Perceptions of Important Personal and Leadership Characteristics for Newly Hired Principals to Be Successful School Leaders: Views of School Superintendents

Research has shown that a strong relationship prevails between principals’ leadership characteristics, student engagement, teacher efficacy, and parental involvement toward responding to the demands of school accountability (Maxwell, Huggins, and Scheurich, 2010). Superintendents across the country are reporting the increasing difficulty of getting adept administrators (Cruzeiro and Boone, 2009). Superintendents who are primarily the ones responsible for the hiring of principals must be able to identify and assess the principal applicants as to their suitability and effectiveness as an administrator to meet the accountability and performance demands (Estes, 2011). This study sought to identify superintendents’ perceptions of the important personal and leadership characteristics that newly hired principals exhibit which support their effectiveness in leading schools. This study made clear the value judgements that superintendents have of what constitutes an adept principal. This author used a descriptive qualitative research design approach to explore the perceptions of superintendents about the personal and professional characteristics of the newly hired principals that they have hired and/or supervised. Specifically, the study involved the use of semi-structured interviews with superintendents at 10 conveniently selected New York State Education Department (NYSED) identified school districts from the Hudson Valley region in New York State. The results of this study were used to aide in identifying gaps between the training of school administrators and superintendents’ desired skills for newly hired principals. The results of the study are discussed according to eight findings that arose from the data: interpersonal and intrapersonal are necessary personal characteristics; participative, influential, and managerial skills are necessary leadership skills; inclusive, trust and transformational skills are characteristic that increase the likelihood of principal retention. Additional research should be conducted to determine whether district size is a factor that influences the leadership and personal characteristics required in newly hired principals by superintendents. In addition, a recommendation was made in terms of the practicality of the identified characteristics within the framework of certification programs and initially certified principals

Getting Back to My Life: Exploring Adaptation to Change Through the Experiences of Breast Cancer Survivors

The holding environment concept, developed by Donald Winnicott, has been used to represent the type of support that encourages adaptive change during psychosocial transitions. The leadership and change literature posited that the holding environment had the ability to shape the trajectory of the transition, yet did not test this empirically. The psychosocial breast cancer literature empirically researched support during and after treatments ended, but did not incorporate the holding environment concept. This presented the opportunity to inform both the leadership and breast cancer fields by studying holding environments in the breast cancer setting. This study had a twofold purpose: 1) to explore empirically the adaptation process using the context of the breast cancer psychosocial transition, and 2) to consider if the holding environment concept, as it is used in the leadership literature, is supported by the results of this study. Grounded theory methodology was used to interpret interviews, diaries, and observation data gathered from breast cancer survivors during the after treatment transition period. This study presented the grounded theory categories in two organizing frameworks, a transition phase diagram and a person-environment situating diagram. The results suggested that the leadership adaptive change literature should integrate an understanding of coping and searching into organizational change interventions. In addition, incorporating the social interaction represented by situating would enrich any attempts to intervene in adaptive change, including the psychosocial breast cancer literature. The electronic version of this dissertation is at Ohiolink ETD Center http://www.ohiolink.edu/et