Female Traditional Principals and Co-Principals: Experiences of Role Conflict and Job Satisfaction

This paper presents a secondary analysis of survey data focusing on role conflict and job satisfaction of 102 female principals. Data were collected from 51 female traditional principals and 51 female co-principals. By examining the traditional and co-principal leadership models as experienced by female principals, this paper addresses the impact of the type of leadership model (traditional principalship or co-principalship) has on women principals with regard to role conflict and job satisfaction. The co-principals experienced lower levels of role conflict and higher levels of job satisfaction than did the female traditional principals

Shareholders as Principals

This paper discusses experimental techniques for detecting if there are multiple sources in a duct and obtaining the acoustic characteristics of these sources. Experimental techniques for in-duct source characterization under plane wave conditions in ducts, when we know the location of the source, are well established. In some cases there can however be sources at both ends of a duct. The paper starts with discussing the possibility to, by using a number of flush mounted microphones in the duct, detect sources located on both sides of the test section and to extract the acoustic source characteristics of the sources. First the sound field in a duct with sources at both ends is discussed and described. The theory for experimental determination of source data is then described. A discussion of the consequences of source correlation is included. The methods are first tested using loudspeakers in a duct.QC 20120502</p

Support for Instructional Leadership: Supervision, Mentoring, and Professional Development for U.S. School Leaders - Findings from the American School Leader Panel

With school leadership second only to teaching among school-related influences on student learning, principals can play an important role in school success. But how do their districts promote their effectiveness, especially in improving teaching? Based on a survey of the American School Leader Panel, a representative sample of principals from across the United States, this report explores the prevalence and quality of three important on-the-job supports for school leaders: supervision, mentorship and professional development (as defined by at least a day focused on principals). The good news is that two-thirds of principals report receiving some support. The bad news is that more than two thirds (68 percent) report that they don't receive all three sources of help. Mentoring, for example, is typically available only to first- or second-year principals or those encountering difficulties on the job, and only a minority of principals report that their districts require mentoring, even for first-year (49 percent of respondents) or struggling principals (21 percent). Also, the prevalence of support a principal receives may depend on the size of his or her school district. Both mentoring and professional development are more readily available in larger and medium-sized districts than smaller ones. The value principals place on the support they receive is linked to whether the support emphasizes the key aspect of principals' job—improving teachers' instruction. For example, all of the principals (100 percent) who reported that their mentors focused on instruction to a great extent also said that they prized the mentoring. That compares with a minority (40 percent) of principals who said their mentors devoted little to no time to instruction

Leadership Experiences of African American Male Secondary Urban Principals: The Impact of Beliefs, Values, and Experiences on School Leadership Practices

This qualitative study examined African American male secondary principals' beliefs, values, and leadership practices that contribute to successful urban schools. Narrative inquiry was used to investigate the factors that influenced the leadership practices -- and related education environment success -- of six African American male public school principals from six different secondary urban schools in Ohio. Findings related to participant input led to three primary conclusions: (a) effective African American male principals address broad social and systemic issues that affect student education and performance; (b) effective African American male principals employ an integrated leadership style; and (c) effective African American male principals embrace the dualism of bureaucrat-administrator and ethno-humanist roles. These findings highlight several implications for consideration: (a) social and systemic issues severely distract African American male urban school leaders from their educational focus; (b) attention needs to be given to the critical dual role of African American male principals; and (c) focus needs to be directed toward developing and then hiring qualified African American male principals

Managing Transitions: Coping Strategies for New Principals in Colleges of Education, Ghana

Principals’ transition in Colleges of Education in Ghana is critical to quality teacher education and training, but it comes with complexities and challenges to newly appointed principals. However, there is a seeming absence of research on strategies for smooth transitions in Colleges of Education in Ghana. This study was therefore conducted to establish strategies that promoted the College of Education principals’ transition management in Ghana. Phenomenological research design was used for the study. Ten (10) newly appointed principals of public colleges of education were purposively sampled for the study. Interview protocol was the research instrument used. The data collected was analyzed using content analysis method. The study established that capacity building, relationship building, appropriate leadership style and maintenance of discipline were key among the coping strategies for smooth transitions. This study then provides a guide for new principals. It was recommended that this area should be further explored and a model for managing transition designed to support College of Education principals’ in transitio

School principal preparation in Europe

This article centres on Cypriot, English, Greek and Swedish selection and training of principals. This was part of a 2001-2003 European Union (EU) funded study which created a distance learning CD ROM for principals. We analysed and compared national education systems and principals’ selection and training using documents, focus groups, principals’ interviews and an international seminar. The most centralised systems of Greece and Cyprus had less principal preparation, and more government involvement in principal selection, than the less centralised Sweden and England. The extent of training was perceived to matter less in successful principalship than selecting the right people although it was felt that even a good leader can be improved through training and principals were concerned about their lack of formal training

Stand-downs, suspensions and exclusions : a dilemma for primary school principals : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Administration, Department of Social and Policy Studies in Education, College of Education, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a selection of primary school principals managed and viewed the process of stand-downs, suspensions and exclusions. The researcher saw the need for such research because of the recent legislation that has changed the procedures for principals to follow, the growing public concern over the national statistics for disciplinary exclusions and the lack of research on disciplinary exclusions of primary age pupils or for principals' perspectives of the disciplinary exclusion process. The research involved two main research methods (survey and case-study) which included a postal questionnaire distributed to all primary school principals in a localised area, a review of their Education Review Office Reports, structured interviews of five primary school principals and a review of their Behaviour Management Plans. These data were analysed with the aid of computer software packages: MICROSOFT EXCEL for the quantitative data and QSR NU*DIST for the qualitative data; and techniques of thematic induction and dilemma analysis were used. The characteristics and behaviours of the primary age pupils receiving disciplinary exclusions in this study are an accentuated version of the trends of gender and ethnicity factors already identified for all New Zealand school pupils in the national database. This study also isolated other characteristics - the final year of school (either at primary or intermediate) and the transference of these pupils at-risk of disciplinary exclusions from school to school. Disciplinary exclusions can be attributed to many interacting complex factors related to individuals, families, schools and the direct impact of changing economic and educational government policies and legislation. It was evident that principals worked hard at maintaining and providing an education for extremely difficult pupils but these pupils presented a dilemma for principals. On the one hand, principals' comments showed that caring principals and hardworking teaching staff went out of their way to support and educate these seriously misbehaving pupils in their schools, but, on the other hand, principals perceived that they had no other choice but to use the disciplinary exclusion process. The concept of'dilemma' was developed further in this study with implications for principals' future practice and professional development and further research

Linking educational leadership styles to the HR architecture for new teachers in primary education

This study aims to gain insight in the relationship between principals’ leadership styles and the configuration of different HR practices for new teachers in primary education. Besides the longstanding interest in educational leadership as a key element in teacher and student performance, there is a growing interest in strategic human resource management (SHRM) in the educational sector. However, few educational studies link educational leadership to SHRM. In particular, this study examines the relationship between principals’ instructional and transformational leadership style and principals’ strategic and HR orientation in configuring HR practices for new teachers. Data were gathered using a mixed methods approach, including interviews with 75 principals as well as an online survey of 1058 teachers in Flemish primary education. Qualitative interview data were transformed and analysed together with the quantitative survey data using logistic regression and ANOVA analyses. The results indicate that both instructional and transformational leadership is associated with the strategic orientation of principals. The HR orientation, on the other hand, is not reflected in the principals’ leadership style. Recommendations for further research in this area are discussed

A Logical Framework for Reputation Systems

Reputation systems are meta systems that record, aggregate and distribute information about the past behaviour of principals in an application. Typically, these applications are large-scale open distributed systems where principals are virtually anonymous, and (a priori) have no knowledge about the trustworthiness of each other. Reputation systems serve two primary purposes: helping principals decide whom to trust, and providing an incentive for principals to well-behave. A logical policy-based framework for reputation systems is presented. In the framework, principals specify policies which state precise requirements on the past behaviour of other principals that must be fulfilled in order for interaction to take place. The framework consists of a formal model of behaviour, based on event structures; a declarative logical language for specifying properties of past behaviour; and efficient dynamic algorithms for checking whether a particular behaviour satisfies a property from the language. It is shown how the framework can be extended in several ways, most notably to encompass parameterized events and quantification over parameters. In an extended application, it is illustrated how the framework can be applied for dynamic history-based access control for safe execution of unknown and untrusted programs