Instructional Leadership in Schools: Reflections and empirical evidence

In this paper, Southworth promotes the concept of ‘instructional leadership ’ and the need to create ‘learning and teaching schools ’ by: • reviewing current understandings of school leadership • reviewing definitions of instructional leadership • examining two empirical studies which contain descriptions of what instructional leadership looks like in practice • drawing out the organisational conditions in which instructional leadership flourishes Key findings • Current research on leadership is over prescriptive, fails to take variations between schools into account, lacks description of effective practice and tends to focus heavily on leadership of under-performing or struggling schools. • The main tension in the leadership role is that between chief executive and lead professional. • Commentators on leadership favour a broad approach which encompasses issues such as whole-school culture rather than focusing exclusively on classroom practice. • Interaction is at the heart of effective leadership with good instructional leaders realising that most teachers expand their teaching range only with carefully designed support and assistance. • For interaction to be effective, leaders need a range of expertise, from classroom observation and data gathering, to awareness of the teacher’s stage of development, and reflective communication skills. • Effective instructional leaders learn most by ‘doing the job ’ and understand the curriculum, pedagogy, student and adult learning. • Effective organisational conditions for instructional leadership include a teacher-culture of collaboration enquiry into pupils ’ perspectives on their own learning and provision of multiple opportunities for teacher mentoring, coaching and school based professional development.