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Teachers' Perspectives on Principal Mistreatment
Teacher Education Quarterly, Fall 2006 by Blase, Joseph, Blase, Jo
* Withholding resources and denying opportunities and credit: Principals unfairly withheld needed instructional resources, denied teachers opportunities for professional development (e.g., to attend conferences), and took credit for teachersí accomplishments (e.g., grant proposals).
* Favoritism: Principals routinely rewarded ìselectÎ faculty and punished and/or neglected other faculty.
* Unprofessional personal conduct: Some principals had affairs with other teachers and pursued personal interests during the school day (e.g., working on oneís car).
Level 2 Principal Mistreatment: Direct and Escalating Aggression
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This section identifies some of the direct and escalating aggressive forms of mistreatment analyzed from our data. Level 2 Principal Mistreatment Behaviors included:
* Spying: Principals monitored teachers by situating themselves near classroom doorways, listening in on classes via the intercom, and soliciting the services of ìfavoredÎ teachers and/or parents as informants.
* Sabotaging: Principals manipulated other faculty to undermine teacher efforts designed to benefit students or colleagues (e.g., directed other teachers not to help targeted teachers).
* Stealing: Principals were accused of stealing teachersí items (e.g., journals, food, equipment).
* Destroying teachers' instructional aids: Some principals literally destroyed instructional aids (e.g., reading lofts) or ordered them removed from classrooms.
* Making unreasonable demands: Principals overloaded teachers with extra work responsibilities; in several cases, principals forced teachers to do their (the principalsí) work.
* Criticism: Principals routinely and unfairly criticized teachers both privately and publicly for a wide range of reasons. Criticism was often associated with strong negative affect (e.g., yelling, pounding the desk). Public criticism of teachers occurred in the presence of others in the front office areas, in hallways, in classrooms, in the lunchroom, and the school parking lot.
Level 3 Principal Mistreatment: Direct and Severely Aggressive
From the foregoing, it is apparent that principals who abuse teachers do so in a variety of verbal and nonverbal ways and that such abuse includes Level 1 (indirect, moderately aggressive) and Level 2 (direct, escalating aggression) Principal Mistreatment Behaviors. As devastating as these levels of mistreatment are for teachers, principal mistreatment includes even more aggressive and severe forms of abuse: Level 3 Principal Mistreatment Behaviors, glimpses of which have been foreshadowed in Level 2 behaviors.
According to our data, victimized teachers believed that most of the principals they described ìintended to harmÎ and even ìdestroyÎ them and that many such principals were quite aware of the damage they caused. For instance, most principals failed to investigate issues before ìattackingÎ the teacher. And, when teachers confronted abusive principals about their conduct and its destructive effects on them, such principals typically denied all allegations, blamed the teacher, and engaged in further reprisals against them. Most Level 3 forms of principal mistreatment were strongly associated with various forms of deception and included:
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