Instructional Leadership in
Today’s Current Context
Michelle Prytula & Paul Newton
College of Education
University of Saskatchewan
PURPOSE
• The role of theory in your practice
• Living and experiencing theory in action
• Why didn't the @#&!!&* theory work?
• Learning to lead from the interplay of theory and
your own contexts of practice
Q . Q U E S T I O N S TO P O N D E R : OV E R T H E W E E K
INTRODUCTION
 Relevance of experience and theory?
 What is the role of theory in the practice of
Educational Leadership?
 Our own stories
 Critical Reflection
INTRODUCTION
• Like so many words that are bandied about, the
word theory threatens to become meaningless…
[The] use of the word often obscures rather
than creates understanding.
• (Merton, 1967, p. 39)
A THEORY?
• On the one hand, we speak of 'the theory of
relativity', for example, an established set of
propositions. On the other hand, there is the most
ordinary use of the word theory. ’Why did Laura and
Michael split up?'’ Well, my theory is that. . .'What
does theory mean here? First, theory signals
'speculation'…. (Culler, 1997)
A THEORY?
• To count as a theory, not only must an
explanation not be obvious; it should involve a
certain complexity: 'My theory is that Laura was
always secretly in love with her father and that
Michael could never succeed in becoming the
right person.' A theory must be more than a
hypothesis: it can't be obvious; it involves
complex relations of a systematic kind among a
number of factors…. (Culler, 1997)
THEORY DEFINED
• What exactly is theory?
• It works in practice but will it work in
theory?
• “Nothing as practical as a good theory” (Lewin,
1943)
• You already have theories…
THEORY AND MY EXPERIENCE
N = 1
 Your experience is crucial
 BUT not enough
THEORY IN CONTEXT
• Practitioner problems “are problems about what to
do, and what counts as a solution is constrained both
internally by their own beliefs and values, and
externally by material conditions and institutional and
cultural expectations” (p. 13).
• Experimental research often eliminates variables “that
are most significant to practitioners’ decisions about
how to act” (p. 14).
So what….?
• It’s about Change!
• Making improvements in schools means CHANGE,
and change may mean changing values, assumptions,
and beliefs.
Q . H OW M I G H T T H E T H E O R I E S YO U E N C O U N T E R
T H I S W E E K H E L P YO U I N T H E U P C O M I N G Y E A R ?
A BRIEF HISTORY OF
LEADERSHIP THEORY
 Trait Theory
 Behavioral Theory
 Contingency Theory
 Contemporary Leadership Theory
 Servant Leadership
 Distributed leadership
 Transformative Leadership
Ethical
 Instructional Leadership
Instructional
Distributed
Transformational
HOW SHOULD WE VIEW
THEORY?
 Recipes
 Conceptual Maps
Instructional Leadership…
What’s it about?
• Instructional leadership, introduced over three decades ago,
was based on the idea that effective leadership is less about
what principals do and more about what principals
know (Sergiovanni, 1984).
• Since that time, instructional leadership continues to be an
integral part of successful school leadership.
• Defined as leadership which increases the capacity of
teachers in the school (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2009),
instructional leadership consists of a leadership orientation
which improves the quality of teaching in the school,
resulting in improved student learning.
THE MAP
VISION
“You have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you
articulate clearly and forcefully. You can’t blow an
uncertain trumpet.”
Rev. Theodore Hesburgh
ESTABLISH A VISION
• Collaborative and shared
• Identifying areas for improvement
• Promotes innovation
• Change focused
• Alberta Education, 2009
VISION
• Vision must be articulated
• Vision seen only by a leader will not create significant change
• Vision must be lived out and shared
• Vision resulting in change involves risk & failure. And risk again.
Q. Sector Plan – How can your school’s vision incorporate the
ESSP?
VISION
• Visionary leaders
VISION
• Founded in values, beliefs, and ideals.
• Founded in non-negotiables
Students will either
learn how to learn
or disengage in
learning by our
hands and our
words.
Educators abandon
the profession
when they stop
learning
Exceptional leaders in
education are
instructional leaders
who model, mentor,
and monitor.
Working in isolation
inhibits the
development of trust.
Working in silos
creates competition.
Leadership is lonely.
It hurts to be the
brunt of other’s
pain. But it is one
of life’s most
rewarding
endeavors.
Student learning is
constructed.
Teacher learning is
constructed.
Dissonance assists in
learning.
All children can
learn. All
teachers can
learn. All profs
can learn.
Improvement
comes from within:
Within the student,
within the teacher,
within the school.
Accountability in
education means
ensuring that students
are learning.
Educators are at
minimum responsible for
one year’s growth per
student per year.
I’m hungry.
Squirrel!
What time is lunch?
Try not to screw up.
What would
Prytula do?
Don’t forget pants.
VISION IS EVIDENT THROUGH
• Communications
• Priorities
• Goals
• Actions
• Initiatives
• Outcomes
• Budgets
• Culture!
SO WHAT ABOUT CULTURE
• Why is culture so important?
• Reading Culture
• Influencing
• Knowing when a culture needs changing
• How culture can be changed
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
• “Every school has a culture. Some are hospitable.
Others are toxic” (Barth, 2004, p. 160).
• “And all school cultures are incredibly resistant to
change” (p. 160).
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE:
DEFINED
• “A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the
group learned as it solved its problems of external
adaptation and internal integration, that has worked
well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to
be taught to new members as the correct way to
perceive, think, and feel in relation to those
problems.” (Schein, 1993, p. 82)
CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP:
Leaders create and change cultures, while
managers live within them.
Edgar Schein
Unless teachers and administrators act to change
the culture of a school, all ‘innovations’ will have to
fit in and around existing elements of the culture.
That is, they will be superficial window dressing,
incapable of making much of a difference.
Barth, 2004, p. 160
UNDERLYING VALUES,
ASSUMPTIONS AND BELIEFS
• When you understand culture, you can start to figure
out, label, make sense of, or be less frustrated by
those “unfamiliar and seemingly irrational behaviour
of people” in the places in which you work (Schein,
1993, p. 78)
CHANGING CULTURE REQUIRES:
 Accessing and developing courage
 Prioritizing
 Acting in community
 Seeing problems as they are
 Committing to lifelong learning
(Barth,
2004)
HOW TO CHANGE CULTURE
• Know where you want to go
• Discuss the “nondiscussables”
• Immerse into the change
• Maintain courage
• See problems as they are
• Prioritize
• Act in community
Q . W H AT I S YO U R RO L E I N C R E AT I N G A
C U LT U R E T H AT S U P P O RT S T H E E S S P ?
MANAGING, MODELING, AND MONITORING
Planning
Reporting
Action
Observing/
Reviewing
INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP:
SIMPLE
• The instructional leader’s role is simple.
• They must:
1) understand that teachers learn constructively,
that dialogue affects this learning, and that the
conversations and local solutions that this
learning conjure, being specific to the problems
of learning within the school, is the best
professional development that the teacher
can obtain; and
2) set up frequent, consistent, and sustained
opportunities for teachers to do so.
GOALS
• Specific (and strategic)
• Measurable
• Active (and achievable)
• Results-based (and realistic)
• Time bound
MONITORING THE PLAN
• One area of goal setting that often gets left behind is building in an
evaluation plan from the start. It’s one thing to set goals, but it’s quite
another to deliberately evaluate your success— using data as your guide—
against the initial goal.
- Learning Point (2002)
REPORTING
• Reporting on the goals is critical. It:
• Is accountable
• Engages community
• Focuses on the real goals of school
• Results in increased motivation for students and teachers
• Results in increased efficacy for students and teachers
• Is often the change itself!
THE INSTRUCTIONAL LEADER
• It is only through articulating that which matters that
we are able to improve ourselves.
Q . C O N S I D E R I N G T H I S M AT E R I A L , W H E R E
A R E YO U I N I T ? H OW D O YO U F I T ?
W H E R E A R E YO U E X C E L L E N T ? W H E R E
W I L L YO U I M P ROV E ?