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The purpose of this paper is to examine first the job responsibilities undertaken by vice‐principals and second to investigate the respective contribution of each job responsibility in preparing them for the principalship. Because new principals are drawn predominantly from the ranks of vice‐principals in Hong Kong, it is important to examine whether their current experience adequately prepares vice‐principals to take up this senior position.

All vice‐principals in Hong Kong secondary schools were sent a questionnaire that asked for the extent of their involvement in various activities and their adequacy of preparation for the principalship. A sequential regression analysis was used to examine the effect of various job dimensions on the vice‐principals' perceived preparedness, over and above the effect of their demographic variables.

Seven job responsibility dimensions pertaining to the role of vice‐principals were identified. It was found that respondents spend most of their time on staff management and the least on resource management. Among the seven job dimensions, only strategic direction and policy environment were found to have an effect on their perceived preparation for the principalship.

The findings reflect that vice‐principals take their staff management and resource management responsibilities lightly as they do not perceive their extensive experience gained in staff management as an asset or their inadequate experience in resource management as a deficiency in preparing them for the principalship. As these two dimensions are the core elements of school‐based management, they deserve the attention of policy‐makers. In addition, policy‐makers should address the development of vice‐principals in the dimension of strategic direction and policy environment.

The paper, using a quantitative methodology, is the first to investigate the link between job responsibility dimensions and preparation for the principalship as perceived by vice‐principals.

This report examines the function of experience in the role of vice‐principal as preparation for the school principalship, proposing that a dysfunctional socialization outcome of this career entry pattern is the development of a role orientation that emphasizes managing rather than leading the school. The authors differentiate these two dimensions of the administrative role by suggesting that the managerial function emphasizes organizational stability and maintenance of the day‐to‐day operation, and that the leadership function emphasizes improvements in instructional and organizational arrangements facilitating teaching and learning. While a balance in functions is the preferred orientation implicit in theoretical as well as prescriptive models of the principalship, and principals themselves espouse the desirability of an instructional leadership emphasis, most empirical studies of the principalship indicate a substantial skewing of emphasis in the direction of managerial activities. The paper offers an empirically grounded theoretical explanation of this occurrence. Based on data from the studies of the enculturation process and the work activities of vice‐principals, and guided by socialization theory, the report discusses role‐learning implications of experience in the vice‐principalship role and concludes with seven propositions for further study.

The purpose of this paper is to explore successful school principalship in Cyprus based on a ten-year research project, and in particular, by analysing leadership knowledge based on concrete actions of successful school principals derived from multiple case studies from the primary and secondary education sectors in Cyprus.

The initial type of evidence was original qualitative empirical research undertaken through the examination of 11 case studies of successful primary and secondary school principals across Cyprus. Following, for the purposes of this paper a cross-case reanalysis was performed in order to extract successful actions from the participating school principals.

Based on the emerging actions from the cross-case analysis, findings indicate that successful school principals, both in primary and secondary education, develop external relations, as well as networking with all relevant actors; create a collaborative and shared ownership feeling among their members and within their school organization; and finally promote a clear vision, based on a specific number of values.

This overall effort led us to the articulation of certain successful actions, which could be related and compared to the results in other successful school principalship contexts. Furthermore, it could contribute to the cross-country comparative knowledge body on successful school principalship, with different educational policies and different social contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to review English-language publications about school principalship in China published between 1998 and 2013 and to present an overview of the authorship, topics, methodologies and key findings of these publications.

The methodology includes an exhaustive review of journal articles and book chapters about Chinese school principalship published in the English language. In total, 39 articles and 17 book chapters are identified for the 1998-2013 period. Qualitative analysis is conducted to determine the basic patterns of authorship, topics, methods and key findings. The changes or continuities in these patterns during the study period are also discerned.

The paper identifies several continuous and discontinuous patterns in each of the review categories and provides a better understanding of on-going research into the practice of school principalship in China. The results also suggest areas that require deeper exploration.

This paper explores the landscape of school principalship in China as reflected in the international literature and indicates the ways that this landscape has changed or remained the same over the years. As such, the paper contributes to the thin knowledge base concerning school principalship in China and sheds light on the enduring local-global tension in the evolution of education systems.

The purpose of this review is to add to the discussion of assistant principals (APs), a position that has been under‐represented in the professional literature.

An extensive search was undertaken on assistant principals, vice principals, and deputy head teachers from various sources, including journals, conference papers, doctoral dissertations, ERIC documents, articles from professional publications and organizations, and relevant books and chapters. Each document was thoroughly analyzed and common themes were identified.

The assistant principalship is a unique entity because the position lacks a precise job description yet entails numerous tasks to ensure the success of a school. Although the assistant principal is a critical leader in schools, the position is underutilized and under‐researched. This review analyzes the roles, responsibilities, training, socialization, and typologies of the assistant principal.

As a result of this research, it is suggested that the role of the assistant principal needs to be reconfigured. Additional research is needed in the areas of training, professional development, and transition to the principalship.

This article presents a unique comparison of the roles of APs throughout the past 30 years both in the USA and abroad. In addition, after examining the lack of university training and professional development for the assistant principalship, suggestions are made as to how APs can be better prepared for this critical leadership position.

The deputy principalship is one of the least understood roles in the schools of the restructured education systems of Australia. Little attention has been given by educational policy makers, academics and researchers as to how the deputy principal should contribute to the essential functions of the self‐managing school. Uses the research literature to identify the traditional role of the deputy principal and the factors which have constrained the evolution of the role. Assesses the effects of current policy initiatives for the deputy principalship in Australian education. An emergent facet of the role is proposed which gives greater emphasis to educational leadership in an administrative team. The failure of practitioners to make use of opportunities to reconceptualize the deputy principalship will marginalize the role to the central functions of the self‐managing school.

Although the importance of shared leadership to school success has been widely recognised in the literature, only scant attention has been paid to the feelings of vice‐principals over undertaking more responsibilities. Maintained by the researchers in this somewhat neglected area is the assertion that vice‐principals who find their jobs more satisfying have stronger desire for principalship whereas those experiencing less job satisfaction were more likely to wish to remain in their present roles. The feelings of vice‐principals towards their jobs thus warrant further investigation given the current shortage of principal applicants, which is predominately comprised of vice‐principals, in many places of the world. This paper aims to investigate this issue.

Taking into consideration that most of the studies on vice‐principalship in the literature have been descriptive and provided little empirical support, this study attempted to empirically verify the job satisfaction and desire for principalship link based on a quantitative survey covering vice‐principals in all Hong Kong secondary schools.

The results suggest that professional commitment, sense of efficacy and sense of synchrony are the three satisfaction factors affecting the desire of vice‐principals for becoming principals; the effect of the first two is positive whereas that of the last one is negative.

The negative relation between sense of synchrony and desire for principalship is worth noting; it suggested vice‐principals in Hong Kong who upheld the Chinese cultural value of workplace harmony had found it hard to strike a balance between maintaining a harmonious working relationship with colleagues and seeking for career advancement and thus chose to remain in their vice‐principal positions. The perceived tension between school performance and work harmony held by vice‐principals in Hong Kong is a crucial issue to be addressed by policy makers.

This paper is the first of its kind to investigate the direct link between job satisfaction and the career aspiration of vice‐principals using a quantitative methodology.

While school reform literature calls attention to incentives for teachers, little research or policy making has focused on school administrators′ incentives. Career incentives perceived by a sample of elementary school principals and the influence of career background on those incentives are examined. It was found, using both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis, that principals perceive their career as having economic, ancillary and task‐related rewards. However, principals varied in the kinds of incentives they preferred and the nature of their future goals. Principals who have moved among several school districts in their administrative careers are more likely to be satisfied and to emphasise incentives, such as contact with school constituencies, which come from staying in the principalship. In contrast, principals who have remained in the same district throughout their administrative careers are more likely to prefer those incentives which advancement to central office can offer.

This article draws on longitudinal research into the establishment of co‐principalships. It discusses this innovative approach to school management in relation to women’s negotiations of their motivations, aspirations and strategies for career advancement and work/life balance. Longitudinal case studies of three primary school co‐principal initiatives were carried out between 1995 and 2000. Repeat interviews and observations with co‐principals, board chairpersons and school staff were conducted. Interviews were also undertaken with parents; students; and representatives of state education agencies, national governing boards, principals’ associations and teacher unions, alongside analysis of school and state policy documents. The resulting case study narratives described how each co‐principalship was initiated and either established or dis‐established. A discourse analysis of these narratives then examined how links between discourse, knowledge and power were being negotiated and challenged, as the new subject position of “co‐principal” was being constructed in New Zealand. This article analyses the significance of the similarities and differences in the women’s career backgrounds, motivations and strategies for moving into management positions. As they initiated their co‐principalships, the women variously went “against the grain” and/or co‐opted elements of the new public management corporate executive model for school leadership, which was introduced within the radical state restructuring during the late 1980s and early 90s in New Zealand.

There is growing evidence of a worldwide shortage of persons willing to apply for vacant principal positions in schools. Reports a study about why more persons are not applying for principal positions in Catholic schools in New South Wales, Australia. An analysis of the career aspirations of those eligible and likely to apply at some stage for a principal position revealed a high level of “unwilling” respondents. Ranks and discusses ten factors identified from a study of their perceptions of issues that would discourage or encourage them to apply. The most significant negative factor is the impact on family and personal life. Others include gender issues and the nature of the selection and interview process. The significant positive factor is that principals have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others. Reflections on the findings include addressing the changing nature of school culture, the implications for the principalship and the need to develop a culture of leadership in schools.