Knowledge and professional development for principals leading linguistic communities in schools

The role of the school principal is demanding in a variety of ways. School principals are faced with the daily challenge of balancing their roles of site manager and instructional leader. This study examined and identified the knowledge and learning opportunities school principals rely upon to lead schools, particularly those that lead schools with bilingual programs. This was a mixed-methods study, which included both interviews and an online survey. Findings included strong familiarity of principals in regards to working with ELL and bilingual populations. In addition, school principals placed a strong emphasis on providing bilingual programs to foster student achievement. However, very little professional growth opportunities, centered on bilingual programs, were available to school principals. Most principals relied heavily on knowledge that came from past professional experience, networking, and self-initiated opportunities for professional growth. Future efforts to maximize student learning need to begin with the learning of the school principals. School principals must learn and experience the content through professional development that models best practices, particularly practices necessary to lead linguistic communities.