Principals’ Questioning Practices as Drivers of Innovation and School Improvement

Authors

• Miguel M. Gonzales, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
• Tiberio Garza, Florida International UniversityFollow
• Elizabeth Leon, University of Wisconsin Green BayFollow

Short Title

Asking Questions to Drive Innovation

Keywords

Principals, Questions, Innovation, and Leadership

Abstract

The art of asking questions plays a pivotal role in leadership and organizational change. This study examined the questioning practices of school principals for school improvement. The Discovery Skill of questioning, as illustrated in the Innovator’s DNA Framework outlined by Dyer and colleagues (2019), was adopted as the guiding framework. Data were gathered with a survey with open-response items from 124 school principals on their questioning behaviors for school improvement. Findings showed principals’ questioning from the qualitative investigation confirmed that most principal questioning habits resided in the description territory within the Innovator’s DNA Framework context. The findings suggest that school principals should be trained in developing their questioning practices for innovation and school improvement.

Recommended Citation

Gonzales, Miguel M.; Garza, Tiberio; and Leon, Elizabeth (2026) "Principals’ Questioning Practices as Drivers of Innovation and School Improvement," School Leadership Review: Vol. 21: Iss. 1, Article 9.
Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/slr/vol21/iss1/9