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The Education Week Research Center released the results of a survey given to principals of educational institutions. The survey aimed to find out how the principals view themselves and whether their opinions coincide with the views of the teachers. The questions focused on the director and his/her image, while, on the other hand, the team repeated the same questions to teachers to see if there were differences in opinions.
The results between the two were surprisingly different. For example, while both sides agreed that it is important to maintain a good principal-teacher relationship (87% of the principals believe it is very important to have a good relationship with the teachers, and 81% of teachers agreed), 69% of the principals believe that their teachers feel the confidence to ask them for support when they face a problem. Still, only 25% of teachers feel sufficiently trusting to approach their principals.
More than half of the principals (77%) believe that their work impacts the work and learning environment “completely positively,” while only 37% of teachers support that idea. In this area, no director admitted to affecting the work environment adversely, while 22% of the teachers surveyed said that the director has a “somewhat negative” influence on the school environment, and 8% of the teachers stated that their superior has a totally negative impact on the work and school environment.
On the issue of support for innovations and initiatives, 86% of principals replied that they support teachers in initiating new projects. However, the teachers do not feel the same support; only 45% feel supported by their superiors to carry out innovations in their teaching work.
The survey also found significant differences between the level of friction perceived by teachers and principals. In the case of school discipline, for example, 52% of the teachers stated that it is the issue that causes the most friction between the two parties, while only 24% of principals had the same opinion. Concerning the philosophy of the institution, 21% of teachers say it can provoke problems in their relationship with their superiors, while only 9% of the principals see it that way.
Feedback (formal or informal) and its frequency is one of the topics where the survey found more differences of opinions between teachers and principals. According to the study, the majority of teachers surveyed (56%) would like to receive feedback only a few times a year, while the vast majority of principals believe that feedback should be monthly (39%) or even weekly (38%). On this same topic, 17% of teachers feel uncomfortable with the feedback received from their principals; by contrast, only 5% of principals see feedback as a factor that could damage their relationships with the teachers.
Besides showing the frequent tensions between bosses and employees in all sectors, the survey also demonstrates that in the educational industry, mainly, it is vital that principals have excellent communication and relationships with their teachers, given that the frictions and differences can significantly affect the school environment.
But the report indicates that the responsibility for achieving this harmony should not fall on only one side; both sides must work on this relationship. However, the results of this survey show that the biggest discrepancy is found on the management side, so they are the ones who will have to work harder to improve communication with their teaching faculty. The report also notes how important it is for principals to analyze and reflect upon how they express their leadership and how teachers experience it so that communication can be improved between the principals and teachers and the gap between them is reduced.
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