Craft wisdom and the certification of school principals: a qualitative study
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2009
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Abstract
The dissertation assumed there is a problem in the field of school administration, where the operative knowledge of skilled practitioners is widely regarded as illegitimate. The current practices and literature place a hypothetico-deductive assumption on the scientific metaphor and ignored the moral and personal aspects of practitioner knowledge in the training and certification of school principals. As a result, a new perspective is required in the preparation of principals. This study covered five countries, Australia, Canada (Ontario and Alberta), England, Sweden, and United States of America to determine if craft wisdom was present in the principal certification programs. In addition, four principals, who were directly involved with a four month Government of Alberta review regarding the certification of school principals in that province were interviewed to seek their interpretive perspective of the craft. Through interviews, I discerned their understandings of the elements which a certification program should contain and hence the presence or absence of the inclusion of craft wisdom. Craft wisdom is presented as a construct with three important characteristics. It is highly personal, it has a communal aspect, and it is embedded in ecological systems of thought. In that respect it contrasts with prevailing notions of administrative science, which defines itself in terms of generic skills and competencies. My research methodology was shaped by a sparse literature (Wolcott, 1973; Daresh, 1987; Cooper, 1988) which suggested that the formation of the principal' s role offers a strategic site for the exploration of craft wisdom. I collected data from academic literature, informant structured interviews, focus group, data provided by the principals and personal journals from each informant. I analyzed the data in the grounded theory mode (Charmaz, 2000, 2001; Strauss, 1987). I tested the validity of my conclusions by triangulation of technique and by periodic data gathering (Merriam, 1987). The significance of the study helped to establish the craft wisdom of the principalship as legitimate knowledge and a construct that should be included in the principal certification process. The study painted a rich portrait of the context of school leadership and the subtle wisdom of the craft perspective in Alberta schools.
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Bibliography: p. 351-376
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Thomson, L. M. (2009). Craft wisdom and the certification of school principals: a qualitative study (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/3031