| Abstract: | This article reports results from an ongoing study of beginning school principals and is focused on the identification of professional concerns held by the principals during their first six months in office. The study involved two main methods of data collection: (a) site and telephone interviews with small samples of eight and four principals who first took up their principalships in Victorian schools in 1989 and 1990 respectively; and (b) questionnaire surveys of all beginning principals in the two cohorts from which the small samples were drawn. Analysis of the interview data using methods relevant to grounded theory, and comparison of the outcomes with selected data from the questionnaires lead to the identification of seven areas of major professional concern and five other areas of lesser concern. The relationship of the findings to other research on principals, and implications for the preparation and support of beginning principals, are discussed. |
