Congratulations to Margaret Van Cott-Groninger who on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, successfully defended her dissertation proposal.
The title of Margaret's dissertation is, "STRONGER TOGETHER: THE ROLE OF PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS IN SUPPORTING SECONDARY PRINCIPALS THROUGH TODAY'S TURBULENT TIMES."
The abstract of this study follows:
Overview of Problem: Secondary principals today lead amid increasing sociopolitical pressures, accelerating technology, curriculum challenges, and a declining public trust in schools. These conditions require principals to rely on professional relationships, yet little is known about how they access and mobilize their professional networks to obtain the support, information, and resources they need to lead effectively and sustain themselves during periods of turbulence.
Research Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how secondary public school principals in New York State access and mobilize formal and informal professional networks to navigate turbulence, using the theoretical lens of Nan Lin’s social capital theory.
Research Design: This study uses a qualitative descriptive design to collect rich, practice-based descriptions of how secondary principals access their professional networks, applying Lin’s social capital framework as an interpretive lens to identify patterns across participants’ accounts.
Sample: A purposive sample of secondary school principals from New York State public schools will be selected based on their firsthand experience leading grades 6-12 schools for a minimum of three years.
Data Collection: Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews with 12-15 secondary public school principals in New York State, using an interview protocol designed to elicit rich descriptions of participants’ network access and mobilization.
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE CHAIR:
Dr. Joanne Marien
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Dr. Martin Fitzgerald
Dr. Lauren Allen
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