The Micropolitics of Implementing a Pay-for-Extra-Duties Initiative: Insights from Principals’ Decision-Making Process

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:45 pm - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Implementing Reform, Unraveling Futures: The Micropolitics and Meaning of Educational Change (Table 5)

Abstract

Policymakers have sought to improve teacher retention through compensation policies, yet teachers’ unpaid extra duties remain underexamined despite their impact on job satisfaction. Although policy implementation involves decision-making among multiple actors, few studies examine political power within distributed leadership. Using a micropolitical perspective, this study investigates how principals’ power shapes school leadership practices during the implementation of a teacher retention initiative in one U.S. school district. Analysis of interviews with principals and teachers shows that principals employ political strategies to legitimate their priorities while pursuing organizational goals. These findings offer policymakers insight into how micropolitics in school leadership shape the implementation of retention policies, helping explain how the same-level of funding can generate different outcomes across.

Authors

• So Ra Yoo, North Carolina State University

• Lam D. Pham, North Carolina State University