From leadership behavior to cognitions: a constructivist theory of US principals

Seeks to shift the focus of the study of leadership from behavior to cognitions. Uses a set of leaders, 1,200 principals in six American states, and employs an earlier validated set of five leadership cognitions drawn from psychologists in educational administration. The consistency of these scales is determined by alpha scores and correlations to establish there was no influence on them from contextual factors like state, political culture, and school size. Then, regression analysis demonstrates these leadership cognitions do exist independently of many social and personal qualities around principals. Thus, they are independent of the local politics of schools, characteristics of the school population, and personal qualities. However, leadership cognitions are strongly predicted by a professional network (i.e. supportive superintendents and faculty, as well as hard work) and with the size of schools.