Educational leadership or administration during a busy workday: The status and roles of assistant principals

Abstract

Research has shown that assistant principals have growing roles in administration and educational leadership as school complexity and demands for student achievement increase (Börkur Hansen, Ólafur H. Jóhannsson, & Steinunn Helga Lárusdóttir, 2002; Grodzki, 2011). Many scholars highlight how assistant principals hold multifaceted roles, facing many challenges on the job. Furthermore, assistant principals generally experience their roles as being unclear and poorly defined (Oleszewski, Soho, & Barnett, 2011; Petrides, Jimes, & Karaglani, 2014).

The terms administration and leadership are often used to describe the roles of school leaders. Whereas administration refers to tasks related to finances, human resources and daily management of the school (Gardner, 2000; Sergiovanni, 2009), leadership has more to do with leading the teachers in their roles as educators (Hoy & Miskel, 2012).

The role of assistant principal is relatively new in the Icelandic school system. It seems to be rather poorly defined, and it is unclear what it entails regarding the law and regulations where assistant principals are generally not mentioned (lög um grunnskóla nr. 91/2008 (Compulsory School Act); mennta- og menningarmálaráðuneytið, 2013 (Ministry of Education Science and Culture)).

The aim of this article is to shed light on how assistant principals in compulsory schools in Reykjavík experience their roles and status within the schools and their view of educational leadership and administration as focus areas. The study is based on in-depth semi structured interviews with eight assistant principals in the City of Reykjavík, who were randomly selected. Data was analyzed using interpretive phenomenology (Braun & Clarke, 2013; Smith & Osborn, 2008).

In order to investigate how assistant principals experience their roles and status we asked the following:

• • What are the assistant principals’ roles within the compulsory schools in Reykjavík and what are their main tasks?
  • What views do assistant principals have for their roles and status as administrators and/or educational leaders within the compulsory schools in Reykjavík?
  • • What is the formal and informal status of assistant principals within the compulsory schools in Reykjavík?

The study shows that assistant principals in Reykjavík have a lot to do, and it is difficult to grasp their roles and status. The participants reported that they felt the need to attend to all tasks that came up during the school day and to have a good overview of everything that goes on within the school. They see themselves, first and foremost, as school administrators rather than educational leaders, with most of their time spent on the day-to-day management of the school, for example, resolving staff absences and addressing general administration tasks.

The assistant principals experience stress and uncertainty relating to their job and feel some of the work they do could be handled by teachers and secretaries within the schools or by The Department of Education and Youth in Reykjavík.

Nonetheless, the assistant principals prefer to spend more time on educational leadership, but they feel that they are not able to find the time and space in all the hustle and bustle of the workday and with all the demands from their administrative roles. The assistant principals were uncertain how to define their place within the school. Their job titles indicate that they are middle managers, but they experience that, in many ways, they are part of senior management through their role as a substitute for the principal and their close cooperation with the principal.

The findings shed light on the importance of paying close attention to the working environment of assistant principals, clarifying their status and giving them a chance to also fulfill their role as educational leaders. Furthermore, the findings raise pressing questions as to who has a formal role in promoting educational leadership within the schools, when research has shown that principals, assistant principals and other middle managers do not have the time required.