A Comparison of Male and Female Saudi School Principals’ Perspectives of Instructional Leadership

Linda R,Abdulmohsen Alsliman,Ahlam Alhudithi

doi:10.12973/eujem.4.1.67

Abstract

<p style="text-align: justify;">A qualitative study examining female and male Saudi principals’ perceptions of instructional leadership was conducted using an electronic survey. While teacher supervision and supporting new instructional strategies were themes that emerged from the data from both genders, the female participants provided more detail on what they personally did in both areas and identified more altruistic personal virtues that they felt instructional leaders should model. Female Saudi principals also identified active problem-solving as part of their instructional leadership as compared to male Saudi principals who reported directing school improvement efforts through their leadership team. Theories of instructional leadership were developed for each gender from participant responses that indicate that female Saudi principals define and enact instructional leadership in more relational and interactive terms than their male counterparts.</p>

Highlights

Since Brookover and Lezotte’s (1982) work on effective schools, research has continued to show that instructional leadership of principals is essential to the task of school improvement (Glick, 2011)
An audit trail was kept of the coding, thematic identification, and model development decisions. Both male and female Saudi principals in this study identified teacher supervision as their primary instructional leadership task
The modeling of positive personal attributes was discussed by every male principal but only 81% of female Saudi principals, female participants went into great detail regarding the attributes that an instructional leader should model

Summary

Introduction

Since Brookover and Lezotte’s (1982) work on effective schools, research has continued to show that instructional leadership of principals is essential to the task of school improvement (Glick, 2011). The importance of principals as instructional leaders is not limited to American schools with research from schools around the world indicating that instructional leadership has a significant impact on student achievement. Because instructional leadership has been identified by research as critical in shaping learning environments that support student learning and achievement in schools around the world (Day et al, 2016; Hallinger et al, 2018; Murphy et al, 2007; Ylimaki, 2014; Young & Mawhinney, 2012), it is important to further explore how school leaders in various national contexts define and enact their work as instructional leaders

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion