Investigation of Tacit Knowledge in Principal Leadership

Abstract

This study investigated how tacit knowledge was used by expert and novice principals during problem-solving situations. Through the use of a phenomenological, qualitative approach, novice principals were compared with expert principals as both went about their daily tasks of school leadership. Results of the study contribute to the research on effective leadership and offer implications for leadership training models. Results suggest that experience may not be the most critical factor in expertise.

Though extensive research exists on the practices of effective principals, few studies have focused on the strategic and practical knowledge that these principals display as they encounter myriad tasks on a daily basis (Hallinger and Heck 1998). How does this on-the-job knowledge differ between expert and novice principals? Why do some principals continually function at their zenith and others careen from one crisis to another?

Epistemology and Practice

Tacit knowledge is grounded in experience. Consequently, definitions of it have ranged from "practical wisdom" (Zeira and Rosen 2000,103) and intuition, to "knowledge that is bound up in the activity and effort that produced it" (Horvath 1999, ix). The philosophical framework of tacit knowledge is found in the work of Polanyi (i'967), who applied his medical experience to conceive a description that underlies much of the current research in this area across fields. Polanyi (1967, 6) distinguished tacit knowledge from Gestalt, arguing that tacit knowledge is not the activity of spontaneous perception, but the outcome of the "active shaping of experience performed in the pursuit of knowledge." According to Polanyi (1967,16), when we understand soniething.tacitly, we "incorporate it in our body." Polanyi further described tacit knowing as indwelling and interiorization. By indwelling, Polanyi didn't mean learning through empathy or by looking at things; instead, tacit knowing meant dwelling in things. Following Polanyi's thesis, true understanding for educational leaders emerges through application or practice. Polanyi explained that just as one cannot understand fully a poem by reading about poetic structure, neither can individuals employ empirical knowledge to understand reality.

Studies of tacit knowledge within the military, medical, legal, and business fields have explored a range of differences in the ways experts and novices approach and resolve problems (Boshuizen and Schmidt 1990; Hedlund et al. 1999; Klein et al. 1993; Ohde and Murphy 1993; Randel, Pugh, and Reed 1996; Spaeth 1999; Sternberg and Wagner 1986). Some researchers have concluded that intelligence, as traditionally measured, accounts for less than 25 percent of successful job performance (Sternberg et al. 1995). Though performance on cognitive intelligence tests decreases with age, the tacit knowledge involved in problem solving appears to increase with advanced age.

Tacit Knowledge and School Leadership Expertise

Little research has been conducted on educational leaders' tacit knowledge and problem-solving abilities (Nestor-Baker and Hoy 2001). Some researchers, such as Hallinger and McCary (1990), who studied problem-based approaches to creating strategic thinking among school principals, touched on this area indirectly. These researchers (1990, 104) outlined key components of effective leadership, including the need to develop "spontaneous access" to the implicit knowledge that is not taught in traditional leadership training programs.

In their study of school superintendents' tacit knowledge, Nestor-Baker and Hoy (2001) found that after sustaining board relations, expert superintendents emphasized interpersonal relationships. Findings also showed that successful superintendents possessed a greater store of tacit knowledge than their less successful counterparts. Nestor-Baker and Hoy (2001,123) described this phenomenon as follows:

The reputationally successful-those who can be considered as expert performers-have larger amounts ofif-then scenarios to draw on in navigating the superintendency, allowing them a seemingly intuitive orientation to the tasks at hand.

Though intuitive descriptions may seem antithetical to the current emphasis on scientifically based approaches to instruction, researchers have distinguished decisions arising from a mixture of facts and feelings from supernormal effects (Agor 1989). When Hart et al. (1996) compared the problem-solving errors made by expert school administrators to those committed by novices, they found that timing-arguably a characteristic of either judgment or intuition-was critical. Most errors made by novice administrators involved reaching decisions or closure too soon during the problem-solving process. Both novice and expert administrators drew upon previous experiences, yet experts were able to obtain greater "feedback from context" (Hart et al. 1996, 16), which is a characteristic of the situated nature of tacit knowledge (Eraut et al. 2000; Von Krogh, Ichijo, and Nonaka 2000).