Making the call: An exploration of principal decision-making and autonomy in a Queensland state school context

Making the call: An exploration of principal decision-making and autonomy in a Queensland state school context

In the face of unprecedented pressures, stressors, and complex demands, principals and school leaders make a vast number of decisions on behalf of the students and communities they lead, as an inherent feature of leadership. This study originated from the researcher’s own sense-making as a school principal for over twenty years and reveals what Loyens and Maesschalck (2010) referred to as opening the black box of decision-making, using ethnographic methodology to explore how decisions are made, describing the decision-making processes, and exploring the impact of decisions leaders undertake to make the call. Principal autonomy, although widely acknowledged as essential in decision-making, remains ambiguous and largely under researched in terms of how it is actually implemented and effectively used with fidelity. With a focus on school leadership in the Queensland state schooling sector, this study explored the lived experiences of two principals and a focus group of school leaders, as well as incorporating the researcher’s own decision-making journey through autoethnography. Weick’s (1995) sense-making theory was used to conceptualise what’s really occurring for principals. Cooksey’s (2000) Complex Dynamic Decision-making Perspective was adapted and used as a way of structuring the data for thematic analysis and as an organiser of influences on decision-making. Three recommendations are made as a result of the study: (a) that principals need to have clarity on a defined model of autonomy to create successful and balanced decisions; (b) that decision-making is an essential skill for leadership and requires planned, ongoing support for principals and school leaders; and (c) that principals need opportunities to grow as professionals in a trusting, safe space, with a supportive broad spectrum of supervision.

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