Recent studies have indicated the necessity for changes in literacy assessment and instruction. Well respected authorities have agreed that direct, explicit, and systematic instruction in the five basic components of reading (i.e., phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension) is essential to ensure that all students have an opportunity to become proficient readers by the end of third grade. The implementation and utilization of the tools and strategies necessary to improve literacy instruction represent a significant classroom level change that must occur with and through the teacher. Experts on educational reform agree that effective principals are pivotal to large-scale, sustainable change at the school level. Principals with a transformational leadership orientation are reported to have more success in promoting positive school change. In order to promote positive reform in literacy instruction, it is important to investigate the relationship between leadership practices and teachers' motivation, capacity, and work setting, as well as how these factors relate to one another. This correlational study is aimed at the exploration of the relationship among the factors related to affecting change in teachers' practice in literacy instruction: teachers' motivation, capacity, and work setting as related to change; and the and elements of transformational principal leadership as they relate to altering teachers' practice in literacy instruction. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]