Principals’ Sense-Making and Enactment of Multiple Messages of Instructional Leadership

• In Event: School Leadership Development: The Art of Leadership Development

Abstract

This paper, a cross-case study using sensemaking theory, looks across six first-year principals to investigate their engagement with and sensemaking of specific messages of instructional leadership around teacher supervision. I found that principals’ informal social networks influenced the messages they received about instructional leadership and how they enacted teacher evaluation practices in their work on their campuses more so than their school context or their previous experience. This research adds to the field of institutional theory by looking at the interaction between the organizational levels, and further explicates individual actors’ agency within a socio-organizational context. It also adds to the field of principal preparation and induction as it highlights what is important for first-year principals as they build their identities.

Author

• Jessica Rigby, University of Washington