School Principals' Preparation and Development:

School principals¿ professional development: theory, practice and prospects is a book that highlights the turbulent world that newly appointed headteachers find themselves in and survival strategies that they employ. The book further explores the turbulent world of educational management through the administrative task areas that headteachers perform. The first Chapter focuses on appointment and deployment practices of headteachers, their inherent deficiencies and the harrowing times that school heads go through because of being thrust into leadership without adequate preparation. The chapter further explores coping mechanisms among secondary school principals upon being appointed without adequate preparation. Learning on the job through trial and error, consulting their more experienced colleagues, reading management texts, circulars, seeking support from educational offices are some of the methods that school principals use. Others opt to enrol for postgraduate programmes. The second chapter underscores the need for thorough professional preparation and development and critically examines the role of Kenya Education Staff Institute (KESI) in this endeavour.