Power Play: An Assistant Principal’s Dilemma and Unexpected Rise to School Leadership

Abstract

This case describes the dilemma of recently hired assistant principal, Fred Bates, who finds himself in a school with a negative and unsupportive school climate. There are significant trust issues between the teachers and principal. Bates struggles to navigate various obstacles and works to establish positive relationships with both his principal and the teachers. He begins to question his loyalty to the principal, and has ethical concerns as he realizes that the school principal has abused his power and damaged, at times intentionally, the trust and respect of the teachers. The principal reaps the repercussions of his unethical actions and is dismissed from the school. Bates is then appointed as the new interim principal, and he is left with the daunting task of rebuilding the trust and confidence of the teachers.

Vice-principals as leaders: Role ambiguity and role conflicts faced by vice-principals in Singapore

“…With respect to role conflict, perhaps because the Singapore vice-principal shares administrative duties with other staff, which is proposed as one strategy to enable vice-principals to have the time to provide instructional leadership (Celikten, 2001), Singapore vice-principals do not appear to face much conflict performing both educational management and educational leadership (Table 1, items (b) and (c)) (Connolly et al, 2019). However, consistent with the literature, there are occasions when the Singapore vice-principal perceives a conflict between their officially assigned role of supporting the principal and their responsibility to lead in ways consistent with their professional values and beliefs (Baker et al, 2018; Gonzales, 2019; Mitchell et al, 2017). This conflict may also be explained by Roger’s and Molnar’s (1976) observation about professionals feeling conflicted when there are two sources of authority, administrative and professional, and the two clash.…”

“… Identity tension: This is between their previous identity as a teacher and their new identity as an administrator whose first accountability is to the principal and who has to evaluate teachers (Armstrong, 2012; Hohner and Riveros, 2017; Kwan, 2019; Mitchell et al, 2017), with vice-principals feeling conflicted about the two roles of standing by management or siding with peer teachers (Kwan and Li, 2016). Supporting versus leading roles: Tension between compliance to the principal who may have a different vision/values from the vice-principal and desiring to exert one’s leadership or values (Baker et al, 2018; Gonzales, 2019; Mitchell et al, 2017), especially under a principal who micromanages (Hernandez et al, 2016). …”

“…Supporting versus leading roles: Tension between compliance to the principal who may have a different vision/values from the vice-principal and desiring to exert one’s leadership or values (Baker et al, 2018; Gonzales, 2019; Mitchell et al, 2017), especially under a principal who micromanages (Hernandez et al, 2016).…”

A rickety bridge: the complexities of vice-principals' interactions with principals and teachers in Israel

“…These findings apparently contradict previous studies that emphasized the vice-principals' sense of vulnerability (Kwan, 2019; Mitchell et al ., 2017) and the feeling that they are exposed to criticism from the principal and the teachers (Baker et al ., 2018; Gonzales, 2019). A possible explanation for the research findings lies in the tension felt by the vice-principals between fulfilling the principal's vision and their wish to exert their own leadership and values (Baker et al ., 2018; Gonzales, 2019). In this context, the ambiguity and lack of clarity in the vice-principals' role exposed them to vulnerability (as suggested by Mitchell et al ., 2017), but also promoted flexibility and independence in their role.…”

“…Since the vice-principals' job description is not clearly defined, they find themselves dependent on the delegation of powers and duties by the principal (Ho et al ., 2021b). As a result, they may experience uncertainty about their duties (Connolly et al ., 2019) and struggle to balance fulfilling the principal's vision and values with their own ethics (Baker et al ., 2018; Gonzales, 2019; Mitchell et al ., 2017). They may find themselves exposed, therefore, to ambiguity in their job responsibilities (Connolly et al ., 2019), which can lead to stress and loneliness in their relationships with teachers and principals (Dor-Haim, 2023) and underscores the importance of their role (Mitchell et al ., 2017).…”