Principals as Managers and Leaders: A Qualitative Study of the Perspectives of Selected Elementary School Principals

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to explore how selected elementary school principals described and defined their work in terms of leadership and management. There were three subareas of investigation under this primary purpose: a) exploring the principals’ conceptions about the constructs of leadership and management; b) exploring the principals’ beliefs about the role of their personal philosophies, goals, or values in relation to their practice; and c) using content analysis to explore the language that principals used to describe themselves, their work, and their schools. Thetheoretical perspective adopted for this study was that organizations are constructed, human, social entities, and the focus of this study was to describe the role of the elementary school principalfrom the perspective and voice of the participants. The data collection was accomplished using semistructured interviews of eight selected elementary school principals. Results consist of the principals’ stories (hermeneutic) and analyses (dialectic), generating common themes and patterns. Four major issues were identified and discussed: a) role conflicts, b) “being there,” c) evolving from managers to leaders, and d) balancing culture and distributed decision making. These themes were alsodiscussed in relation to the existing literature on leadership, management, and the elementary school principalship. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this study for educational administration focusing on a) the contrast of visionary leadership and democratic leadership, b) the role of theory in administrator preparation, and c) implications for practice—a personal postscript.