Chapter 9: Illinois School Superintendents: Moral Purpose in Leadership of Nontraditional Teacher Pay

This chapter details a qualitative inquiry used to explore how Illinois public school district superintendents serving learning organizations that have implemented nontraditional teacher pay (NTTP) conceptualize and execute a notion of moral purpose in their professional work. Theoretical and conceptual frameworks predicted a student-centered leadership of NTTP and preservation of human, fiscal, and material resources in the wake of economic constraints—a process that aligns synergistically with educational leadership standards for ethics and management as well as the Ethical Lens Inventory. Six superintendents were purposefully selected to participate in structured, open-ended interviews; reflective journaling; and artifact analysis. Triangulated qualitative data analyzed with a thematic codebook revealed moral purpose conceptualized as service to students and larger contexts—communities, the nation, and society as a whole—that are influenced by superintendents’ beliefs, values, and life experience and informs multiple aspects of their leadership decisionmaking, including NTTP. The latter, specifically, is influenced by superintendent beliefs regarding equity and fairness, and a desire to save and repurpose resources in student-centered ways. Findings support most theoretical predictions; suggest association with additional leadership standards; provide implications for future research, superintendent preparation, and practice; and encourage the reclaiming of local control by local school boards through the leadership decision-making of their superintendents.