As school leadership has increased in complexity, policy makers, educationalists, and researchers have realized that principalship requires preparation. However, several researchers have called for a better understanding of how school leadership education affects the learning and activities of principals. This empirical study explores how novice…

Novice principals' experiences and responses to challenges are important for understanding their sensemaking of their role, especially in view of the contextual complexity of leadership in small schools. Using interview data from 19 novice principals in small schools, we explore principals' sensemaking of their key challenges and responses.…

New principals in Jewish day school are frequently unprepared for the stress of the job and this contributes to attrition in the principalship and diminishes the positive effect that leadership has on school culture and student achievement. For this reason, developing and supporting principals of Jewish day schools is important work and very…

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…

This research examined challenges faced by novice principals in Colombia in connecting to their school communities through their socialisation processes. Interviews with 37 newly appointed principals in rural and urban schools revealed that the complexity of their school contexts accentuated the need to work on the relational dimension of their…

Anticipating a 50 percent turnover of principals in the next few years, school districts and university training programs are exploring mentoring as one way to help aspiring and beginning principals learn complex administrative tasks and ease into their roles. This monograph highlights some formal administrator mentorship programs in Oregon.…

Several problems and issues are typical of the beginning years of a principalship. A study of first- and second-year principals in a midwestern state classified these problems and issues into three broad areas: role clarification, limitations on technical expertise, and difficulties with socialization to the profession and to a particular school…