Instructional Leadership Team Research Articles

Advancing Equity Through Instructional Leadership Teams: A Theoretical Model

Advancing Equity Through Instructional Leadership Teams: A Theoretical Model

Creating Anti-Racist Building Leadership Teams Through Structural, Interpersonal, and Personal Anti-Racist Efforts

In this case study, we show how building and/or instructional leadership teams (BLTs and ILTs) were repurposed to meet the challenge of the global health pandemic and the racial unrest associated with the murder of George Floyd in 2020. We outline how anti-racist work flourished during this critical time in one school district and led to the development of anti-racist BLTs (ARBLTs). Educators had to manage tensions associated with anti-racist work that both empowered them and made them feel vulnerable in their personal and professional identities. We conclude by providing insights into how systemic anti-racist leadership practices and structures can be developed at the local level and leveraged to enact change via well-established practices such as BLTs and ILTs.

A Study on Power Distribution of Elementary School Competency-based Instructional Leadership Team in Taoyuan City, Hsinchu County, Hsinchu City and Miaoli County Under 12-YearBasic Education Policy

A Study on Power Distribution of Elementary School Competency-based Instructional Leadership Team in Taoyuan City, Hsinchu County, Hsinchu City and Miaoli County Under 12-YearBasic Education Policy

“Are We an Advisory Board or a Decision Making Entity?”: Teachers’ Involvement in Decision Making in Instructional Leadership Teams

ABSTRACT This study explored teachers’ involvement in decision making processes in instructional leadership teams (ILTs) in three high-poverty high schools. Two factors influenced the extent of teachers’ involvement and authority in decision making processes on the team: 1) the design of teachers’ roles on the ILT and 2) routines used for agenda setting, facilitation, and discussion in ILT meetings. Although administrators often constrained teachers involvement and influence in decision making processes, study findings suggest that more inclusive approaches to involving teachers in decision making can enhance decision quality and are essential for cultivating teachers’ commitment to implementation.

English

The instructional leadership role is one of the most critical and necessary roles of a school leader to promote students' learning. However, it is a common notion that the principal solely is the instructional leader in a school. Thus, this paper aims to discover who else works as an instructional leader and how an instructional leadership team can be formed. Findings from a semi-systematic literature review show that the principal is not alone the instructional leader in a school. Instead, he/she is the leader of the instructional leadership team, and the assistant principals and the content experts are the members of this team. Moreover, the paper also finds that the principal's role is critical to forming an instructional leadership team for the students' better academic outcomes.   Key words: Instructional leader, principal, teaching-learning, learners, instructional leadership team, school.

Central Office Leadership for Instructional Improvement: Developing Collaborative Leadership Among Principals and Instructional Leadership Team Members

BackgroundThis study addresses the nexus of two significant yet under-researched areas of instructional leadership: the role of central office administrators in developing principals as instructional leaders and the potential for the instructional leadership team (ILT) to serve as a structure for supporting administrators and teachers in working collaboratively to improve instruction and student learning in their schools.PurposeSpecifically, this study examines the efforts of principal supervisors—central office administrators responsible for supporting and evaluating principals—who aimed to develop instructional leadership broadly in high-poverty high schools by leading professional learning opportunities for principals and members of their ILTs.ParticipantsParticipants included principals and ILT members (e.g., assistant principals, teachers) in three high-poverty high schools in the same urban district and the three principal supervisors responsible for supporting them.Research DesignDrawing on 36 interviews and approximately 80 hours of observation of ILT meetings and professional learning opportunities, the present study uses in-depth case studies of three focus schools to identify the specific practices principal supervisors use to influence the work of principals and ILTs.FindingsThe findings suggest that principal supervisors contributed to ILTs’ increased focus on instruction and encouraged principals to share leadership with teachers. Principals and ILT members viewed the support of principal supervisors as most helpful when they engaged in explicit teaching about the purpose and practices of ILTs, approached their work with principals and ILTs as joint work, and shared specific models that could be integrated into ILT meetings.ConclusionsThe practices used by principal supervisors represented a significant shift in the role of central office administrators toward a focus on teaching as opposed to a more traditional focus on supervision.

Exploring the possibilities and limits to transfer and learning: Examining a teacher leadership initiative using the theory of action framework

Teacher Leadership is an effective way to support positive school change (Lai and Cheung 2015; Mangin and Stoelinga in Effective teacher leadership, Teachers College Press, New York, pp 1–9, 2008). To accelerate success, professional development programs aimed at building teacher leadership have proliferated across the globe. And yet, teacher leaders attending such programs often report difficulty in transferring their new knowledge and skills to their schools in meaningful ways (Snoek and Volman in Teach Teach Educ 37:91–100, 2014). In this study, we propose these results may stem from a failure of such programs to support double loop learning. To test this idea, we apply Argyris and Schon’s (Theory in practice: increasing professional effectiveness, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1996) theory of action framework as a tool to examine teachers’ (n = 13) and administrators’ (n = 6) experiences with a teacher leadership development program and specifically whether there were gaps in their espoused theories and theories-in-use. We find double loop learning occurred regarding informal teacher leadership and the cultural norms of autonomy, egalitarianism, and seniority. However, such learning did not extend to principals’ orientation towards shared decision making and authority. While administrators (re)-created structures for teacher leaders to participate in such decision-making (e.g., instructional leadership teams) (i.e., single loop learning), they failed to shift power and authority regarding decision-making in these venues. As a result, teacher leaders’ efficacy was diminished as was the school’s ability to fully engage in change.

Under My Thumb

This study investigates whether and how principals implementing Instructional Leadership Teams (ILTs) were able to share decision-making authority with team members and how team members perceived this authority. Having interviewed and observed ILT members in four, in-district charter schools in a large northeastern city I find that principals had great difficultly releasing authority to team members and deployed a variety of “moves” to keep control over decision-making. Team members also appeared to perceive their authority as subordinate to the principal and embraced a hierarchical model of school leadership with an emphasis on formal authority and autocratic decision-making

Professional Learning Facilitators in 1:1 Program Implementation: Technology Coaches or School Librarians?

A rationale for and history of 1:1 program implementation is provided in this literature review, which highlights the positive impacts, negative implications, and factors of successful implementation. The provision of a high level of ongoing professional support in both technical support and instructional design was noted as a key factor in successful implementation, which suggests that school leaders should seek to include technology facilitators as part of their instructional leadership team.

Disabling conditions: Investigating instructional leadership teams in action

This study investigated why and how principals selected members for their instructional leadership team (ILT) and how this selection criteria and process may have impacted team members’ understandings of, and behaviors on, the team. Qualitative methods, specifically interviews and observations, were used to explore team members’ perceptions regarding the team’s purpose, function, and selection criteria as well as how these perceptions seemed to impact team members’ behaviors. Data were collected for a period of 8 months during the 2011–2012 school year from ILT in four, in-district charter schools. Results suggest that principals had difficulty articulating their teams’ purposes and functions, with the latter remaining primarily informational or consultative; members were not given decision-making authority. Additionally, when selecting team members, principals prioritized broad representation of teacher groups over other criteria. This focus on role representation above expertise, coupled with teachers’ tendencies to embrace traditional professional norms, limited ILT members’ abilities to effectively work together to lead instructional reform.

Research into practice: Postsecondary success in the Chicago Public Schools

In this chapter, the authors describe nearly a decade of research examining postsecondary outcomes of students in the Chicago Public Schools conducted by the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR). These analyses include both long-term trends in college going and findings on the dimensions of students' postsecondary transition experiences that shape those outcomes. The authors describe the evolution of research at CCSR, which emphasizes a specific type of partnership between researchers, district officials, and practitioners that builds the capacity of practitioners and district officials to think critically about big problems and utilize data to inform decision-making and evaluation. In addition to describing these findings, the authors discuss the development and operation of the Network for College Success, a research-based, integrated and intensive support for school improvement to principals, their instructional leadership teams, grade level teams, and counselors. The authors describe how NCS builds the capacity of school leaders to work together and to use data to improve practice in the postsecondary transition. Finally, the authors discuss ongoing challenges and new directions for ongoing and future research.

How External Institutions Penetrate Schools Through Formal and Informal Leaders

Purposes: This study investigates the role of formal and informal leaders in the diffusion of external reforms into schools and to teachers’ practices. Formal leaders are designated by their roles in the formal organization of the school (e.g., principals, department chairs, and instructional coaches) and informal leaders refer to those who do not have any formal leadership roles but are nominated by other colleagues as influences on their instructional practices. In the context of implementing reading policies associated with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) 2001 legislation, this study aims to examine (a) how formal and informal leaders promote instructional changes through professional interactions with teachers and (b) which types of instructional practices are most responsive to which types of leaders. Research Methods: The authors analyze longitudinal data concerning both professional interactions about teaching reading and instructional practices of teachers and leaders in nine K-8 schools in a single state. Findings and Implications: Formal leaders convey influence on general teaching practices such as setting standards, selecting materials, and assessing students while informal leaders convey influence on specific pedagogical practices (e.g., the use of particular strategies for teaching basic reading skills). Findings contribute to the theoretical and methodological development of both distributed leadership and policy implementation within schools. Moreover, this study suggests the importance of and several strategies for developing a strong instructional leadership team that recognizes and supports the complementary influences of formal and informal leaders.

Leading Learning-Focused Teacher Leadership in Urban High Schools

Drawing on findings from a national study of learning-focused leadership in challenging urban settings, this article examines the work of teacher leadership in urban high schools. In this context, a recently emerging cadre of nonsupervisory teacher leaders, working in collaboration with supervisory leaders, exercises a form of “distributed instructional leadership,” creating new channels for instructional renewal. Extensive qualitative data from four high schools in different urban districts across the United States illuminate the nature of these teacher leaders’ work in support of teaching and learning, the ways they and their supervisory counterparts worked as instructional leadership teams, and the role that they played in supporting teachers in classrooms within schools that face significant challenges. Study findings highlight the unique expertise necessary for these teacher leaders—including content expertise, pedagogical coaching skill, ability to build relational trust, and capacity to link the classroom with district- and school-determined learning improvement efforts. In conclusion, the article sketches the implications for reconfiguring supervisory leaders’ work so that the efforts of all remain productively and persistently focused on learning improvement.

The Instructional Leadership Team: A New Role for the Department Head

In an effort to examine the changing role of the principal with respect to instructional leadership, and the extent to which those responsibilities are shared and with whom, a series of studies has been conducted at Vir ginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va. Several of those studies are reviewed here.

Developing Instructional Leadership Teams in Secondary Schools: a Framework

Secondary school principals can exercise instructional leadership by systematically developing an instruc tional leadership team to carry out the critical functions of curriculum and instructional coordination and supervision.

Models of shared leadership: Evolving structures and relationships

This article explores potential changes in the power relationships among teachers and principals under four emerging forms of structured teacher involvement in schoolwide decision making: Instructional Leadership Teams, Principals' Advisory Councils, School Improvement Teams, and Lead Teacher Committees. Each organizational model is described in terms of its purpose, its operation, the role of teachers and the principal, and its potential impact on teacher leadership and empowerment. A conceptual framework that views organizational power in terms of access to resources and the ability to obtain cooperation from other actors (Kanter, 1979) is utilized to gauge potential changes in the power of principal and teacher roles under each of these emerging models. The conceptual analysis suggests that models seeking to empower teachers and improve student learning must provide for increased interaction among teachers in curricular and instructional decision making.