ABSTRACT
As a fi eld, educational administration and leadership has a history of approximately 130 years, beginning with the 1875 publication of the fi rst book on the topic written by former teacher, principal, and superintendent William H. Payne of Michigan (Culbertson, 1988). Histories of scholarship in the fi eld can be found in a number of sources (e.g., Callahan & Button, 1964; Campbell, Fleming, Newell, & Bennion, 1987; Culbertson, 1988; Willower & Forsyth, 1999). Much harder to fi nd is a history of educational leadership as a fi eld of practice, especially the principalship, as opposed to a fi eld of scholarship. Cubberley, for example, in his 1916 textbook, Public School Administration, focused his discussion on administrators at the district level. Cubberley merely commented that “the school principal was evolved” (p. 56) and devoted a brief two and a half pages to a discussion of the job.
