ABSTRACT

Novice principals’ experiences and responses to challenges are important for understanding their sensemaking of their role, especially in view of the contextual complexity of leadership in small schools. Using interview data from 19 novice principals in small schools, we explore principals’ sensemaking of their key challenges and responses. Principals’ narratives highlighted three challenges, seemingly unique to, or exacerbated by, the small school context: learning the role, building and sustaining community relationships, and leading improvement in teaching and learning. Our findings raise questions and implications for policy makers and training providers around principal succession, induction and development.

摘要

新手校长的经验和对挑战的反应对于理解他们对自己角色的理解非常重要，特别是考虑到小型学校领导的背景复杂性。我们使用来自 19 位小学校新校长的访谈数据，探讨校长对他们的主要挑战和应对措施的理解。校长们的叙述强调了三个挑战，这些挑战似乎是小型学校所独有的，或者因小型学校环境而加剧：学习角色、建立和维持社区关系以及领导教学和学习的改进。我们的研究结果为政策制定者和培训提供者提出了关于校长继任、入职和发展的问题和启示。