Principals’ role in policy change: mediating language through professional beliefs

Considers the language of professional development and demonstrates how principals with different professional beliefs and understandings interpret the language of education differently. This work is based on a two‐year study of eight principals in a school district undergoing a policy change in the supervision and evaluation of teachers. Because principals mediate through their professional beliefs the language of both policy change and professional development that leads to policy change, groups of principals within a single district may interpret and implement policy change differently. Shows that principals do not necessarily have a common understanding of the language of education. Without a common understanding of language, policy is open to individual interpretation.