Principals’ Work and Well-Being in Ontario

For the full research report: click here

Principals’ Work and Well-Being in Ontario

This interactive infographic summarizes the findings of a research survey. The principal investigators were Dr. Katina Pollock and Dr. Fei Wang.

Work Intensification

Well-Being

Health and Safety

Participant demographics

Coping Strategies

Survey details

For the full research report: click here

Principals’ Work and Well-Being in Ontario

Work Intensification of Principals

How Principals Spend Their Time

Recommendations

Political Climate

Work-Related Challenges & Possibilities

Policy & External Influence

For the full research report: click here

Principals’ Work and Well-Being in Ontario

Well-Being of School Principals

Overall Well-Being

Recommendations

Spiritual Well-Being

Physical Well-Being

Psychological Well-Being

Emotional Well-Being

Social Well-Being

Cognitive Well-Being

For the full research report: click here

Principals’ Work and Well-Being in Ontario

Principals’ Health and Safety

Contributors to Draining Situations at Work

Recommendations

School CommunityContributors to DrainingSituations at Work

Principals' Safety

For the full research report: click here

Principals’ Work and Well-Being in Ontario

Coping Strategies

Principals' Self-Care

Recommendations

Organizational Support For Principals

For District School Boards:

Recommendations

• consider what other additional district supports can be specifically targeted to school principals such as expanding the school well-being mandate to include principals
• develop and use support phone lines, online platforms, early intervention programs, counselling services, and health assessment tools to support school principals

For Principals:

• build personal support network and reduce personal isolation through participating in formal and informal coaching, mentoring, and/or networking, and attending professional learning programs to build resilience and self-care strategies

For Ministry of Education:

• re-evaluate existing safe schools acts and school wellness initiatives to consider how principals well-being can be included

For Professional Associations:

• deliver continued professional learning opportunities focused on coping strategies such as those from the American Psychology Association
• partner with outside agencies whose expertise are around managing workplace stress such as the OPC Starling Minds program

Feelings of Overall Social Well-Being at Work:

Social Well-Being

Principals OFTEN or ALWAYS:

How the work of principals made them feel socially in the prior week:

Survey details

Principal Investigators:

Dr. Katina PollockUniversity of Western Ontariokatina.pollock@uwo.caTwitter: @DrKatinaPollock

Dr. Fei WangUniversity of British Columbiafei.wang@ubc.caTwitter: @DrFeiWang

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Note: Data was collected during labour dispute.

Contributors to Draining Situations at Work

Lesser factors:

For principals, these issues led to draining situations at work OFTEN or ALWAYS:

Feelings of Overall Psychological Well-Being at Work:

Psychological Well-Being

The extent to which principals felt each of the following work-related statements OFTEN or ALWAYS applied to them:

• "I am not afraid to voice my work opinions, even when they are in opposition to the opinions of stakeholders" (60.2%)
• "I feel a sense of fulfillment" (58.4%)
• "I have been able to build a work environment and a work-style for myself that is much to my liking" (53.0%)
• "I enjoy making work plans for the future" (50.6%)
• "I feel comfortable challenging the implicit 'rules of the game'" (42.1%)
• "I feel comfortable asking for forgiveness rather than permission" (33.6%)
• "I feel lonely because I have few close colleagues with whom to share my concerns" (27.1%)
• "I live, work one day at a time and don't really think about the future" (10.6%)

• "My colleagues know they can trust me" (92.0%)
• "I have the sense that I have developed a lot as a principal since I began the role" (86.2%)
• "In general, I feel confident and positive about myself as a principal" (76.4%)
• "I know that I can trust my colleagues" (67.7%)
• "I enjoy being in new situations that require me to change my old familiar ways of doing things" (67.5%)
• "I judge myself by what I think is important to get the job done, not by what others think is important" (65.2%)
• "In general, I feel I am in charge of the situation in which I work" (62.6%)

Feelings of Overall Spiritual Well-Being at Work:

Spiritual Well-Being

The extent to which the following spiritual and religious statements described principals and their work:

Skills principals thought were necessary to effectively manage their work:

Organizational Support For Principals

These supports were deemed effective for many principals but are not available for everyone

Principals have experienced a variety of unsafe situations in their workplaces:

Principals' Safety

While many principals have not personally experienced discrimination in the workplace, others have faced various kinds.

After being harassed, physically assaulted, and/or threatened, principals will:

• Report to senior management/director/HR (67.7%)
• Talk with family members/friends (57.7%)
• Conslt with other colleagues within the district school board (52.2%)
• Follow specific protocol (49.9%)
• Contact their professional association (36.6%)
• Report to the police (21.6%)
• Seek medical/health attention (16.3%)
• Do nothing (13.0%)

Feelings of Overall Physical Well-Being at Work:

Physical Well-Being

When feeling drained fromwork, the extent to which these aspects of principals’ physical well-being were CONSIDERABLY or EXTREMELY affected:

The extent to which work demand CONSIDERABLY or EXTREMELY affected:

• Energy (72.9%)
• Fitness (62.0%)
• Sleep (58.6%)
• Diet (55.7%)
• Weight (48.2%)
• Physical Health (38.6%)
• Stress-Related Illness (30.1%)

• Doing physical activities (58.3%)
• Sleeping (56.0%)
• Eating (52.1%)
• Having headaches (35.0%)
• Having uncomfortable feelings in your stomach (28.6%)

Participant demographics

Of 2419 respondents invited from 33 school boards, there was a 35.6% response rate.

Years of experience as a Principal

• 541 elementary principals
• 123 secondary principals
• 23 middle school principals
• 12 K-12 principals
• 5 system principals

School location

Policy & External Influence

Principals reflected on which of the following provincial policies impacted their work A LOT:

• Reg. 274/12: Hiring Practices (73.1%)
• Safe Schools Act - Bill 212 (57.5%)
• Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy (55.0%)
• Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools (52.3%)
• Bill 13 - Anti-Bullying (46.4%)
• Occupational Health and Safety Act (44.3%)
• Student Well-Being Strategy (41.5%)
• Bill 115 - Putting Students First Act (36.9%)

• Full Day Kindergarten - Full Day Learning Statute Amendment Act (35.0%)
• Aboriginal Education Strategy/First Nations, Metis, and Inuit (FNMI) Policy Framework (24.3%)
• Anti-Racism Act (21.7%)
• Fluctuating Enrollment/School Closures (20.4%)
• Parents in Partnership: Parent Engagement Policy (17.7%)
• Policies related to Truth and Reconciliation (17.7%)
• Collaborative Professionalism (17.3%)

Work-Related Challenges & Possibilities

Recommendations

For Principals:

• create opportunities for collaboration
• engage in peer support and learning on effective practices
• create or revisit your existing well-being plan to determine if it includes all components of your well-being

For Ministry of Education:

• align the number of policies and initiatives principals are responsible for to address the time-consuming nature of regulations, follow-up reports, and documentation
• recognize context matters and allow principals more localized discretion and decision-making
• make provincially standardized templates, sample documents, and routine tasks to alleviate principals’paperwork and administrative tasks

For District School Boards:

• streamline work processes by consolidating standardized templates, forms, samples, and routine tasks into an interactive portal/database to alleviate principals’ paperwork and administrative task

For Professional Associations:

• advocate and lobby for members to have more staffing arrangements (e.g., co-principalship, VPs, administrative assistants, dedicated school management positions, and district resource people), and increased health and well-being benefits (e.g., counselling, physiotherapy, etc.),resource allocations, and administrative time.

Feelings of Overall Emotional Well-Being at Work:

Emotional Well-Being

If principals were feeling emotionally drained by their work, the extent to which each of the following described how they OFTEN or ALWAYS felt:

In the week prior,how principals’ work made them feel emotionally:

• "I feel passionate about my work." (69.3%)
• "I worry about work-related issues." (67.7%)
• "I feel happy about my work." (47.0%)
• "I feel satisfied about my work." (44.8%)
• "I feel excited when thinking about going to work." (30.2%)
• "I feel a sense of despair about my work." (16.9%)

Feelings of Overall Well-Being at Work:

Overall Well-Being

If principals felt drained by their work, this is the extent to which the following aspects of their well-being were CONSIDERABLY or EXTREMELY affected

When combining the POOR and VERY POOR feelings of principals toward each aspect of well-being, they felt the worst PHYSICALLY and the best SPIRITUALLY.

• Emotional (64.7%)
• Psychological (45.9%)
• Physical (44.0%)
• Social (34.9%)
• Cognitive (34.2%)
• Spiritual (15.0%)

• Overall Physical Well-Being (40.8%)
• Overall Emotional Well-Being (32.7%)
• Overall Psychological Well-Being (20.7%)
• Overall Cognitive Well-Being (15.8%)
• Overall Social Well-Being (11.3%)
• Overall Spiritiual Well-Being (9.9%)

How Principals Spend Their Time

Principals also felt that the following activities should have MORE time dedicated to them:

Many principals would like to spend LESS time on student discipline and attendance (57.7%).

• Classroom Walk-Throughs (75.2%)
• Curriculum & Instructional Leadership (74.5%)
• Principal’s Own Professional Development (74.0%)

They would also like to decrease the number of hours spent on activities related to managerial and administrative matters such as:

The average number of hours worked per week: 57.3 97.5% of principals are working more than 40 hrs per week

• Administrative Directives (53.1%)
• Internal School Management (43.8%)
• School Board Committees (29.6%)
• Building Maintenance (28.0%)

For District School Boards:

Recommendations

• build stronger working relationships with other public sector organizations such as thePublic Services Health and Safety Association (PSHSA) to support employee wellness
• create or update a quick and handy list for principals on any available policies,procedures, and contact information they might need for easy reference

For Ministry of Education:

• continue to strengthen its relationship with the Ministry of Labour to work together to implement the existing Healthy and Safe Ontario Workplaces Strategies as a part of the Ontario public education system

For Professional Associations:

For Principals:

• advocate for public school leaders’ occupational health and safety at the provincial level
• expand and diversify its member support services and Early Intervention Program to direct more attention and resources to principals’ occupational health and safety

• know your rights and processes in place that will support you when there are safety issues at work
• build a repertoire of healthy coping strategies that can promote physical, emotional, and psychological well-being—please see the Coping Strategies section

For District School Boards:

Recommendations

• consider creating Well-being and Safety Teams to provide support and resources for principals
• designate fund and apply for grants from other agencies to work in partnership with health organizations and researchers to support principals’ well-being

For Ministry of Education:

For Ministry of Education:

• mandate Well-being Lead positions at the district schoolboard level to support a comprehensive well-being program that includes principals and their schools
• expand the healthy schools initiatives to include the well-being of the school principals
• expand Ontario’s well-being Strategy for Education to include the well-being of the school principals

For Professional Associations:

• mobilize and align existing resources and programs from the districts, health and community organizations, and provincial and municipalgovernments to improve school system well-being
• explore the possibility of or expand the existing thirdparty partnerships that focuses on wellness in public schools (e.g., STARLING Mind, IWBI, etc.)
• create well-being assessment tools to keep trackof the health and well-being of their members to provide better support

For Principals:

• cultivate individualized strategies to promote health and wellness (e.g., a personalized system dealing with emails/paperwork)
• set aside time to engage physical activities, sports, hobbies, and other individualized well-being practices

Political Climate

The TOP 10 areas where principals’ work has been VERY or EXTREMELY impacted by the political climate surrounding public education in the past 2 years:

• Growing mental health issues among students, teachers, and parents (94.5%)
• A system of anxiety in education (86.0%)
• Impact of the changing government (82.2%)
• Finite resources available to meet demanding constituents (68.9%)
• A culture of complaints and litigation in educational system (63.8%)

• Diversification of student discipline (59.6%)
• Advances in Information Communication Technology (59.3%)
• Consumer mentality among parents (57.3%)
• Operational and building management demands (53.6%)
• Other (50.0%)

Feelings of Overall Cognitive Well-Being at Work:

Cognitive Well-Being

The TOP 10 ways principals’ work made them feel cognitively in the prior week:

The extent to which principals felt each of these work-related statements OFTEN or ALWAYS applied to them

• Disorganized (41.0%)
• Forgetful (41.0%)
• Focused (58.6%)
• Unfocused (55.7%)
• Attentive (48.2%)
• Mindful (33.0%)
• Delayed memory retrieval (31.0%)
• Absent-minded (31.0%)
• Active/quick-witted (25.5%)
• Indecisive (23.6%)

Contributors to Draining Situations at Work

These issues with the local school community led to draining situations at work for principals OFTEN or ALWAYS:

• Lack of special education resources &services in the community (67.6%)
• Mental health issues among parents/guardians (57.0%)
• Meeting with parents/guardians (38.8%)
• Parents/guardians not involved in their child(ren)’s education (36.6%)
• Social issues in school community (34.3%)
• Racial or ethnic tensions in school community (16.3%)
• Lack of support from school’s community (15.5%)

Principals' Self-Care

Overall, how well principals thought they were managing their well-being:

The extent to which principals AGREED or STRONGLY AGREED with these statements.

• "I manage my emotions well" (89.5%)
• "Self-efficacy helps me manage my work" (75.9%)
• "I feel resilient at work" (69.6%)
• "I am able to turn adversity into achievement" (65.1%)
• "I engage in mindful practices to manage my work" (44.5%)

Overall, how well principals felt they can cope with work-related stress: