*4.2.2 Excessive time expended on administrative issues*

Principal supervisors who participated in interviews for this study were prompted to discuss some of the administrative pressures and tasks that they faced. Principal supervisor Bruno explained how he often came across emergency management situations and did his best to resolve them quickly and make an effort to offer practical remedies. He provided an illustration of how he handled these pressing circumstances:

*Sometimes, I am urgently called for administrative matters. For example, I had an email from a principal to see me urgently. I replied, "Tell me about the situation. Why do you need to see me?" and "Okay, I can be there on Thursday morning." I clearly recognized the stressful situations when I was a school principal. It is amazing what happens ... Let them know about things I know that actually remove that stress, and then you can make better decisions. And so you get somebody's trust where you can talk those things through…*

In agreement with Bruno, principal supervisor Julia underlined the importance of supervisors' accessibility and presence for principals. However, Julia cautioned that doing so came with a significant cost to instructional leadership. Principal supervisor Emmy also described a number of pressing circumstances in which she worked with principals to address difficulties that required serious consideration and focused attention. Principal supervisor Khalid added that principal supervisors had no choice but to pay attention to operational matters in spite of the heavy emphasis placed on their role as instructional leaders. He noted:

*This is inevitable… that we have to look into administrative issues… If a principal calls and asks for help about school routine issues, like parent complains, testing, school finance, regulations, and polices … we give them consultation … And in most cases, we visit schools to solve those matters … It is part of our job to smoothen things up and solve issues that principals might face and have no clue how to solve.*

The principal supervisors recognized that over the past 10 years, their roles and duties had changed considerably from being traditionally enforcers of district policy to being supervisors involved in helping their principals develop their instructional leadership practices. Notwithstanding, the accounts of principal supervisors revealed that there was a strong need to handle the day-to-day concerns principals had about their school and be present on site. However, they also acknowledged that establishing instructional leadership as a focus was the most valuable investment they could make to improve the overall success of their schools and student achievement.

Collaboration with the central office was another responsibility principal supervisors identified as cumbersome. They struggled to find time to visit their schools on a regular basis because of the intense duties required by the central office. The literature is replete with the assertion that if supervisors are only concerned with the administrative responsibilities of principals, they afford minimal benefits to schools [39]. Researchers concur that it is crucial to bind instructional leadership to supervision and prevent administrative duties from being shrouded [6]. Honig and Rainey, who researched the behavioral patterns of principal supervisors for nearly 10 years, further contended that it would be preferable for principal supervisors to delegate the managerial and logistical concerns to other capable individuals so that they could fully concentrate on assisting principals as they ensured high-quality instruction and learning for all students [22].

## *4.2.3 The absence of professional development*

"No PD [is] specifically designated for principal supervisors," principal supervisors Khalid and Julia emphasized. In place of professional development, principal supervisors "regularly meet together to discuss certain elements," such as standards for the principal evaluation process, requirements, professional development, and everyday difficulties that other principal supervisors are experiencing. By doing so, they exchanged information, monitored the condition of their schools, heard opinions from other supervisors, and addressed relevant issues. While this group collaboration was beneficial in some ways, principal supervisor Julia still felt that the district office should provide "ongoing professional development for principal supervisors" in relation to their fundamental responsibilities of "providing feedback," "coaching," "supervising," "asking questions," and "mentoring."

According to principal supervisor Maria, the district office only invited "people from different divisions to speak at set meetings to enlighten ... [them] about changes in curriculum, assessments, and district policies." However, without professional development, principal supervisors were left to strictly follow their "job description" as a manual for their practice. In addition, they relied heavily on self-reflection in an attempt to improve upon their practices and become more effective as supervisors. Principal supervisor Edward concluded that principal supervisors worked on developing their practices at varying degrees. Principal supervisor Bruno added his perspective as well:

*From [the] onset of our job as principal supervisors, we have not been taking any professional development. And most of our staff [principal supervisors] comes from different countries, cultures, and experiences … all shaped by different educational systems and having different experiences. While this could be beneficial, it also leads to variations and gaps in performance in supervision and evaluation. It is highly important to offer professional development for all principal supervisors.*

According to Bruno, professional development was a crucial link in the improvement process. He asserted that just as principals participated in continual training to help them better manage their schools, principal supervisors should have the

### *The Roles, Challenges, and Needs of Principal Supervisors: A Case Study DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108834*

opportunity to do the same to help them better oversee their principals. Principal supervisors need continual professional growth to be able to provide high-quality supervision with devotion and drive. Principal supervisor Emmy explained, "Welldeveloped and structured PDs will enable us to maintain competence, become aware of current trends and practices, and assist in providing quality services." She concluded that principal supervisors ran the risk of stagnation without ongoing professional development.

The literature contained mixed results regarding how common it was for districts to provide professional development for principal supervisors. One study [40] reported on a few districts that did offer professional development while others [6, 23, 36] found that some districts offered none. Principal supervisors may have significant struggles due to personal shortcomings and a lack of supervisory expertise in districts where no professional development is provided. Moreover, insufficient skills when performing supervisory duties affects not only the educational programs, but also the whole process of supervision and evaluation. Goldring et al. cautioned districts to strike a balance between what they expected from their supervisors and their actual capabilities, offer differentiated assistance, foster a system of consistent professional standards, and establish robust professional development [7].
