The study examines factors that boost principals' sense of resilience in their first year, as well as those that undermine it. 61 interviews were conducted with 21 school principals from five different districts throughout their first year in the role. Analysis revealed five categories of resilience-undermining factors. (1) Work overload that…

This case study describes a pilot professional development project in which school leaders met regularly in a community of practice to clarify each other's identification of a problem of practice followed by development and implementation of a school improvement plan. Findings indicated positive perceptions of and engagement in the community of…

Although mentoring is believed to improve the craft of beginning principal, the context of collective engagement between mentor and mentee principals that optimize their leadership learning are rarely investigated. This study explored co-creating dispositional values, knowledge conversion modes, and enabling conditions as contexts that favor the…

The daily demands on school principals require clear and consistent feedback, and without a mentor, a new principal may not have this type of assistance. This phenomenological study explores the perceptions of new principals and their assigned mentors in one legislated initiative, named by the researcher as the Vermont mentoring…

Although research has established links between the principal's instructional leadership and student achievement, there is considerable concern in the literature concerning the capacity of principal preparation programs to prepare instructional leaders. This study interviewed educational leadership faculty as well as expert principals and teacher…

Novice public middle school principals currently face the challenge of navigating internal micropolitical structures while negotiating educational change during a period of decline. This year-long qualitative study detailed the lived experiences of two suburban novice middle school principals as they found themselves leading within a…

Although there is a recurrent call for substantive reform in graduate programs in educational leadership, little has been written from the perspective of the new principal. This article reports the results of a survey of first-, second-, and third-year principals and assistant principals in which participants were asked to identify the knowledge…

Concerned about improving beginning principals' professional development, the Minnesota Administrators' Academy initiated an administrative mentoring program in the early 1990s. A recent evaluation found that successful mentoring relationships involved mutually respectful pairs that met at least monthly and participated in various activities…

Expectations from the standards movement, reform, and technological advances pose challenges for administrators. This article advocates principal preparation and cultivation through mentoring and coaching. It clarifies differences between mentoring and coaching; uses in succession planning, new principalships, and job changes; and benefits to both…