UNDERSTANDING THE PRINCIPAL’S INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP ROLES IN A GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOL IN KARACHI 

BY: BAHIR AHMED KHAN (PDT)

INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP

Over the past two decades, debate over the most suitable leadership role for principals has been dominated by two conceptual models: instructional leadership and transformational leadership. Researchers found that the skillful leadership for school principals is the instructional leadership because instructional leaders are the chief agents and role models for successful change, school improvement and school effectiveness (Joyner, 2004). The assumption behind this title was that the principal had more skills and knowledge than anyone in capacity building of his/her staff. Much has been changed in the schooling enterprises, but my expectations for the principal remain the same. He or she needs to be the educational visionary, offering directions for teachers and expertise to ensure that students’ learn. Similarly, the essence of the term instructional leadership is that the primary role of the principal is to search for excellence in education. In this paper, I have inquired/explored the principal’s role as instructional leader and how it affects teachers’ job performance in a government secondary school in Karachi Pakistan.

THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study was to investigate/ inquire the instructional leadership role played by a principal in a government secondary school in Karachi Pakistan. Especially it seeks to find

• The extend to which the principal assists/ encourages teachers in their classroom instruction.
•  The extend to which the principal promotes professional growth of their teachers.
• The extend to which principal’s instructional role has any effect on the teachers instructional performance.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The principals’ role in the instructional development of teachers has been a focus of educational research for twenty years. Researchers hold that a key element of an effective school is an effective principal therefore; the principal has to be a person who looks for the instructional leadership in the system. According to Blasé and Blasé (1999) instructional leadership includes those actions that a principal takes, or assigns to others, to advance student learning and comprises certain tasks such as; defining school vision, formulating school-wide goals, providing the resources needed for teaching-learning, supervising and evaluating teachers, coordinating staff development programs, nurturing a collaborative culture in school and creating collegial relationships with and among teachers. Furthermore, instructional leaders promote a positive school learning climate, includes several functions; promoting instructional skills, promoting professional development, maintaining high visibility, providing incentives for teachers and providing incentives for students (Hallinger, 2003).

The effective instructional leaders are people oriented that they did not let themselves become secluded and isolated from the day-to-day operations of the school. They interacted regularly with all people in the school and remain visible and accessible (Enueme & Egwunyenga, 2008). Similarly, instructional leaders are also goal oriented, focusing on the improvement of students academic outcomes (Hallineger 2003).

Effective instructional leaders make it convenience to visit classroom daily. These visits are structured to show that they have meaning and purpose. They validate the idea that the classrooms are where the truly important activities occur and that instructional leadership is the most critical responsibility of the school principal (Hoerr, 2008).

SCHOOL CONTEXT

The school, I visited was a government secondary school in Karachi Pakistan. It had three sections, I visited the secondary section there were 900 students and 35 staff. The principal was responsible for all school leadership and management however; school had a management committee. The principal of the school was also the chairperson of this committee and seven other teachers were given different responsibilities to look after school activities. The school had a computer lab which depicts that school emphasis the important and modern resources for effective teaching and learning.

METHODOLOGY

I used the natural inquiry method for an in-depth understanding about instructional leadership. I visited the school thrice; I collected all the relevant information from principal and teachers by interview and observing the important events related to my topic. I used semi-structured interview, observation checklist and a consent form (see annexure for details). Consent form is duly signed by the respondents and assured that the data will be used only for a report purpose.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

I reviewed, compiled and analyzed the data with reference to the principals’ roles; classroom visitation, observations, feedback conferences, seminars/workshops professional associations and in-service educational programs (Enueme & Egwunyenga, 2008).

Classroom observation

The principal of the school visited the classroom and saw the discipline of the students but he/she did not observe the lessons of their teachers. Effective principals observe the classroom and while observing they not only take notes of the classroom processes, but also participate and interact with students if the situation permits. Helping students work on assignment or getting involved in class discussions, promotes the teachers’ believe in the importance of learning (Whtaker & Beth, 1997). The principal of the school was observing the classroom randomly. The principal shared that;

I use to visit the classroom regularly and I do not have any plan to visit the classrooms. Sometime, I take surprise visits to see the classroom routines. I usually focus on classroom discipline, classroom management and keep an eye on classroom environment.

The principal of the school played the role of instructional leadership as she/he visited the classroom and see discipline or management of the classroom. According to Enueme and Egwunyenga (2008) classroom visitation is a role of instructional leaders. However, the purpose of this visit must be to observe the effectiveness of the lesson and assist the teacher during the lesson or make some notes to give some feedback after the lesson. According to Blasé and Blasé (2002) principals who are effective instructional leaders made suggestions to teacher both during and post-observation conferences.

Providing feedback

The principal of the school gave feedback to the teachers on the basis of her/his visit around the classroom and used some appraising words for teachers. Effective principals give constructive feedback to the teacher about informal observations. The feedback contains words of encouragement and praise about specific teaching strategies (Whitaker, 1997). The principal of the school did not give similar feedback because she did not observe the lessons of his/her teachers. He/she stated that “I give feedback to my teachers collectively on need basis where I mostly use encouraging and appraising words on their achievements. I give guidelines if a teacher comes to me with any classroom issue”.

Principal gave feedback to the teachers collectively in the staffroom or in the staff meetings however, collectively feedback sometimes creates frustration and disappointment for teachers because some teachers do not want to share their concerns with other staff. The best way of giving feedback is the individual feedback. The principal realized that feedback is very important to develop teachers’ motivation and self-esteem.

In-service educational programs

The principal of the school shared that she/he does not conduct any professional session or workshop for their teachers. The effective instructional leader promotes professional growth of their teachers by conducting different workshops/ sessions or sends them to different training programs. The principal stated that;

In government schools it is not a culture to conduct sessions or workshops for teachers as like private schools. I can not force teachers to attend the sessions or workshops after school timing because it creates many problems. Similarly, in government schools there is a procedure to send teachers to different trainings.

The same data I found in interview with teachers, they shared that there is no culture of in-service educational programs in the school. In-service educational program is the core role of an instructional leader (Enueme & Egwunyenga, 2008). In-service educational programs are very important because knowledge about teaching and learning is created and shared among the teachers.

MY LEARNING

It was a wonderful experience to inquire/explore the gist of instructional leadership in the real context. I learned the core purposes and functions of instructional leadership after reviewing different literature. This task helped me enhance personal understanding about instructional leadership and its effectiveness for successful change, school improvement and teachers’ job performance. This experience would help me to perform the effective role of instructional leadership in my organization.

Secondly, the inquiry learning method was a new method for me, I was not aware about conducting inquiry learning in real context of the field. All the processes involved in the study (developing conceptual framework, data collection tools, literature review and data analysis) helped me to strengthen my research skills. Moreover, all the experiences gave me an exposure/confident to conduct different studies in the similar setting. 

CONCLUSION

The instructional leadership is the heart of the leadership of schools’ principal. Therefore, the instructional leaders promote the professional growth of teachers. Similarly, the roles of principals as instructional leaders have directly effect on the teachers’ performance as well as students’ achievement. The principal of the school showed some level of instructional leadership responsibility, by assisting teachers in classroom issues.  

REFERENCE:

Blasé, J., & Blasé, J. (1999). Effective instructional leadership: teachers’ perspectives on how
principals promote teaching and learning in school. Educational administration. 38(2). Pp. 130-141

Blasé, J., & Blasé, J. (2002). Teachers’ perception of principals’ instructional leadership and implications. Leadership and policy in schools. 1(3). Pp. 256-264

Enueme, C. P., & Egwunyenga, E. J. (2008). Principals’ instructional leadership roles and effect on teachers’ job performance retrieved on January 15, 2010 from www.krepublishers.com/...P/JSS-16-1-013-08-513-Enueme-C-P-Ab.pdf

Hallinger, P. (2003). Leading educational change: reflections on the practices of instructional and transformational leadership: Journal of education. Vol. 33(3). Pp. 329-335

Hoerr, T. R. (2008). What is instructional leadership? Educational leadership Vol. 65(4).

Joyner, E. T. (2004). Dynamic instructional leadership: to support students learning and evelopment.
California: Corwin Press.

Whitaker, B. E. (1997). Instructional leadership and principal visibility. Clearing house Vol. 70(3).