An investigation of attributes of school principals in relation to resilience and leadership practices

The purpose of this investigation was to determine relationships among the dimensions of resilience, leadership practices, and individual demographics of high school principals toward strengthening the leadership abilities of principals. This quantitative study employed the survey method in its research design. Those surveyed included 68 high school principals, 136 assistant principals, and 340 teachers selected from 6 school districts in the State of Florida. The investigation used three on-line questionnaires to collect data on the dimensions of resilience, leadership practices and demographics of these principals. The data were analyzed by using three statistical methods: Pearson-Product Moment Correlation, T-test, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Hypothesis testing was introduced to determine statistical significance. The investigation found significant relationships among the resilience dimensions of Positive: The World, Focused, Flexible: Thoughts, Organized and Proactive, and the leadership practices of challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, modeling the way and encouraging the heart of high school principals. Thus, the researcher concluded that high school principals who have a higher percentage of resilience dimensions of Positive: The World, Focused, Flexible: Thoughts, Organized and Proactive are better able to employ the leadership practices of challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, modeling the way and encouraging the heart to become more effective high school principals. The implications of the investigation suggested a base of knowledge from which school principals could assess their leadership strengths and weaknesses and improve their leadership performance. It also provided a basis for the selection of materials for enhancing in-service components in school leadership for school districts and for pre-service courses in educational leadership for universities charged with training principals. Further research was recommended on resiliency in education because it is a critical component to successfully managing change.