K-12 Principals, Get Your Irish On

• Ed Week

At last year's conference of the Irish Primary Principals' Network, in Dublin, I was surprised to find myself still awake at 3 a.m., as more than 300 of the 1,200 attendees socialized in the hotel lounge, drinking Guinness, chatting, laughing, singing, and enjoying themselves. At principals' conferences in the United States, I've never known anywhere near a quarter of the attendees to be up so late—or to sing. Clearly, Irish principals are different. Does this mean that they're happy and healthy? Alas, no.

I had discovered this earlier that day when Australian researcher Philip Riley presented a survey on Irish principals' well-being. The survey collected responses from more than 800 principals and assistant principals. The grim results—which matched those of nearly 4,000 school leaders in Australia whom Riley had previously studied—cast into bold relief similar issues for their American counterparts.

The Irish principals scored very low on all positive measures of well-being (health, happiness, mental health, coping, relationships, and self-worth), and very high on all negative measures (burnout, sleep troubles, depression, and stress). Roughly half work at least 56 hours per week; many average 66. During vacations, most work more than 25 hours per week. Compared to the general population, they experience much more frequent bullying, threats of violence, and actual violence.

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