چکیده (انگلیسی):

This study used an organizational socialization lens to examine factors influencing participants’ decision to
pursue the principalship and choice to engage in an alternate administration certification program.
Through an analysis of participant focus groups and interviews, factors emerged from the codes that were
compared with dimensions of a socialization framework. A key finding is the intersection of socializing
factors that influenced participants’ decisions to pursue the principalship and their choice to pursue an
alternative preparation program. Two factors that influenced their decision to pursue the principalship,
internal processes related to seeing themselves as change agents and their image of the role of the
principal as a vehicle for impacting educational outcomes, connected with the innovative
organizational/contextual philosophy of the alternate preparation program. This intersection had a major
influence in how these aspiring principals came to pursue this alternate principal preparation program.