![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
This article, based on qualitative interviews conducted between 2007-2008 with 12 middle-career educators in the greater Boston area in Massachusetts, details teachers’ career and leadership aspirations in a context of educational change. The findings suggest that teachers who presently are in midcareer struggle with the move toward the principalship, but that generational differences, not the changed educational context, more heavily impact their lack of attraction to the job. Using generational theory, this article offers a critique of the available literature on teachers’ career paths, the principal shortage, generational differences, and the quite different work and leadership expectations of the next generation of school leaders.
Keywords accountability, change, leadership, principals, teachers
References
Section:
|
Bass, T. S. (2006). To be or not to be: Issues influencing educators’ decisions to enter the principalship. AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice, 2(4), 19-30. Google Scholar | |
|
Behling, O., Labovitz, G., Gainer, M. (1968). College recruiting: A theoretical base. Personnel Journal, 47, 13-19. Google Scholar | |
|
Blount, J. M. (1999). Manliness and the gendered construction of school administration in the USA. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 2(2), 55-68. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Booher-Jennings, J. (2006). Rationing education in an era of accountability. Phi Delta Kappan, 87, 756-761. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Burden, P. R. (1982, February). Developmental supervision: Reducing teacher stress at different career stages. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Association of Teacher Educators, Phoenix, AZ. Google Scholar | |
|
Carless, S. A. (2005). Person-job fit versus person-organization fit as predictors of organizational attraction and job acceptance intentions: A longitudinal study. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78, 411-429. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Charmaz, K. (2000). Grounded theory: Objectivist and constructivist methods. In Denzin, N., Lincoln, Y. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed, pp. 509-536). London, UK: SAGE. Google Scholar | |
|
Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Google Scholar | |
|
Cooley, V. E., Shen, J. (2000). Factors influencing applying for the urban principalship. Education and Urban Society, 32, 443-454. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Copland, M. A. (2001). The myth of the superprincipal. Phi Delta Kappan, 82, 528-533. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Denzin, N. K., Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (1998). Strategies of qualitative inquiry. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Google Scholar | |
|
Donaldson, M. (2007). To lead or not to lead? A quandary for newly tenured teachers. In Ackerman, R. H., Mackenzie, S. V. (Eds.), Uncovering teacher leadership: Essays and voices from the field (pp. 259-272). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Educational Research Service . (1998). Is there a shortage of qualified candidates for openings in the principalship? An exploratory study. Arlington, VA: National Association of Elementary School Principals. Google Scholar | |
|
Erickson, B. H. (1979). Some problems of inference from chain data. Sociological Methodology, 10, 276-302. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Fessler, R. (1995). Dynamics of teacher career stages. In Guskey, T. R., Huberman, M. (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms and practices (pp. 171-192). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Giles, C. (2007). Capacity building: Sustaining urban secondary schools as resilient self-renewing organizations in the face of standardized educational reform. Urban Review, 40, 137-163. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Gilman, A., Lanman-Givens, B. (2001, May). Where have all the principals gone? Educational Leadership, 58(8), 72-74. Google Scholar | ISI | |
|
Goodman, L. A. (1961). Snowball sampling. Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 32(1), 148-170. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Grubb, W. N., Flessa, J. J. (2006). “A job too big for one”: Multiple principals and other nontraditional approaches to school leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 42, 518-550. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Hargreaves, A. (1994). Changing teachers, changing times: Teachers’ work and culture in the postmodern age. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Hargreaves, A. (2003). Teaching in the knowledge society. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Hargreaves, A., Goodson, I. (2006). Educational change over time? The sustainability and nonsustainability of three decades of secondary school change and continuity. Educational Administration Quarterly, 42(1), 3-41. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Hargreaves, A., Shirley, D. (2008). Beyond standardization: Powerful new principles for improvement. Phi Delta Kappan, 90(2), 135-143. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Harren, V. A. (1979). A model of career decision-making for college students. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 14, 119-133. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Heckathorn, D. D. (1997). Respondent-driven sampling: A new approach to the study of hidden populations. Social Problems, 44, 174-199. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Herzberg, F. (1968). One more time: How do you motivate employees? Harvard Business Review, 46(1), 53-62. Google Scholar | ISI | |
|
Howley, A., Andrianaivo, S., Perry, J. (2005). The pain outweighs the gain: Why teachers don’t want to become principals. Teachers College Record, 107, 757-782. Google Scholar | |
|
Huberman, M. (1989). The professional life cycle of teachers. Teachers College Record, 91(1), 31-57. Google Scholar | ISI | |
|
Ingersoll, R. M. (2001). Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: An organizational analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 38, 499-534. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Jacobson, S. (2005). The recruitment and retention of school leaders: Understanding administrator supply and demand. In Bascia, N., Cumming, A., Datnow, A., Leithwood, K., Livingstone, D. (Eds.), International educational policy (pp. 457-470). London, UK: Kluwer Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Jordan, D. W., McCauley, H. S., Comeaux, J. B. (1994, July). The supply and demand trends of public school principals and administrators in southwest Louisiana: 1993-1997. Educational Resources Information Center, ERIC Document Reproduction Service. Google Scholar | |
|
Kohn, A. (1999). The schools our children deserve: Moving beyond traditional classrooms and “tougher standards”. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Google Scholar | |
|
Kristof, A. L. (1996). Person-organization fit: An integrative review of its conceptualizations, measurement, and implications. Personnel Psychology, 49(1), 1-49. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Lancaster, L. C., Stillman, D. (2002). When generations collide. New York, NY: Collins Business. Google Scholar | |
|
Lee, J. O. (2003). Implementing high standards in urban schools: Problems and solutions. Phi Delta Kappan, 84, 443-449. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Lortie, D. C. (2009). School principal. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Lovely, S., Buffum, A. G. (2007). Generations at school: Building an age-friendly learning community. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Google Scholar | |
|
McNeil, L. M. (2000). Contradictions of school reform: Educational costs of standardized testing. New York, NY: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
|
Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley. Google Scholar | |
|
Murphy, P., DeArmond, M., Guin, K. (2003). A national crisis or localized problems? Getting perspective on the scope and scale of the teacher shortage. Educational Policy Analysis Archives, 11(23). Google Scholar | |
|
Pijanowski, J. C., Brady, K. P. (2009). The influence of salary in attracting and retaining school leaders. Education and Urban Society, 42(1), 25-41. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Portin, B. S. (2000). The changing urban principalship. Education and Urban Society, 32, 492-505. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Pounder, D., Crow, G. (2005). Sustaining the pipeline of school administrators. Educational Leadership, 62(8), 56-60. Google Scholar | ISI | |
|
Pounder, D. G., Merrill, R. J. (2001). Job desirability of the high school principalship: A job choice theory perspective. Educational Administration Quarterly, 37(1), 27-57. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Raines, C. (2003). Connecting generations: The sourcebook for a new workplace. Menlo Park, CA: Crisp. Google Scholar | |
|
Shen, J., Cooley, V. E., Ruhl-Smith, C. (1999). Entering and leaving school administrative positions. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 2, 353-367. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Shen, J., Cooley, V. E., Wegenke, G. L. (2004). Perspectives on factors influencing application for the principalship: A comparative study of teachers, principals and superintendents. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 7(1), 57-70. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Sikes, P. (1992). Imposed change and the experienced teacher. In Fullan, M., Hargreaves, A. (Eds.), Teacher development and educational change (pp. 36-55). London, UK: Falmer Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Sikes, P., Measor, L., Woods, P. (1985). Teacher careers: Crises and continuities. London, UK: Falmer Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Singh, R., Greenhaus, J. H. (2004). The relation between career decision-making strategies and person-job fit: A study of job-changers. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 64, 198-221. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Spillane, J. P., Halverson, R., Diamond, J. B. (2001). Investigating school leadership practice: A distributed perspective. Educational Researcher, 30(3), 23-28. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Stone-Johnson, C. (2009a). Enduring reform: The impact of mandated change on middle career teachers (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA. Google Scholar | |
|
Stone-Johnson, C. (2009b). Regenerating teachers. In Rolls, S., Plauborg, H. (Eds.) Teachers’ career trajectories and work lives (pp. 179-202). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Publishing. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Stone-Johnson, C. (2011). Talkin’ bout my generation: Boomers, Xers, and educational change. Journal of Educational Change, 12(2), 221-239. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Strauss, A. L., Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Google Scholar | |
|
Strauss, W., Howe, N. (1991). Generations: The history of America’s future, 1584 to 2069. New York, NY: William and Morrow. Google Scholar | |
|
Twenge, J. M. (2006). Generation me. New York, NY: Free Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Walker, A., Kwan, P. (2009). Linking professional, school, demographic, and motivational factors to desire for principalship. Educational Administration Quarterly, 45, 590-615. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Watters, E. (2004). Urban tribes: Are friends the new family? New York, NY: Bloomsbury. Google Scholar | |
|
Winter, P. A., Morgenthal, J. R. (2002). Principal recruitment in a reform environment: Effects of school achievement and school level on applicant attraction to the job. Educational Administration Quarterly, 38, 319-340. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Yerkes, D. M., Guaglianone, C. L. (1998). Where have all the high school administrators gone? Thrust for Educational Leadership, 28(2), 10-14. Google Scholar | |
|
Zemke, R., Raines, C., Filipczak, B. (2000). Generations at work: Managing the clash of veterans, boomers, Xers and nexters in your workplace. New York, NY: AMACOM. Google Scholar |
