Between Venus and Mars: Sources of gender differences in instructional leadership

Instructional leadership can be explained as an educational leadership approach whereby the school principal engages in a wide range of activities aiming to improve teaching and learning for all students. A recent meta-analysis found that female principals engaged in more active instructional leader...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Educational management, administration & leadership administration & leadership, 2019-03, Vol.47 (2), p.291-309
Main Authors: Shaked, Haim, Gross, Zehavit, Glanz, Jeffrey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Competence
Expertise
Foreign Countries
Gender
Gender Differences
Instructional Leadership
Interpersonal Relationship
Leadership Qualities
Principals
Sex Role
Teaching Skills
Women Administrators
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:Instructional leadership can be explained as an educational leadership approach whereby the school principal engages in a wide range of activities aiming to improve teaching and learning for all students. A recent meta-analysis found that female principals engaged in more active instructional leadership than male counterparts. The current qualitative study sought to understand this gender gap. Data were collected through 59 semi-structured interviews with 36 female principals and 23 male principals from Israel. Data analysis was a four-stage process – condensing, coding, categorizing, and theorizing. Findings showed that female participants, more frequently than their male counterparts, reported possessing two capabilities that are necessary for instructional leadership: (1) instructional expertise; (2) attention to relationships. Gender theories are employed to explain these findings. Practical implications and further research are discussed.
ISSN:1741-1432
1741-1440
DOI:10.1177/1741143217728086