The Evolution of Principal Identity in an Early Career High School Principal: Dealing With Cognitive Dissonance

• In Event: Understanding Stressors and Motivators of School Principals

Abstract

Understanding professional identity of school principals is critical to their ability to guide school improvement efforts in a political climate that is often in conflict with personal values and ethics. This study examines the identity journey of an early-career principal who narrates his journey through professional identity formation. He describes his personal struggle with conflicting values, termed cognitive dissonance, that ultimately lead him to leave the principalship. Using Crow, Day & MØller’s (2017) framework, his identity formation is situated within social structures and hierarchies of power and control.

Authors

• Lynnette Brunderman, University of Arizona

• Mindy Carter White, University of Arizona