Traditional Roles of Instructional Leadership Essay

As Hill (1996) sees it, the differnce between instructional leadership of the previous decade and instructional leadership of the present and the future is that leadership of the past focuses on teaching and learning, whereas leadership of the present and future involves principals spending more time establishing appropriate preconditions for education and following through with interventions aimed to improve the learning experience. Principals, therefore, have to be experts in a variety of areas -- and this is part of the challenges of the future.

Leadership challenges that will be present in the future.

Instructional leadership is essentially split into three components: (1) administrative, where the principal still ahs to carry out his regular tasks of helping the school move on and succeed, (2) collaboration with students and teachers -- being there with them, listening to them, and joining them in their concerns, (3) educational - being actively involved in the unfolding and transmission of the educational curriculum in his school (Botha, 2006).

Combination of these three duties may be onerous for any single individual and for the school administrator who has to also involve himself with stakeholders and parents, as well as community and other employees, the burden may be overwhelming. This is particularly so as the schools of the future become more rather than less complex. In fact, as Caldwell (2002) shows, many principals lack the time for, and an understanding of, their leadership tasks.

Hill (1996), principals have to be experts in a variety of areas. These include:

Detailed knowledge of each and every student and their individual progress

Detailed understanding of the context and background of the various learners

Detailed understanding of the specific qualities and preferred learning style of each of the students

Knowledge about the different learning / educational theories and their results

The principals' role of the future, therefore, is an amalgamation of management and instructional leadership.The modern school principal will essentially have to represent three broad areas of leadership:

1. Instructional - where he improves teaching and learning at school whilst expecting the instructors to maintain discipline and motivate their students as well as continuing to set high levels in their teaching

2. Transformational - where the principal is a visionary introducing increasingly more affective teaching methods that integrate technology and modern techniques, and encouraging as well as supporting educators to improve their skills. He/s he is also expected to encourage instructors to embrace change and keep in pace with the new technology

3. Facilitative leadership - where the principal is at the center of school management, selves problems, and involves parents, other related and pertinent institutions, and stake holders in the school's continuing attempts for improvement.

During the 1980s when the mode of instructional leadership first began, principals were merely expected to be 'learning experts'. The growth of technology since then has complicated schools and learning and has brought in the expectation that principals be not only 'learning experts' but also knowledge experts. This, in supplementation to their other responsibilities, is almost too much.

References.

Botha, RJ (2006) Excellence in leadership: demands on the professional school principal South African Journal of Education, Vol 24(3) 239 -- 243

Caldwell BJ 2002. Professionalism for Australian principals. The International Principal, 5:9-10.

Instructional Leadership [e-Lead]

www.e-lead.org/resources/resources.asp?ResourceID=14

Hill PW (1996). High performing schools and school improvement. Seminar Paper. Melbourne: University of Melbourne.

Leithwood, Kenneth a & Poplin, Mary S (1992) the Move Toward Transformational….....