Conflict is certain to show up in any school, so how do you as the leader know how to respond or when to intervene? Disagreements, friction, and even outright hostility are a common and unavoidable result of people working together, and not all conflict is necessarily bad; it can also provide an opportunity to learn and grow. Whether the situation…

A principal's skills, knowledge, and experience are important when it comes to leading schools. But whether interacting with staff, students, or parents, principals also need empathy--a key social-emotional skill--to be effective and drive continuous improvement. In this book, veteran school leader Thomas R. Hoerr makes the case for why schools…

A handbook that helps educational leaders hone the social and emotional skills essential to promoting positive school culture and navigating their complex jobs. In this profoundly useful work, Janet Patti and Robin Stern make the case for social-emotional learning (SEL) as part of a critical skill set for K-12 school leaders, and they offer…

Over half of all teacher-powered schools have designated administrators, and the role is very different from what a traditional principal does at most K-12 schools. This guide is designed to address the unique opportunities and challenges in being a teacher-powered administrator. The guide draws on the expertise and experience of eight…

The growing number of children with disabilities who are served in general education classrooms has made it necessary for general and special education teachers to work together to ensure that all students receive an appropriate education. As the instructional leader, the school principal is presented with the challenge of facilitating and guiding…

School principals may experience stress due to interpersonal clashes and conflicts, excessively taxing administrative responsibilities, time constraints, and conflicting role expectations. Stress-reduction techniques include conflict resolution of values and needs; identification of stressful circumstances; knowledge of physiological stress…

This qualitative study investigated the types of conflict elementary principals encounter and the behaviors of the principals that led to successful or unsuccessful results of those conflict situations. The Critical Incident Technique was used as the means of gathering data for this study. Data were gathered from 32 principals in a midwestern…

The paper addresses practical issues involved for building principals in mediating to determine the most "free appropriate public education" for handicapped children and avoiding due process hearings. Mediation is viewed as an ongoing process, and the harmful effects of legal battles over a child's placement or evaluation are noted. The paper…

The Principal's Legal Handbook contains information and recommendations for practice in four areas. Section 1, "Students and the Law," yields interesting and informative answers on a number of issues related to students and the law: recent issues in schools relative to students' rights; the use of technology; and the latest case law and…

Discusses leadership styles in two distinct situations--cooperative and counteractive. Effective leadership in cooperative situations depends on productivity, satisfaction, and cohesion in problem solving. Counteractive situations demand a political leadership style at home with coalitions, bargaining, persuasion, and coercion. Dynamic leadership…

Between 1999 and 2003 a number of principals (n = 35) from a range of schools in Western Australia were interviewed to investigate the extent to which the state's "Antiracism policy and guidelines for complaint resolution" (1998) had impacted on the day-to-day management of schools. These principals overwhelmingly reported that racism…

Few school principals receive training on how to handle problems with parents. Strategies that principals can use for dealing with such problems are presented in this book. Chapter 1 describes the parents of today's children and discusses the critical issues that cause misunderstandings in schools. Next, strategies for defusing parents who are…

This guidebook uses a question and answer format to recommend ways by which principals can manage 48 "conflict points" that often occur in a school setting. A preface describes conflicts as being natural and pervasive in the secondary school context. Although the principal is regarded as the responsible agent to reduce dissonance, the challenge…

The emergence of LEAD Centers, Principals' Centers, and other similar principal support efforts are an acknowledgement of the demanding professional requirements placed upon principals. This document provides an easy-to-use reference listing of resources identified by the Maryland Commission on School-based Administration and the Maryland LEAD…

An overview of conflict management as it relates to the role of the principal is presented. The traditional approach to conflict, which minimizes conflict and emphasizes social control, is contrasted with the perspective that views conflict as inevitable, functional, and manageable. Intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts, functions of conflict,…