THE LEADERSHIP OF A NEWLY APPOINTED PRINCIPAL –A STUDY ON THE JOURNEY OF ADAPTATION AND INNOVATION

• Main Authors: Hsieh, Chin-Yuen, 謝錦雲
• Other Authors: LIN SHIH-LING LUCIA
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/82361821277948702919

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 教育領導與發展研究所 === 92 === This study is based on the researcher’s own experience on attending the campaign of principal selection as well as the first year’s experience of being a newly appointed principal. This study exams the challenges, adaptation and innovation of leadership in that situation. The researcher himself is the target of this study, and this study stands in the point of view of the principal of a joint junior and senior high school. The purpose of this study is to conclude a useful reference for those promising principal candidates. This study tries to proceed under the following aims: 1) To explore the inner confusion of a principal before and after his/her attending the campaign of principal selection. 2) To describe the critical events that the researcher had encountered within the first year in his new position, which are the challenges and adaptation he had met. 3) Through the incidents happened in the school to analyze the researcher’s policies and approaches used during this period of time. 4) To reflect and induct personal conclusion of a newly appointed principal’s leadership. The content of this study focuses on the inner journey of the researcher’s experience during his first year in that joint junior and high school, which started from June 1, 2003. That date marks the beginning of the official observation on this study. In the duration, the researcher had irregularly proceeded this study in the form of “the researcher being the observer and participant”. The researcher had also, with planned schedule, written a journal recording his reflection to all the events, so to have enough information for future analysis. In this study, the researcher is adhered to his own narration. He himself is part of that story. Along with the development of the story, the researcher portraits the behaviors of the newly appointed principal in a systematic frame, then analyze and induct the conclusion of this study. The researcher is willing to share his experience and what he had learned. He is also willing to accept the critics and suggestions of scholars and friends who are interested in this issue. After one year’s journey of studying the leadership and management of the school as a newly appointed principal, the researcher inducts the following conclusions of this study: 1) The pressure of the campaign system of principal selection—With the restriction of 4-year tenure, the conflict between taking part in or giving up the campaign of the selection of principal will repeat itself constantly. 2) The importance of the pragmatic content of the hand-over—In Taiwan, The main task of a formal and solemn hand-over ceremony is a symbolic hand-over of the school seal. 3) The dilemma of senior principal but newly appointed—The newly appointed principal can run the school smoothly and creatively only when he/she has the same or compatible faith and concept of value with the school members. Otherwise, he/she will go through a hard time of adjusting. 4) The challenges and innovation of multi-roles and overloading work—Administration works in a joint junior and senior high school are quite different from that of a regular high school. The newly appointed principal must re-exam its organizational system in a learning attitude first, then, promotes his/her ideas or policies. 5) The creation of a new phase of leadership—Improvement of school administration works only when the new principal’s direction follows the clarification of his/her understanding to the school. By job description of administrators, discussions in different meetings and the sharing of documents, which strengthen the horizontal communication, personal and unit operation will be upgraded to the level of “working as one”. To sum up, the researcher wishes not only to display the leadership behavior of a newly appointed principal through his actions and reflection, but also tries to reason out the texture of a newly appointed principal, to discuss the challenges he/she is going to meet, and to find out the strategies of accommodating the new environment and carrying out school administration effectively. It is the researcher’s sincere hope that the outcome of this study will be a helpful reference to those who want to be principal, who are freshmen in this position, or who are newly appointed to another school; even to those who are interested in this topic.