The Principal as a Leader: View of Self and the Staff

School comprises one of the most important institutions in a country. It is a formal organization with certain rules and roles that people in the system are expected to follow. There is a pattern or one can rather say a hierarchy on which the functioning of each individual is governed. For example, a teacher is the authority in the classroom setting while principal is the authority in academic administration and overall school functioning. Teachers are responsible for classroom teaching and principal is responsible for exercising expertise in managing the school affairs. The present study was conducted in five schools selected from different regions of Delhi to explore the principal's view of self as a leader and the view of staff regarding the principal. Five schools, the principals and teachers were part of the study. The total number of principals interviewed were five and the numbers of teachers included were twenty. The tools selected for data collection were interview (for principals and teachers) and an observation guide. Data were descriptive and were subjected to content analysis. The responses of the interview and observations were categorized into sub-areas.