School Heads as Instructional Leaders in Support of Teachers’ Holistic Development

Abstract

Instructional leadership is a school management paradigm in which a principal collaborates with teachers to support and advise in developing effective instructional strategies. This study was conducted to determine the school heads’ as instructional leaders in support of teachers’ holistic development in public elementary schools in the division of Nueva Ecija. A total of 316 teachers served as respondents in the study. The investigation utilized the descriptive correlational research methods and Slovin’s formula with stratified random sampling. The data was collected through a questionnaire that included the teachers’ demographic profile, school heads’ domains of instructional leadership, school heads’ leadership performance, and teachers’ holistic development—the researcher utilized Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Spearman’s rho as statistical treatment. The school head communicates with teachers and staff to ensure that everyone strives toward the same objective, assigns responsibility for curriculum organization across grade levels, and meets with instructors one-on-one to evaluate students’ school performance. Furthermore, the school principal ensures that public announcements do not interfere with teaching time, recognizes excellent performance through faculty meetings, keeps instructors informed about professional development, and recognizes students who thrive academically. The respondents strongly agree that their school head gives instructions and clarifies processes, facilitates communication, and permits teachers to evaluate their work. Regarding school heads’ domains of instructional leadership and school heads’ leadership styles, performance was positively correlated, the same with the result obtained between school heads’ domains of instructional leadership and teachers’ holistic development. Furthermore, a positive correlation was also found between school heads’ leadership styles performance and teachers’ holistic development. Generally, this study confirmed that school heads as instructional leaders would support the teachers’ personal and professional growth.