Blazing New Trails - Connexions

Complexities in the Workload of Principals: Implications for Teacher Leadership 33
more than 15 years of teaching experience while approximately 80% had 15 or fewer years of
teaching experience. The principals were nearly evenly distributed by gender with 49% female
and 51% male respondents. The responding principals represented urban (15%), rural (40%)
and suburban (45%) school districts.
Data Collection
Principals were asked about their backgrounds in education, and demographic
information about their school and district. Respondents rated the frequency that teachers
perform certain task associated roles in their schools with response choices ranging from
almost never (1) to sometimes (2), often (3), and almost daily (4). Principals were asked their
perceptions regarding their workload, rating the incidence of stress associated with 26
identified stressors with response choices of almost never (1), sometimes (2), often (3), and
almost daily (4). Moreover, respondents had the option of indicating does not apply to all
questions in this survey. Finally, principals identified the stressors that would be reduced if
teachers performed certain task-associated roles with response choices of strongly agree (4),
agree (3), disagree (2), and strongly disagree (1).
Validity
The questionnaire was designed to measure principals’ perceptions of their workload
and their attitudes about teacher leaders providing assistance. The questionnaire was pilot
tested to a group of seven principals. This field test generated satisfactory results with
respondents expressing that the questions in the survey were clearly written and easily
understood. The participants also reviewed the survey for response formatting. As a result of
their feedback, minor changes were made to the survey, and four additional variables were
added to the list of possible stressors of principals. Construct validity of the survey was
established by aligning the variables in the survey with the research base of instructional and
transformational leadership, the stress of the work load of principals as defined in the
literature, and the descriptors based on the experiences that we had as researchers and former
building principals. In the judgment of the reviewers, the instrument appeared to measure the
theoretical constructs for which it was designed to measure—principals’ beliefs regarding
their workload and the extent to which teacher leaders can alleviate the associated stress.
In subsequent examinations, we analyzed the data using a principal component factor
analysis and multiple regression analysis. This study examined the data in relation to the two
overarching constructs, integrated leadership and managerial. These constructs were defined
largely by the knowledge base regarding the principalship, and informed by the factor
analyses performed.
Data Analysis
In the data analysis, we initially analyzed frequencies and means to identify systematic
patterns. The research team examined: (a) what roles teachers currently assume in the
respective schools; (b) workplace stressors identified by principals and (c) principals’ views
of how teachers could alleviate these stressors with means calculated for each research
question.