INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP

REMEDIOS N. PINEDA

According to Bird and Little (2008) instructional leadership refers to the specific branch of educational leadership that addresses curriculum and instruction.

MacElwain (1992) views instructional leadership as imperative to improved instruction and student achievement. Instructional leadership is the “organizational glue’, that keeps things in track (Elmore, 2002). It means that all players understand there is a common goal to which everyone is accountable and that policies, practices and resources, are aligned with the goal.

According to Barth (2001) instructional leadership is not exercised by one person but one person does create a condition through which all teachers and administrators become more responsible for their professional learning and important role in sustaining school improvement. Instructional leadership, then, is concerned the responsibilities that an individual accepts to see to it that the people, the process and the technology of schooling— curriculum, teaching, and learning— deliver on their promise to form capable, adult citizens.

In my own point of view, instructional leadership is a huge challenge nowadays because the development of your learners is based upon how you handle your teachers so that they will be able to produce or develop holistic and 21st century learners. This is like a figurative metaphor wherein I am like the captain of a ship, when you don’t have the knowledge and experience to maneuver a ship everything else fails.

As a school head I have to spend and focus seventy percent of my time for instructional supervisions to have an effective teaching and meaningful learning processes.In addition to this, you also need to be an advocate of changes in order for you to transform your teachers and learners. Being openminded about changes is really essential as the head of the school because as much as possible we want to step out from mediocrity and mundane educational teaching strategies.

Knowing the needs, weaknesses and strengths of my teachers is an important key so that I will be able to classify them by giving rigid, clinical supervision, giving In Service trainings (INSET), School Action Learning Cell (SLAC) and providing them technical assistance.

By doing these things, we will be able to develop productive teachers. In doing so, teachers will increase their own capacity to achieve professional goals for their students, and will be able to improve the student’s learning through the improvement of the teacher’s instruction.

As quoted by Alan Keith, “Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen.”

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The author is HTI-Science at San Matias National High School