Authority and School Culture

2 FROM TEACHER TO ADMINISTRATOR

This was his first job as a principal. He had been a teacher for several years and had obtained his

master’s degree in educational administration the preceding summer. Last spring he had looked

around for a position in administration, but nothing seemed to be available for someone with no

previous administrative experience.

During the summer he had gradually accepted the idea of another year of teaching, but in

mid-August he had received a call from the superintendent of a small school district that was

looking for a building principal. The former principal had just resigned to take a job in a larger

school system, and since classes were scheduled to begin in two weeks, the superintendent was

anxious to hire someone to fill the vacancy. Within a few days, after several telephone

conversations and a personal interview, the superintendent had offered him the job.

Although the offer had been rather flattering, he had experienced mixed emotions about

accepting it. It had bothered him a little to think about requesting a release from his own school

district so late in the year, although he had been fairly sure that there would be no problem in

obtaining it. He had also had reservations about working in such a small school system and

community. Still, he had realized that a person had to start somewhere, and this job would at

least provide him with experience. So with that thought in mind, he had accepted the position.

His decision had precipitated the need for numerous other decisions within the next week

and a half. Such matters as putting his home up for sale and locating suitable housing for his

family in the new community had to be taken care of, and before he knew it, the time that he had

hoped to spend learning about the educational program of the district and planning for the

opening of school had almost dwindled away.

Now, with only two days left before the faculty was to return for its annual fall workshop,

the principal began to panic a little. He still hadn’t come to a decision about which items should

be covered during the two-day teacher workshop, and he was beginning to become concerned

about how the teachers would react to him as their new principal. Several of them had stopped by

the previous day, but it was difficult to tell how they felt about him. He suspected that he was

younger than many of the faculty members, and he had misgivings about how the older and more

experienced teachers might perceive him. He had also started to experience some uncertainty

about how well the students and their parents were going to accept him. Although he had always

gotten along all right with both groups while he was a teacher, he wasn’t sure that they would

respond to him the same way now that he was a principal.

He wondered whether he was ready for all the responsibilities that a principal had to

handle. He recalled that in the past he had never been especially awed by the principal’s duties,

but, from this new perspective, things seemed to look a lot different.