Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of the study was to examine the perceptions of distinguished teachers in elementary through high school classrooms within the Monterey Peninsula area of California to determine in what ways they perceived themselves to be congruent with the characteristics of servant leadership in their professional practice. Methodology. The type of research selected for this study was descriptive. Seventy-one publicly recognized distinguished teachers from the Monterey Bay area of California were sent letters requesting participation. Thirty-five educators representing 770 collective years of teaching experience consented to be included in this study. The researcher employed the critical incident interview process to produce a richer, more detailed study. All thirty-five participants were interviewed in person. Data were categorized and analyzed to determine congruency with the characteristics of servant leadership. Findings. The actions described by the thirty-five distinguished teachers were congruent with the ten characteristics of servant leadership. All thirty-five interviewees described incidents that demonstrated servant leadership behaviors in their classrooms. The teachers described a total of 1045 actions regarding servant leadership in their professional practice. Four-hundred five actions demonstrated relationship-building behaviors such as listening, empathy, and awareness. Four-hundred eighteen actions exhibited community-oriented behaviors such as stewardship, building community, healing, and commitment to the growth of people in their classrooms. Two-hundred twenty-two actions represented future thinking such as conceptualization and foresight. Conclusions. The thirty-five distinguished teachers included in this study provided data which according to Greenleaf (1977) and Spears (1995) demonstrated congruency with the characteristics of servant leadership. Spirituality was actively expressed within the classrooms by thirty-two of the thirty-five teachers. Recommendations. Future studies should examine if servant leadership plays a significant role in the success of outstanding teachers in urban schools, exceptional school administrators, or popular political and religious leaders.