Principal–Teacher Perception Alignment of Leadership During Literacy Policy Implementation in California Rural Schools: Multiple Case Study Approach

Abstract This qualitative comparative case study examined the alignment between principals’ and teachers’ perceptions of leadership during the implementation of California’s literacy policy, the Science of Reading in rural California schools. Drawing on theories of transformational leadership and sensemaking to explore instructional leadership and policy enactment, the study focused on how principals enacted their leadership practices they perceived facilitated literacy policy implementation. Simultaneously, the research studied how teachers interpreted principals’ leadership behaviors during implementation and how their perceptions shaped their engagement by changing their instructional practice to meet the literacy policy expectations. Four rural elementary schools across diverse geographic regions of California, coastal, mountain, desert, and northern rural communities, provided individual case studies. Data was analyzed within and across cases to identify areas of alignment and divergence between principal and teacher perceptions of leadership practices related to the literacy policy implementation. Findings highlighted how leadership behaviors, teacher experience, and the rural context shaped the sensemaking process and adapted classroom practice to meet state literacy policy. By focusing on the perceptions of principals and teachers in rural schools, this study contributes to the educational leadership and policy implementation literature by demonstrating how perception alignment, or misalignment, within the school impacts teacher engagement as they shift their instructional practice to establish and implement literacy reform.