The Influence of Working Conditions on Principal Turnover in K-12 Public Schools

Yan, Rui

doi:10.1177/0013161x19840391

Cited by 44 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The normed silence on topics such as self-care and wellbeing in the workplace is particularly problematic for school leaders. Today's principals are one of our nation's most stressed and burned-out cohorts of professionals, leaving the field at alarming rates (Yan, 2020). As highlighted by Ray et al (2020), school leaders, in place of self-care, often embrace the role of the caretaker for others, choosing to "adopt a disposition of self-sacrifice" which may provide short term benefit to those they serve but is not a sustainable professional disposition (p. 435).…”

Section: Self-care Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Confronting COVID: Crisis Leadership, Turbulence, and Self-Care

2021

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School leadership during the pandemic serves as the contextual backdrop for this conceptual article. Specifically, we believe the preparation of today’s school leaders must be re-examined to consider the inclusion of frameworks that consider not only how principals might navigate extreme crises but also how they look after themselves and their wellbeing in ways that may curb the chronic stress that often leads to professional burnout. In this article, we tie together three bodies of literature – crisis management, leadership in turbulence, and self-care – and introduce a conceptual framework that may help us reconsider the preparation of today’s school leader. These bodies of literature, while not yet broadly studied in education, are key to our understanding of how school leaders can successfully practice their new day-to-day practices after experiencing turmoil under the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Section: Self-care Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Confronting COVID: Crisis Leadership, Turbulence, and Self-Care

2021

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“…Principal application and hiring patterns have long been a conundrum, largely due to the lack of available job application data. As a result, little evidence exists concerning how district characteristics relate to the number of applications they receive, while research attests that schools with large concentrations of low-achieving students, high-poverty students, or students of color experience high turnover rates (Rangel, 2018;Yan, 2020). If these factors account for the variation in the number of applications across schools, policymakers should provide greater support and resources to those schools for the recruitment of applicants and retention of educators.…”

Section: Application and Hiring Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Labor Dynamics of School Principals in Rural Contexts

2021

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Numerous studies have explored the labor market of school principals, documenting high turnover rates and voicing concerns regarding labor supply. However, little is known about the staffing challenges in rural schools and what promotes applicants to apply for and be hired for principalship in these locales. In partnership with the Wisconsin Education Career Access Network, we examine the principal labor dynamics in rural schools using statewide job-openings and application information. Results indicate that all rural communities—rural fringe, rural distant, and rural remote—receive comparable numbers of applications, as compared with urban districts. Female candidates and candidates of color are significantly less likely to apply to rural districts, while experience working in the same district is a considerable advantage to being hired. Additionally, higher student poverty is associated with fewer principal applicants in rural schools. These results indicate the need for policies better attuned to subtle differences in rural contexts.

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“…These in turn bring both monetary and psychic rewards (Lortie, 1975) to professionals (Mehta, 2013). As principal salary is a strong predictor of retention (Yan, 2020), money clearly matters for principals. Though, as Pijanowski and Brady (2009) point out, it may not be enough to draw folks into the role given current conditions.…”

Section: Status Income and Rewardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Principal professionalism in the time of COVID-19

Stone-Johnson

Weiner

2020

JPCC

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PurposeIn this paper, we describe the impact of COVID-19 on principals and their work. Drawing on prior research undertaken prior to the onset of the pandemic, we describe how principals were already grappling with difficult tensions associated with their expertise, autonomy, normative orientation and rewards that may have real implications for their work moving forward and how, in the current context of uncertainty and change we believe the issue of principal professionalism requires our collective attention and action.Design/methodology/approachOver the last year, we undertook a multistate qualitative study of 17 school leaders to explore how principals working in traditional public schools conceptualize the principal profession and their role within it. Briefly, we found that the principalship is an “emergent profession” characterized by shared but individually determined knowledge and skills; a normative orientation of service; confused notions of external expectations and rewards and ongoing tensions among all of these elements.FindingsProfessionalism may be a surprising lever for improving the capacity of school leadership. Through our research, we identified that little is known about professionalism as it relates to the unique work of school leaders, but that understanding more about it could lead to greater knowledge of how to encourage and retain them. In the current context of uncertainty, chaos and change, the pressure on leaders to stay in the role and to succeed has never been greater. Thus, it is critical that principals have the capacity to exert professionalism over their work and to have greater say in elements of it, recognizing that some decisions must be made at district, state and federal levels.Originality/valueWhile many studies investigate how teachers of various backgrounds and in different contexts think about teaching as a profession (e.g. Anderson and Cohen, 2015; Stone-Johnson, 2014b; Torres and Weiner, 2018; Hall and McGinty, 2015), we had difficulty identifying studies focused on principals and using frameworks of professionalism to understand how these activities reflect larger shifts in the profession itself. This is despite the changing nature of principals' work, which, like the work of teachers, has been and continues to be largely influenced by the increasing role of neoliberal principles and policies in education. The public nature of the work of school leadership and the potential to support students, families and the communities in which they live brings in sharp focus the necessity of greater understanding of it during the COVID-19 crisis.

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The Influence of Working Conditions on Principal Turnover in K-12 Public Schools

Cited by 44 publications

References 37 publications

Confronting COVID: Crisis Leadership, Turbulence, and Self-Care

Confronting COVID: Crisis Leadership, Turbulence, and Self-Care

Labor Dynamics of School Principals in Rural Contexts

Principal professionalism in the time of COVID-19

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