"Let's play a word-association game," Jeffrey Glanz suggested. "Think of the word principal. What images come to mind?" The associate professor from Kean University in New Jersey diligently writes down the adjectives he receives from the audience: bumbling, inept, tyrant, stern—and these from a group of principals. "It's interesting what was not said," observed Glanz. "Aren't principals caring and competent?"
That most people view the principal in negative terms came as no surprise to Glanz, who surveyed more than 20 television programs and films after discovering that there was scant research on images of principals. His survey of programs and films made from 1950 through 1996 revealed that three images of principals in TV and film predominate: the principal as authoritarian, as bureaucrat, and as numskull.
These stereotypical images no longer suffice, said Glanz. "These images are socially constructed and, therefore, can be reframed." For his part, Glanz would like to see the principalship reconceptualized in terms of an "ethic of caring." When that happens, he noted, it will be easier to recruit the right people as principals. And principals might begin to be portrayed as the "guardian angels" of teachers and students.