The Principalship: New Roles in a Professional Learning Community

The Principalship allows readers to gain a broader, more complex and accurate understanding of school administrator leadership in today’s learning communities while presenting an expansive view of leadership within schools not limited to the responsibilities of the principal, but including those of assistant principals, administrators, teachers, and students. This innovative first edition text presents a complete picture of the principal as school administrator, community builder, advocate, manager, mentor, supervisor, politician, leader and learner.

The Principalship covers the importance of learning: the learning of principals, the learning of other professionals, and especially the learning of students. School improvement is not possible without this across-the-board learning and exploration, and this text places a strong emphasis on this simple but often-overlooked aspect of school communities.

Today’s school systems are faced with a number of fresh challenges: changing student populations, rapidly expanding research knowledge, increasing accountability requirements, federal and state policy demands, and escalating expectations for school services. This book will help aspiring school leaders to bridge the gap between traditional conceptualizations of the principal and more innovative, functional, and multifaceted conceptualizations that respond to the changing conditions and higher demands of contemporary learning communities.

Joseph Matthews is Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Foundations at Brigham Young University. Dr. Matthews teaches courses in school principalship, leadership theory, and supervision. He has written for both national and regional publications co-authored three books: Being and Becoming a Principal (2003, Allyn & Bacon); Leadership: A Relevant and Realistic Role for Principals (1996, Eye on Education); and Finding One’s Way: How Mentoring Can Lead to Dynamic Leadership (1998, Corwin Press).He has served as a high school teacher and principal in three different states.