Making Connections to Teaching Practice

Administrators, particularly those who engage in instructional leadership, play a key role in school improvement. Past research describes the types of activities instructional leaders engage in but has paid little attention to how they do it. The authors use the case of one school to unpack instructional leadership as a practice, paying close attention to the tools that constitute that practice, the contextual factors that help to define it, and how it affects teaching. The authors find that two kinds of tools—boundary practices and boundary spanners—play a significant role in constituting instructional leadership practice. Contextual factors, including student and staff composition and leaders' values and beliefs, define instructional leadership practice in important ways. Finally, policy implications are discussed.