Principals Fostering the Instructional Leadership Capacities of Department Chairs: A Strategy for Urban High School Reform

A growing body of literature has highlighted the affordances of distributive forms of instructional leadership as a means to broaden and deepen instructional leadership capacity within schools. Yet, specifically how the capabilities of such key leaders as high school department chairs can be fostere...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of school leadership 2013-03, Vol.23 (2), p.324-361
Main Author: Klar, Hans W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Administrative Organization
Administrator Attitudes
Capacity Building
Coordinators
Department Heads
Educational Change
Educational Cooperation
Educational Improvement
Educational Opportunities
Educational Practices
Educational reform
Educational Research
Educational Strategies
High Schools
Instructional Leadership
Leadership
Leadership Responsibility
Leadership Role
Leadership Training
Participant Observation
Participative Decision Making
Principals
Semi Structured Interviews
Transformational Leadership
Urban Schools
Wisconsin
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A growing body of literature has highlighted the affordances of distributive forms of instructional leadership as a means to broaden and deepen instructional leadership capacity within schools. Yet, specifically how the capabilities of such key leaders as high school department chairs can be fostered to realize enhanced instructional capacity remains less well understood. In this article, I examine the efforts of principals in three urban high schools to foster the leadership capacities of their department chairs as a case of distributed instructional leadership. Data for the study were gathered from interviews, participant observations, and analyses of documents collected during a 2-year Leadership for Learning grant funded by the Wallace Foundation. The findings illustrate the crucial role that the principals played in redefining leadership roles, responsibilities, and structures; providing individual and team learning opportunities; and connecting the work of the department chairs to school and district instructional improvement efforts. I conclude with implications for practice and further research.
ISSN:1052-6846
DOI:10.1177/105268461302300205