ABSTRACT
Since the beginning of the 20th century, educators, policymakers, and researchers have scrutinized the time use of principals. Throughout the history of principal time-use research, results have consistently indicated that principals worked extensive hours, which consisted of brief and unrelated tasks that most often involved managerial obligations. In contrast to these common descriptions of principal time use, researchers have not identified principal activities that reliably account for variation in school operation and educational outcomes. However, review of the history of principal time-use research also has revealed systematic methodological limitations that threaten the validity of common claims about principal behaviors. This paper proposes research opportunities derived from methodological limitations of prior principal time-use research.
