Role perception discrepancies in the elementary school principalship
Date
1971
Authors
Jenvey, Gerald James
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Abstract
This study investigated the major tasks of the elementary school principalship. These tasks were defined functionally and were described as largely administrative or managerial.
Principals and vice-principals of Greater Victoria (School District 61) were selected as respondents to an instrument utilizing a set of paired comparisons; also, a biographical questionnaire was answered. In all, 40 principals and 33 vice-principals were interviewed for the purpose of explaining the measuring instrument. Returns were received from 38 principals and from 30 vice-principals.
The data obtained were used to determine a task priority for the ideal principalship and for the actual principalship, or for the principalship as it ought to be and as it actually is. These two aspects of the principalship were tested for any significant relationship. Analysis was performed using the Spearman rank order correlation coefficient (rho).
Although the principal is expected to function as the educational leader of his school, it was found that he works most prominently in the area of management. Supervision of instruction, curriculum development, and staff evaluation were frequently found to be subordinated to routine duties of a clerical, managerial nature.
Vice-principals, it was found, rank the duties of the principalship in a similar priority order as the principals. Additional findings showed that recency of graduate study was significantly related to administrative preferences for ideal tasks of the principalship, while no significant relationship was found between recency of graduate study and the actual tasks of the principalship.