Perceptions about instructional leadership: The perspectives of a principal and teachers of Birakat Primary School in focus

Educational change and reform initiatives currently prevailing at global, national, and local levels seem to require school systems and school leaders to be instructionally focused. A focus on instructional leadership seems to entail, among other things, restructuring of the schools’ instructional leadership system in a way that can actively respond to the call for promoting quality teaching and learning, and thereby enhancing the efforts in addressing quality education for all. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to explain and describe the differences between principal’s and teachers’ perceptions and understandings of instructional leadership at Birakat Primary School. Questionnaires and interviews were used with the principal, along with two teachers from the 1st cycle grades and two teachers from the 2nd cycle grades. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively and aggregated to examine the respondents’ perceptions on instructional leadership. The findings revealed a few differences between the principal’s and teachers’ perceptions. There was no consensus on the time frame a principal should spend on instructional leadership; none of the teachers chose the same time frame as the principal did. Another difference was with the definition of instructional leadership. Teachers focused on personal characteristics to define an instructional leader, whereas the principal defined instructional leadership focusing on the activities he has to accomplish in enhancing instruction. A third difference was observed on the impact of the instructional leader on a school. In this regard, the principal focused on establishing school culture where by the school community develops shared belief that students’ learning is the first priority of the school, whereas the teachers emphasized the professional or supervisory support teachers must get from the principal. The implications of these findings seemed to indicate the need for school educators to engage in clear communication and continuous professional dialogue about the responsibilities of the principal. Also,  the policies and procedures need to be put in place to provide the necessary professional development for enhancing both principals’ and teachers’ orientations of how to effectively and efficiently lead the teaching-learning at schools so that the targets for providing quality education for all would likely be reachable. Key words: Culture, instruction, leadership, perception.