Principal's Management Style and Patterns of Teacher Implementation Across Multiple Innovations

ABSTRACT

Traditional studies of educational change fail to explain how principals and teachers deal with change in curriculum and instruction on an ongoing basis. This study investigated the management and implementation of multiple innovations in curriculum and instruction over a two year period in two elementary schools. The study provides empirical support for theories which hold that principal's management style tends to be stable across multiple changes. The study also reveals that the innovation adoption and implementation behaviours of teachers in an elementary school can be patterned across multiple changes. Recurrent levels of use, outcomes and patterns of interaction between innovations were found across innovations in each school. These differences were consistent with the different management styles of the two principals.