Principal and vice principal psychological safety in British Columbia : an institutional ethnography

Institutional practices and social relations are impacting the psychological safety of principals and vice principals in British Columbia (BC). Psychological safety is the belief that the environment is safe for people to share their perspectives or to ask questions without fear of being rejected, shamed, or punished in some way for doing so. Despite communication with district leaders being essential to driving school change, BC principals and vice principals are experiencing relatively low levels of psychological safety in their communication with district leaders. This inquiry set out to discover under what circumstances principals and vice principals do and do not speak up, ask questions, and share their ideas with district leaders. This research looks particularly at institutional practices and social relations and how they impact the psychological safety of principals and vice principals, because little is known about the impact of these practices. The findings of this research suggest what supports, services, or practices would increase psychological safety for principals and vice principals. Institutional ethnography was used as a methodology to explore how principals’ and vice principals’ experiences of psychological safety are being socially constructed. Research methods included interviews with nine principals and vice principals, the exploration of texts that impact their work, researcher reflections, and subsequent interviews with four superintendents. The institutional practices and social relations that were found to be impacting psychological safety included meeting structures and practices, hierarchical power differences, the understanding of principals’ and vice principals’ fiduciary duty, and unwritten and often unexamined workplace rules. This research found a disjuncture between the role and responsibility of school administrators—to be a connection between schools and the district office—and what is actually iv playing out in their day-to-day work. Embedding institutional factors that promote psychological safety will open up this vital communication between schools and district offices. When principals and vice principals feel safe to share ideas and ask questions at a district level, it is possible to open up creativity, learning, and success for school administrators themselves, their teams, and the school district as a whole.