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This exploratory qualitative study was focused on the impact of state and federal mandates on the role of middle school principals, specifically what increased responsibilities and major areas of stress middle school principals are experiencing; how any enhanced stress impacts these middle school principals, both professionally and personally; and what coping mechanisms principals use to handle the stress of any increased responsibilities. The experiences and perceptions of 12 principals from one Midwestern state were captured through semi-structured interviews, and by having them complete Allison’s Coping Preference Scale. Their answers provide a deeper understanding of what it is like leading a middle school in an environment that includes increased accountability and responsibility, student testing, teacher and principal evaluations, stress, and coping skills. Findings revealed 11 major and minor themes. Nearly all principals have experienced an increase in their responsibilities for implementing federal and state mandates, and associated stress. Specifically, all expressed specific concerns and stress over complying with the logistics of testing mandates, and that their responsibilities have increased related to teacher evaluations, as well as their stress levels. They also reported enhanced stress due to things like accountability related school labeling, teacher stress with their evaluations, parental communication, and social media issues with students. These principals revealed that such stress has a negative impact on their personal lives, and that they use a variety of coping strategies daily to relieve stress. Using humor, maintaining a positive attitude, treating stakeholders with humanity, seeking balance, regular exercise, finding quiet time, and talking with family and close friends were all strategies principals frequently used to mitigate stress. Interestingly, while enhanced teacher and principal evaluations as connected to student outcomes are now a major part of their role, principals reported that such teacher evaluations are so much better than past evaluation efforts. In addition, most voiced no real increased responsibilities or stress associated with principal evaluations. While they felt some mandate streamlining related to such evaluations is needed, such mandates are helping to improve educational outcomes. This study confirmed, as noted in previous research literature, that the principal profession in this country is indeed a very stressful and difficult one. It contributes to the scarce literature on the accountability-related responsibilities and associated stress of principals in the middle school environment; and it provides a fuller understanding of how principals perceive their work environment as related to state and federal mandates regarding student testing, teacher evaluations, and principal evaluations. It also informs the reader about the stresses that principals are under and some of their stressors; knowing how they handled such stress is important, as well as instructive. Recommendations for leaders and future research are offered.
Urban and suburban principals of the 21st century serve within chronically changing work environments that are heavily influenced by circumstances beyond their control. This dissertation explored how urban and suburban principals in the Northeast Corridor perceive and experience change within their work environment. It also explored how such constant change coupled with the pressure of leading urban and suburban schools impacted their professional and personal lives. Throughout the United States, both urban and suburban public school systems view the principalship as an integral role within the district as it relates to school reform, implementing change, and student achievement. Abundant literature exists on accountability and on the instructional leadership responsibilities of principals. However, a gap is evident in the dearth of studies regarding how public school principals experience and perceive working within a changing environment and the impact on their emotional, professional, and personal lives. Regarding enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and most recently, the No Child Left Behind Waivers of 2012, principals are held to progressive accountability measures in full view of the public. If desired results are not achieved, the shortfalls can result in reassignments or terminations. The study elicited the perceptions and experiences of principals regarding change to understand what they consider important and how these perceptions and experiences manifest through time. To explore this research question, a mixed methods design was used that included 5 indepth interviews and 5 behavioral event interviews along with the administration of a self-report instrument to each participant regarding self-efficacy, optimism, and posttraumatic stress disorder. All interviews and self-reporting instruments were conducted at a location outside the participants' school districts. All qualitative data were coded and thematically analyzed, and scores from self-reporting instruments were examined for similarities and differences among participants. Scores were also used to deepen and expand understanding of qualitative data. Findings were provided to capture the possible link between the emotions of urban and suburban principals during times of mandated change and their perceived leadership effectiveness, self-efficacy, levels of optimism, learned helplessness, and posttraumatic stress disorder. The completed study should bring greater awareness to the emotional, professional, and personal impact of working in a constantly changing environment and the lived experiences of principals. Several unanticipated findings emerged such as the existence of the (a) Violence theme and the Workplace Bullying/Mobbing, Emotional Abuse, and School Violence subthemes; (b) Learned Helplessness theme and Lack of Voice, Lack of Autonomy, and a Sense of Failure subthemes; (c) the Self-Efficacy theme and The Treatment of Principals subtheme; and (d) the Support theme and the Marginal or No District Support, and Professional and Personal Support Networks subthemes. The possibility is that the accumulation of work-related principal experiences may be contributing factors in the development of all principals having Posttraumatic Stress Disorder attributes. Interactions were discovered between themes and across subthemes such as Learned Helplessness and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Attributes; Workplace Bullying/Mobbing, Learned Helplessness, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Attributes; and Learned Helplessness and Depression. At the same time, male principals experienced Workplace Mobbing and experienced physiological symptoms and female principals experienced Workplace Bullying, which resulted in stress and anxiety related experiences. Overwhelmingly, all principals communicated an array of intense emotions and the psychological impact of their principal role, most notably fear, stress, anxiety, and numbing, Recommendations regarding how national, state, and local districts can support urban and suburban principals as they lead during chronic change were provided. Equally, recommendations were provided for urban and suburban principals to empower themselves collectively and independently. Most importantly, the study may be used to spur dialogue surrounding how optimally to support principals emotionally, professionally, and personally.
Nine semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted to examine and explore how seven middle and two high school female principals in Georgia achieved balance among and enjoyment in the four life quadrants of work, family, friends, and self. The results from this qualitative, phenomenological investigation confirm the challenging, dynamic, and demanding occupational stressors associated with 21st school leadership; describe the participants’ lived experiences as they relate to the confluence of family commitments and the responsibilities of the principalship; communicate the physical and psychological impact of the principal’s role on holistic health, and the coping strategies implemented to manage occupational and personal stressors; and discuss how a shift in the ideology and mindset of district leaders could support female middle and high school principals. Findings from this investigation describe the specific methods the participants utilized to nurture themselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Conclusions and recommendations for district leaders and school systems are included for consideration as educational stakeholders work to create collaborative partnerships with current and aspiring female leaders. This investigation provides rich, descriptive insights into the unique stressors experienced by female middle and high school principals and their collective worldview on the “essence of stress and work-life balance” for the secondary administrator.
Strategic leadership techniques are the cornerstone to positive growth and prosperity within businesses and organizations. Implementing new management strategies and practices helps to ensure managers are optimizing their resources and driving innovation. The Encyclopedia of Strategic Leadership and Management investigates emergent administrative techniques and business practices being utilized within corporate and educational settings. Highlighting empirical research and best practices within the field, this encyclopedia will be an authoritative reference source for students, researchers, faculty, librarians, managers, and leaders across various disciplines and cultures.
Given that principal burnout was a concern before the pandemic began in 2020, empirical research was needed to explore principal burnout in the current decade. The purpose of the study was to examine the lived experiences of high school principals in urban settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, I examined principal perceptions of working conditions (i.e., workload) and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was timely because principals leave the profession at high rates, and the pandemic has compounded their complex roles. The following were the primary research question (RQ) and the two supporting questions (SQ): RQ1: How do high school principals describe their working conditions and job-related stress during the 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22 school years? SQ1: How, if at all, did the changes in work conditions create new job-related stress during the 3 years? SQ2: How did principals cope with job-related stress during the pandemic? A modified phenomenology design was used to focus on COVID but also on how principals experienced their work. This design allowed for capturing the lived experiences of high school principals in urban settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Purposeful sampling was used to find 15 principals who met the selection criteria. The sampling criteria focused on recruiting urban high school principals employed before and during the pandemic, specifically from March 2020 through at least the end of 2020-2021. Principals who resigned immediately after the 2020-2021 school year were included in the sample, as well as principals who accepted higher level positions after the 2020-2021 year. I represented the instrument as the person conducting the interviews, reviewing the data, and organizing the data into themes across all the data sources during inductive data analysis. The first research question was answered with two themes: (a) no boundaries, no balance, and (b) most stressed ever with no time to rest and restore. The participants’ descriptions of their working conditions because of COVID-19 led to the following four themes: (a) massive undertaking to be creative and resourceful, (b) different proportions of time spent in meetings and dealing with communication, (c) instructional shifts from in-classroom to virtual online, and (d) struggling to maintain attendance and deal with parents/families. The following five ways of coping emerged from the 15 high school principals’ interviews: (a) reflection and self-awareness of emotions, (b) venting or talking with colleagues and family, (c) self-care, (d) make a plan of action, (e) family time. Chapter Five provides a conclusion and recommendations to complete the presentation of this study
The accountability era ushered in by the No Child Left Behind of 2001 dramatically increased the complexity of the role of public school principals and changed the context in which principals do their work. This qualitative case study focused on the lived experiences of 10 public high school principals, five traditional and five charter school leaders, serving under the competitive policy frameworks of No Child Left Behind and federal and state innovation grant programs (e.g., RttT) during the years 2008 to 2015. Three distinct studies revealed (a) principals’ perspectives on the complexity of the role, the impact of competition, accountability and innovation policies, and how the role has expanded, (b) how they perceived and employed innovative strategies to achieve their goals, and (c) emerging themes in the role including the need to negotiate new, complex, sometimes contradictory relational and political networks, manage the term failure in regard to school success, and develop a significant practice of distributed leadership to achieve their goals. The research design employed semistructured interviews and analysis of relevant documents, government records or other publicly available resources. Principal preparation programs, future administrators, and policymakers may benefit from understanding how these leaders led through the shift into 21st century public education in the United States by enacting policies in an increasingly complex, competitive policy environment. This study addressed a gap in the literature by analyzing practitioner point of view as it examined the impact of historic federal and state accountability and innovation policy convergence on the role and context of public high school principals between the years of 2008 and 2015.