The COVID-19 pandemic caused education systems to embrace remote schooling and online learning. In the context of this dramatic change, the principal's role has also changed. Instead of interacting face to face, school leaders had to become distant leaders operating digitally. The field has no knowledge of digital instructional leadership. The study used new and adapted measures to explore principals’ digital instructional leadership, its mechanisms of operation, and its outcomes. In particular, the research examined how digital instructional leadership affects perceived student learning in online settings through teachers’ intrinsic motivation for digital instruction (i.e. the mediator). The study used data from 380 teachers in Bahrain. Results indicated support for mediation. This is an empirical exploratory study, and therefore it is limited in scope. Nevertheless, its concepts, measures, and findings offer valuable contributions to research and practice. The limitations, findings, and implications of the study are discussed. The significance of the study derives from the growing incorporation of hybrid schooling in education and digital instructional leadership practices in mainstream principalship.

During the last 25 years researchers have proposed a number of conceptual frameworks to measure the various functions of instructional leadership. One of the most frequently used frameworks is the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS). Despite the great number of studies employing the PIMRS, evidence for its reliability and validity is relatively limited. In addition, we still don’t know much about the extent to which this instrument could be used in diverse demographic and cultural educational settings. This study explores the content, face, and construct validity, reliability and internal consistency of the PIMRS in the Chinese educational system. A total number of 311 teachers from five middle schools in the Haidian District of Beijing participated in the study. The data were analysed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). On an overall basis the results provided support for the face, content, and construct validity, reliability and internal consistency of the PIMRS. However, six o...