In 1999 Thailand passed an ambitious national educational law that paved the way for major reforms in
teaching, learning and school management. Despite the ambitious vision of reform embedded in this
law, recent studies suggest that implementation progress has been slow, uneven, and lacking deep
penetration onto classrooms. Carried out ten years after the launch of the reform law, the current
research sought to expand on these earlier studies by examining the capacity of Thailand’s principals to
lead reforms in teaching and learning. The study developed a national profile of principal instructional
leadership using a Thai Form of the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (Hallinger, 1994). The
overall profile of 1195 primary and secondary school principals suggested a moderate level of
engagement in two dimensions (Creating a School Mission and Developing a Positive School Learning
Climate) and a lower level of activity on the dimension, Managing the Instructional Program. The results
provide preliminary evidence which suggests that a more systematic human resource strategy is needed
in order to ensure that Thailand’s key school leaders have the knowledge, skills and motivation needed to
support changes in teaching and learning envisioned in the nation’s education reforms.