Emotional trajectory at different career stages of principalship: A perspective from excellent principals

Abstract

Emotions hover like a shadow over the lives and work of school principals. This study aimed to build an understanding of principals’ emotional trajectories across principalship career stages by investigating the life stories of four excellent principals from China who were approaching retirement. The major data source was semi-structured interviews conducted with the participating principals. This study is a first to attempt to capture the dynamic emotional trajectory of excellent principals. The results show that the principals experienced more negative emotions than positive emotions during the earlier stages of their careers, but fewer negative and more positive emotions during the later stages. The principals tended to adopt genuine expressions throughout their principalship in order to achieve desirable consequences. They were more likely to utilise surface acting strategies during earlier career stages, but more deep acting strategies to achieve emotional consonance later in their careers as they became more confident about accomplishing professional goals. The study offers fresh insights into principals’ emotional trajectories. The findings aim to better inform principals, scholars and policy makers about the place and shape of principal emotional leadership.

Reconceptualizing principal well-being: state, measurement and consequences

“…Existing studies on principal well-being have largely adopted instruments designed for the general population (e.g. Hancock et al, 2019;Chen and Walker, 2023). While these are useful, they may not capture the unique nature of principalship and their well-being needs.…”

“…Hancock et al. , 2019; Chen and Walker, 2023). While these are useful, they may not capture the unique nature of principalship and their well-being needs.…”

Pre-service teachers’ emotional experience: Characteristics, dynamics and sources amid the teaching practicum

“… Chen et al (2020) used a case study method to explore the emotional experiences of two outstanding teachers at different career stages, and the results showed that there were more negative emotions in the early stage, more positive emotions in the middle stage, and higher emotional satisfaction in the later stage. As a representative of outstanding teachers, principals’ research found that principals have more negative emotions than positive ones in their careers and less negative and positive ones in the later stages ( Chen and Walker, 2021 ).…”

Una Decisión (inter)Personal: Estudio comparativo generacional de la trayectoria laboral de directores en chile

“…Estudios sobre carrera directiva han estado presentes en la literatura especializada por décadas (Chen & Walker, 2021;Greenfield et al, 1986;Oplatka, 2004), pero han cobrado una creciente relevancia, debido principalmente a los desafíos que distintos sistemas educativos han enfrentado para atraer y retener directores (Earley & Weindling, 2007;Snodgrass-Rangel, 2018). Posturas críticas sobre las trayectorias directivas se han focalizado en las barreras estructurales que algunos grupos enfrentan para acceder a la dirección, principalmente relacionados con género Guihen, 2018) y minorías étnicas (Johnson & Campbell-Stephens, 2013;Miller & Callender, 2018).…”