Principal leadership in a middle school culture: An autoethnography

The role of school principal in the 21st century requires different skills from those required in the past. Principal leadership has been shown to be a critical factor in influencing student performance. There are few studies illuminating the perspective of a principal who applied transformational leadership in a school setting and positively transformed the educational setting. The purpose of this qualitative autoethnography was to study a principal's leadership in a middle school culture as the principal attempted to transform the school from 2006-2009. In this study, the leadership of one middle school principal was examined to reveal the reasoning and actions used to transform the school. The leadership framework for the study was the Balanced Leadership Profile of leadership responsibilities associated with second-order change as outlined in School Leadership that Works: From Research to Action. A document/artifact analysis was conducted to reveal leadership patterns of the principal over time. The principal was both the researcher and the subject of the research. The principal's reflections and introspections were used as a means to describe the data from the document/artifact analysis. Results are reported in a first person, analytical narrative. Triangulation was accomplished through data, methodological, and theoretical triangulation. The findings contribute to increasing the understanding of the thoughts and actions of individual principals as they lead schools in the face of increasingly complex needs. The findings of this research provide a profile of transformational leadership in this setting. The results of the document analysis indicated the principal utilized knowledge of curriculum, instruction, and assessment acted as an intellectual stimulator acted as a change agent and acted consistent with his ideals and beliefs. The culture of the school evolved through a process of community-building, a school-wide focus on learning, and caring for the well-being of students. One recommendation is this study be replicated at the middle school level as a means to inform individual principals about their own practices. Another recommendation is to conduct a meta-analysis of autoethnographic studies to identify design and procedure elements. The implications of this study can assist aspiring principals in understanding the complex nature of transforming a school in the 21st century.