The Role of the Principal in the Micropolitical Context of Secondary Schools in Establishing and Maintaining School Community Partnerships

Principals as agents in secondary schools shape the meaning of what goes on in the school. To some extent, what happens in the school is a reflection of their beliefs, values and the dominant societal norms. School-community partnerships are a result of competing values, beliefs and visions of what can contribute to the success of the school from the perspective of the principal, the policy of the district school board and the teachers’ interests. School-community partnerships are therefore generally a compromise between the values of the principal and the teachers in the school through nurturing relationships and interpersonal leadership style. This study focused on the role of principals in establishing and maintaining school-community partnerships in an urban district school board in southern Ontario. The study employed qualitative research methods, drawing on two case studies in secondary schools. Data for the study was collected over a period of eight months through in-depth interviews of two principals and sixteen teachers. I used a micropolitical conceptual framework to analyze the principal’s role in school-community partnerships. The conceptual framework contributes to revealing the role of agency in organizations. The study revealed that principals initiate, support, coordinate, approve, allocate resources and evaluate school community partnerships. Through these roles, principals influence how partnerships unfold in the school. Principals’ roles in school-community partnerships are a reflection of the leadership style they enact in schools. The role is indicative of her/his values, beliefs and preference. This insight is important as a variable to how policies are implemented at different levels on the chain of implementation. It confirms other research that have strongly suggested that policies can be implemented best if the principals’ and teachers’values and beliefs are consistent. The implementation of policies are negotiated on daily basis between the principal and the teachers and principals have upper hand in determining their outcome. The result from this study illustrates how the roles of individuals in an organization mirror their values and beliefs and in turn affect how policies are implemented. The presence of school-community partnerships in secondary schools, although mandated by the district school board policy are the result of the role played by principals rather than merely policy provision. The role of the principal that was not clear was evaluating partnerships. There is need for further study to examine the criteria of evaluating partnerships in schools in order to ascertain the total contribution of the same to the success of schools.ED