Portrait of the “Ideal Principal”: Context and Self

Abstract

An idealized view of the principal's role ignores both the importance that context plays and the unique and dynamic quality of individual principals. Yet, there are three things that good principals do: understand the context, understand themselves, and focus on what is best for students. This article identifies the major community, school, and reform contexts in which principals work and discusses components of self-understanding that are important to enacting the role in a reform setting.