Voices of Women High School Principals

This study presents the challenges women face in educational administration from the perspective of female high school principals. Eight women high school principals participated in the qualitative study that focused on their careers, the conflicts between their personal and professional roles, and the impact of gender on the high school principalship. The participants acknowledged the importance of encouragement and mentoring in their decisions to become high school principals. They continued to be affected by the male image of the high school principal. They sought support from other female leaders as well as offered mentoring to women aspiling to administrative positions. The participants recognized that role conflict was a factor contributing to whether or not women would pursue the high school principalship

The Co-Principalship: It\u27s Not Lonely at the Top

The coprincipalship has been suggested as an organizational structure that addresses the increasing workload and time demands of the principal as well as the shortage of qualified applicants for the position. This article presents the findings of a qualitative study of coprincipals in public and private schools in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Oregon, and Wisconsin. The participants describe the rationale for the model, its strengths and weaknesses, and how it functions. The coprincipals expressed particular satisfaction at sharing workloads and decision making because they were not isolated as solo leaders. Though the coprincipalship model offers possibilities for making the role of principal attractive, additional information is needed to develop a sustainable model

Does Gender Make a Difference? Voices of Male and Female High School Principals

Eckman examines the similarities and differences between how males and females experience the role of being a high school principal. He also provides insights into the high school principalship that can be useful to both males and females who might consider the position as a career choice

Women High School Principals: Perspectives on Role Conflict, Role Commitment, and Job Satisfaction

This study is an investigation of women high school principals in terms of the challenges they face, role conflicts they experience, their role commitment, and their job satisfaction. The purpose is to describe women high school principals addressing the issue of the continued underrepresentation of women in the high school principalship. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from women high school principals in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The findings indicate that role conflict impacts career decisions—respondents delayed entering the high school principalship until the demands of raising their children had lessened. Role conflict is inversely related to job satisfaction; the more role conflict, the lower the level of job satisfaction. The number of students in the school affects job satisfaction and role conflict. Women today may have more career mobility than in the past. Encouragement and mentoring are key factors in enabling women to become high school principals

Similarities and Differences in Role Conflict, Role Commitment, and Job Satisfaction for Female and Male High School Principals

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of gender, role conflict, role commitment, and job satisfaction on the high school principal. Data were collected from high school principals in three midwestern states. The results indicated that there are differences between female and male high school principals in their personal and professional attributes as well as in role conflict. There were similarities between female and male high school principals in terms of role commitment and job satisfaction

Co-principals: Characteristics of Dual Leadership Teams

A co-principal leadership model has been suggested as one way to address the shortage of qualified educational leaders for our schools and the increased demands on those leaders. The purpose of this study is to describe co-principals in terms of their personal and professional characteristics; the types of leadership models implemented in the schools of the respondents; their perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the co-principalship; the factors that contributed to the implementation of the model in their school districts; and their levels of role conflict, role commitment and job satisfaction. Data were collected from co-principals of public and private schools throughout the United Sates. A variety of schools, in terms of size and grade level, have adopted the co-principalship leadership model. Findings indicate strong job satisfaction

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

The Co-principalship: an Alternative to the Traditional Principalship

According to Spillane (2006), distributed leadership occurs when leadership functions are shared by a number of people in an organization or team with leadership emerging from the interactions within the group. [...] although the co-principal model is in practice in schools internationally, the participants in this study were principals and co-principals in schools within the United States

Entering Student Affairs: A Comparative Study of Graduate School Choice

This article describes the college choice process of graduate students in College Student Personnel programs at a public university and a private religiously affiliated university. Despite differences in size, mission, and location of the two institutions studied, the research findings show that respondent populations were similar demographically and in the factors important to their choice of college, their reasons for choosing the field of student affairs, and the processes they used to select a graduate school