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.