TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS - GENDER-RELATED PERCEPTIONS OF LEADERSHIP AND POWER IN SECONDARY-SCHOOLS

This study explores teachers' perceptions of their own power at the pe rsonal, interpersonal, and organizational levels of their schools. It investigates how the interaction between principal and teacher gender affects high school teachers' evaluations of the principal's leadershi p, as well as how it influences subsequent evaluations of their own po wer. The study employs a sample of almost 9,000 teachers in over 300 p ublic, Catholic, and private secondary schools from the Administrator and Teachers Survey of the High School and Beyond study. A strong patt ern of results shows that while female teachers feel empowered when wo rking in schools headed by female principals, male teachers consider t hemselves less powerful in those circumstances. The interaction betwee n teachers' and principals' gender contributes to understanding the pe rsistent underrepresentation of women in the high school principalship .