Examining Early-Career Principals' Experiences with Coaching and Self-Efficacy Development in Wisconsin Public Schools

Research on principalship reveals that school leaders are entering the position with less experience and staying at their schools for shorter periods of time, resulting in more schools being led by novice principals. Additionally, research highlights how principals have a major influence on student achievement, teacher working conditions, and teacher retention. As a result, district leaders, and the outside organizations that support them, are faced with the challenge of inducting new principals and providing the support they need to be successful. Complicating this support are the myriads of skills, roles, and responsibilities that principals must master to be successful. This study examines the experiences early-career principals had engaging in coaching with outside organizations. Self-efficacy serves as the theoretical framework and provides a lens with which to view their growth. A single-embedded case study, utilizing semi-structured virtual interviews with participants from across the state, revealed several themes and findings that provide information to district leaders, outside organizations, and early-career principals themselves as they consider coaching as an induction support. Data analysis, using memoing and coding, confirmed the complexity of the principalship, particularly for those in the early-career stage, as they described a wide variety of needs and ways in which they received support through coaching. Data analysis also highlighted some of the conditions that did, or did not, contribute to the establishment of a close coach/principal connection, which appeared to be a prerequisite to growth. Alongside self-efficacy growth, the strategies employed by coaches were coded and analyzed to provide valuable information regarding the ways in which principals and their coaches engaged in coaching. Finally, participants in this study revealed that they believe coaching was an effective support and would recommend it as a viable option to consider when leading principal induction.