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Internship reflections on critical incidents.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Emerging research on instructional leadership must address the thinking that underlies the exercise of leadership, not simply describe discrete behaviors of effective leaders. This article describes the use of critical incident technique to explore intern identified themes in the principal internship. The variety of incidents displays vividly and poignantly the difficult, complicated and chaotic role of the principal and leads to implications for internship supervisors.

Introduction

A new principal's ability to exercise effective leadership is related to the purposeful quality of thought that guides administrative action. Emerging research on instructional leadership must address the thinking that underlies the exercise of leadership, not simply describe discrete behaviors of effective leaders. Reflective inquiry is one of three philosophical orientations guiding the education of school administrators. (Fenwick & Pierce, 2002). In the reflective inquiry orientation, principals become active participants in their learning, and the source of knowledge is in self-reflection and engagement. Principals are asked to learn new skills and concepts and then apply those concepts in real school environments, usually as principal interns. As they apply their new knowledge, they perform reflective reading and writing (Daresh, 2002; Fenwick and Pierce, 2002). This reflective introspection is believed to produce experts who hold more complex goals and attempt to integrate these into a general solution to a problem, versus novices who are unable to see the broad spectrum and set more limited goals, and experts who are more aware of the social contexts associated with problems (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1986; Berliner, 1986; Leithwood & Stager, 1989).

The principal internship is a critical turning point for potential leaders to practice reflection in the midst of learning the complex job of being a principal. Many researchers have written about the importance of reflecting on field experiences (Allison & Allison, 1993; Kolb, 1984; Wilmore, 2001). However, there is little research on how to distinguish critical experiences in the internship versus insignificant experiences that will not have a strong impact on the future job as principal. Meaningful reflection about those experiences, and information from principal interns themselves about what experiences are important to their learning continuum, is critical feedback for principal program administrators.

Methodology

Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study was to answer the following questions: What do principal interns see as critical incidents in their internship experience? How can reflective inquiry both enhance the learning of the principal intern and inform the administrators in charge of the program about the effectiveness and importance of their field experiences? The questions raised suggest a research design that would allow the investigators to: (a) discover the events and activities that capture the attention and focus of principal interns; (b) compare and contrast the information given by each intern...

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