Relationships between and among school administrative team members are critical components of school culture. They serve as a guidepost for the behaviors and attitudes of staff and students. To invigorate these relationships, three embodied practices have high yield not only for the relationships among administrators, but also for fostering a…

Principals are pivotal for creating schools that meet the needs of all students. However, the exodus of principals has been on the rise especially in the last two years as the pandemic accelerated turnover rates. Principals are experiencing greater levels of workload, stress, and burnout often without the tools for maintaining mental health. While…

Amid the increasing digitisation of schools, relatively little work has examined the ways in which digital technologies are reconfiguring the work of school principals. With an approach based on the sociology of work, this paper draws on 19 in-depth interviews with Australian school principals to examine their everyday experiences of digital…

Of the myriad responsibilities of the building principal, the most recognized and critical activity is overseeing and ensuring student success in the classroom. Considering the diverse population of professionals that building principals have under their supervision that directly impact students' classroom learning, the authors posit that a…

Being a principal is a hard job in normal circumstances, but COVID-19 made the job of leading campuses nearly impossible for many. In a recent survey, one out of two principals said their stress level is so high that they are considering career change or retirement. This report details findings from a five-year project called the School Leadership…

Adaptive leadership focuses on helping leaders act in a way that encourages others to adapt and embrace change. Adaptive leaders engage in activities that "mobilize," "motivate," "organize," "orient," and "focus the attention of others." Instead of single-handedly trying to solve all problems and…

School principals must play a vital role in facilitating homeplace and Black joy by promoting, modeling, and holding educators responsible for their roles in contributing to homeplace. We argue that principals can enact homeplace by embodying the tenets of culturally responsive school leadership (CSRL). The purpose of this paper is to make meaning…

School principals are currently looking for ways to enhance their effectiveness as leaders by improving their instructional leadership. As the duties of principals expand, they are no longer the expert on what happens in the classroom and must find new ways to help their teachers grow and improve student learning. Instructional leadership includes…

Effective principal pipelines can lead to benefits for student outcomes, according to a groundbreaking 2019 study. But could these pipelines be designed to advance a district's vision of equity as well? If so, what would that design look like? That's the question tackled in this think piece by a team of six education scholars. They consider how…

In June 2020, the world witnessed an upsurge in Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd, an African American, by a White American police officer. The international response called for the global community to reassess the value of black lives blighted by racist social systems. The mass sentiment acted as a…

The phase of entering the role of assistant principals and the coping strategies assistant principals use upon entering their role have barely been studied. Most studies that dealt with assistant principals focused mainly on the role of the assistant principals and their readiness to advance to the position of school principal, while the study…

The TELL AISD Survey consists of several subscales, or constructs, that contain conceptually similar items. This report explores the relationship between the constructs of principal leadership and general climate by level and for the district overall. Statistically significant relationships between principal leadership and general climate were…

Principals are critical to improving schools, but job-related stress and burnout are factors that can limit principal effectiveness and lead to untimely turnover. Extant literature, leadership preparation programs, and district policies have largely ignored principal burnout despite the increased complexity of the principalship and increasing…

COVID-19 has led many to question how education and schooling are supposed to continue in a world of uncertainty. This case follows the journey of Mariam, an Ontario elementary school principal, as she pivoted her leadership while transitioning between in-person and virtual schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case narrative describes the…

The school principal has long been recognized as a critical driver for school improvement and student success, but new research supported by The Wallace Foundation has found that principals have an even greater impact than previously stated. A synthesis of two decades of studies builds on previous research about how principals impact student…