On Becoming a School Principal: Novice Principals Make Sense of a New Role

• In Event: Roundtable Session 90

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

This symposium focuses on various aspects of novice principals’ on-the-job learning and retention. The first paper takes a broad view of new principals’ socialization experiences, examining how principals navigate their new role within a pluralistic institutional environment marked by diverse stakeholders’ expectations. The second paper focuses on one key group of stakeholders—teachers—and addresses how new principals support teacher development. The third paper examines another key stakeholder group, the community; it describes a policy involving local school control and how new principals come to manage and be managed by community interests. The final paper focuses on new principals in Scotland and shifts to issues of retention by examining factors related to new principals’ plans to remain in their posts.

Sub Unit

• Division A - Administration / Section 5: Leadership Development

Chair

• James P. Spillane, Northwestern University

Papers

• Crossing Over to the Principal’s Office: How Novice Principals Make Sense of Schools’ Pluralistic Institutional Environment - James P. Spillane, Northwestern University; Lauren M. Anderson, University of Southern California

• New Principals and Teacher Development: Conceptions, Changes, and Challenges - Leigh Mesler Parise, Northwestern University

• New Principals and Local School Councils: Walking the Line Between Administrative and Political Control - Linda C. Lee, Northwestern University; Rebecca Jane Lowenhaupt, Boston College; Allison W. Kenney, Northwestern University

• Deciding to Remain in Post: Factors Considered by Inexperienced Head Teachers in Scotland - V. Darleen Opfer, RAND Education; Peter Gronn, University of Cambridge; Kevin Lowden, University of Glasgow