“We Do What We're Told”: How Current Assistant Principals Practice Leadership and how They Wish They Could

Abstract

The purpose of this Q-methodology study was to develop an understanding of the perceptions of assistant principals of their current and idealized leadership practices. Fifty-six current assistant principals sorted a set of leadership behaviors two times—first based on dispositions currently deployed in their practice and a second time based on dispositions that they wish to employ. The Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning empirically developed the sorted statements. Three model factor arrays were derived from each sort. The findings indicate a unique perspective between current and idealized practices for assistant principals. Moreover the dispositions geared toward second-order change did not appear in the positive side of the distribution on both the current and the idealized arrays.