Patterns and influences of instructional from the retrospective and reflective accounts of selected secondary principals
Abstract
The school principal is the subject of renewed attention as researchers examine the principal's role asinstructional leader. The majority of research has been conducted at the elementary level and has concentrated upon the results of effective instructional leadership. This qualitative study sought a different focus and investigated the process of instructional leadership with secondary principals. The research design involved three purposes: (a) to establish a definition for the term instructional leadership and to generate categories of instructional leadership descriptors, (b) to identify the sources that previously influencedselected secondary principals as they were emerging into instructional leaders, and (c) to determine what sources principals seek out for instructional leadership advice and information.
Data for the study's first phase were gathered by using Flanagan's functional description technique with 15 nationwide leadership authorities. Second- and third-phase data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with two groups of subjects: selected secondary principals and nominated key informantsecondary principals. Additional instructional leadership information was gleaned from visits to the selected principals' schools, classroom observations, and conferences with school personnel. The study's design provided a framework within which research-based and practitioner-generated data could be collectively compared. Several within-method triangulation procedures were used to verify data-gathering and analysis procedures.
Five categories of instructional leadership, used as a basis of comparison with principal interview data, were developed from the 15 authorities' descriptions. A correlation of 70% existed between the principals' responses and the authorities' descriptors. Because of the definition's diverse nature, no representative definition could be edited. A single, focused definition distorts instructional leadership's multidimensional character.
Public school administrators provided the major influence on the secondary principals as they were emerging into instructional leaders. Graduate-level administrative programs, coursework, or professors were not identified as being influential. Primary sources for current instructional leadership advice and information included building-level personnel, central office administrators, other secondary principals, and education journals. A colleague confidant, another principal who shares similar philosophies, strategies, and ideas, emerged as an important source for support and feedback.