The educator crisis has gained national attention, with teachers and school leaders leaving the field at historic rates (Goldring & Taie, 2018; Levin et al., 2020). Scholars have found that principal turnover is disruptive to school progress and negatively impacts student achievement, teacher retention, and school climate (Bartanen et al., 2019; Grissom et al., 2021; Levin & Bradley, 2019). Leading factors cited in principal attrition are inadequate preparation (Levin & Bradley, 2019), as scholars have found that novice and veteran principals experience intense work situations (Liljenberg & Andersson, 2019), work in isolation, and have limited opportunities for collaboration (Schimel, 2014; Maxwell, 2015; Mitchell et al., 2017). Additionally, findings from recent national surveys indicate that a leading factor contributing to leadership turnover is a lack of professional development, suggesting principals face obstacles in professional learning opportunities for “instructional leadership, developing people, teaching and learning conditions, meeting the needs of all learners, and leading school improvement” (Levin et al., 2020, p. 28).
In Preparing Leaders for a Changing World: Lessons from Effective School Leadership Programs, Darling-Hammond et al. (2007) identified five commonalities within exemplary principal learning programs: (1) meaningful, authentic, and applied learning opportunities; (2) curriculum focused on developing people, instruction, and the organization; (3) expert mentoring or coaching; (4) program structures that support collegial learning; and (5) proactive recruitment. In the 15 years since Darling-Hammond et al.’s (2007) findings, the multifaceted skills required of students, the pedagogical expertise and responsiveness of teachers, the landscape of accountability, and the subsequent demands of educational leaders has grown more diverse and complex (Darling-Hammond et al., 2022; Darling-Hammond & Oakes, 2019). As a result, scholars have continued to investigate formal pre-service and in-service school leadership professional learning (Bailey et al., 2022; Chernikova et al., 2020; Davis, 2016; Drake, 2020; Oliver et al., 2018). However, Veelen et al. (2017) noted that there is a lack of empirical research regarding informal professional development and argued there is a need to understand the interplay between the school environment and the person on school leadership learning.