The Journey: From Teacher to Servant Leader/Principal
This research represents a personalized account and analysis of my journey in educational leadership that I specifically experienced when transitioning from teacher to principal. My analysis of this educational journey and the exploration of “self” provides insight and the significant presence of the servant leader within me and my leadership style. I present my experiences through a sampling of stories / vignettes that I retell using artifacts that I have documented and gathered with each passing experience as a principal. Through the use of the story, and an analysis of my experiences, I present work that is characteristic of the qualitative method of auto-ethnography. This method allows the readers’ emergence in to the world of the researcher, and gives a perspective that is firsthand and personal. My analysis contains a personal account of experiences that revolve around the ten servant leadership qualities. In addition, my analysis indicates how inundated these characteristics are within me, and how they progressively developed to define my leadership style. Finally, this analysis shares my reflections on the effects of this servant leadership style on stakeholders including myself in this specific educational environment.
Auto-ethnography, servant leadership, principal, transitioning, analysis, Educational Leadership
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