A multiple case study of special education administrators’ ethical leadership and decision-making approaches
Format Type
Plenary
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
12-1-2021 1:30 PM
End Date
12-1-2021 1:50 PM
Abstract
The literature is not silent about the ethical dilemmas rampant throughout special education and for which Bon (2018) labeled as “wicked problems” (p. 98) before the profession’s administrators. While these contributions point out an alarming concern, a dearth of comparable literature exists about how special education administrators navigate their ontological roles as both legal compliance officers and ethical leaders, especially qualitative contributions that could illustrate the debacle within specific contexts. The present study responded with an in-depth multiple case analysis of 12 special education administrators’ espoused legal and ethical leadership approaches on behalf of the youth and families in their districts entitled to special programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Interview questions elicited their justifications, approaches, and reflections about navigating a ‘both-and’ approach to special education administration that accounts for compliance and ethics. A concurrent interdisciplinary literature review about ethical leadership was conducted via MAX-QDA software and resulted in the design of a framework used for coding and reporting the participants’ responses. The upfront decision to do so was not meant to evaluate the participants’ ethics or ethical leadership, but rather to illustrate their specific contexts within a broader understanding of how leaders, in general, emerge as ethical agents and the implications for special education, in particular. This presentation will address both the study’s findings and the strengths and limitations associated with its design.
Keywords
multiple case study, MAX-QDA, special education administration, ethical leadership
A multiple case study of special education administrators’ ethical leadership and decision-making approaches
The literature is not silent about the ethical dilemmas rampant throughout special education and for which Bon (2018) labeled as “wicked problems” (p. 98) before the profession’s administrators. While these contributions point out an alarming concern, a dearth of comparable literature exists about how special education administrators navigate their ontological roles as both legal compliance officers and ethical leaders, especially qualitative contributions that could illustrate the debacle within specific contexts. The present study responded with an in-depth multiple case analysis of 12 special education administrators’ espoused legal and ethical leadership approaches on behalf of the youth and families in their districts entitled to special programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Interview questions elicited their justifications, approaches, and reflections about navigating a ‘both-and’ approach to special education administration that accounts for compliance and ethics. A concurrent interdisciplinary literature review about ethical leadership was conducted via MAX-QDA software and resulted in the design of a framework used for coding and reporting the participants’ responses. The upfront decision to do so was not meant to evaluate the participants’ ethics or ethical leadership, but rather to illustrate their specific contexts within a broader understanding of how leaders, in general, emerge as ethical agents and the implications for special education, in particular. This presentation will address both the study’s findings and the strengths and limitations associated with its design.