Instructional Leadership Development in Education - Research Proposal Example

Introduction: Educational leadership is a prominent tool in the leadership; it is the educational leadership which helps in promoting the knowledge through learning procedures and in boosting the performance. Educational leadership contributes to the know-how of the knowledge based process and the assistance and support of the same. Instructional leadership is the newly emerged concept that gives utmost importance to education. It is a complex and vague topic which differs from the administrator and the principal. The instructional leader emphasizes on various skills like the interpersonal skills, leadership skills, planning skills, evaluation skills and analyzing skills. Background information: The instructional leadership is neither the administrator nor the principal in the education sector. The principal involves much in the administrative and the official task rather than in promoting learning. The instructional leadership is also known as the leading of learning methods. Instructional leadership has to concentrate more on the skills in the field of education and important one is the resource provider that is to understand the teachers and the capabilities of them and then provide appreciation for the performance. The next priority is instructional resources i.e. the various tools that are in the instructional sector and the different tools relating to the strategy, issues, and current trends. Communication is another tool that is used for the effective communication between the children and the instructional practicers. The principal is the multi role personality between the administration and learning, in the dual role of them there are also instances where assistance is given by the instructional leaders. The instructional leaders are the transition between education and children, who aim in providing the best of learning to each and every individual. The concept behind them comes from the word of mouth of the teachers and the different ways in which they communicate with others and the feedback obtained by the teachers in the form of opinion and answering the questionnaire. Leadership distribution: Leadership distribution of the principals is much vibrant; the principal as an instructional maker does an eye opening performance. Principals exhibit the roles of the resource provider, instructional resource, and communicator and as the complete visible presence. As the leadership distribution in the instructional resource, they play a vital role in improvising the classrooms and enhancing good study material and having open discussions with the staff and the student members of the group and welcoming the innovative ideas and the creativity of the individuals. As the resource providers, they are the building block of the organization. They analyze different situations and act as instructional leaders and actively involve in the discussion. They involve in creating discipline and procedure in the organization by different learning methods, time management and evaluation of the same. The role of the communicator is well performed by the principals; they encourage the two way communication accurately, precisely and error free in communication. It also promotes the communication and solves the different issues and the conflict arising situations. They also act as the visible presence where they interact with the students and then they deal with the upcoming situation and they work on the vision and mission of the organization. The leadership as a whole is difficult for the principal as a single person; hence, there is need for division of task among others like the policy makers, teachers, office staff and the research assistants. Administers and instructional leadership: The administrators are the leaders of instructional leadership. It is through the current government and the different implications from the government policy. The institution and the teachers are responsible for learning and improving the students learning outcomes. Certain facts are related regarding the conflict where the leaders have to create improvement in the education sector. As far as the administrators are considered, the vision and mission of the organization have to be in pace with the goals of the organization and the choice of the administrator. Administrators are the persons who are responsible for different issues and they have to emphasize on the balance created between the direction and the empowerment. A static method should be adopted in the learning process and the change should not be encouraged much. Development of Instructional Leaders through Programs: The performance of each of the students is to be improved by conducting various programs that can be helpful to the students in developing interpersonal skills, leadership skills, planning and communication. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) is the body which has the right for the implementation of different syllabi for the children for the development and the skill to be exhibited and for the overall development. The programs are conducted in a manner so as to have interaction between the peer group which leads to the development of creativity, innovation and brainstorming ideas. District development through instructional leadership: Differences in the education sector have a great impact on the overall performance of the schools or districts. The role of the principal is to make available teachers with good moral, ethical and legal obligations that will facilitate the students to gain maximum from the educational institution. This makes possible for them to face the upcoming challenges. Instructions related professional information has to be given to principals to carry out a chain of events that helps in improving the teaching and learning quality within the educational institution. The teacher plays a significant role in developing the quality of leadership among the students. Teachers are involved in creating new roles with the districts such as the teacher leaders, curriculum developers, mentors and coaches. In the modern scenario, it is the responsibility of the educational institution to create and develop efficient teachers who are capable to guide the students in the right path. Districts are responsible to build up instructional leadership by making all the employees to perform the task of both learning and teaching. Fink. E and Resnik L (1999) explain how the central office staffs are developing the models of learning to the principals for the purpose of developing instructional leadership. For enhancing knowledge regarding the instructional leadership, the principals are made to attend a number of institutes who deliver knowledge on special topic. In order to become effective and efficient instructional leaders, there are four key roles or qualities that are put forward by Smith and Andrew. They are the resource provider, instructional resource, communicator and visible presence. By applying these four roles the district can be developed in a full-fledged manner. Statement of problem: There are various problems or issues that are related to instructional leadership within the schools. Identifying the problems is not an easy task. Instructional leadership quality in the staff and the principal will help to bring out good results from the students and thereby increase the overall quality of the district. The literature review conducted for the study states that the principals should emphasize more to become leaders than sticking to the traditional administrative role. All the concerns are very much interested towards the development of the schools in the society. But still the educational institutions are facing problems related to instructional leadership. This study focuses on issues such as improvement of schools, professional development of the principal, role and relationship of the principal and finally the various ways through which these issues are solved. Instructional leadership is considered to be a critical skill which is used for taking serious decision related to the schools and the future of students. The purpose of the research is to understand the importance of instructional leadership within the educational settings and how this benefits for the overall development of the educational institution. Research questions: Based on the research conducted, there are many research questions that are framed by which the information related to the topic is collected. 1) How instructional leadership is helpful in the education sector? 2) What are the important roles that have to be performed by the principal? 3) What is the importance of instructional leadership in the current scenario? 4) What are the efforts taken by the state to increase productivity in schools? Significance of the study: While considering the education sector and the development of instructional leadership within the education sector, it is very important to understand its importance in molding the students’ category. The concept is not only oriented towards the school development but also gives due importance to increase the skill and knowledge of the students in an effective manner. In order to develop the school, the tasks to be performed must be listed and the best method has to be identified in order to increase the teaching and learning practice. The best practices include the adoption of the latest technology in learning and teaching process, providing coaching to leaders. Research design and methodology: The research is done on the topic how the instructional leadership is helpful in the development of the educational sector and what are the contributions made by them. Site based programs are used to conduct the research work. Both Qualitative research and quantitative measures are used because leadership is a qualitative aspect and the result of application can be measured quantitatively. The methodology used for the study is survey method and questionnaire method. Organization of the study: The research is divided into four chapters. The first chapter includes the title page, the author name and introduction; the second chapter consists of review of literature; the third chapter is research methodology and the fourth chapter consists of summary and conclusion. Read More