Principal and vice principal psychological safety in British Columbia : an institutional ethnography
department or school: Education, Faculty of
department or school: Educational Studies (EDST), Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Markin, Gail Marie
issued: 2025-06-05T15:28:36Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Doctor of Education - EdD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Institutional practices and social relations are impacting the psychological safety of principals and vice principals in British Columbia (BC). Psychological safety is the belief that the environment is safe for people to share their perspectives or to ask questions without fear of being rejected, shamed, or punished in some way for doing so. Despite communication with district leaders being essential to driving school change, BC principals and vice principals are experiencing relatively low levels of psychological safety in their communication with district leaders. This inquiry set out to discover under what circumstances principals and vice principals do and do not speak up, ask questions, and share their ideas with district leaders. This research looks particularly at institutional practices and social relations and how they impact the psychological safety of principals and vice principals, because little is known about the impact of these practices. The findings of this research suggest what supports, services, or practices would increase psychological safety for principals and vice principals. Institutional ethnography was used as a methodology to explore how principals’ and vice principals’ experiences of psychological safety are being socially constructed. Research methods included interviews with nine principals and vice principals, the exploration of texts that impact their work, researcher reflections, and subsequent interviews with four superintendents. The institutional practices and social relations that were found to be impacting psychological safety included meeting structures and practices, hierarchical power differences, the understanding of principals’ and vice principals’ fiduciary duty, and unwritten and often unexamined workplace rules. This research found a disjuncture between the role and responsibility of school administrators—to be a connection between schools and the district office—and what is actually iv playing out in their day-to-day w…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/91283
note: PRINCIPAL AND VICE PRINCIPAL PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: AN INSTITUTIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY by Gail Marie Markin B.A., The University of British Columbia, 1988 M.Sc., Western Washington University, 1990 M. Ed., The University of British Columbia, 1999 B. Ed., The University of British Columbia, 2007 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF EDUCATION in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Educational Leadership and Policy) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) June 2025 © Gail Marie Markin, 2025 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: PRINCIPAL AND VICE PRINCIPAL PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: AN INSTITUTIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY submitted by Gail Marie Markin in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education In Educational Leadership and Policy Examining Committee: Fei Wang, Associate Professor, Educational Studies, UBC Supervisor Shauna Butterwick, Professor Emeritus, Educational Studies, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Sabre Cherkowski, Professor, Okanagan School of Education, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Guofang, Li, Professor, Language and Literacy Education, UBC University Examiner Alison Taylor, Professor, Educational Studies, UBC University Examiner Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Chris Kennedy, Superintendent of Schools, West Vancouver School District Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Institutional practices and social relations are impacting the psychological safety of principals and vice principals in British Columbia (BC). Psychological safety is the belief that the environment is safe for people to share their perspectives or to ask questions without fear of being rejected, shamed, or punished in some way for doing so. Despite communication with district leaders being essential to driving s…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0449043
language: eng
degree discipline: Educational Leadership and Policy
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Wang, Fei (Professor in educational leadership and policy studies)
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/91283