Addressing early career school leader attrition and turnover, education systems assign mentors to ease novice principals' socialization, but results are varied and many mechanisms of this variance are still unexplained. To fill gaps in the literature, different mentor profiles were typified. Fifty-six mentor and mentee interviews were thematically…

The aim of this study was to explore the role of school principals and their term of office in regard to school improvement. In particular, we investigated the convergences and divergences between the views of school principals in Greece and the findings of relevant international literature. To this end, we collected and analysed data from 66…

The aim of the article is to explore newly appointed principals' professional identity formation in Sweden. By addressing five specific aspects of principals' professional identity, the article analyses how principals depict their 'knowledge', 'understandings', 'experiences and wisdom', 'values' and 'beliefs' in forming a professional identity.…

This work explores the relationships between principals' motivations for entering the principalship and the difficulties they experienced during their first year as principals. Survey data were collected from a sample of 2042 Spanish principals. They answered a questionnaire assessing intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, difficulties experienced…

New career principals are tasked with many sensemaking opportunities and often rely on their peers to assist with these sensemaking processes, engaging in a form of newcomer socialization. This study investigates how two first year elementary school principals in the US state of Michigan become socialized to their new roles as school leaders by…

Isolation has affected the quality of the work experience for employees in education for decades. This study explores the role that isolation plays in impacting the quality of the work experience among new principals. Building on recent studies, the analysis tests whether isolation serves as a mediator in the relationship between factors that are…

This article explores newly appointed principals' descriptions of a decentralised and market adopted school system. An institutional logics perspective is applied to analyse how logics visible at the national level evoke images among principals at the local level. Empirical data consist of 66 examinations from the National Principal Training…

For much of the past half-century, scholars from various parts of the world have studied the early stages of school principals' careers. This article presents the results of a review of research on novice principals (NPs) regarding its current status, intellectual structure and conceptual structure. The review conducted bibliometric and content…

In a context characterised by triple sources of accountability demands, principals in Chile are required to mobilise change to raise performance indicators. School improvement is a complex endeavour--a complexity that is intensified for newly appointed principals, particularly when placed in a high-poverty, ineffective school. This article…

In this article we examine the mentoring program for novice headteachers and what they perceive as its purposes, as well as the constraints to successfully implementing it in Malaysian schools. Using a survey research design we analysed responses from 200 newly appointed headteachers from two state departments of education, and interviewed six…

This paper examines emotional expression experienced by female principals in the Arab school system in Israel over their managerial careers--role-related emotions that they choose to express or repress before others. I employed narrative methodology, interviewing nine female principals from the Arab school system to investigate expression of…

In Hong Kong, there is an acute need to provide newly appointed principals with opportunities for continuous professional development so that they could face the impact of reforms and globalization on school development. The Education Bureau has commissioned the tertiary institutions to provide structured professional development courses to cater…

It is known that the work of headteachers is demanding. Observation, diaries and logs completed by headteachers show a relentless, complex and emotionally demanding workload. What can be learned about headship from how new headteachers spend their time, and perhaps as importantly, what can new headteachers themselves learn? This article draws upon…

This article draws on research undertaken in Scotland as part of an International Study of Principal Preparation (ISPP). The study is designed to address the question "How useful are principal preparation programmes to novice headteachers?" Drawing on the research data from Scotland, the authors examine how novice headteachers navigate…

The purpose of this article is to explore the kinds of support and challenge that new school leaders need in the early years of their career. Semi-structured in-depth interviews and appreciative inquiry were used to collect the stories of new school leaders. The study outlined the kinds of support that were productive in helping school principals…