Perceptions of principal influence and competence in racialized contexts

This dissertation furthers the research on racial mismatch by examining principals' perception of influence and teachers' perspectives of principal competence and support with a critical perspective. This study uses regression and fixed-effects models. In addition, a new critical interpretive framework was developed to analyze these findings. I present three key findings. These are: (1) Black and IPOC teachers are associated with having higher perceptions principals' effectiveness and competency and Black principals are associated with a more positive perception of White principals' supportiveness, enforcement of the rules, and communication of expectations than White teachers; (2) that racial matching does not demonstrate higher perceptions of White principals' competence; and (3) the contextual variables used as controls are associated principal perceptions of influence in meaningful ways.