The Principalship in a New Zealand Secondary School: An Ethnographic Study

Abstract

This thesis describes a study, which was undertaken by the writer, of the principalship of a public secondary school for boys and girls in a provincial city in New Zealand. The writer employed an ethnographic approach to the study and placed his research focus on Jim Carr, Principal of Manoa College in Farmington, New Zealand. The fieldwork phase of the study took place throughout 1981 during which time the researcher endeavoured to 'get inside' the principalship of Jim Carr as the year progressed. The intention was to describe and interpret the principalship from the perspective of Jim Carr himself. ... The distinguishing feature of the present study, therefore, is its use of ethnographic techniques over a sustained period of time as a means of describing and interpreting the actual day-to-day life of a New Zealand secondary school principal in his school. This study provides a record, in the form of description and interpretation, of a year in the school life of one such principal. The reader will encounter the school world of Jim Carr - the events, people, issues and concerns with which he is involved at Manoa College and against which readers will be able to consider their own likely behaviour as the school world of Jim Carr unfolds throughout the thesis. The study ends with a set of conclusions, in the form of a theory of the principalship which are developed from the data of the study itself and which are available for further testing by subsequent researchers.