The Principalship in Historical Perspective

This article offers a review of the existing historiography of the American school principal. Although a small and incomplete body of research, scholarship on the history of the principalship demonstrates that it has always been a complex and multifaceted role and that principals have historically drawn on shifting sources of authority to assert their institutional and personal power. The principalship has also been defined by who has occupied the position, as the role became increasingly dominated by white men in the second half of the 20th century. Recent scholarship has begun to create a more expansive social history of the American school principal, although a great deal of research remains to be done.