to ensure the categories were appropriate and that all
the information fit into the existing themes. In other words, once a grounded theory was
established, the body of data was reviewed to ensure that all data was consistent with the
asserted theory that was developed.
RESULTS
Overall, the project plans and implementation were aligned well for slightly more than
half of the I LEAD students. These students were engaged in school leadership activities that