The Role of The Principal

Book Review:  The Principal – Three Keys to Maximizing Impact

by Michael Fullan

Michael Fullan begins The Principal – Three Keys to Maximizing Impact with some sobering statistics about the drop in morale among principals:

-       75% of principals feel that their job has become too complex;

-       Half of all principals feel under great stress;

-       The percentage of principals who are satisfied in their work has dropped since 2008.

Fullan believes that the overwhelming and anxiety-inducing responsibilities of today’s principals necessitate the re-imagining of the role of the principal.  He begins this redefinition with what he terms a shocker:  “the principal as direct instructional leader is not the solution!” (6)  Indeed, he maintains that the current notion of the principal as instructional leader actually inhibits the principal’s influence over instructional improvement in her/his school!  Instead, he proposes three key roles for the principal: as learning leader, system player, and change agent. (9)

Before exploring the 3 roles he proposes for principals, Fullan contrasts in Chapter 2: “Vices and Virtues” the wrong and right “drivers” of school improvement and student achievement.  The first wrong and right drivers are, respectively, accountability and capacity building.  He stresses that “Extreme pressure without capacity results in dysfunctional behaviour” (27), including cheating.  The second pair is individualistic solutions versus collaboration.  Fullan’s point is that no one person, including the principal, can change the culture of a school.  Instead, “you have to use the power of the group to change the group.” (29)  Wrong driver number 3 is unfocused acquisition and implementation of new technologies.  The right driver is combining new technologies with new pedagogies. (36)   The last contrast is fragmented strategies versus a system perspective.

In Chapter 2, Fullan also explains why he believes the recent concept of the principal as instructional leader is too narrow a view of the principal’s role.  “The narrow view raises two problems: first, in complex matters [such as school improvement and student achievement], you can’t really micromanage to good effect; second it can be incredibly time consuming for principals, diverting them from doing other things [such as management, leading collaborative learning, and implementing change] that can shape learning more powerfully.” (39-40)

The first key role of the principal is addressed in Chapter 3: “Leading Learning”.   In this chapter, Fullan begins by maintaining that principals who are effective lead learners are necessarily also good managers, because they understand that having clear routines is essential for school improvement.” (57)   He quotes from Viviane Robinson’s Student-Centered Leadership to both underscore the previous point and emphasize that successful principals take an active learning stance: “The principal who makes the biggest impact on learning is the one who attends to other matters as well, but, most important, ‘participates as a learner’ with teachers in helping move the school forward.” (58)  Fullan also borrows from Helen Timperley’s work in responding to the question, Who is in a principal’s class?  The principal’s class consists of “team leaders who in turn can leverage the learning of other teachers in their group” (60)

After reviewing other educational theorists’ ideas, Fullan then examines the leading learning role of the principal from the perspective of his three-part conception of professional capital.  The principal should seek and then cultivate human capital - quality teachers and teacher leaders.  The principal should also foster conditions that allow teachers to learn from each other “in purposeful, specific ways to improve learning in the school”, that is, develop the school’s social capital.   Finally, by fostering expertise in teachers, the principal builds decisional capital - teacher capacity for making wise decisions that improve student learning. (89)

He concludes Chapter 3 with two “powerful forces” that emerge from professional capital:

1. Mutual allegiance – a collaborative culture of helping, commiserating, and celebrating among teachers “for the collective good”.
2. Talk the walk - teachers using “common language and transparent actions” for deep and important school improvement and student learning. (87-88)

The second key role for principals is stated in the title of Chapter 4 –“ Being a System Player”.  Fullan qualifies this role by emphasizing that a principal shouldn’t pay less attention to school matters “but rather to engage outside in order to increase learning within your school (while at the same time contributing to the betterment of the system).” (99)

Fullan identifies two outside systems: intradistrict and outside the district.  For the first, he argues that coherence can’t be achieved only through top-down alignment – from the district or board office to the school.  There must also be strong lateral interaction between schools, as the latter is the only way for a shared mindset on improvement and student achievement to develop – the glue in the middle that will keep the system together.  For principals, “the bottom line” is enhancing mutual learning among teachers in the school with learning from other schools.  

A principal also needs “to see the world as your arena of ideas” (107), that is, engage in partnerships with schools beyond the district that are demographically similar but have met with greater success in achieving a common learning goal.  Fullan argues that learning can be “two-way” from such a partnership.  On one hand, teachers and the principal will learn a great deal from visiting this more successful school, but as well, in preparing to present to the other school’s staff, they will develop deeper awareness of their own school’s practices and culture.

The third key role identified by Fullan is for principals to be change agents.  As uncertainty is always associated with change, the principal is to “work through the ambiguities” by tackling resistance, reassuring the reluctant that the outcome will be a good one, and inspiring confidence in those willing to move. (124)  Fullan cautions that it takes more than just passion to successfully bring about change.  Principals must also develop skills for leading change.

In the final chapter, Fullan examines two “formerly unforeseen forces” that he believes principals must address.  The first is the digital revolution.  Fullan maintains that the principal’s role is to embrace the “ever-alluring digital world” and contagious enthusiasm of both students and teachers for it by encouraging the integration of technology in their schools and actively participating in the process.  The second force is specific to the American context – the Common Core State Standards.   Fullan’s advice for U. S. principals is to avoid the temptation to passively implement the standards and assessment instruments that were developed in conjunction with them.  Instead, principals “should understand the big picture but also work from the ground up”. (157)  They can do this by uncovering the key learning goals that underlie the core standards, and partnering with teachers and students to find ways to realize them

Some Further Thoughts

With respect to the principal's role of leading learning in her/his school, I would suggest the following specific strategies:

• "Assume the role of lead learner in the classroom walkthrough process" (p. 17 Engaging Teachers in Classroom Walkthroughs, Kachur, Stout, & Edwards, 2013);
• Fully commit to participating in a few key PLCs in your school. (This means being present for all sessions, not just showing up occasionally.);
• Join (or form) a PLC with a few other principals in statistically similar schools which are focusing on a common goal for school improvement; 
• Share your professional growth plan with your staff, in order to model lifelong learning;
• Actively participate in professional learning networks through social media and on-line communities (ie. Twitter, Google+, Linkedin); 
• Commit to reading at least one book per month on learning and share your reflections on your reading with your staff  (www.Shelfari.com is a great site to keep a record of your books.);
• As Fullan says, put yourself in a learning stance, not a performance stance, during classroom walkthroughs and conversations with your teachers.