Deciding to Remain in Post: Factors Considered by Inexperienced Head Teachers in Scotland

• In Event: Roundtable Session 90
  In Roundtable Session: On Becoming a School Principal: Novice Principals Make Sense of a New Role

Abstract

Purpose: This paper reports on a national study of the recruitment and retention of head teachers in Scotland (head teacher is a term for school principal). Focusing on head teachers with less than two years of experience, this work seeks to inform the literature on school principal retention by examining the factors related to novice head teachers’ plans to remain in their posts.

Perspectives: The paper assumes that the interplay among the motivations, incentives and disincentives to assuming leadership are complex and context driven. It relies on a significant body of international research as impetus for and background to this research.

Data and Methods: The study considered issues of recruitment and retention of school heads via a mixed-method, nationally representative study in Scotland involving surveys and interviews. 1137 head teachers completed the survey and 178 respondents volunteered to be interviewed, as well. From the full list of volunteers, the research team agreed on a representative sample to be interviewed in person. The analysis for this paper focuses on the approximately one-third of the sample who were novice head teachers, or those with less than 2 years of experience. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the head teacher survey to reduce the number of variables under consideration that may account for head teachers’ retention decisions. These factors were then regressed onto respondents’ indications of their intentions to remain in their position during the next 2 years.

Results: For novice head teachers, the factors significantly associated with 2 year employment expectations included confidence in relationship abilities, sufficiency of support, sufficiency of material resources, general level of concern with role, leadership of personnel role, and satisfaction with professional development. Results for novice head teachers differed from the results for more experienced head teachers, as ‘level of autonomy’ and ‘satisfaction with level of autonomy’ also significantly predicted retention expectations for head teachers with more than 2 years of experience. While ‘sufficiency of support’ and ‘satisfaction with professional development’ significantly predicted employment expectations for novice head teachers, they were not associated with more experienced head teachers’ retention plans. School demographic variables, personal demographic variables, and personal qualifications played no role in the retention expectations for either group. Findings from the interviews with head teachers will also be reported in the paper to support the importance of these factors to inexperienced head teachers’ retention decisions.

Significance: Without a body of systematic evidence regarding the incentives and disincentives, and satisfactions and frustrations of head teachers, or school principals, it is difficult for policymakers to address what is perceived to be a growing leadership recruitment problem. By improving our understanding of the aspects of the job that are associated with novice head teachers’ retention decisions, this work has implications for how we train and mentor new school leaders. Given that school leadership is increasingly considered critical to school success, being able to provide better training and support to new school principals may be one important component of school improvement in both Scotland and the United States.

Authors

• V. Darleen Opfer, RAND Education

• Peter Gronn, University of Cambridge

• Kevin Lowden, University of Glasgow