Tapestry Weavings: Combining Art and Science to Investigate and Illuminate the Lived Experiences of Female High School Principals in Georgia
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Authors
Hannaford, Barbara Pannell
Issue Date
2013-02-19
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
High school principals , Public Schools , United States -- Georgia , Female Principals , Education , No Child Left Behind , Gender and education
Alternative Title
Abstract
This research project explored the perceptions and experiences of female high
school principals. To understand whether a shared essence existed within the phenomena of being a female high school principal in Georgia, a phenomenological focus guided my research. Through in-depth interviews, informal conversations, and electronic communication, this study explored what effective female high school principals do, whether and in what manner their lived experiences shaped their leadership practices, whether commonalities existed as they negotiated their leadership roles at a maledominated
level of the profession, and what could be learned from their contextual practices and experiences.
Two former and two current female high school principals were interviewed.
Interviews were digitally recorded and field notes were taken. Transcripts were coded;
emergent themes were identified, and within and cross case analyses were conducted.
Findings for each participant were presented in individual portraits, and findings from
cross case analysis were presented in a collective portrait.
This study presented two distinct but tightly interwoven aspects of female high
school principals in Georgia: the personal self and the professional self. Seven common
themes emerged in the analysis of participants’ personal selves: (a) personal
characteristics; (b) unplanned and circuitous journeys into high school principalships; (c)
perceptions of being a high school principal; (d) participants’ definitions of effective
leadership; (e) participants’ definitions of effective schools; (f) participants’ perceptions
of gender and the high school principalship; and (g) the metaphors participants used. Five
common themes emerge in an analysis of participants’ professional selves: (a) modeling
expectations and desired behaviors; (b) an emphasis on curriculum and instruction; (c) evidence of the social competence domain of emotional intelligence; (d) students as the
heart and soul of participants’ work; and (e) balanced leadership.
Description
A Dissertation by Barbara Pannell Hannaford for Doctor of Education in Curriculum and Instruction at Valdosta State University. December 2011.