Improving Educational Leadership of Chilean School Principals: A Research Proposal to Develop Instructional Leadership Capacity

Abstract

During the last decade in Chile, a strong social movement that calls for improving accessibility and quality of public funded education has resulted on developing reforms aimed to change the system paradigms. The current administration is committed to develop transformational reforms directed to improve schools facilities, acquiring new educational materials and improving the working conditions and professional development opportunities for teachers. School principals capable to lead the process become a relevant piece to carry out the new educational reform. This research uses the instructional leadership framework to gather information about Chilean school principals’ leadership skills. It is proposed to use the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) to assess the principals’ perceptions and how teachers perceive the school leaders’ instructional leadership behavior. The gathered data will be helpful to identify the strengths and weakness of Chilean school leaders and to develop conceptual models to better understand the causal relationships between the principal leadership, the school contexts and the students’ academic achievement.