Race Against Time: The Effects of Principal Race and Time Use on Teacher Perceptions of Leadership

Abstract

To examine the relationships between principal time use, race, and teacher perceptions of their school and principal, this study analyzes data from the 2015-2016 NCES National Teacher and Principal Surveys. Data from 31,950 teachers and 5,710 principals were analyzed using ordinal logistic regressions while controlling for principal time use in curricular tasks, student interactions, administrative tasks, parent interactions as well as principal and student population race. Significant findings include that teacher perceptions of their school and principal were significantly related to the racial composition of their school’s student body and/or the principal’s race, but not to principal time use. Implications and recommendations for researchers and school leaders are offered.

Visible at night: US school principal nontraditional work-hour activities and job satisfaction

“…Principals’ activities have also been shown to vary during the day, with more time allocated to building-related operations before students enter the school, moving to a focus on instructional leadership and student affairs while students are in class (Sebastian et al, 2018). Although principals’ and schools’ characteristics have the potential to influence how principals allocate their time, most of the existing empirical literature does not explore patterns of work across contexts and principals’ characteristics holistically (Huang et al, 2020; Keese et al, 2020; Lavigne et al, 2016; Sebastian and Moon, 2017; Sebastian et al, 2018 are notable exceptions).…”

“…Principals have been shown to engage in community interactions and professional development after the final school bell (Sebastian et al, 2018), but there is only one study that has explored their work on Saturdays and Sundays directly (Hochbein et al, 2020), finding that principals report working alone at weekends. Other studies that include information about principals’ work at weekends do so indirectly by asking principals about hours worked on various tasks in a typical week or over the past year (Camburn et al, 2010a and b; Grissom et al, 2015; Keese et al, 2020; Lavigne et al, 2016; Lee and Hallinger, 2012; Sun and Ni, 2016; Yan, 2020). Given most of the research covering principals’ work during nontraditional hours does so indirectly, the drivers of principals needing to work during nontraditional school hours are not well defined in the literature.…”