Educating Preservice School Librarians to Lead: A Study of Self-Perceived Transformational Leadership Behaviors

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that impacted the level of self-perceived transformational leadership potential in preservice school librarians who participated in a master's degree program in library and information studies focusing on leadership development. A mixed-method concurrent triangulation research design was implemented by using pre-existing data, the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), and a survey designed by the researcher.The study findings indicated that the participants' leadership training facilitated the development of their self-perceived transformational leadership behaviors to a significantly higher level than the established national norms for the LPI in two areas--Modeling the Way and Enabling Others to Act. In addition, the assessment of leadership potential given during the program selection process had a positive correlation with the LPI subscale for Enabling Others to Act. Moreover, the social context of each participant's circumstances had an impact on their self-perceived transformational leadership potential when considering the participants' satisfaction with the support they received from their mentors, the amount of time they spent with their mentors, whether they selected or were assigned a mentor, their Graduate Record Exam scores, and the poverty level within their schools districts. (Contains 3 figures.)