Principalship, History of

Until the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, full-time building administrators were not typically found in schools. Since then, the role of the principal has constantly been reshaped, redefined, and renegotiated due to changing demographics, conflicting societal values, and shifting expectations. Throughout the history of the modern American school, differences in political, social, and economic philosophies have had a major impact on the development and organization of education in general. Immigration, urbanization, the rise of great corporations, the traumas of two world wars, the Great Depression, the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, and the high-stakes accountability movement of the 1990s influenced the values of society, reshaped the purpose of schooling, and increased the demands of the principalship. This entry reviews that history.

The emergence of the principalship during the late 1800s created the shift of the administrative leader from “head teacher” to “principal.” The professional-ization of the principalship during the early 1900s was the process of formal recognition and acceptance of the role. The anti-intellectualism of the principalship between the years 1940 and 1960 questioned the transition from scientific management through the human relations movement to the theory movement. The constancy and change of the principalship throughout the 1960s and 1970s highlighted the tensions between those seeking stability and the maintenance of traditional values and those pressing for change. The reform and restructuring of the principalship from 1980 to 2000 charted the shift in demands from management and control with forced compliance to shared decision making and decentralized site-based management. This entry explores this development of the principalship from its inception to the present, and concludes by outlining the challenges and promises of the principalship for the twenty-first century.