The purpose of this study was to broaden our understanding of what makes for an effective instructional leader. More specifically, the study attempted to examine and better understand what teachers perceive and understand as important knowledge upon which principals must draw in order to carry out their responsibilities as instructional leaders. / The research strategy utilized in the study was one that facilitated open and naturalistic inquiry. The scope of this study was controlled by using the constant comparison method as explicated by Glaser and Straus (1967). / Two school sites were selected because they presented obvious contextual differences (organizational structure and size). The sample of fourteen teachers was selected to represent a cross section of the subject matter areas offered by each school. The teachers were interviewed using the open-ended interview technique (Bogdan & Biklen, 1982). These interviews, along with contextual data collected at each site, provided the data base for this study. / The findings of the study were: (1) The principal should be the instructional leader of the school. (2) Instructional leadership is a multi-dimensional behavior consisting of several interrelated categories of skills and/or knowledge. (3) Instructional leadership is more conceptual in nature than technical or human (Katz, 1955) yet all the categories making up these skills areas are closely related. (4) Instructional leadership is more generic than context specific. (5) Although instructional leadership was found to be more generic than context specific, the actual practice of instructional leadership may be determined by contextual variables (organizational structure and size). (6) There appeared to be some relative importance or priority given to certain dimensions of instructional leadership, yet the interrelated nature of all the dimensions necessary for the effective practice of instructional leadership made all the dimensions important to the understanding of teacher opinions of the concept of instructional leadership. (7) In addition to task and consideration, there was a third dimension, the conceptual dimension (the vision of the organization as a whole) which was equally important to the concept of leadership as it relates to principals. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-03, Section: A, page: 0399. / Major Professor: George Papagiannis. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76235 |
| Contributors | Pate, James Leon., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 180 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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