CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 27Teacher Education and Leadership StudiesEducational Leadership and PracticesSchool Leadership and Teacher Performance

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 1 of the 1 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The Teaching Principal: An Untenable Position or a Promising Model?

Open access
Newton, Paul M., Wallin, Dawn·2013·Alberta Journal of Educational Research
DOI 10.55016/ojs/ajer.v59i1.55675
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

This paper reports on an interpretive study that examined the role of the teaching principal, particularly as it relates to principals’ moral and legal requirement to work as instructional leaders for student learning. A teaching principal is defined as a principal who has a “double load” or dual roles in teaching and administration (Clarke & Stevens, 2009). In this study, we explored the constitution and effects of this role on individuals and leadership practices of 12 rural teaching principals in Alberta and Manitoba. Findings reflect the need to develop policies that sustain the smaller schools which depend upon administrators capable of thriving in this dual role. Additionally, the way in which teaching principals practice as instructional leaders promises to enrich the literature on instructional leadership. Specifically, the practices that emerge through the teaching principalship are a unique adaptation of existing conceptualizations that offer considerable advantages over those that presuppose a full-time administrative appointment. Cet article rend compte d’une étude interprétative portant sur le rôle du directeur enseignant, notamment par rapport à l’exigence morale et juridique qu’ont les directeurs de travailler comme leaders pédagogiques. Un directeur enseignant en est un qui a une « double charge », qui joue deux rôles, un en enseignement et un en administration (Clarke & Stevens, 2009). Dans cette étude, nous avons exploré la création et les effets de ce rôle sur les individus et sur les pratiques de leadership de douze directeurs enseignants en milieu rural en Alberta et au Manitoba. Les résultats reflètent la nécessité de développer des politiques qui appuient les plus petites écoles qui dépendent d’administrateurs en mesure de prospérer dans le contexte de ce double rôle. De plus, les pratiques qu’emploient les directeurs enseignants dans leur capacité de leaders pédagogiques promettent d’enrichir la littérature sur le leadership pédagogique. Plus spécifiquement, les pratiques qui ressortent des pratiques des directeurs enseignants constituent une adaptation unique des conceptualisations existantes, une qui offre un nombre considérable d’avantages par rapport à celles qui présupposent un poste administratif à temps plein.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.55016/ojs/ajer.v59i1.55675

Cites

1 of 1 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • There were grave concerns about the sustainability of this model of administration over time given the very real effects this position was having on the ability of teaching principals to be effective in both roles, to achieve work-life balance, and to maintain personal wellness.

    “Certainly, there were grave concerns about the sustainability of this model of administration over time given the very real effects this position was having on the ability of teaching principals to be effective in both roles, to achieve work-life balance, and to maintain personal wellness (Newton & Wallin, 2013; Jutras et al., 2020).”

    From Teaching Principals in Rural, Remote, and Northern Schools in Canada: An Empirical Analysis of Workload, Roles, and Instructional Leadership (2025) · cites this paper as Newton & Wallin, 2013

    The Managing Dual Roles and Work-Life Balance sections describe difficulties meeting teaching and administrative demands, maintaining balance, and protecting physical and mental health. The Discussion raises implications for recruitment and retention, but the Conclusion calls the position “far from untenable.” The claim overstates the paper’s qualified assessment as grave concern about the model’s long-term sustainability. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • These findings were linked to inability to maintain work-life balance and personal wellness, with some respondents worried about inability to disconnect from work.

    “these findings were linked to the inability to maintain work-life balance and personal wellness, with some respondents becoming very worried about their inability to disconnect from work”

    From Teaching Principals in Rural, Remote, and Northern Schools in Canada: An Empirical Analysis of Workload, Roles, and Instructional Leadership (2025) · cites this paper as Newton & Wallin, 2013

    The Work-Life Balance section reports that some teaching principals struggled to maintain a healthy balance and that workload affected their physical and mental wellbeing. One principal said that bringing a computer home led to working on it constantly, so he began leaving it at school. The paper does not say that respondents became very worried about being unable to disconnect from work. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Survey findings confirmed pilot study that many teaching principals take on much additional responsibility as means of offloading responsibilities for staff near burnout.

    “Survey findings confirmed findings in our pilot study that indicated that many teaching principals take on much additional responsibility (extra-curricular, professional development planning, etcetera) as a means of offloading some of the responsibilities for staff members who are themselves coming close to burning out”

    From Teaching Principals in Rural, Remote, and Northern Schools in Canada: An Empirical Analysis of Workload, Roles, and Instructional Leadership (2025) · cites this paper as Newton & Wallin, 2013

    The Findings and Discussion (page unavailable) describe teaching principals taking on guidance or resource roles and assigning themselves teaching loads to give other staff preferred assignments. The paper does not say they took on extra duties to relieve staff nearing burnout, nor does it identify extracurricular activities or professional-development planning as examples of that practice. The citing authors’ survey findings are their own, not findings attributed to this source. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The specific nature of the teaching assignment may be a significant variable in principals' perceptions of efficacy.

    “Our findings suggest the specific nature of the teaching assignment may be a significant variable in principals' perceptions of efficacy (Newton & Wallin, 2013; Wallin et al., 2019).”

    From Teaching Principals in Rural, Remote, and Northern Schools in Canada: An Empirical Analysis of Workload, Roles, and Instructional Leadership (2025) · cites this paper as Newton & Wallin, 2013

  • Teaching principals identified a sense of guilt and dissatisfaction over the frequent need to be taken away from their classrooms.

    “They also identified a sense of guilt and dissatisfaction over the frequent need to be taken away from their classrooms (Newton & Wallin, 2013; Wallin et al., 2019).”

    From Teaching Principals in Rural, Remote, and Northern Schools in Canada: An Empirical Analysis of Workload, Roles, and Instructional Leadership (2025) · cites this paper as Newton & Wallin, 2013

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 24

  1. Bouchamma, Y. (2006). School principals' perceptions of personal and professional efficacy with regard to teacher supervision in New Brunswick. EAF Journal, 17(2), 9-23.
  2. Boyd, B. (1996). The principal as teacher: A model for instructional leadership. NASSP Bulletin, 80(580), 65-73. doi:10.1177/019263659608058009 · DOI · Paper page
  3. Clarke, S. (2002). The teaching principal: From the shadowlands to a place in the sun. Queensland Journal of Educational Research, 18(1), 23-37. Available at http://www.iier.org.au/qjer/qjer18/clarke.html
  4. Clarke, S., & Stevens, E. (2009). Sustainable leadership in small rural schools: Selected Australian vignettes. Journal of Educational Change, 10(4), 277-293.
  5. Clarke, S., Stevens, E., & Wildy, H. (2006). Rural rides in Queensland: Travels with novice teaching principals. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 9(1), 75-88.
  6. Clarke, S., & Wildy, H. (2004). Context counts: Viewing small school leadership from the inside out. Journal of Educational Administration, 42(5), 555-572. doi:10.1108/09578230410554061 · DOI
  7. Collins, G. (2004). The current work of New Zealand teaching principals. New Zealand Journal of Teachers' Work, 1(1), 23-26.
  8. Dappen, L., & Isernhagen, J. C. (2002). A model to support mentoring in rural schools. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 17(3), 154-161.
  9. Dunning, G. (1993). Managing the small primary school: The problem role of the teaching head. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 21(2), 79-89. doi:10.1177/174114329302100203 · DOI
  10. Ewington, J., Mulford, B., Kendall, D., Edmunds, B., Kendall, L., & Silins, H. (2008). Successful school principalship in small schools. Journal of Educational Administration, 46(5), 545-561.
  11. Goddard, J. T., & Habermann, S. R. (2001). Accessing the knowledge base of retired teachers: Experiences in establishing a formal mentoring program in a rural school division. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 17(2), 92-101.
  12. Grady, M. L. (1990). The teaching principal. Research in Rural Education, 6(3), 49-52.
  13. Hill, P. W. (2002). What principals need to know about teaching and learning. In M. S. Tucker, & J. B. Codding (Eds.), The principal challenge: Leading and managing schools in an era of accountability (pp. 43-76). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
  14. Loder, T. & Spillane, J. (2005). Is a principal still a teacher? Women administrators' accounts of role conflict in their transition to the principalship. School Leadership & Management, 25(3), 263-279.
  15. McClure, W. (1921). Professionalizing the principalship. The Elementary School Journal, 21(10), 735-743.
  16. Murdoch, D., & Schiller, J. (2002). Teaching principals in smaller primary schools: Their issues, challenges and concerns. AARE Conference, Brisbane, Aus. Retrieved from: http://publications.aare.edu.au/02pap/mur02145.htm
  17. Newton, P., Tunison S., & Viczko, M. (2010). The school principal's role in large-scale assessment. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy. 105, 1-24.
  18. Noonan, B., & Renihan, P. (2006). Demystifying assessment leadership. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 56, 1-20. Retrieved from: https://umanitoba.ca/publications/cjeap/pdf_files/noonan.pdf
  19. Sarantakos, S. (2005). Social research. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
  20. Stake, R. (2000). Case studies. In N. Denzen, & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 435-454). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  21. Starr, K., & White, S. (2008). The small rural school principalship: Key challenges and cross-school responses. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 23(5), 1-12.
  22. Wallin, D. (2001, Spring). Succession management: A necessary strategy for rural school administration. The Rural Educator, 22(3), 1-7.
  23. Wallin, D. (2005). Through the looking glass: A comparative analysis of the career patterns of rural female educational administrators in Saskatchewan and Texas. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 51(2), 1-20.
  24. Wallin, D. (2008). Rural school districts and provincial agendas: Educational priorities and capacity. Education Management Administration and Leadership, 36(4), 566-587.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Metadata

Authors
Newton, P. M., & Wallin, D.
Affiliations
  • University of Alberta (CA)
  • University of Manitoba (CA)
ORCID
Venue
Alberta Journal of Educational Research
Publisher
University of Calgary
Published
2013-12-15
Volume
59
Issue
1
Pages
55-71
ISSN
  • 0002-4805 (ISSN-L)
  • 1923-1857
DOI
10.55016/ojs/ajer.v59i1.55675
OpenAlex
W4389466512
Cited by
27
References
1
Citations by year
2024: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2014: 1
FWCI
4.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Alberta Journal of Educational Research (publishedVersion)
  • Libraries and Cultural Resources (University of Calgary)
  • Alberta Journal of Educational Research
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Education › Teacher Education and Leadership Studies
  • Social Sciences › Education › Educational Leadership and Practices
  • Social Sciences › Education › School Leadership and Teacher Performance
Keywords
instructional leadership, rural schools, small schools, school principals, leadership practices, school management, school policy, Alberta, Manitoba

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review