TY - JOUR
T1 - Novice School Principals Constructing Their Role Vis-À-Vis External Stakeholders
T2 - (Not) Attempting to Be “All Things to All People”
AU - Prado Tuma, Andrea
AU - Spillane, James P.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Work on this article is supported by the Principal Policy and Practice Study (http://www.principalpolicyresearch.org), funded by research grants from the Spencer Foundation (200900092), and a research grant from the National Science Foundation (DRL-1344266). All opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any funding agency.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Purpose: A school principal’s ability to engage with external stakeholders is critical for achieving a range of school objectives such as involving parents, implementing policy mandates, and accessing resources from the school district. This study examines how novice school principals make sense of different external stakeholders’ demands and their own role in relation to external stakeholders during their first year on the job. Research Approach: We analyze 53 semistructured interviews conducted with 18 novice principals throughout their first year on the job. We use an iterative process of coding and analysis to identify patterns and verify our findings by ensuring interrater reliability in our coding and examining disconfirming evidence. Findings: We find that novice principals struggle to make sense of external stakeholder claims that they perceive to conflict with their own understanding of the goals and values of the school. In particular, conflicting claims elicit sense-making about a new principal’s role vis-à-vis external stakeholders. Across time, a majority of novice principals narrow the scope of their role by coming to terms with taking an unpopular position, setting priorities, and modifying their expectations about the job. Implications for Research and Practice: Our study highlights the cognitive, rather than behavioral, responses that principals have toward conflicting claims. Furthermore, we extend work on the occupational socialization of school principals by showing how conflicting claims shape novice principals emerging understanding of their role vis-à-vis external stakeholders. Our findings have implications for improving principal preparation programs and succession planning.
AB - Purpose: A school principal’s ability to engage with external stakeholders is critical for achieving a range of school objectives such as involving parents, implementing policy mandates, and accessing resources from the school district. This study examines how novice school principals make sense of different external stakeholders’ demands and their own role in relation to external stakeholders during their first year on the job. Research Approach: We analyze 53 semistructured interviews conducted with 18 novice principals throughout their first year on the job. We use an iterative process of coding and analysis to identify patterns and verify our findings by ensuring interrater reliability in our coding and examining disconfirming evidence. Findings: We find that novice principals struggle to make sense of external stakeholder claims that they perceive to conflict with their own understanding of the goals and values of the school. In particular, conflicting claims elicit sense-making about a new principal’s role vis-à-vis external stakeholders. Across time, a majority of novice principals narrow the scope of their role by coming to terms with taking an unpopular position, setting priorities, and modifying their expectations about the job. Implications for Research and Practice: Our study highlights the cognitive, rather than behavioral, responses that principals have toward conflicting claims. Furthermore, we extend work on the occupational socialization of school principals by showing how conflicting claims shape novice principals emerging understanding of their role vis-à-vis external stakeholders. Our findings have implications for improving principal preparation programs and succession planning.
KW - community engagement
KW - external stakeholder management
KW - novice school principals
KW - occupational and organizational socialization
KW - the principalship
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U2 - 10.1177/0013161X18822101
DO - 10.1177/0013161X18822101
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85059933113
SN - 0013-161X
VL - 55
SP - 812
EP - 840
JO - Educational Administration Quarterly
JF - Educational Administration Quarterly
IS - 5
ER -