Principals' Purpose and Passion: A Longitudinal Look at Learning and Leading Through Complex Challenges

• In Event: 33.079 - Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: 33.079-2 - School Leadership Paradigms for the Current Context of Education

Abstract

This paper presents findings from recent interviews, building on longitudinal research involving educational leaders (district leaders, principals, and APs 2008—present) about their most pressing leadership challenges. Here we focus on principals only (n=13) to explore how they describe, manage, and learn from challenges over time, and the learning experiences (e.g., on-the-job) they find most helpful in addressing challenges. We use Heifetz’s (1994) lens of adaptive, technical, and/or mixed challenges to describe leaders’ evolving thinking about and approaches to enacting effective, ethical leadership, and present principals’ reflections about leading adults through change and challenges. In addressing urgent demands, leaders named fostering professional growth—for self and others—and learning from experience as key to confronting challenges over time.

Authors

• Eleanor E. Drago-Severson, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Patricia Maslin-Ostrowski, Florida Atlantic University

• Jessica Blum-DeStefano, Teachers College, Columbia University