Small town secondary principals: Their perceptions of the role, 2000--2001

The purpose of the study is to describe and explain the small-town public secondary principals' perception of the role today. Changes in society in general and communities in particular, research that establishes best practices in education and leadership, continuous developments related to learning and information access, and legislative mandates have contributed its complexity. Role theory provides insight into the underpinnings of the principal's role and structural significance of the position. Social systems within which roles exist and function are defined, norms governing social systems are explained, and the types of ambivalence, conflict, and ambiguity that arise are investigated.;The literature review for the study framed an historical perspective of the principalship by decade, beginning with the 1900s. This review, when considered in light of the theoretical construct and juxtaposed on the transcriptions of interviews conducted in 1973 with principals of small town secondary schools, brought the following exploratory questions to the forefront for consideration: (1) How did small-town principals perceive their role in the mid-1970s? (2) How do present-day, small-town secondary principals perceive their role? (3) What is the structure of the social system within which the principal performs the role? (4) What are the norms governing the role performance of the principal? (5) What are the personal costs to the principal as a result of role performance? (6) What legislated mandates impinge on the principal's role performance?;Using non-probability sampling, the researcher selected a sample of twenty principals from small towns in Michigan whose communities are served by one high school. One semi-structured, tape-recorded interview was conducted with each principal. Tapes were transcribed, and the data collected in those interviews and from a brief survey filled out by the subject at the end of the interviews were analyzed. The researcher followed the Michigan State University Committee's Research Involving Human Subjects (UCRIHS) guidelines as well those in published works advising the planning, data collection, and analysis for qualitative studies on educational topics.;Data collected in 1973 interviews revealed the primary role of the principal to be the public servant who monitors diverse elements of the school for community acceptability and organizational stability but who left the issues of teaching and learning to teachers. The 1973 expectations are still in place, but teaching and learning are now everyone's cause. Special interest groups, the state, and society in general have taken advantage of the school's open system to make increasing demands upon public education. The principal must deal with the same and more elements on the periphery of the organization as well as attend to and be accountable for teaching and learning. The result is a more dense, busy, complex and scrutinized school, and a principal's role that is almost impossibly overburdened. The principal's work requires constantly shifting priorities, dealing with conflict and ambiguity in balancing role expectations, and understanding that the only certainty in the work is that it is never finished.