Page 26 - 2024_Jour_91-1

use new technical gadgets.
• Legal advice on issues concerning special education students.
• When students disturb lessons: sometimes I am helped, sometimes not—
maybe partly because the principal is absent—or just doesn’t immediately
reprimand the student. Sometimes this works well.
• Whenever I ask for help, I get it—be it extra shelves for my cabinet or
problems with students. I have needed the principal’s approval when
considering buying extra equipment.
• In the educational sessions, I can get things off my chest and get support.

Principals Among the Staff
In some schools, principals were seen vacuum-cleaning, carrying chairs,
or walking the corridors or the schoolyard. No one had asked for help, but these
voluntary actions could be interpreted as bringing utility or well-being to the school
community as a whole. Among five school secretaries who responded, one worked
in three small schools—she wished to receive more help, commenting that not
only teachers but all the other members of the school staff should be kept informed
about current school matters. Principals were mentioned as the main helpers by
two secretaries; three secretaries regarded the staff as a whole as school cleaners or
cooks; and one of the two cooks said that problems encountered at work must be
solved together within the school. The other cook (from another school) mentioned
first the principal and then her boss as her primary helpers in problem situations.
She also felt that she was taken into consideration as a valued member of the school
staff. Clearly, valuing helping and practicing the virtue of helping were seen as
contributing to educational excellence in the setting.

Courage
Sometimes, helping requires considerable courage as one steps beyond the
“norms” of following rules and procedures. Principals interviewed for my dissertation
were asked to recall the most difficult cases encountered during their careers.
A female principal helped a ninth grader get his school-leaving certificate in an
exceptional way during her career as assistant principal. The ninth grader was a nice
boy, a loner, who started skipping lessons. Nobody knew why, not even his parents.
The assistant principal, who had known the boy previously, suggested that the boy
should be encouraged to return to school but also to work as a kind of an assistant
teacher in primary school, while simultaneously
studying and trying to pass his remaining exams.
Sometimes, helping requires The assistant principal was aware of the suspicious

considerable courage as one glances and harsh comments received from some
of the subject teachers—but the boy was made to
steps beyond the “norms” “swim” through all of this and was finally awarded
his certificate.
of following rules and This case of a truant presents a courageous

procedures. principal—one who did not fear disgrace. The
principal fearlessly defended the boy and was
not swayed by the subject teachers’ opinions. She
showed “various capacities for caring” as opposed

24 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin: International Journal for Professional Educators