Journal of In-Service Education

ISSN: 1367-4587 (Print) 1747-5082 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjie19

The school principal's role in teacher professional

development

Paul V. Bredeson

To cite this article: Paul V. Bredeson (2000) The school principal's role in teacher
professional development, Journal of In-Service Education, 26:2, 385-401, DOI:
10.1080/13674580000200114

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13674580000200114

Published online: 20 Dec 2006.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 12837

View related articles

Citing articles: 19 View citing articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rjie19

Download by: [60.49.45.125] Date: 15 September 2016, At: 08:53

Journal of In-Service Education, Volume 26, Number 2, 2000

The School Principal’s Role in

Teacher Professional Development

PAUL V. BREDESON
University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
OLOF JOHANSSON
University of Umeå, Sweden

ABSTRACT School principals exercise significant influence on teacher

professional development. We identify four areas where principals have the
opportunity to have a substantial impact on teacher learning. These
include: 1. the principal as an instructional leader and learner; 2. the
creation of a learning environment; 3. direct involvement in the design,
delivery and content of professional development; and 4. the assessment of
professional development outcomes.

The most important responsibility of every educator is to provide

the conditions under which people’s learning curves go off the
chart. Whether one is called a principal, a teacher, a professor, a
foundation official, or a parent, our most vital work is promoting
human learning ... and above all our own learning. (Barth, 1996,
p. 56)

Introduction
Among educational policy makers, researchers and practitioners, there is
an emerging consensus that teacher professional development is vitally
important to educational reform as we aproach the next millennium. In
fact, it seems trite to assert that teacher professional development is
critically important to school improvement focused on enhanced student
learning outcomes. Nevertheless, there continues to be a need to
communicate the importance of continuous learning and development for
educators, individually and collectively, to people in and out of schools.
Without clearly articulated and documented evidence of its overall
contribution to school success, professional development can easily

385
Paul V. Bredson & Olof Johansson

become the victim of capricious budget cutting or, worse, be relegated to

the scrap heap of educational fads and ephemeral educational elixirs.
There is a large body of evidence that identifies design principles for
effective, high quality professional development. Developing guidelines
for the design, delivery and evaluation of outcomes is an important first
step in the development of professional learning cultures in schools.
Examples of these guidelines can be found in the Standards for Staff
Development (American Federation of Teachers (AFT), 1995; Lieberman,
1995; National Staff Development Council (NSDC), 1995; National
Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching (NPEAT), 1998;
Darling-Hammond & Sykes, 1999). Developing lists of design principles is
important, but identifying them is generally much easier than
implementing them effectively. The hard work comes in putting the
design principles into practice with real people in the dynamic and
complex environments of schools.
Within schools, the principal is in a unique position to influence the
implementation of these guiding principles and to affect the overall
quality of teacher professional development. One of the primary tasks of
school principals is to create and maintain positive, and healthy teaching
and learning environments for everyone in the school, including the
professional staff. The purpose of this article is to examine the ways in
which principals influence teachers’ learning and development in their
schools. We describe the school principal’s roles and responsibilities in
teacher professional development, and their impact on the nature of
principals’ work, the growth and development of teachers, and impact on
the school and its environment.
We rely on three primary sources of data in our discussion. First, we
reviewed current research, policy reports, working papers, and standards
documents on school principals and teacher professional development.
Secondly, we conducted two focus-group interviews with principals to
help us frame critical issues, from their perspectives, about the roles of
school principals in teacher professional development. These preliminary
interviews suggested several general organisers for subsequent data
collection. Our focus group respondents described teacher in-service as
one of three general types of experiences for teachers. The first type is
individual professional development, i.e. academic subject knowledge
and learning determined mainly by teachers’ individual interests. The
second type is skills training, primarily driven by the introduction of new
technologies and/or the school’s need for new professional competencies
in specific areas. Skills training typically leads to direct changes in
teacher skill levels and changes in particular aspects of their daily work.
The third type of in-service experience was described as ‘the information
shower’. During these sessions the focus is on the dissemination of
information with little expectation that there will be any effect or very
minimal impact on teachers and their work. These three general types of

386
 SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

teacher in-service experiences informed the final phase of data collection

in which we examined specific ways in which principals supported
teacher learning in schools. Based on our findings from the first two data
sources, we developed, piloted and conducted 48 structured interviews
with teachers, principals and other school administrators on the role of
school principals in teacher professional development.
The term professional development, ubiquitous in current literature,
is often used interchangeably with such terms as staff development, in-
service, skills training and continuing education. We believe there are
meaningful distinctions among these terms. To avoid confusion and to
clarify what we mean by teacher professional development, we opt for a
more inclusive definition in this article. ‘Professional development refers
to learning opportunities that engage teachers’ creative and reflective
capacities to strengthen their practice.’ (Bredeson, 1999, p. 4) Teachers
participate in a wide range of professional activities in and beyond their
work. Our particular focus in this article is on those experiences that
engage teachers’ creative and reflective skills in ways that effect deeper
understanding of their work and improved teaching practice.

Background
Linking Professional Development,
Teaching Quality and Student Achievement
Even the casual reader of educational reform reports, legislative
mandates and contemporary educational literature would soon discover
one common theme: teacher professional development is critical to
systemic educational reform and school improvement focused on
enhancing learning outcomes for all children in public education. These
include calls to: create stable, high quality sources of professional
development for teachers (National Commission on Teaching and
America’s Future (NCTAF), 1996; Bredeson, 1999); incorporate teachers’
learning into the fabric of teachers’ daily life National Foundation for the
Improvement of Education (NFIE), 1996); establish professional
development as a central component of state and local educational
reform (Houghton & Goren, 1995; Darling-Hammond & Sykes, 1999;
Johansson & Bredeson, 1999); transform professional development to
meet urgent educational needs (Porter et al, 1994; Corcoran, 1995);
consider alternatives to traditional training models of staff development
(Little, 1993; Sparks, 1995); deal more directly with issues of racism and
inequity in schools (Weissglass, 1997); develop practices that support
new conceptions of teaching, learning, and schooling (Lieberman, 1995;
Loucks-Horsley et al, 1999); and break the mould to classroom practices
through new professional development practices (McLaughlin &
Oberman, 1996).

387
Paul V. Bredson & Olof Johansson

The National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in

Teaching (NPEAT, 1998) identified eight design principles based on
current research and best practices in schools. The most effective
professional development:
Focuses on analyses of student learning, especially the
examination of differences between actual student learning
outcomes and goals and standards for student learning.

Involves teachers identifying their own needs and developing

learning experiences to meet those needs.

Is school-based and embedded in teachers’ daily work.

Is organized around collaborative problem-solving.

Is continuous and on-going with follow-up and support for further

learning.

Incorporates evaluation of multiple sources of data detailing

student learning and teacher instructional practices.

Provides opportunities for teacher to link the theory that underlies

knowledge and skills they are learning.

Is connected to a comprehensive change process focused on

improved student learning. (NPEAT, 1998)

School Principals’ Influence on Teacher Professional Development

School principals’ ability to influence the structure, culture and mission
of the school is well documented in the literature. Creating a vibrant and
successful learning community is a collaborative venture among all staff
in any school. School principals’ leadership in the area of teacher
professional development is critical to the creation and success of a
school learning community. The National Staff Development Council, for
example, recently adopted standards for staff development in the United
States. In the description of how these standards will be implemented in
schools, principals are cited as key players who provide strong
leadership in staff development through their advocacy, support, and
ability to influence others (NSDC, 1995). Similarly, the Standards for School
Leaders articulate knowledge, dispositions, and performance
competencies that principals need to ‘promote the success of all students
by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and
instructional program conducive to student learning and staff
development’ (Interstate School leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC),
1996).

388
 SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

Learning is what schools are all about and the school principal must
understand the ways in which teacher learning and growth is connected
to student learning and development. Principals work to embed life-long
learning into the everyday life of students and teachers knowing that, ‘it
enriches the ambience of the school and makes it into a place of
excitement, energy, and direction’ (Golde, 1998, p. 2). However, Golde
points out that traditional school structures and norms often mitigate
against the development of learning communities where all staff are
committed to continuous learning. Part of the principal’s role is to help
people inside and outside of the school unfreeze current values,
expectations, structures and processes so new ways of thinking about
teaching, learning, and schooling can be considered (Bredeson, 1999).
Within the school, principals understand that successful school change
and school improvement requires a focus on teacher professional
development (Hart & Bredeson, 1996; Krajewski, 1996). As Dufour &
Berkey (1995) suggest, ‘Focusing on people is the most effective way to
change any organisation. In fact, it can be argued that organisations do
not change, only individuals change’ (p. 2). They offer 10 suggestions for
ways in which principals can promote organisational development by
focusing on teacher professional development. They include:

Create consensus on the school and what it’s trying to become.

Identify, promote and protect shared values.

Monitor the critical elements of the school improvement effort.

Ensure systematic collaboration throughout the school.

Encourage experimentation.

Develop a commitment to professional growth.

Provide one-on-one staff development.

Provide staff development programs that are purposeful and

research based.

Promote individual and organisational self-efficacy.

Stay committed to continuous improvement and the goal of

becoming a learning organisation (pp. 3–5).
Their central premise is that by focusing first on people and their needs,
principals ‘help create conditions which enable staff to develop so that
the school can achieve its goals more effectively’ (p. 2).
In a comprehensive study of professional development designed for
teachers of science and mathematics, the authors draw attention to the

389
Paul V. Bredson & Olof Johansson

importance of developing leadership capacity within schools to support

teacher learning. ‘The support of leaders – both those in positions of
authority such as principals and those with more expertise than teachers
taking part in the professional development – legitimises changes,
provides resources, and creates expectations that changes will occur’
(Loucks-Horsley et al, 1998, p. 199). To move teacher learning into
changes in classroom practices that support student success,
administrator leadership is required, especially that of the principal:
Principals, for example, support changes in elementary school
mathematics and science through such roles as advocate,
facilitator of curriculum selection or development, provider of
funds and other resources, broker of professional development
and other support, monitor of progress, and troubleshooter
(Mechling & Oliver, 1983). Principals can protect teachers from
competing demands and premature expectations for success.
(Loucks et al, 1999, p. 203)
The review of literature clearly identifies areas in which school principals
can positively influence the learning environments in their schools
through leadership in the area of teacher professional development.
Notwithstanding the importance of the principals’ efforts to support
teacher learning and growth, we believe it is important to state at the
outset that teachers are autonomous professionals responsible for and in
control of their own learning. Thus, the role of the school principal is to
encourage, nurture and support teacher learning, not to be the
gatekeepers or governors of teacher professional development. In this
article, we make the argument that as teachers begin to reflect upon, and
transform their own conceptions of professional learning and continuous
growth in their work in schools, principals correspondingly need to
engage in practices that support teachers’ professional development. We
turn next to a more detailed discussion of these supportive practices
based on our analyses of interview data.

Presentation and Discussion

Our data indicate four general areas where school principals have
significant influence on teacher professional development. Figure 1
illustrates these points of impact. First, who principals are, what they
believe and espouse, and what they do as leaders greatly affect teacher
professional development in schools. Secondly, as educational leaders
principals are responsible for creating, nurturing, and maintaining a
healthy and productive learning environment in their schools. Thirdly,
principals can directly influence the design, delivery and content of
teacher professional development in their schools. Fourthly, principals,
in collaboration with others, evaluate the outcomes of professional

390
 SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

development. We use these four areas of impact as the organisers for the
presentation and discussion of our findings.

80mm

Figure 1. School principals’ influence on teacher professional development.

School Principals: instructional leaders and learners

Who principals are as people, what they believe, and what they know and
are able to do significantly influence teacher professional development in
schools. We identified four key roles in which school principals exert
influence on teacher learning in their schools – (1) stewards, (2) models,
(3) experts and (4) instructional leaders.

Stewards
Principals are stewards of learning who value learning and commit
themselves to it in their daily work. They understand the connections
among teacher professional development, student learning, and school
quality. Believing that teacher learning is an integral part of school
improvement, they communicate its value and purposes consistently to
staff, students, parents, school board members, and other policy makers.
Schools and the professionals who work in them are buffeted by various
political and social external forces. The focus on student learning can
easily become lost in a sea of organisational changes that focus more on
institutional responsiveness and meeting the needs of adults than
children’s learning. Without a clear sense of purpose and direction, a

391
Paul V. Bredson & Olof Johansson

school can drift from its primary mission of serving the needs of children.
As stewards, principals help keep the focus and goals of teacher
professional development on student learning. Finally, principals serve
the needs of students and their school through their commitment to the
fair and ethical treatment of all learners recognising that equity and
justice require an understanding and responsiveness to diversity of
learner needs and styles.

Models
Scholars of organisational culture and leadership tell us that if you want
to know what’s important in a school, watch what the principal does.
Without a doubt, school principals have much more influence on the
beliefs and practices of their teachers as models of life-long learning than
as mere spokespersons. Principals who ‘walk-the-talk’ are enthusiastic,
hard-working learners. They establish learning as the core of their
practice and they set the tone, direction, and expectations for learning in
the school by what they pay attention to, what they do, and what they
reward. Principals as learners set individual learning goals for
themselves. They also model what they espouse by participating actively
in staff development in their school. We emphasise the importance of
modeling by using a negative example. For instance, principals who
warmly welcome teachers to a staff development day and then quickly
excuse themselves to do more important administrator work undercut
teacher development and the learning culture of their school in several
ways. First, such cavalier administrator behaviour suggests that other
tasks in school are more important than the learning that will occur in
this session.
With this type of modeling, it should come as no surprise to
principals that teachers bring articles to grade and other work with them
to staff meetings, and in-service sessions. Second, this negative example
of modeling also underscores the traditional power differential between
teachers and principals, especially in the area of professional autonomy.
Teachers are required to attend, while principals can choose whether or
not the activity meet their needs. We are not arguing that principals
should participate in every teacher activity. Our point is a simple one –
principals as learners have significant influence on the attitudes and
behaviors of teachers as learners.

Expert
The ISLLC Standards for School Leaders (1996) indicate that successful
school leadership is anchored in professional expertise in teaching,
learning, and schooling. What principals know and can do establishes
their credibility as educational leaders. As experts, principals need

392
 SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

specialised knowledge and skills in such areas as cognition and learning

theory, models of teaching, human growth and development, motivation
theory, school change, applications of technology, assessment, and adult
learning. Expert knowledge is important, but it is not enough. Principals
need to put their professional knowledge into actions to create, support,
and improve the learning environment for everyone in their schools.

Instructional Leader
Instructional leadership is a key responsibility for school principals.
Complementing principals’ tasks focused on the design of teaching and
learning in the school, principals’ instructional leadership also influences
teacher professional development. In this capacity, principals use a
variety of activities to encourage and celebrate learning. These include
school mottos, symbols and other visual displays, media announcements,
awards ceremonies, first day of school rituals, celebrations for individual
and group accomplishment, and personal expressions of congratulations
through daily interactions with students and teachers. The message
communicated is that learning is central to the energies and efforts of
everyone in the school. As instructional leaders, principals also need to
follow through on various initiatives and training opportunities, by paying
attention to needs and resources to accomplish learning objectives and
school goals. Joyce & Showers (1988) remind us that changes in teachers’
classroom practices are resource hungry and require significant amounts
of time. Follow-through in the form of modeling, feedback, coaching, and
support are critical resources for implementing changes in teachers’
classroom practices successfully. Additionally, as teachers experience
various stresses embedded in professional renewal and changes in
routines, principals help maintain a positive attitude about learning and
how changes in teaching practices have the potential to improve student
learning and school quality. Finally, as instructional leaders principals
need to be willing to confront problems and help teachers deal with the
contradictions that inevitably accompany teacher professional
development and school change.

Creating a Learning Environment:

communicators, supporters and managers
Creating a supportive environment in which teachers can continue to
grow and improve their professional practice is the second area where
principals exert significant influence on teacher learning and
development in schools. There are three primary roles in which
principals help shape the structural, political and cultural context, so that
teacher professional development flourishes: (1) communicator, (2)
supporter and (3) manager.

393
Paul V. Bredson & Olof Johansson

Communicator
Research indicates that school principals accomplish much of their daily
work through verbal interactions and interpersonal communications, that
is, talk (Peterson, 1978; Bredeson, 1988; Gronn, 1983; Hart & Bredeson,
1996). In their daily interactions with teachers, principals help create a
collective view of professional self-efficacy emphasising how teacher
learning and improved classroom practices affect student learning.
Principals set high expectations for learning and for professional
practices. Helping teachers individually and collectively believe in
themselves as professionals is particularly important in a reform era in
which the media, aggressive policy makers, and the public often portray
teachers as part of the problem in education, rather than the promise for
school improvement. Principals are in a unique organisational position
that provides multiple opportunities for them to articulate messages
about the purpose, structure, and impact of teacher professional
development to parents, students, school board members, and the
general public.
Talk is an important part of principals’ work, but so is listening. By
listening principals empower teachers – acknowledging their experiences,
expertise, and professional autonomy – all of which are essential to a
healthy professional learning community. As communicators, principals
also provide teachers opportunities to foster meaningful dialogue around
professional development. In these dialogues principals give voice to
teacher autonomy and professional decision-making in ways that build
collective leadership capacity in the school to strengthen teacher
learning and classroom practices.
Finally, principals in one of our focus groups described themselves
as ‘creators of tension’ in their schools. They characterised what they did
as instructional leaders not so much as sources of organisational stress,
but rather as professional colleagues and critical friends who contributed
creative tension to conversations about teaching and learning. In various
interactions with teachers, especially in evaluation conferences, they
described how they helped teachers become more reflective and critical
about their teaching practices. For example, in conversations principals
tried to stretch teachers’ thinking and ultimately their practice by posing
questions, challenging assumptions, and collaborative problem solving.

Supporter
Providing support for teacher learning and growth is also a vital role for
school principals. Our respondents described a wide array of support.
Financial support for such things as conferences, travel, substitute
teachers, materials, tuition fees for graduate studies, programme budgets
and stipends for consultants, were among the types of financial support

394
 SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

identified. Another form of support is provided when principals create a

learning environment in which teachers can take risks, experiment with
new ideas and practices, and exercise creativity. As one principal noted,
‘Teaching is about growth, not perfection.’ As teachers stretch their
pedagogical skills, they need to know that the principal will be there to
provide professional, psychological, and emotional support. This is
especially critical when teachers run into problems and/or meet with
failure during trial periods. Teachers also look to principals as sources of
professional knowledge and expertise. Knowledge about teaching and
learning, changes in school law and legislative mandates, motivation,
school change, group development processes and uses of technology, for
example, are substantive areas in which principals provide valuable
expertise to support the school’s professional learning community.

Manager
An important dimension of principals’ work includes a variety of
managerial tasks. The creation and maintenance of a successful learning
environment requires hard work and highly effective management. This
includes such tasks as: (1) recruiting and hiring teachers who are
learners; (2) coordinating professional development activities; (3) making
decisions on resources and school priorities; (4) scheduling time, spaces,
and opportunities for teachers to work and learn together; (5) identifying
resources and providing information to the staff; (6) aligning available
incentives with professional development priorities; (7) arranging for
substitute teachers; (8) visiting classrooms; (9) developing and
implementing teacher evaluation practices that support growth and
improvement; and (10) acting as buffers against overly intrusive and
debilitating external forces that threaten the school’s learning
environment. Principals who successfully deal with these managerial
tasks help create supportive school contexts for learning.

Professional Development: design, delivery and content

When teachers are engaged in the design, delivery and content of
professional development, the outcomes are much more likely to meet
teachers’ needs, and have a significant influence on teacher thinking and
classroom practices. Principals are key actors in helping build teacher
capacity as autonomous learners and practitioners. Our data indicate at
least seven ways principals contribute positively to the school’s learning
environment through their direct involvement with teachers in
professional development design, delivery, and content. These include:
(1) aligning professional development with school goals and teacher
needs; (2) empowering teachers as decision makers; (3) identifying
needs; (4) developing on-going planning processes; (5) creating dialogues

395
Paul V. Bredson & Olof Johansson

on teacher professional development; (6) supporting a variety of learning

opportunities for teachers; and (7) keeping the focus on student learning.
The first and probably most important responsibility of the principal
focuses on the design of professional development. Schools and teachers
are continually barraged by a cottage industry of educational change
specialists, consultants and aggressive policy-makers, each wanting to
improve the school. One way in which principals support their teachers
is by making certain that professional development resources and
opportunities are aligned with teachers’ and student’s needs, and
school/district priorities. Principals may ask, for example, in what way(s)
will this activity support our school improvement plan? How will it
contribute to better teaching and enhanced student learning? Obviously,
teachers need to ask these same questions. However, it is the principal
whose position allows him/her to see the big picture of teacher and
student needs, and school goals. Thus, principals help the staff and
school focus on their goals and priorities, so that professional
development opportunities for teachers do not become fragmented,
isolated and incoherent activities with little positive impact on teachers
or students.
Obviously, all teacher needs are not necessarily professional
development ones. Stressed out teachers, for example, may need a break
to recharge their personal and professional batteries. Principals are
sensitive to these needs because they ultimately affect teachers’ growth
and practice. Often operating outside the formal conditions of teacher
contracts, successful principals find time, money and ways to support
these individual teacher needs, even when not directly related to student
learning. Principals make investments in the physical and emotional well
being of teachers knowing that meeting these needs positively affects
students and the school.
Principals also help teachers become involved as decision makers in
their own learning. Because teachers have traditionally been passive
recipients of in-service training, the dominant professional development
activity, principals need to initiate creative and reflective dialogues
among teachers about the structure, process, and desired outcomes of
teacher learning. Bredeson (1999) indicates that these conversations are
opportunities for principals and teachers to rethink, restructure, and
reculture professional development in their school. These conversations
might raise the following questions about the delivery of professional
development. Do the professional development activities provide
multiple ways for teachers to participate and learn? Are there sufficient
resources of time, expertise, and money to meet goals of the professional
development design?
Collaborative planning, joint work, curriculum redesign, school-
based inquiry and deep conversations about teaching and learning
represent different delivery strategies for meeting teachers’ needs. Since

396
 SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

teachers have a variety of needs, experiences and levels of professional

expertise, principals can help individual teachers by working with them
to design appropriate activities with relevant content. Principals help
teachers set goals and develop on-going assessment processes for
examining the connections between their own learning, student learning,
and school improvement goals. Regarding the content of professional
development, principals and teacher might ask, in what ways are the
concepts and processes of activities aligned with local goals and
standards? Do the learning opportunities demonstrate and use models of
effective pedagogy? Thus, school principals are not mere sponsors of
teacher professional development; they collaborate with teachers in the
design, delivery and planning of content for learning opportunities that
align professional needs, with school goals, and student needs.

Professional Development Outcomes

The fourth area in which principals exert significant influence on teacher
professional development is in the assessment of outcomes. Though
there are a few notable exceptions (see, for example, Loucks-Horsley et
al, 1999), most evaluations of professional development are little more
than participant satisfaction surveys. In general, traditional evaluations of
professional development activities do not provide data rich, systematic
assessments of the impact of the professional development activity on
teacher knowledge and beliefs, classroom practices, student outcomes
and the overall contribution to school improvement goals. Thus, when
policy-makers want to know what effects the investment in teacher
professional development has had, there is little to report beyond
anecdotal accounts of impact. So how might principals strengthen the
assessment dimension of professional development in their schools?
First, principals regularly supervise and evaluate teachers. These
supervisory activities provide opportunities for principals to help
teachers set professional learning and improvement goals and to provide
feedback on individual professional improvement plans. Again, the goal is
not perfection; it’s growth. Secondly, principals can help teachers identify
their needs and then collaboratively plan learning opportunities to meet
those needs. The challenge for principals is to develop a collaborative
planning process that is sensitive to individual teacher needs, and that
balances individual teacher choices against student and school needs.
Finally, principals need to develop processes for the systematic
collection and analysis of data on professional development in their
schools. Again, principals can provide the expertise and resources to use
data to support teachers’ choices in professional development design,
delivery and content.

397
Paul V. Bredson & Olof Johansson

Conclusions
There is little doubt that school principals exercise significant influence
on teacher professional development. Knowing that principals are busy
and often overloaded with administrative tasks in their daily work, we
believe it is important to identify specific and highly effective ways in
which they can maximise their impact on teacher professional
development. We identified four areas where principals have the
opportunity to have substantial impact on teacher learning in schools: (1)
the principal as an instructional leader and learner; (2) the creation of a
learning environment; (3) direct involvement in the design, delivery and
content of professional development; and (4) the assessment of
professional development outcomes. We realise many of the tasks and
responsibilities we described in the article overlap and are integral parts
of other key administrative responsibilities. Our listing of roles and tasks
for principals in the area of teacher professional is in no way meant to be
a prescriptive job description. We believe our findings and discussion are
most helpful when used as a framework to build understanding about the
important and mutually beneficial connections between principals’
leadership, teacher growth and development, and the creation of
authentic, professional learning cultures in schools.
Principals are important contributors to teacher professional
development. However, they should not be viewed as gatekeepers of
teachers’ learning, any more than teachers are of student learning. There
is always the danger that by exercising significant influence through
expertise, power and resources principals can make themselves
indispensable agents of teacher professional development. Our view is
that highly effective principals work to move teachers toward greater
levels of independence and professional autonomy. Principals as
instructional leaders and learners are models, coaches, facilitators and
guides, not guardians and governors of learning.
The constellation of formal and informal opportunities for teachers
to learn and to improve their professional craft is crucial to school
improvement and student success. In-service, staff development training,
teacher networks, and collaborative inquiry are not just about teachers,
they are linked tightly to and aligned with school goals and student
learning. Thus, the ways in which teachers and others talk about teacher
professional development requires some re-thinking. When in-service
days or early releases are described as ‘time-off’ or ‘wastes of time’ from
teachers’ real work, that is direct contact with children, such expressions
communicate the limitations and persistence of the traditional in-service
training paradigm. Teacher professional development is legitimate work
even when it occurs during the school day. Staff development days are
time on, not time off. Principals in collaboration with teachers need to
examine closely the design, delivery, content and outcomes of
professional development so that they can communicate its importance

398
 SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

and initiate new ways of thinking and talking about teacher learning and
its connections to student learning and organisational success.
Professional development is also an important policy tool in the
educational reform and school improvement initiatives. We would offer
several cautionary notes. First, at times, policy decisions in the area of
professional development are done more for political expediency and
symbolic reasons than for sound pedagogical reasons (Johansson &
Bredeson, 1999). When, for example, school violence, racial conflicts and
falling test scores call for legislative action, teacher training is a quick and
ready solution. The reality is that teacher training is only one part of a
much larger approach to critical problems in education. Secondly, as
important as professional development is to school improvement, it
should not be considered a substitute for clear and measurable education
goals, adequate resources to meet children’s needs, and supportive
structures and affirming learning cultures.
Though our discussion centres primarily on the principal’s role in
teacher professional development, we do have several general
observations on professional development. First, professional
development is not an event, nor is it a set of activities in schools. It is a
professional responsibility and an integral part of teachers’ and
principals’ professional work. Secondly, though principals play a
significant role in teacher professional development, teachers themselves
are responsible for their own professional growth. The traditional,
hierarchical governance processes around staff development have
generally silenced teachers’ voices in decisions about the design,
delivery, and content of their own learning and professional
improvement. In many schools, this silencing has resulted in a type of
debilitating dependency for many teachers. Stifled and feeling powerless
over time many teachers can not even begin to imagine what it might be
like to be responsible for planning, implementing, and evaluating their
own professional development. Thus, a major role of school principals in
the area of teacher professional development is to build leadership
capacity among staff in their schools to create, nurture, and maintain
over time a vital, self-renewing and authentic learning community.

Correspondence
Professor P. Bredeson, Department of Educational Administration,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1282 J Educational Sciences Building,
1025 West Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA
(bredeson@soemadison.wisc.edu).

399
Paul V. Bredson & Olof Johansson

References
American Federation of Teachers (1995) Professional Development Guidelines.
Washington, DC: American Federation of Teachers.
Barth, R. S. (1996) The Principal Learner: work in progress. Cambridge, MA:
International Network for Principals’ Centres, Harvard Graduate School of
Education.
Bredeson, P. V. (1988) Communicating as a Measure of Leadership in Schools: a
portrait of school principals, The High School Journal, 71(4), pp. 174–186.
Bredeson, P. V. (1999) Negotiated Learning: unions contracts and teacher
professional development, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the
American Educational Research Association in Montreal, Canada, 20 April.
Corcoran, T. C. (1995) Transforming Professional Development for Teachers: a guide
for state policy makers. Washington, DC: National Governors’ Association.
Darling-Hammond, L. & Sykes, G. (1999) Teaching as the Learning Profession:
handbook of policy and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
DuFour, R. & Berkey, T. (1995) The Principal as Staff Developer, Journal of Staff
Development, 16(4), pp. 2–6.
Golde, A. (1998) School-based Continuous Professional Development: school
leaders’ responsibilities, a paper presented at the Leading Education in the
21st Century conference, Riga, Latvia.
Gronn, P. C. (1983) Talk as Work: the accomplishment of school administration,
Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, pp. 1–21.
Hart, A. W. & Bredeson, P. V. (1996) The Principalship: a theory of professional
learning and practice. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Houghton, M. & Goren, P. (1995) Professional Development for Educators: new state
priorities and models. Washington, DC: National Governors’ Association.
Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (1996) Standards for School
Leaders. Washington, DC: Council of Chief State School Officers.
Johansson, O. & Bredeson, P. (1999) Value Orchestration by the Policy
Community – reality and myth, in P. Begley (Ed.) Values and Educational
Leadership. New York: SUNY Press.
Joyce, B. & Showers, B. (1988) Student Achievement through Staff Development.
New York: Longman.
Kerchner, C. T., Koppich, J. E., Weeres, J. G. (1997) United Mind Workers. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Krajeweski, R. (1996) Enculturating the School: the principal’s principles. NASSP
Bulletin, 80, pp. 3–8.
Lieberman, A. (1995) Practices that Support Teacher Professional Development,
Phi Delta Kappan, pp. 591–604.
Little, J. W. (1993) Teachers’ Professional Development in a Climate of Educational
Reform, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15, pp. 129–151.
Louck-Horsely, S., Hewson, P. W., Love, N. & Stiles, K. E. (1999) Designing
Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics. Thousand
Oaks: Corwin Press.

400
 SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

McLaughlin, M. W. & Oberman, I. (1996) Teacher Learning: new policies and

practices. New York: Teachers College Press.
National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (1996) What Matters Most:
teaching for America’s future. New York: National Commission on Teaching
and America’s Future.
National Foundation for the Improvement of Education (1996) Teachers Take
Charge of their Learning. Washington, DC: National Foundation for the
Improvement of Education.
National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching (1998)
Improving Professional Development: eight research-based principles
(http://www.npeat.org; 202–463–0771).
National Staff Development Council (1995) Standards for Staff Development: high
school edition. Oxford: National Staff Development Council.
Peterson, K. D. (1978) The Principal’s Task, Administrator’s Notebook, 26(8),
pp. 1–4.
Porter, A. C., Smithson, J. & Osthoff, E. (1994) Standard Setting as a Strategy for
Upgrading High School Mathematics and Science, in R. F. Elmore &
S. H. Furman (Eds) The Governance of Curriculum: the 1994 ASCD Yearbook.
Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Sparks, D. (1994) A Paradigm Shift in Staff Development, The ERIC Review, 3(3),
pp. 2–4.
Weissglass, J. (1997) Deepening Our Dialogue about Equity, Educational
Leadership, 54(7), pp. 78–81.

401