The Development of Faith Leadership in Novice Principals

Authors

Barbara Stacy Rieckhoff, DePaul UniversityFollow

Abstract

This article describes the Catholic School Principal Support Program (CSPSP), a mentoring program for first and second-year Catholic school principals in a large urban diocese, and identifies key challenges, impacts and influences on decision-making. Ten school leaders describe their work and provide the lens by which they reflect on their role as faith leaders. The challenges these principals face along with the various roles they play are discussed. Based on the perceptions and insights of their roles as faith leaders and how that role is situated within other leadership roles, this study seeks to better understand how the faith leadership and its development impacts decisions in novice Catholic school leaders. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed with emergent themes identified. These themes include type of leadership training, personal beliefs, descriptions of their own faith life and development, perceptions of faith empowering other roles, the moral imperative of leadership, and understanding the faith development of their teachers. Differences in participant perceptions demonstrated how these leaders made decisions and were empowered in other areas of leadership.

DOI

10.15365/joce.1702032014

First Page

25

Last Page

56

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Rieckhoff, B. S. (2014). The Development of Faith Leadership in Novice Principals. Journal of Catholic Education. https://doi.org/10.15365/joce.1702032014