Principals' Perceptions of Their Ability to Influence the Classroom Practices of Teachers
Abstract
For many school principals, their work involves working with teachers in
a way that they hope positively influences teaching practices. Principals hope that
by influencing a teacher’s classroom practices, they can have a positive impact on
the achievement of the students in their school. Frequently, however, principals
struggle to influence teacher practices in the way that they intend.
In this phenomenological study, ten Wisconsin principals from varying
levels, regions, and community sizes were interviewed in order to better
understand this phenomenon. Through the use of semi-structured interviews, the
researchers set out to answer questions about principals’ beliefs related to their
experience working with teachers and what they believe constitutes success as it
relates to this work. The information from these interviews was then formally
coded and categorized in order to develop themes that could be used to interpret
the data.
The data analysis discovered seven main themes related to principals’
work with teachers. Of these themes, the relationship between the time pressures
principals face due to mandated evaluation systems and the idea that principals
believe that it is when teachers drive their work that success is most likely to
occur, seem to be of most consequence.
In recent decades legislative acts, created by politicians influenced by
organizations with a neoliberal educational agenda, have played a large role in
determining how teachers in schools are supervised and evaluated. The results of
this study show that school principals, those charged with implementing such
systems of evaluation, believe these systems may detract from their ability to
positively influence the classroom practices of teachers. This should give us
reason to reflect upon whether the current systems of evaluation in place in many
schools are actually in the best interest of students.
Subject
teacher evaluation
teacher supervision
neoliberalism
classroom practices
principals
instructional leadership
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/85644Type
Thesis