[Catalist] Distributed Instructional Leadership in Australian Secondary Schools

[Michael McGarry]

Greetings Science Colleagues,


What is Distributed Instructional Leadership?


“Instructional leadership is generally defined as the management of curriculum and instruction by a school principal. This term appeared as a result of research associated with the effective school movement of the 1980s, which revealed that the key to running successful schools lies in the principals' role.”


“However, the concept of instructional leadership is recently stretched out to include more distributed models which emphasise distributed and shared empowerment among school staff, for example distributed leadership, shared leadership, and transformational leadership.”


“However, since then (the 1990s) this concept (instructional leadership) has been criticised for focusing too much on the individual principal’s heroic role.”


Wikipedia Reference URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_leadership <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_leadership>
Have colleagues ever observed a secondary school principal demonstrate a direct and active role in the management of curriculum and instruction in their school?


I was disappointed to learn from reading this ACER article URL: https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/article/teachers-bookshelf-educational-leadership <https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/article/teachers-bookshelf-educational-leadership> that educational research of instructional leadership in Australian and international secondary schools appears to exclusively survey only the role of school principals.


Do colleagues know of any Australian educational research that targets the instructional leadership role of subject heads of department working with their teaching teams in the management of curriculum and instruction? If so, can you please inform ASTA’s ASTARIX 2.0 e-Forum URL: http://moodle.asta.edu.au <http://moodle.asta.edu.au/> and STAWA’s e-Forum CATALIST URL: catalist at lists.stawa.net <mailto:catalist at lists.stawa.net>?


I respectfully recommend to colleagues that they access and read this South African research paper URL: http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/saje/v36n4/08.pdf <http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/saje/v36n4/08.pdf>.


Thanks and Best Wishes,


Michael John McGarry

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