Urban Principals Research Articles

Finding vitality in equity-oriented leadership: principals contending with professional stress and burnout

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to examine the ways in which equity work enhances professional and personal vitality by analyzing the experiences of four urban principals. This year-long, qualitative multi-case study utilized data from interviews, observations, and time diaries of four K-12 principals characterized as equity-oriented leaders employed in the same urban, public school district. Data was analyzed using a ‘vitality’ framework, which is currently underutilized in the field. This study’s key findings included: 1) principals fostered a sense of vitality in their own careers by empowering others, especially in ways that brought about greater equity; 2) despite the time and attention that change initiatives required, principals’ overall sense of vitality was enhanced through various forms of equity-oriented work; and 3) principals labored to take action to reimagine inequitable practices by leading changes to curriculum and instruction; addressing disciplinary matters in a more constructive, restorative manner; and empowering others, like students, staff, teachers, and future leaders. By helping to understand the sources of principal vitality, this study provides lessons for fostering positive coping and mitigation strategies to address stress and decrease feelings of burnout for equity-oriented leaders.

“We Want to Make our Customers Happy”: How Principals of Zoned Elementary Schools Navigate Inequity and Marketing Across Neighborhood Contexts

Despite rich and growing school choice and school marketing literatures, little is known about if and how principals of zoned public elementary schools engage in marketing. We address this gap by drawing on in-depth interviews with principals of nine schools—in different neighborhoods—in the Baltimore school district. We find that principals have internalized marketing as a key component of school leadership. Further, marketing strategies differ depending on school and community contexts (e.g., enrollment, neighborhood, and resources, and principals' perceptions thereof). Our study reveals how differences in neighborhood conditions and inequities in school resources affect marketing pressure, capacity, and actions. Our findings underscore a need to support urban principals as they navigate marketing pressures and also show how neglecting to do so may exacerbate inequity among students.

English

The South African education scene is characterised by principals who come from the apartheid era where they manage the school alone in an authoritarian manner. Old approaches to school management have changed because the society has also changed. There is a shift from top-down style of leadership to shared or distributed leadership which requires the empowerment of those in managerial positions in schools. The principal is expected to manage the school together with significant stakeholders. In this study attention was focused on the extent to which principals perform the duties of instructional leadership and how they empower the School Management Team (SMT) to execute instructional leadership. Additionally, the study aimed at finding out impediments that principals experience in the course of empowering the School Management team. The study used a quantitative method involving the use of a questionnaire. The study population consisted of 90 principals and deputy principals and 165 heads of department in Tshwane-West District. Data analysis consisted of descriptive and inferential statistics.  The greatest challenge is the administrative workload experienced by principals. The study also found that rural principals perform the duties of instructional leadership more than the urban principals.  Principals perform their duties well and this is good for the academic performance of learners.   Key words: School management, instructional management, empowerment, culture of teaching and learning, teaching and learning.

Principals’ Preferences in the Hiring Process: Is Everything Old New Again?

The purpose of the current study was to investigate urban school principals’ preferences for the types of teacher preparation programs completed, to understand their perceptions regarding factors that impact the selection of teacher candidates, and to determine if these preferences have changed over time. Data were collected using an online cross-sectional survey. Results indicate that urban school principals prefer to hire applicants who have completed a traditional four-year college or university preparation program.

Going Restorative, Staying Tough: Urban Principals’ Perceptions of Restorative Practices in Collocated Small Schools

Drawing on data from a year-long multi-case ethnography of three secondary urban public schools implementing restorative practices, the current piece examines how principals negotiate restorative practices despite conflicting pressures to maintain order and compel obedience. I frame my inquiry through Sergiovanni’s (2000) concept of “systems” in the “lifeworld,” asking whether principals use restorative practices as systems in service of cultural transformation or merely as a replacement for suspension. Findings suggest tensions between principals’ purposes for implementing restorative practices and the pressure they feel to maintain an image of “school order” and “toughness” in the eyes of internal and external stakeholders. I close with recommendations for research and practice. I also make some preliminary recommendations for principal preparation.

School Principals Putting Bullying Policy to Practice.

School principals must rely on state statutes and district policies to navigate reports of school bullying. Investigating reports to determine the outcomes may vary depending upon the districts definition of bullying, the investigation process, and follow through to reporting the findings of the investigation to the involved children and youth's parents. However, investigating reports can be challenging due to the confusion of what constitutes bullying. This confusion can be especially troubling for parents who believe their child is being bullied. In order to understand principals' perspectives on bullying, two focus groups were conducted with nine urban school principals. Researchers examined principals' perceptions of how state- and district-level policies were used within their bully investigation practices. These principals suggest that a clear, specific district wide definition of bullying and step by step procedures to investigate reports, along with the state anti-bullying statute, provide a valuable guide for follow-through and back up in determining cases of school bullying. In addition, they identified how policies and district mandates affected parents, particularly when reporting their investigation findings. Implications for bully prevention policies are discussed.

Status of Principals’ ICT Usage in Secondary School Administration in Rivers State

This study examined the status of principals’ ICT usage in secondary school administration in Rivers State. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The population of the study was 276 Principals from the 276 Senior Secondary Schools in Rivers State. A sample size of 138 was drawn using simple random sampling techniques. This represented 50% of the total population. Five research questions and five hypotheses guided the study. A self-designed questionnaire tagged “Principals’ Information and Communication Technology Usage Questionnaire (PICTUQ)”, which was a modified 2 points rating scale of YES =2 points and NO= 1 point. The data were analyzed using Mean and Standard Deviation. The criterion mean of 1.50 was used as benchmark for taking decision of each of the items of the research questions. Any score up to 1.50 and above was accepted; while score below 1.50 was rejected as not having desired impact. The z-test was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that both the rural and urban principals upheld the fact that there is no computer laboratory, computers, scanners, projector and power generating plants in public secondary schools in Rivers State. The study recommended that: ICT facilities should be installed in all secondary schools in Rivers State; adequate number of experts should be employed to train principals and students in ICT; adequate funds should be provided to manage the process for adequate educational quality service delivery in schools; government should set committee to install and monitor ICT facilities and its usage in public schools in Rivers State.
 Key Words: ICT, Administration, ICT access, ICT application, ICT literacy, Principals’ performance.

Leadership coaching: a multiple-case study of urban public charter school principals’ experiences

ABSTRACTThe purpose of our multi-case study was to understand the experiences of non-novice New York City and Washington, DC public charter school principals who had participated in leadership coaching as a component of their leadership development. Eight New York City and Washington DC public charter school principal cases were selected through purposeful sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, documents, and artifacts, which were analyzed, coded and grouped into three broader themes: the coaching process, the impact of coaching, and principal leader identity construction. The findings supported the following conclusions: (a) Participants’ experiences of coaching were inconsistent with the coaching literature; (b) The impact of coaching was shaped by perceived competencies of the coach and the structure of the coaching session; and (c) Participants’ leader identity construction was supported through the process of coaching.

ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SCHOOL GUIDANCE SERVICES AS PERCEIVED BY SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA

The study investigated the effectiveness of school guidance services as perceived by principals in Edo State, Nigeria. The study sought to examine secondary school principals’ perception on the effectiveness of guidance services (orientation, appraisal, information and counselling services) and determine gender and school location differences in principals’ perception of the effectiveness of counselling services in schools. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. A sample of 36 schools (1 rural and 1 urban) were drawn from public senior secondary schools in the study area using purposive random sampling. The instrument used for the collection of data was a self-developed questionnaire titled: “School Guidance Services Effectiveness Questionnaire (SOGSEQ)”. The construct validity was ascertained by the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) while the Cronbach reliability alpha of the questionnaire yielded an overall index of 0.84. The descriptive statistics such as mean (X ̅) and standard deviation (S.D) was used to analyze the research question 1 while the t-test for independent sample means was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 alpha level. Results from the analysis showed that principals perceived orientation services to be the only effective guidance service in secondary schools in Edo State. Result further showed that there is a significant difference between rural and urban principals in their perception on the effectiveness of school guidance services (appraisal, information and counselling services) in secondary schools in Edo State. It is recommended that guidance counsellors in the secondary schools should realize that their guidance services should be such that will enable them to meet the needs of learners in schools. For this to be achieved, school heads, teachers, parents and the government must also be actively involved in providing their support for the delivery of the services when necessary

Urban high school principals’ promotion of college-and-career readiness

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to ascertain how two urban principals, in high schools that feature comprehensive college-and-career readiness practices, utilize distributed leadership to facilitate their implementation.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed qualitative methods. Drawing upon semi-structured interview data, observational data gathered as part of site visits, and internal and electronic documents, case descriptions were developed of each school, focusing on principals’ activities in support of career pathways.FindingsThe principals contributed significantly to their schools’ college-and-career readiness reforms and programming. Although their approaches were distinct, six common themes were identified: facilitating processes to form a shared vision, developing relational trust, a focus on learning, successful partnerships, conducive structures, and developing leadership skills and capacity. The principals described utilizing distributed leadership approaches – including practices, structures, and tools – to support these reforms.Originality/valueThis study represents the initial phase of a multi-year research project investigating the implementation of college-and-career pathways in urban communities. Prior research has overlooked the important role of principals in leading and facilitating these reforms, and this study contributes to the literature because it focuses on principals’ contributions in supporting college-and-career readiness. Additionally, in both cases, substantive, regular leadership contributions were made by business representatives external to the organization.

Evaluation of Financial Management Competencies of School Principals and their Impact on Institutional Development at KP, Pakistan

The study aimed at finding the impacts of secondary school principals financial management competency on the institutional development. All male and female principals of secondary and higher secondary schools of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were the population of the study and among them a sample of 200 head teachers including 100 male (40 urban & 60 rural) and 100 females (40 urban & 60 rural) from two conveniently selected districts were selected. Two research instruments; one questionnaire for Principals and a checklist was developed. The data were analyzed through frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation and t-test. Major findings of the study were; majority of the Principals were competent in planning, organizing, and controlling financial matters of their schools except in the tasks of fund raising, and internal audit. Urban Principals were better in planning than rural Principals. It is recommended that rural Principals may be provided training especially about planning financial matters

An Urban School Principal Encounters a Group of Teachers Who Seek to Address Racism in Their School

Urban principals lead complex schools. Although such schools often serve racially marginalized students from low-income families, they also exist within an environment that negatively stereotypes the students and their parents. Such stereotypes are even often held by school leaders and teachers in these environments. At the same time, there are often school professionals who are highly successful with urban students and who have substantive critiques of negative stereotypes about urban students and their families. In this case, a group of critically oriented urban school teachers come together, raise difficult issues, and thus provide a dilemma for their principal.

Dynamic Leadership Succession: Strengthening Urban Principal Succession Planning

The Dynamic Leadership Succession model is used to analyze a leadership succession case in an urban school district. The qualitative findings show that the district did not forecast school leadership needs well; however, the principal sought to develop and mentor teacher leaders as her assistant principals. Second, sustaining efforts within the district were, at times, haphazard, as demonstrated by the two study participants as they were inducted into their respective roles of principal and assistant principal. Finally, the district failed to deliberately plan for leadership transitions.

Malaysian Principals’ Technology Leadership Practices and Curriculum Management

School leaders face challenges in using technology to upgrade teaching and learning processes in the twenty-first century as they must also become role models in its usage. Thus technology must be used not only for teaching and learning processes, but also in their organisational management. The aim of this research is first, to identify the level of technology leadership and competency in curriculum activity management among secondary school principals in Malaysia; second, to determine if technology leadership practices and curriculum activity management differ based on school location; third, to analyse if there is a correlation between technology leadership and competency of curriculum activity management. This quantitative style research used questionnaire for data collection involving 341 randomly selected Malaysian principals. Data collected was then analysed using descriptive and inference analysis. Findings show that Malaysian principals practice technology leadership at a very high level, and are also very competent at managing curriculum activity. T-test analysis found that urban principals’ technology leadership practices are significantly higher than their rural counterparts, but their curriculum management competencies are at the same level. Findings also show that there is a low yet significant correlation between technology leadership and curriculum management competencies. In light of this information, we recommend further in-depth studies to explore the rural-urban gap technology leadership scenario, thus finding possible solutions in narrowing the academic achieve- ment gap between rural and urban schools.

Staffing the Classroom: How Urban Principals Find Teachers and Make Hiring Decisions

Despite the importance of teachers and the fact that teacher hiring is decentralized in most school districts, we know relatively little about the process through which individual principals hire faculty for their schools. Using interviews with 31 Chicago principals, we explore how principals find job candidates, whether they collaborate with their faculty and administrative staff when hiring, and whether and how these principal behaviors vary systematically by school level and by whether schools are higher or lower achieving. We find that principals in higher achieving schools network more to find candidates, whereas principals in lower achieving schools rely more on hiring resources provided by the district and frequently hire their own substitute and student teachers. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

A Community College District Chancellor’s View on Transformational Leadership

In an effort to promote school improvement, principals have primarily focused on developing quality teachers as a method of enhancing the academic achievement of students. This article seeks to shed light on the experiences and per-ceptions of urban principals regarding teacher effectiveness. Specifically, this article focuses on principals’ outlooks on teachers’ in three areas: student achievement, hiring and retention, and school culture. Empirical data from this study was derived from a mixed-method cross sectional survey administered to urban school principals in Arizona and California. It was evident in this study that principals perceive teachers as either well qualified or very well qualified to educate urban students. These findings are incongruent with the greater literature on this topic which illustrates the quality of urban school teachers is in question in comparison to non-urban teachers. The implications of principals’ overwhelmingly positive outlook are discussed coupled with recommendations for future research.

Effective Instructional Time Use for School Leaders

Scholars have long argued that principals should be instructional leaders, but few studies have empirically linked specific instructional leadership behaviors to school performance. This study examines the associations between leadership behaviors and student achievement gains using a unique data source: in-person, full-day observations of approximately 100 urban principals collected over 3 school years. We find that principals’ time spent broadly on instructional functions does not predict student achievement growth. Aggregating across leadership behaviors, however, masks that some specific instructional investments predict year-to-year gains. In particular, time spent on teacher coaching, evaluation, and developing the school’s educational program predict positive achievement gains. In contrast, time spent on informal classroom walkthroughs negatively predicts student growth, particularly in high schools. Additional survey and interview evidence suggests this negative association may arise because principals often do not use walkthroughs as part of a broader school improvement strategy.

A Comparison of Urban, Suburban, and Rural Principal Leadership

A Comparison of Urban, Suburban, and Rural Principal Leadership

Experiences of School Principals With Newcomers from War-Affected Countries in Africa

This article is based on the results of an exploratory study of experiences of 2 urban school principals about leading schools with immigrants from war-affected countries in Africa. It examines how they perceived their preparation for multicultural leadership, and explores lessons that leadership development institutions can learn from their experiences. Data from in-depth interviews revealed that the principals felt inadequately prepared to work with this minority group. With the influx of immigrants in schools, it is vital that leadership development institutions develop pragmatic approaches for preparing principals to work with second language learners, particularly those who face psychosocial challenges arising from experiences with war, poverty, or living in communities where they are prone to crime.

Undermining Racism and a Whiteness Ideology

This article reports on six White urban principals who came to administration with a commitment to create more equitable and excellent schools for students from marginalized communities. These leaders made strides in raising student achievement, creating a climate of belonging for students, staff, and families, and increasing access to learning opportunities for marginalized students. The analysis sought to address the following research question: “In what ways do White leaders who make significant progress in creating excellent and equitable schools include race and racial issues in their leadership?” Five aspects of these leaders’ work around undermining racism and a Whiteness ideology are highlighted.