What are Principals’ perspectives on situations that involve emotional work in their day-to-day lives and their perspectives on the role of emotional intelligence in the work that they do?

This study explores the way in which Primary School Principals perceive and experience emotions in their day-to-day lives. To understand the varying elements of school leadership a qualitative research approach using semi-structured interviews was used, which was appropriate due to the social and psychological nature of the topic being studied. Two interviews were conducted a year apart with participants to provide a detailed examination of the participants’ experiences and to gain deeper insights into their perceptions of emotions in their work. <br><br>Studies from both qualitative and relevant quantitative literature informed the analysis. In Chapter 4, coding was done by reading through the data and categorising information using predetermined (a priori) codes. Categories selected for initial analysis were instructional leadership, transformational leadership, perceptiveness, empathy, self-awareness, self-regulation, self-regard, loneliness, role conflict, work stress, pressure, competing demands, loneliness, mentoring and collegiate groups. <br><br>Chapter 5 presents a summation of four main themes that emerged from the data analysis of the two sets of interviews. After using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach to transcribe, code and examine the interviews for careful clarification and analysis the four main themes to emerge from this study were Pressure, Relationships with Others, Relationship with Self and Support and Mentoring. <br><br>The Principals viewed emotional intelligence as an ability to recognise and appropriately respond to the emotions of themselves, their students, teachers, parents and other members within their learning community. They believed that relationships were a fundamental part of their role and that an effective leader needed strong interpersonal skills. Daily internal and external pressures were a common experience for them, impacting on their emotional wellbeing. Their relationships with themselves included considerations of self-awareness, self-regulation, self-regard, and loneliness. Participants placed great significance on their relationships with others, citing empathy, perceptiveness, self-awareness and self-regulation as important. Regarding their own need for support, they showed a preference for small local peer-to-peer collegiate groups. Principals who reported a low self-regard were unlikely to create, or participate in, collegiate groups, and so dealt with the issues in their schools in isolation. The thesis concludes with some recommendations for practice. <br>