This research project explored the manner in which veteran school principals learn of, and become committed to, new perspectives and practices. Personal stories of formative and transformative change from the careers of 23 school principals were collected and analyzed comparatively. Four analytic frameworks emerged from the project and provide a foundation for the ongoing, generic study of principal learning: career route maps, a pathways-to-the-principalship flowchart, a storyline construction process, and a means of interpreting one's thread of learning. The findings indicate that principals' professional learning is influenced by: (1) impressions of teachers and schooling formed in early childhood; (2) a largely unaware personal orientation to learning, which can be seen as a combination of four dynamics--relationships, context, characteristics, and concepts--with one dominating the others; (3) a unique, consistent story-thread that weaves through a career and serves as both a guide and a catalyst; and (4) progression through a common sequence of perspective development stages. (Contains 72 references, 1 figure, and 2 tables.) (Author/RT)