Objectives: Despite all the attention given in recent years to work intensification among school principals, little research has explored the practices and strategies that principals employ to meet their job expectations and demands and how they adapt to the increasingly uncertain and complex school reality. This qualitative study identifies…

The purpose of this study was to determine what stressors face practicing school principals, with an interest in determining whether they perceived that teacher leaders could relieve some of their stress. This descriptive study used quantitative and qualitative measures that revealed differences in the stressors identified by principals.…

Investigates the relationship between school principals' professional isolation and their performance at work. Suburban Quebec principals were administered French versions of the UCLA Loneliness Scale and the Self-Appraisal Instrument for Community College Administrators. Principals' professional isolation was negatively and significantly…

Experience and research on superintendents reveal the enormous conflict and tension in a changing, ambiguous position. This article discusses the significance of "outsider" superintendents. It examines how outsider status (negatively) influences superintendents' effectiveness, how these effects can be reduced, and whether women and minorities…

Argues that existing accountability standards for educational leaders are inadequate to accommodate the diverse contextual realities of working life. Raises critical questions concerning the most appropriate philosophical views of contemporary educational leadership and how to assess such leadership. Organizations as open systems are superior to…

Challenges assumptions regarding insufficient supply of superintendents and conclusions about underlying causes of this condition. Argues that the longstanding practice of overproducing administrators and then allowing employers to determine competence is not indicative of a true profession. Recommends the strengthening of preparation and…

Examines a woman superintendent's 2-year tenure in a small southern city from a feminist perspective. Against a backdrop of community/district politics, shows how gender stereotyping still influences how female superintendents are perceived as school-system leaders. Women must resist traditional images reserved for them and reinvent the…

Explores 40 urban principals' perceptions concerning obstacles to school effectiveness. Schools as organizational workplaces are plagued by stress, frustration, and alienation. There is a growing gap between school culture and the larger society. Kids who no longer buy into the American dream often fail to meet educator-imposed expectations.…

The National Policy Board's design for principals, by recasting preparation programs to reflect the real world school environment, stressing the learning environment, focusing on decentralized management and collective problem solving, designing a new knowledge base with performance standards supported by a national certification process, and…

Discusses findings from interviews with 19 committed principals and places them within the context of new research on principals as lifelong learners who publicly model intellectual curiosity. Conditions for continuous learning exemplified by these principals comprise three categories: professional identity, influence of the liberal arts, and…