A Study of Similarities and Differences in Elementary Principals' Perceived Allocation and Ideal Allocation of Time.

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceived administrative and supervisory roles of male and female elementary principals; similarities and differences in perceived allocation of time were examined. Hypotheses. Six hypotheses were tested to determine whether there were significant differences in the way elementary principals perceive they use their time and would ideally use their time. The hypotheses investigated possible differences based upon sex, age group, educational degree, size of school district and individual school enrollment. Several types of analysis were utilized, including t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, mean time comparisons, and two-way cross tabulation. Procedures. The instrument consisted of thirty-two variables identified as principal's responsibilities. Fourteen of the responsibilities were selected from a list of administrative tasks identified by Neal Gross and Robert Herriott, the remaining eighteen were selected from a list developed by the Michigan Association of Elementary School Principals. The survey was sent before the end of the 1978-79 school year to one r and omly selected male and female elementary school principal in the 159 school districts in Michigan which employ both men and women as principals. Responses were obtained from eighty-six males and eighty females. Findings. For the purpose of analysis, the thirty-two variables were grouped into six major task areas entitled Supervision, Curriculum, Discipline, Working Directly with Children, Nonprofessional Activities and Building Management. While there were no significant differences in the way male and female principals perceive they use their time, males indicated they would ideally use more time on Supervision and Curriculum than would females and females would ideally devote more time to Building Management than would males. No differences surfaced between age groups of principals in either perceived use of time or ideal use of time; nor were differences found between principals having different educational degrees. In the responses relative to time perceived as spent on the six task areas, there were no differences reported by principals from districts of different sizes. However, significant differences were noted in responses relative to ideal time to be spent on Supervision and Building Management. Individual school size seemed to have the greatest impact on the perceived use of time and the ideal use of time. There were significant differences in the way elementary principals from schools having differing enrollments perceive they use their time in the areas of Supervision, Working Directly With Children and Nonprofessional Activities. There were also significant differences in the reported ideal use of time in the areas of Supervision and Nonprofessional Activities. It was found that were significant differences between the way elementary principals perceive they use their time and would ideally use their time in all six task areas. Ideally principals would spend more time than they do on Supervision and Curriculum and less time than they do on Discipline, Working Directly With Children, Nonprofessional Activities and Building Management. Conclusions. The data gathered in this study have shown that elementary principals are not able to spend their time as they feel they should; consistently the principals responded that they would like to devote more time than is now possible to Supervision and Curriculum and less time to the other four task areas. It was suggested that the differences between the male and female responses relative to ideal time to be spent on the task areas might be due to the fact that the responding males had more experience as principals than the females. It was further suggested that school size seems to be an important determinant in the way principals use their time and that perhaps an optimum school size exists.