International agendas to reform education systems seeking to improve student outcomes has placed an increased attention on school improvement over the past four decades. The role of school leadership has been spotlighted as a crucial factor in driving such reforms and improvements within education systems (Leithwood, 2019). Furthermore, the evolving changes in education systems, policy, and curricula have placed increased and changing expectations on school leaders (Leithwood et al., 2019). Principal/head teachers are overburdened with responsibilities including financial and human resource management, alongside leadership for teaching and learning with the school (OECD, 2008, 2009, 2013). There has been a growing concern expressed by policy makers around high attrition and turnover rates in school leadership and a decline in applications to replace such turnover (IPPN, 2022; OECD, 2008; Tobin, 2023). Such hesitancy to apply for these roles is due to the increasingly demanding roles of the principal/head teacher that are observed by teachers in the system (Sugrue, 2015). In addition, it has also been found that reluctance to apply is also due to lack of support and insufficient preparation for the role (Burke et al., 2022; DeMatthews et al., 2019). In responding to the issues presented above, the past two decades have witnessed a policy turn to make leadership more sustainable, alongside an agenda to enhance the quality through supports such as professional learning and mentoring (De Matthews et al., 2021; Stynes & McNamara, 2019; Ummanel et al., 2016). A call by scholars and practitioners has flagged the need for principals/headteachers to be provided with time and capacity to focus on practices that are required to improve teaching and learning (IPPN, 2023; King et al., 2023). In addition, there has been a call for schools to be more autonomous through processes such as self-evaluation, coupled with distributed leadership alongside efforts to make the role of school leadership more attractive (Stynes & McNamara, 2019). Despite the above attempts to improve school leadership on the island of Ireland, the challenges of retaining and recruiting school leaders remains in both jurisdictions. While efforts have been made north and south to make schools more autonomous, evidenced in processes such as school self-evaluation and an increased attention towards distributed leadership within policy, a number of reports continue to raise concerns about the sustainability of principals/headteachers workload responsibilities (Murphy, 2023; Sugrue, 2015). In addition, the reports have also flagged that applications for principal/headteacher roles remain significantly low, and the heavy workload and demands have been attributed as one of the key factors.

Given the documented challenges internationally, alongside challenges to date on the island of Ireland, this research examines how early-career principal/headteachers are navigating the role. The voice of early-career leaders has gained wider attention in recent years, given that it can be a daunting transition from teacher to school leader, particularly where the expectations of their role significantly alter. Within this new occupation, they are tasked with driving leadership within the school setting. Yet, there is little research to date in both jurisdictions that has significantly unpacked their daily lived experiences as they navigate these roles and responsibilities (Murphy, 2023). Thus, our commissioned research delves directly into this. Our research is anchored further by exploring why they transitioned into the role, underpinned by a theoretical framework of occupational socialisation. Specifically, this framework draws on the research of Spillane and Lee (2014), which explores how “how novice principals become socialized into their new occupation in a particular school organization” (p. 434). 

This exploratory research focused on the experiences of early career principals/head teachers as they transitioned into this role. A qualitative approach was adopted as the most appropriate means of generating data (Creswell, 2017, 2022). A purposive sample was employed in the data collection process involving 10 principal/headteachers, 6 of whom worked in the Republic of Ireland (RoI), while 4 worked in Northern Ireland (NI). All principals/headteachers who engaged in the research were in the role for 5 years or less. This research was conducted within the ethical guidelines of the higher education institutes involved. Written consent for participation in the research was sought and granted by all participants, and the right to withdraw at any stage during the data collection phase was clearly expressed. Participants did not provide feedback on the data analysis. Pseudonyms have been used in the thematic analysis to protect the identity of the participants. Semi-structured open-ended interviews formed the basis of the data for analysis Within these semi-structured interviews, questions included experiences and influences which the principal/headteachers had prior to their promotion to principal/headteacher, their motivations to apply for the role of principal/headteacher, and their day-to-day experiences of enacting the role. Interviews were audio-taped and transcribed. Thematic analysis was used as a systematic approach to identify, organise, and offer insights into patterns or themes across our semi-structured interview dataset (Braun & Clarke, 2021). Inductive coding was adopted as the predominant approach where data were coded to capture the meaning within the data. Deductive analysis was also employed to ensure that the process of coding was relevant to the overarching research question and the theoretical constructs examined in the literature review, namely the process of socialisation and the tensions and challenges that have been documented in the international literature in relation to transitioning into the role of principal/headteacher. Coding combined semantic and latent approaches (Braun & Clarke, 2021) where the semantic approach produced descriptive analysis of the data and the latent approach moved beyond description, identifying underlying or hidden meanings (Braun & Clarke, 2021).

This research study provides in-depth insights into the experiences of how early-career principal teachers have transitioned into the role on the island of Ireland. The research highlights that they have been presented with numerous challenges, and for some their prior middle leadership experience and observation supported them to an extent, but there was an overwhelming sense-making process as they met these new roles and responsibilities (Spillane & Lee, 2014). For many the sole motivation to apply for the role was to “climb the ladder” in order to avail of better remuneration and career opportunities. While this finding may be common in a range of jurisdictions, we argue that more immersion of leadership learning across the continuum of teacher education might further inspire prospective leaders to work in this role. Therefore, alongside extrinsic factors such as pay and career progression, there may also be intrinsic motivation arising through immersion in leadership learning (King et al., 2020). While this is a small-scale qualitative research involving ten participants across the island of Ireland, the research findings reflect and corroborate a wide body of national and international research that has unpacked the role transition from teacher to principal/headteacher, and issues pertaining to the workload burden that is associated with the role of principal/head-teacher (IPPN, 2022; Murphy, 2023; Spillane & Anderson, 2014; Spillane & Lee, 2014; Stynes & McNamara, 2019; Sugrue, 2015). Therefore, this research contributes to the base of existing literature around sustainable leadership and the professional learning needs of principals, particularly for those who are within the early-career phase.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328-352. Creswell, J. (2017). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Sage Publications. Creswell, J. W. (2022). Research design: Qualitative and mixed methods approaches. Sage Publications. Irish Primary Principals Network [IPPN] (2022). Primary school leadership: The case for urgent action; A roadmap to sustainability. IPPN. King, F., McMahon, M., Roulston, S., & Nguyen, D. (2020). Leadership learning in initial teacher education (LLITE): Project report. SCOTENS. King, F., Brennan, A., & Gorman, A. (2023). Teacher professional learning: policy development to policy enactment. In: K.Jones, G. Ostinelli, & A. Crescentini (Eds.), Innovation in teacher professional learning in Europe: Research, policy and practice. Routledge. Leithwood, K. (2019. Leadership development on a large scale: Lessons for long term success. Corwin. Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins D. (2019). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership revisited. School Leadership & Management, 40(1), 5-22. Murphy, G. (2023). Leadership preparation, career pathways and the policy context: Irish novice principals’ perceptions of their experiences. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 51(1), 30-51. Spillane, J.P., & Anderson, L. (2014). The architecture of anticipation and novices’ emerging understandings of the Principal position: occupational sense making at the intersection of individual, organization, and institution, Teachers College Record, 116(7), 1-42. Spillane J.P., & Lee, L.C. (2014). Novice school principals’ sense of ultimate responsibility problems of practice in transitioning to the principal’s office, Educational Administration Quarterly 50(3), 431-465. Stynes, M., & Gerry McNamara, G. (2019) The challenge of perpetual motion: the willingness and desire of Irish primary school principals to juggle everything, Irish Educational Studies, 38(1), 25-42. Sugrue, C. (2015). Unmasking school leadership: A longitudinal life history of school leaders. Springer.