Principals in schools with a positive school culture (original) (raw)
The role of principals in cultivating a positive school culture
2021
The study investigated the role of four principals in creating a positive school culture in their respective schools. The study adopted a qualitative case study approach, with data from document analysis, observations and semi-structured interviews. The study is situated in a primary school context of the Department of Education of the Western Cape. The participants were purposely selected based on a set of criteria to ensure actively participating principals who could contribute to providing a rich description of the research question. The study was premised on the assumption that principals played a crucial role in the creation of a positive culture at schools. The participants' creation of a positive school culture was investigated through four policy expectations on school principals namely, time management, resource management, financial management, and curriculum management. This study used Schein's notion of three levels of culture, namely observable artifacts, espoused values, and basic underlying assumptions to address the study's main research question, which is: What is the role of principals in cultivating a positive school culture? The study was approached from an interpretive phenomenological perspective. This approach is distinguished by its emphasis on the research of participants' lived experiences. As a result, it was selected as most appropriate to understanding the nuanced educational roles of the participants in establishing a positive school culture. The data was finally processed using Schein's model of institutional culture as a lens, which brought an interesting dynamic to the study in framing the analysis and findings. The most important findings of this study are that the participant principals were resilient despite the restrictive cultural influences around them and made time available to engage with colleagues on non-academic issues. They also managed resources effectively and created skills development opportunities This grounded their ability to use their roles to recognise and utilise Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za iii the opportunities for creating a positive school environment inside the school. Although the study was limited to four principals, the insights generated can inform and motivate the next generation of principals who will serve in our schools and communities.
Principal Leadership in Developing School Culture
Proceedings of Social Sciences, Humanities and Economics Conference (SoSHEC 2017), 2018
The Principal's leadership plays an important role in cultivating a school culture. The aim of this study was to analyze the principal's leadership in an attempt to develop a positive school culture and its impact on school achievement. A qualitative approach with case study was used. The study was conducted in a Primary School. The data were obtained from interview, observation and documentation. The results of this study showed that the application of participative leadership style at school was good to support the creation of a positive school culture. The principal also made several efforts through the development of harmonious relationships, school security and school environment that conducive for learning process. Positive developed school culture impacted on school achievements. This study found a significant role of the principal in developing the school culture through leadership styles and several efforts. The important point for further research is concerning with development of leadership and school culture to improve school quality.
The principal's role in shaping school culture
Washington, DC: United States …, 1990
Designed to explain how principals can shape school culture, this book first discusses current pressures for school reform and the different perspectives on school operations reflected in these reforms. Competing reform strategies are described, specifically, the human resources approach and the structural, political, free market, and school culture models. Aiming to link reform success to school culture and symbolic leadership concepts, the book describes organizational cultures or subcultures within the greater society and presents evidence connecting organizational culture to productivity in business and schools. Next, a description is given of how the principal shapes a school culture by fulfilling five roles: those of symbol, potter, poet, actor, and healer. Following this, the book presents five case studies of school leadership in school settings that varied according to principal incumbency, school characteristics, student abilities, and organizational history. Finally, commonalities in the leaders' tactics are summarized and discussed. Each of the principals described identified what was important, selected compatible teachers, dealt successfully with conflict, set a consistent example, told illustrative stories, and used ceremonies, tradition, ricuals, and symbols to display the school's common values. The book concludes with some action guidelines, with the caveat that these will prove inadequate unless accompanied by an unquenchable desire and commitment to build cultures that support and create excellence. Included are 51 references and a classified, annotated bibliography of 25 books and articles. (MLH)
Review and Analysis of the Role of the Principal in Shaping a School Culture
International Journal of Innovation and Research in Educational Sciences , 2017
Everyday thousands of principals are arriving to their primary work place and run schools with certain expectations. Schools need special leadership and school leaders must have distinct qualifications such as the role of management engineer, human engineer, and the ones who design. In order to understand in today's public schools, this article examines approaches and offers a strategic plan for the future regarding purpose of the school and priorities of the school in the previous literature. While shaping school culture, the central question we need to shed light on "what are the variety of factors, success and job expectations based on their school's dynamic". This article seeks to answer the question "How will you answer that question and why have you chosen the answers that you have related to skills, abilities, and knowledge necessary for a principal today?". Finally, this paper points out that six categories: Vision and Learning,
School Principals' effectiv eness and leadership Quality In Educational
repo.uum.edu.my
PurposeThis research is attempt to examine school principals' organizational effort to create an innovative and creative environment to govern efficient and effective high quality educational Institutions. The culture and climate of certain educational institutions ...
Successful School Principals : Factors That Impact on Their Success
2008
This paper explores the concept of school leadership with particular reference to six case studies of New Zealand primary and secondary school principals. Preliminary findings suggest that factors behind their success may lie in the areas of their understanding and application of contingent leadership, authentic leadership, and their resilient capabilities.
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 2021
This study employed quantitative research that is descriptive-analytic, quantitative in the sense that this study conducted statistical tests to measure how much the relationship or strength of the relationship between the variables studied. The results of the study are as follows: 1). Relationship between Principal Competence and Teacher Performance Improvement, where the t value of 2.224 with Sig. (p = 0.033) <0.05. 2). The relationship between school culture and teacher performance improvement, where t value is 2.642 with Sig. (p = 0.014) <0.05. 3). The Sig also shows it. F (p = 0,000) or p <0.05. Based on these results, it is concluded that there is a positive relationship between principal competence and school culture and teacher performance improvement.
The purpose of the study was to explore school culture in radically different schools due to school achievement. The particular objectives of this study were to investigate: (1) the teachers’ perceptions of school culture (2) the teachers’ perceptions of principal behaviors and additionally (3) to determine the relationship between principals’ behaviors and perception of school culture by teachers. This study employed a comparative-descriptive research design and took place in A - Middle School, representing a high-performing school, and B -Middle School, representing a low-performing school. These two middle schools were both located in capital city of Poland and were selected based on their position in Warsaw Middle Schools Ranking. The “School Culture Survey” (Gruenert & Valentine, 1998) was used to obtain data about school culture factors. To determine the teachers’ perceptions of principal’s behaviors, “The Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire - Middle Level” (OCDQ-ML, Hoy et al., 1996) was used. Statistical comparisons of collaborative school culture indicated that the compared schools differ significantly in four school culture dimensions. In school A there is a culture focused on individual achievements, the competition more than cooperation, unlike the situation in B-middle school, in which collaborative school culture is strong and visible. According to principal behaviors, significant differences between compared schools were also identified. Namely, more supportive principal behaviors were typical for school B (low school performing), while restrictive principal behaviors were more common in school A (high-performing). Results indicated that principal behaviors and collaborative school culture were associated with each other.
Principals’ Positive Organizational Behavior in Schools and Its Results
Education Quarterly Reviews
In this study, the positive situations that principals put forward about teachers, students, the institution and themselves, and the results of these positive situations and practices were investigated. The current study has been carried out with a descriptive purpose. The positive organizational behavior of the principals in schools and its results, which is the subject of the study, are examined within the scope of "phenomenology." The research was conducted on 32 different institutions and educators in a province in the Western Black Sea Region in the 2020-2021 academic year. In the present study, it has been obtained that the principals generally emphasize the positive organizational behaviors of teachers, students, the school and themselves. Considering the fact that positive organizational behavior in schools increases corporate and individual performance and highlights the strengths of the organization and employees, the following comment can be made: Educational in...
Principals as Indelible Leaders in the Context of School Culture
Journal of Education and Training Studies, 2019
The aim of this study is to determine the views of teachers on the leadership characteristics of school principals who leave marks in the context of school culture. For this purpose, the focus is on exploring the opinions of teachers based on the components of the school culture and the theory of indelible leadership which constitutes the theoretical framework of this study. With this purpose; the study was conducted as a phenomenological qualitative research design. Criterion sampling was used to access rich knowledge and experience and eight teachers who met the criteria were involved in the study. The data were collected through interviews with a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher. The descriptive analysis approach was used to analyze the data of the study. As a result of the descriptive analysis; three themes have been identified: “The Characteristics of Indelible Leaders”, “The Process of Being Indelible to Create School Culture” and “Suggestions.” By exa...
PRINCIPAL'S LEADERSHIP STYLE AND ITS IMPACT ON TEACHERS' JOB PERFORMANCE
IJCRT, 2024
Leadership styles play a significant role in the context of educational organizations, particularly in schools. They encompass the attitudes and behaviours that leaders adopt to influence and guide individuals or groups toward the achievement of personal or collective goals. This study aims to identify the most commonly used leadership styles by principals in schools and assess their impact on teachers' job performance. The research methodology employed a survey-based approach within the framework of descriptive research. Principal leadership style entails providing direction, implementing strategies, and motivating followers to attain desired objectives. Data were collected using structured questionnaires. The results of the research reveal three prominent leadership styles among principals: Transformational, Transactional, Autocratic, Democratic, and Laissez-faire. To enhance school management, it is recommended that principals flexibly apply a combination of these leadership styles based on the situation. Leadership styles are reflections of attitudes and behaviours, which, in turn, result from complex interactions between individuals' thoughts and emotions. Researchers have explored various leadership approaches rooted in diverse assumptions and theories. Over time, they have developed numerous models, theories, and frameworks concerning leadership styles. This research primarily aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of leadership in educational settings, including establishing authority, fostering a sense of responsibility, restructuring, and addressing teachers' concerns in the existing context. Among the various leadership styles, Autocratic and Democratic leadership have gained prominence and extensive research attention. Both styles have been studied across various socioeconomic and academic sectors, each offering distinct advantages. This study seeks to analyse the Principal's Leadership Style and its Impact on Teachers' Behaviour, shedding light on the complex interplay between leadership styles and the behaviour of educators.
Analysis Principals' Perception of Their Role as School Leader in Relation to School Effectiveness
A series of studies in the literature on educational leadership and school effectiveness have placed school leadership at the center of school effectiveness and school improvement. This research seeks to explore the perceptions of a small number of principals regarding their role in relation to school leadership and school effectiveness. Taking a qualitative approach, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with the principals of A-accredited schools located on Lombok Island, Indonesia. The research was guided by three research questions: What is the perception of school principals’ on their role as school leaders and do how they undertake it in practice? How is school effectiveness understood by the principals? What is the relationship of their role to school effectiveness? Several limitations were faced in this study. The first is that socio-economic status (SES) was not considered, as it only examined principals from A-accredited schools and did not look into B and C-accredited schools as well. Furthermore, it did not include teachers, students and parents as participants who experience the effectiveness of the school. The research suggests that firstly, the interrelation between a principal’s perception and their role strongly influences effectiveness within the school. Secondly, it is suggested that efforts to create school effectiveness have been linked with ideas of democratic leadership, strong academic emphasis, and the strong involvement of teachers, staff and students within the school context, and the principals had a collegiate management style and shared responsibilities. These findings enable suggestions for improvement, and offer a recommendation to develop a national policy for principals which can also be used by the higher education institutions to develop training and a framework for principals to continue their professional development in Indonesia.
Pakistan Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2021
The success of schools in the current era demands ever-increasing efforts from their principals. Professional development is an essential ingredient that enables them to work in diverse scenarios and deal with competing, complex, and unprecedented challenges and issues. The present study intends to explore principals’ professional development and its relationship with their roles and the challenges they face. Quantitative approach was employed to conduct this study. One hundred principals were selected based on the purposive sampling technique. Data were collected on a five-point rating scale from the principals of higher secondary schools in Lahore through a physically administered survey method. The questionnaire measured the participants' perceptions on three dimensions: professional development, roles, and challenges. Data were analyzed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. The impact of the professional development on the role participants...
Cultural leadership behaviors of the primary school principals regarding certain variables
Journal of Human Sciences, 2016
This study was carried out in order to analyse the primary school teachers’ perception of the cultural leadership behaviours of the primary school principals regarding the personal and vocational qualities of the principals and certain features of the school in which they work, and in order to develop suggestions based on the findings. “The Scale for Cultural Leadership Behaviours of the School Administrators” Yıldırım (2001) was used as data collection tool. The scale tool used in the study was applied to 859 teachers working in randomly selected 51 primary schools in four central districts (Konak, Buca, Karşıyaka and Bornova) of İzmir-Turkey. Arithmetic average, standard deviation, t- test, ANNOVA and Scheffe Test were made us of in the analysis of the study. These findings were attained in the study: The perceptions of the primary school teachers for the cultural leadership behaviours of the primary school principals are at a good level. The perceptions of the primary school tea...
Successful" Principals: A Contested Notion for Superintendents and Principals
The notion of "success" is narrowly defined and appropriated within an educational context. Typically limited to objective measures of organizational productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency, "successful" principal practices, we argue, engender action and attention to a broader array of issues and interrelationships. In this study, we conducted an exploratory case study drawing from interviews with five superintendents and three principals to probe broader definitions of successful school leadership. Data analysis revealed three themes to guide further research on successful leadership practice: capillarity of leadership actions, principals' positionality in relation to members of the school community, and principals' actions as moral ends.
The Functional Tasks of School Principals in Improving Educational Outcomes
Journal of Educational and Social Research
This research uses the descriptive survey method to demonstrate school principals' functional tasks' role in improving educational outcomes. A questionnaire was applied to the sample comprising (n=311) individual, who was selected using a random cluster method. The respondents reported that school administrations have a moderate role in improving educational outcomes on all axes. School administrations perform their functional role at a high level, while teachers believe school administrations perform their role at a medium level. Technical and administrative functional tasks were the most performed by the school administration and at a moderate level. The school administration's fourth axis related to parents was the least performed. The findings also showed that School principals are working to improve educational outcomes to a medium degree and that the knowledge outputs field topped the axes, followed by the skills field. The emotion field ranked last. However, the r...