Examines role conceptions of newly appointed urban principals to identify personal and organizational forces influencing the emergence of transformational leadership. Responses from 158 new principals reveal their role concepts, while incorporating some aspects of transformational leadership, remain along traditional lines and suggest district…

Proposes a framework to examine principals' careers and argues for more research attention on that subject. The framework facilitates understanding of the principalship incentive system by showing how objective features of the principal's role and the principal's own assessment of the career are intertwined. Principals' accounts of their careers…

Studies candidates in a nontraditional principal preparation program, highlighting the socialization process of developing an innovative role perception. Candidates encountered conflict between a university-derived role conception and that promoted by the school system. Gradually, the sense of facilitating teachers yielded to the principal's…

To implement school restructuring, midcareer administrators must change their role conceptions. This article examines literature concerning the major issues of socialization to a role conception (including definitions, sources, and socialization mechanisms for changing role conceptions) and presents a research agenda focused on two reform…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined how the internship experience serves as a rite of passage for the teacher making the transition to aspiring principal. The experiences of 54 participants in an administrator internship program at Bank Street College of Education in New York City were analyzed. Data were derived from analysis of…

Examines differences and similarities in role conception between principals participating in a state-sponsored restructuring program (the Centennial School Program) and nonparticipating principals. Findings from a statewide survey of administrators show that CSP principals generally report practices and attitudes congruent with program elements.…

The "ideal" principal is facing a world of decentralized school structures, increasing and changing environmental boundaries and roles, less homogeneous schools, closer contact with stakeholders, and a market-driven view of education. Principals should view themselves as environmental negotiators, not merely school-system managers.…