Investigating discourses for administrators’ learning within instructional rounds

Abstract

Instructional rounds is a professional learning practice for supporting school and district leaders’ understanding of the instructional core, the interaction among curricular content, instruction, and student learning, which is a foundation for instructional leadership practices. This article examines instructional rounds visits within a network of school district superintendents in a northeastern state of the USA over five years. It investigates how discussions within visits demonstrate features of discourse that afford opportunities for learning, that is, those that employ specific evidence in interpreting classroom practice. The analysis suggests that such instruction-specific discourse can be initiated by facilitators or participants. However, instruction-specific discourse is relatively rare and easily threatened, thus limiting opportunities for learning. The article offers implications for enhancing opportunities for instruction-specific discourse, thus making instructional rounds more generative of learning.